Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 2724 Nov 9-23 | Page 14

14 FRESHWATER Nov 9 - 23, 2018 VOL.37 • ISS. 24 FRESHWATER REPORTS: CONTINUED FROM PG 11 NEW MELONES LAKE cont. New Melones Lake level is currently at 1031.86. Over the last two weeks, lake levels have not dropped, but the water temperature across the lake is steadily dropping and is currently at 68 degrees. Tuttletown’s boat launch ramp will be changing to the middle ramp as the top ramp goes out of the water at 1031.00 elevation. The middle ramp will be used for elevations from 1036.00-942.00. The Glory Hole Point side of the lake has the high ramp working till lake elevation hits approximately l1025.00 and at that point the middle ramp will be in use from elevation 1028.00 to 940.00. Another 3.86 ft. will have to be drawn from Melones before the middle ramp comes into use. Angels Cove ramp is in use from elevation 1088.00 - 975.00. OROVILLE LAKE/ THERMALITO AFTERBAY Trollers Nail Afterbay Steelhead OROVILLE – Although few anglers are targeting landlocked Chinooks at Lake Oroville, fishermen are experiencing decent landlocked steelhead fishing in the Thermalito Afterbay. “My fishing buddy and I landed 6 fish, including 5 landlocked steelhead and one king salmon, on my latest trip to the afterbay,” said Rob Reimers of Rustic Rob’s Guide Service. “The fish – both steelhead and salmon – were in the 16 inch range. I was a little disappointed because I thought they would be bigger by this time.” “We hooked four of the fish while trolling Brad’s Cut Plugs in pearl white with green dots, tipped with nightcrawlers,” he tipped. rainbows every spring and summer by the DFW. Most of these fish don’t survive, but those that do often times turn up in the catch one or more years later as handsome 12 to 22 inch square tailed holdovers. The quality of a trout fishery is dictated in large part by the quality of forage it provides. Look beneath the surface of a great trout fishery and you’ll find a diverse and plentiful prey base. Minnows, crawfish, sculpins, juvenile trout, caddis flies and other invertebrates fuel French Meadows’ trout fishery. Minnows represent the lake’s primary forage, with crawfish running a strong second. Caddis hatches occur on most evenings from summer through early fall. On windless evenings the hatching caddis can provide fly anglers with good surface action. French Meadows trout aren’t picky in terms of what they will strike. It’s one of those lakes where basic trolling and bait fishing tactics consistently produce quality fish. My personal best brown from French Meadows is about 5 pounds. I’ll be pulling minnow plugs and threaded ‘crawlers in Moses Blanco won first place in the youth division of the NTAC event at Pardee Lake on October 13. Photo by DARYL CARTER, Sacramento. “We also landed fish while trolling with nightcrawlers. We trolled on both sides of the Highway 162 Bridge.” The Feather River Fish Hatchery stocked over 231,682 steelhead in a variety of size ranges in the winter and spring of 2018, according to Penny Crawshaw, hatchery manager 2. These fish have grown over the spring, summer and fall - and are expected to produce great fishing in the coming months. Hardly anybody has been targeting the landlocked kings on Lake Oroville. Anglers should troll shad or hoochies, tipped with anchovy strips, in the Bidwell Canyon area near the rockwall and the green bridge. The water level at Lake Oroville continues to drop. The water level has dropped to 707.38 feet above sea level. Oroville is holding 1,311,823 acre feet of water, 37 percent of capacity and 60 percent of average. - Dan Bacher HOW TO Collins Lake: Foothill Vistas And Hard Fighting Trout So what makes the diminutive 1,600 acre Collins Lake such an awesome trout fishery? Well, there are a couple of driving factors behind the lake’s superb trout fishing. The lake’s rich waters provide an excep- tional forage base in the form of prolific numbers of threadfin shad. Yet, the most important factor is the recreation area’s commitment to providing a top notch fishing experience. Collins boasts the most aggressive trout stocking program in the north state. Spring and fall big numbers of rainbow trout are planted. In addition to rainbows, the lake is home to a decent population of brown trout. The browns were planted as fingerlings several years ago in hopes that they would grow to trophy proportions. From time to time a lucky angler hooks a good size brown, but none of them have broken the 10 pound mark as of yet. To catch a limit of handsome ‘bows at Collins Lake you Salmon • Trout • Kokanee don’t have to do anything fancy; basic tactics will 3713 John Nova Wins NorCal Trout Anglers Challenge Event! IONE – Pardee Lake will close to fishing for the season on November 4. Before it closed, anglers had lots of fun catching lots of big rainbow trout during the NorCal Trout