Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition 3807 Mar 15-29 2019 | Page 6

4 March 15 - 29, 2019 FRESHWATER VOL.38 • ISS. 7 These folks wanted big rainbows so they headed out onto the Sacramento River for a mid-winter adventure with Capt. Kirk Portocarrero and landed several trout including these monsters. Photo courtesy of FRESHWATER REPORTS ALMANOR Almanor Fishing Association Volunteers Work Hard to Keep Almanor Trout Pens Free of Snow LAKE AMADOR Lake Goes over Spillway IONE – The water in Lake Amador at press time was going over the spillway, but the lake is surprisingly clear, considering all of the recent storms. “The water clarity is about 8 foot of visibility,” said Elizabeth Lockhart at the Lake Amador Resort. ‘That’s really clear for all of the precipitation we have had.” The water is also quite cold at 47 degrees, she noted. Anglers are doing best on the lake’s trout while using shad and minnow imitation lures, including silver/blue Kastmasters and Rapalas. Big plants of Cutbows, Donaldson strain-rainbows and Lightning Trout (Goldens) continue to go into Amador. A total of 17,350 lbs have been planted since late October 2018. “Opinion: Tactics must change when fishing for different species of trout.” Lee Lockhart tipped. “Rainbows and even Goldens feed much differently than a Cutbow. These Cutbows are wild in the tank, they stay low and attack the feed like a great white attacks a seal, where Rainbows tend to stay shallow and do 3805 Fairfield/Suisun Bass Reapers 38th Annual Team Open Bass Fishing Tournament • April 13th Lake Berryessa • Pleasure Cove Resort • $140 Per Team Entry • Cash Prizes Awarded • All Skill Levels Invited • Huge Raffle All Proceeds Help Fund Our Lake Berryessa Conservation Efforts. For More Information: (707) 422-8505 Between 6PM & 9PM WWW.BASSREAPERS.ORG Some restrictions apply. Visit us online for details. more of an open mouth scoop feeding or pick, pick, pick style.” “This would explain why these Cutbows preferred a natural-colored lure they had to attack. We are seeing much more activity on natural-colored lures and less on bait or firetiger lures, as we’ve been stocking mainly Cutbows for over a month now,’’ he said. “Focus your tactics to the species, but don’t forget in the next couple weeks we are going to crack open a pond full of Donaldson Rainbows and Goldens as well. I predict once you see those go in, PowerBait and firetiger Rapalas will come back into play.” he added. Big fish honors go to Jacob Rodriguez, who caught a nice 6.68 lb. trout while trolling. - Dan Bacher AMERICAN RIVER Nimbus Steelhead Numbers Reach 2912 anything else, it was more environmental conditions, including good ocean conditions and the end of drought, that resulted in the big return,” he noted. The water on the river was been very cold this winter. “The water in the hatchery is 46 degrees,” he said. “The water is actually warmer, 47 degrees, downriver at Watt Avenue.” In between the storms, anglers have been catching some steelhead from shore below Nimbus Fish Hatchery and at Sailor Bar while throwing out Little Cleos or beads under bobbers, but landing the fish can be tough in the high flows. Nightcrawlers are also a good bet when the flows are high, since the steelhead are often feeding on worms and insects being swept into the river by storm inflows. Reclamation increased the releases from 9,500 cfs to 25,000 cfs below Nimbus Dam on February 26 for “flood control operations,” said Peggy Manza, Reclamation spokesperson. Then the flows were reduced to 20,000 cfs on the following day. - Dan Bacher SACRAMENTO – The Nimbus Fish Hatchery finished spawning steelhead this season on February 26. The facility trapped a total of 2912 steelhead, BERRYESSA LAKE including 258 half pounders and 2754 Bass Anglers Working for adults, according to Gary Novak, hatchery Their Fish manager. “It was the second best year run over NAPA – There are bass to be caught at the past decade, only exceeded by the Lake Berryessa, but expect a tough grind 3409 steelhead that we counted in 2018,” until the water warms and clears up. said Novak. “Near the end of February, we “My fishing partner, Luke, and I fished were starting to see a lot of two-year-olds, a recent tournament at the lake,” said along with the 7 to 12 lb. fish.” Continued on Pg 10 The hatchery staff took a total of 1,225,000 eggs this season to produce their goal of 430,000 eggs. In contrast, the hatchery saw a record low run Captain Bryan Roccucci during the peak of the drought in 2015, just 155 fish. The high flows during 2017 certainly Call for Best Dates – helped get the fish down the river past predators and Salmon • Striper • Trout • Kokanee the Delta water pumping facilities. “It’s a great run this year,” he noted. “It shows what a • Stripers little water can do for the fishery.” One other factor • Oroville was that the Kings hatchery was able to meet its goal of • Stampede 430,000 smolts in 2017, unlike 2015, Kokanee when the facility wasn’t able to meet its goal. (530) 272-7137 • (530) 263-4451 “But more than Lake Almanor Now Booking La ke Almanor Eagle Lake R a in bows and Lake Davis B ro wns! Bucks Lake Lake Tahoe www.BigDaddyFishing.com (530) 370-1001 www.fishbarebones.com CHESTER- There has been virtually no fishing going on at Lake Almanor over the past two weeks. Heavy snow has shut down boat launching and ice has formed on large areas of the lake. The same snow that shut down the lake’s boat ramps also blanketed Almanor’s trout rearing pens with a thick coat of snow that had to be removed. Here’s what the Almanor Fishing Association had to say about the pens on their Facebook page. “Plumas County experienced a real old fashioned snow storm yesterday. Lake Almanor residents woke up to 14-18 inches of fresh snow. After removing snow from our driveways and neighbor’s driveways six AFA volunteers showed up at the fish pens to remove more snow. The pens were riding low in the water with the weight of the snow, removing snow is a labor intensive, time consuming process. As is typical with AFA volunteers the phones began ringing early as we coordinated a work party. Gary Hinshaw, Lee Perry, Brett Hurff, Doug Neal, Ed Organ, George Hormel and John Crotty showed up to remove snow and feed the fish.”-The Almanor Fishing Association. 3807