Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition 3805 Feb 15- Mar 1 | Page 13

Feb 15 - Mar 1, 2019 FRESHWATER VOL.38 • ISS. 5 FRESHWATER REPORTS: and below the Highway 170 Bridge in Oroville. Few anglers have been trying for stripers, steelhead or other fish species in the Feather River from Yuba City to the mouth. “A few anglers have been catching stripers on swimbaits,” said Lightsey, “but it’s still a little early for good numbers of stripers to start appearing in the river.” Combined water releases below the Thermalito Afterbay Outlet are 1750 cfs, according to the California Department of Water Resources (DWR). - Dan Bacher CONTINUED FROM PG 8 DEL VALLE LAKE cont. “The channel cats hunt mostly by scent, so when the water gets murky, they really come out to hunt since they have an advantage over their prey,” advised Captain Jacob of the Rocky Mountain Company. The water temperature at Lake Del Valle has dropped on average to a chill 46 degrees in the morning. “The lake level has risen immensely in the last two weeks because of the rainstorms and the water is finally starting to clear up,” said Captain Jacob of the Rocky Mountain Recreation Company. “The bite will pick up after a week of the water being that hated brown muddy color. The trout are still being caught in the muck, although it is mostly on Power Bait or nightcrawlers bait wise.” “Lurewise, the Kastmasters that are 1/8 or smaller work very well. As the water clears up, shad imitation lures will continue to increase in reliability,” said Jacob. “Most of the trout this week have been caught either out on the far end of the lake by the dam, or in the swallow bay area of the lake, so the mobility of a boat is quite necessary to find the clear water.” “The marina area of the lake is also a great bet to pick up trout as the water clears up lately, though it has been slow because of the murky water,” Jacob disclosed. “The largemouth, smallmouth bass are starting to pick up in activity. With the cold water, working nightcrawlers or Senkos slowly is the only way one can get the bass to bite. Or you can work a spinner as slow as possible by bouncing it and leaving up to 30 second intervals. Captain Jacob said the striped bass are chasing the trout, mostly the planted trout. around the marina area. “Most anglers FOLSOM LAKE Andrew, Anthony and Mike limited out on husky rainbows while tossing Kastmasters at Collins Lake during a recent outing. The trio caught their fish while working Elmer’s Cove. Photo courtesy of the COLLINS LAKE RECREATION AREA, Oregon House. are catching the stripers when they are fishing for trout, so be careful when you are trout fishing :you may get a surprise,” he concluded. EASTERN SIERRA Big Snow Hits Eastern Sierra “As of this report, snow is falling pretty steady now at the Sierra Drifters HQ in Crowley Lake,” reported Tom Loe of Sierra Drifters Guide Service. “So far, this season as well as the past several, most major storms have moved the fish up river in the Upper Owens. This is great news considering the good amount of fish that have taken up lies in the usual spots already.” “We may be breaking out the snow WHAT’S HOT planers. I had spoken to Robbie Dunham of Koke Machine Guide Service the previous evening, as Robbie is a local expert on the lake. Robbie suggested trolling in the narrows, as he had been having good success with clients in that area. The first hour passed without as much as a bump, and I thought that the ‘supermoon’ we were experiencing might be contrib- uting to the slow action. Be it the moon, or some other factor, something was keeping the fish off our lines. Just then, the down- rigger rod set at 8 feet deep popped out of the clip and started pumping. Adam started reeling, but the fish had come off. I quickly set the second down- rigger to 11 feet deep, thinking that maybe the fish had pushed deeper. We immedi- ately picked up a small holdover rainbow on the deeper rod, which was quickly released. The surface water temperature was reading at 55 degrees, which is fairly warm for the wintertime. With this in mind, I decided to kick up our speed, thinking that it was time to change the game plan. I edged our speed from 1.6 miles-per-hour up to 2.6 miles-per-hour. We switched the lures on the side planers to Rapala floating minnows. The “Hot Steel” color F9 Rapala floating minnow is an all-time Lake Camanche classic, so I put one out on the starboard rod. At this point, we started trolling back towards the ramp to go home. It was one of those slow days, where you are hoping for that one good bite to salvage the trip. As we passed by an area known as Horse Island, I edged my starboard side planer closer to the rocky shoreline. I was staring out into space…when…BZZZ-ZZZ-ZZZ. I jolted to attention when I realized that the clicker on the “Hot Steel” side-planer rod was screaming. The rod was doubled over, and line was peeling off the reel. Adam grabbed the net, but the fish was still several hundred feet behind the boat. 11 Continued from page 1 The fish was not fighting like a typical rainbow trout. In fact, I wondered if the fish had become entangled in some weeds, another line, or become somehow foul hooked. It was coming in like a catfish, lots of dead weight and staying deep. After several intense minutes, we finally got our first glimpse of the fish. It was indeed was a big trout. Just then, the trout leaped out of the water, and I could see that it was not a