Anglers Challenge event at the lake on October 13. John Nova won first place in the adult division, while Walter Gibbs placed second. Moses Blanco won first place in the youth division, while Peter Scali placed second. A big thanks goes to Dary and Terese Carter for helping out Sheldon Bright of the Fish Sniffer with the event and taking photos! The Pardee tournament was the season finale before the NTAC Tournament of Champions that will be held at Collins Lake November 3 and 4. For more information, contact Vince Harris, Angler’s By Cal Kellogg hopes of besting that mark! • Stampede Kokanee • Oroville Kings • Now Booking Sacramento River Fall Salmon! PARDEE LAKE Lake Don Pedro: The Central State’s Most Exciting Rainbow Fishing The excellent rainbow trout fishing at Lake Don Pedro, located on the Tuolumne Now Booking for Fall Run King Salmon Feather • Sacramento • American Rivers! Custom 23’ Rogue Jet Salmon • Steelhead • Stripers • Book Now For Best Dates! T.N.G. Motor Sports Guide Ser vice (530) 320-0994 PYRAMID LAKE Lahontan Cutthroat Fishing Remains Excellent! SUTCLIFFE - The first month of the trout season is drawing near its end, and what a month it has been. This has been an excellent October of fishing according to just about everybody who has partaken in it. Big fish continue to fall for boaters trolling U-20 Flatfish, Lyman’s and Apex lures. Jeff Morris texted a photo of an 18 pounder caught trolling near Blockhouse. On the same day, he also had another CONTINUED ON PG 16 continued from page 9 work just fine. When it comes to soaking bait off the bank at Collins worms work, but dough bait is king. PowerBait is the tried and true standard in color schemes like rainbow, yellow, chartreuse and orange. During the hottest part of the summer, the trout action has a tendency to shut down during the daylight hours, but fish are available early, late and after dark. I’ve literally spent hundreds of hours trolling Collins Lake over the past decade and I’ve caught hundreds of trout on dozens of different offerings. I think that any standard trout trolling offering will take some trout some of the time at Collins, but based on my experience there are a pair of offerings that will hook trout almost all of the time. These are the Kastmaster and the Rapala. If the trolling bite turns slow at Collins it’s time to slow down and either rig up with an earth tone colored Berkley Power Grub or a threaded crawler. You can team these baits with a small dodger, but overall I prefer to run them naked without flashers or dodgers. 3621 Press, 916-768-0930. Listed below are the top 20-finishers of the adult division and the 5-kids that weighed fish in the youth division. ADULT DIVISION: 1) John Nova 2) Walter Gibbs 3) Jeremy Gibbs 4) Dennis Pajazetovic 5) Tom Wolfenberger 6) Dave Keyser 7) Kim Sidvers, 8) Jerry Wade 9) Ryan Paulline 10) Sabrina Porder 11) DJ Woodring 12) Justin Luthi 13) Todd Whichard 14) Nick Billmaier 15) Zack Rodriguez 16) Mark Sepelyak 17) Bruce Alger 18) Richard Quadra 19) Rick Rutherford 20) Russell Johnson YOUTH DIVISION: 1) Moses Blanco 2) Peter Scali 3) Damian Fuentes 4) Angel Blanco 5) Caleb Perkins www.tngmotorsports.com Pro Guide Jerry Lampkin -- 25 years experience! River east of Modesto in the Sierra Nevada foothills, is one of the state’s best kept angling secrets. Indeed, Don Pedro is one of the best overall fisheries in the state, featuring outstanding fishing for rainbow trout, king salmon, kokanee salmon, rainbow trout, as well as an occasional brown trout. Don Pedro is second only to Shasta in terms of the numbers of rainbows it holds and their willingness to strike. I recall one time a few years back while fishing a kokanee tournament at the lake when the rainbow bite was so intense that we had to abandon several coves simply because there were so many feeding rainbows in attendance that we couldn’t get our lures down to the deep swimming kokanee! The average rainbow at Don Pedro runs about 16 inches and fish beyond 20 inches and 3 pounds show up consistently. Shad are the primary forage in the lake and this fact should be reflected in your lure selection. In the fall, topline trolling early and late in the day with spoons such as Speedy Shiners and plugs like Rapalas works well. When the sun is at its apex it’s time to slow down and drop down a bit. Wiggle hoochies and Apex Lures work well when trolled deep at 1 to 1.5 mph. These lures do a good job of imitating a wounded shad. For the ultimate in match the hatch effectiveness many anglers “roll” shad at Don Pedro. Rolling shad simply refers to slow trolling frozen threadfin shad rigged on a special sliding snell that causes the minnow to roll seductively when drawn through the water. When the rainbows play hard to get and refuse shad imitations a threaded worm either teamed with a flasher or small dodger is an offering that seldom fails at Don Pedro.