rainbow, but instead a large brown trout! I’ve never explicitly targeted brown trout, but I have incidentally picked up a few while trolling for other species. Adam quickly netted the fish, and we pulled it into the boat for a closer look. I told Adam that this was rare, as only a handful of browns are landed at Camanche in comparison to the plentiful rainbow trout. I’ve always speculated that either they spill over form Pardee Lake, or they are remnants of some past planting program at Lake Camanche itself. This particular fish had better coloration than any other brown I have landed, with deep golden fins and large pronounced spots along the sides. I quickly weighed the fish and got it back into the water for the release. At 4.5 pounds, it was truly a trophy brown, especially by Lake Camanche standards. As the fish sway off, we continued our trek back towards the launching ramp. We lost yet another fish on the downrigger rod, and picked up another holdover rainbow just short of the north shore boat ramp. Sunlight was fading as we motored up the hill away from the glistening lake. Adam spotted a large gray farm cat standing watch over a still grassy field. The quiet farmlands transformed into streetlights and strip malls as our path brought us closer to home. Despite the slow fishing action, that one bite had made the trip a memorable one. We will be back out there at some point. I know there are bigger browns out there waiting. wagons for this series of storms after all is said and done. Soft eggs have definitely been the game changer on the fish recently, with the occasional streamer/ strymph fly thrown into the drift mix,” reported Loe. “It has been drive in access for most of the Lower Owens River, and the temperatures have been fluctuating but consistently staying on the cooler side. The East Walker River has also been giving up some nice ones as they are still huddled in the deeper pools of the river,” Loe disclosed. “Bridgeport may see a good amount of snow after this week as well. The Middle Owens River has fish in the soft water in the deep pools and along the slow and deep undercut banks. Most of the fish have been located at the tail outs of the pools and the bigger fish have been coming on streamers. Hot Creek has been fishing well in both areas. Nymphing and dry/dropper setups have been the most productive,” Loe concluded. FEATHER RIVER Big Steelhead Numbers Excite Anglers Trollers Nail Trout, Salmon As Water Rises SACRAMENTO - The 5 mph speed limit on Folsom Lake has been removed, making fishing the reservoir from a boat for trout, salmon and bass easier. At press time, the reservoir was sitting at 417.91 feet, up 29.4 feet in just 25 days. “The lake has risen over 12’ in one week and continues to fill,” according to the Folsom Lake Marina website. “Boaters should be watchful for floating debris on the lake. Both the Granite Bay and Brown’s Ravine ramps are in operation.” “The Sierra snowpack is sitting at 110% of normal and all of our reservoirs are getting back to normal levels,” according to a marina spokesperson. “More snow is still needed, but the outlook is showing a great boating season at Folsom Lake .” Anglers are finding decent trout fishing at the lake. Jerry Lampkin of TNG Motor Sports Guide Service made a solo trolling trip to the lake that produced two 13 inch rainbows and one 14 inch king salmon. “I released all three fish,” said Lampkin. “I also lost two fish. The fish hit Wee Tads, red/copper Speedy Shiners and Rapalas in the South Fork.” “The lake was coming up really fast,” he noted. “A state park employee was moving up the docks at the Granite Bay 4 lane ramp when I launched.” The water temperature was 50 degrees and the main lake was an “army truck olive green” color. - Dan Bacher OROVILLE – Large numbers of steelhead are showing on the Feather KLAMATH RIVER River this season, creating solid fishing Half Pounders, Adult prospects for anglers fishing a variety of Steelhead Rewarded Drift offerings below the Feather River Fish Hatchery. Boaters Before Storm “Anglers are experiencing good HAPPY CAMP – Before the Klamath steelhead fishing in the low flow area,” River became high and unfishable reported Jack Lightsey at Johnson’s Bait and Tackle. “Fish to 25 inches are hitting CONTINUED ON PG 12 nightcrawlers, spinners and flies.” The hatchery has counted 1700 adult steelhead, including 97 that they took in during the latest spawning day, so far this season, according to Penny Crawshaw at the Feather River Fish Hatchery. To date, the Now Catching hatchery staff has taken 965,000 STRIPED BASS steelhead eggs. TROUT The facility CATFISH produces 450,000 • SALmON • TROUT LARGEMOUTH BASS steelhead smolts • STRIPED BASS annually for the The New Marina river. Surplus fish • Building CATFISH will be planted in & Boat Rentals • NOW LARGEmOUTH BASS the Thermalito OPEN!!!! Afterbay to bolster $25 boat the landlocked rentals steelhead fishery. every Anglers can hook steelhead in the Monday Los Vaqueros Recreation Co. 2 to 5 lb. range thru Friday 9990 Los Vaqueros Rd. (non holidays) throughout the Byron, CA, 94514 river, but the most www.NORCALFISHING.COm popular areas are 2907 A Contra Costa Water District Facility below the hatchery 3125 Nestled between Los Vaqueros Los Vaqueros Brentwood Reservoir Reservoir and Livermore off Vasco Road Nestled between Brentwood and Livermore off Vasco Road First Time Anglers Welcome! Beautiful Spring Wild Flowers (925) 371-2628