Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 2724 Nov 9-23 | Page 6

6 Nov 9 - 23, 2018 VOL.37 • ISS. 24 FRESHWATER REPORTS ALMANOR Trout To 6 Plus Pounds Tangle with Anglers CHESTER - Almanor has been a good news bad news proposition for the past several days. On the plus side, there are some huge rainbows pushing up to nearly 7 pounds being landed. On the downside, if you paid the lake a visit this week, you really had to work hard to earn a strike. “I’ve been putting my clients on limits most days, but we are definitely putting in a strong effort to get them and we hate to lose a good fish once we’ve got them on,” related Captain Bryan Roccucci of Big Daddy’s Guide Service. “I’ve been moving around the lake a fair amount chasing the bite day to day. I’ve been doing well on flies recently, trolling near the surface. Our fish are running a solid 3 pounds in most cases and bigger fish are showing up almost every day. Most of the fish are rainbows right now, but browns are common,” Roccucci added. With the trout spread throughout the lake now that the surface temperature is in the 50’s, shore anglers are having mixed results. A typical outing to Geritol Cove or Rocky Point isn’t producing a lot of bites on worms or spoons, but the fish being caught tend to be 3 plus pounds. For trollers, there are plenty of attractive targets in the form of scattered pond smelt schools, but only selected smelt balls are being targeted by feeding trout. To find those opportunities you’ve got to stay on the move and fish with patience. The reward might be the biggest trout of your life. Monster swim at Lake Almanor. LAKE AMADOR First Trout Plant of Fall Goes In! IONE – The Lake Amador Resort made their first trial run plant of the fall season on October 18 – and more trout plants are on the way. The resort will now be stocking the trout weekly through May. “We did a trial run on October 18 with 80 fish that weighed 300 lbs... that’s almost a 4 lb. average.,” said Lee Lockhart of the Lake Amador Resort. “25 were cutbows, 40 were Donaldson steelhead, and 15 were a mix of trophy lightning trout and rainbows, ranging from 6 to 10 pounds.” “All went well, the fish did great, the surface temperature is consistent at 68.2 degrees and stocking season is underway,” said Lockhart. Shore anglers and boaters are both starting to catch trout now while using PowerBait, Power Eggs, nightcrawlers, Kastmasters, jigs and other lures. The biggest fish to come out of the lake over the past couple of weeks was a 21-pound catfish that an angler fooled with an artificial nightcrawler off the boat launch area. Anglers are also hooking some largemouth bass while tossing out top water lures and other offerings. The lake is currently 27 feet from full and the boat launching facilities are in full operation. - Dan Bacher AMERICAN BASIN South Fork Wild Rainbows Go on Bite AUBURN – The South Fork and Middle Forks of the American River can offer top- notch fishing for rainbow and brown trout in the fall as the fish feed prior to winter. “I had a lot of fun catching and releasing rainbows in the 8 to 10 inch range on the South Fork between Twin Bridges and Camp Sacramento on a recent trip,” said Craig Newton at Willfish Bait and Tackle. “I was fishing from pool to pool with #1 and #2 black/yellow Panther Martins with gold blades.” Newton hasn’t heard any reports from French Meadows or Hell Hole reservoirs over the past couple of weeks, although the roads to both lakes are currently open. Fishing for rainbow and brown trout should be productive at French Meadows, now that the surface water temperature has cooled down. Shore anglers should toss out nightcrawlers, PowerBait and Kastmasters in the river inlet and off rocky ledges. Boaters should troll with Rapalas and other minnow plugs for the browns and rainbows. One local reported catching a couple of browns in the 3 to 4 lb. range while trolling with Rapalas by the powerhouse on Spaulding Reservoir, located off Highway 20. - Dan Bacher Trout Planted Seasonally! • Cafe • RV Park • Waterslide • Campground • Disc Golf • General Store Cafe Open Seasonally On Friday, Saturday & Sundays 209-274 -4739 7500 Lake Amador Dr., Ione, CA 95640 WWW.LAKEAMADOR.COM Lake Almanor Now Booking Fall Trout at Eagle Lake La ke Almanor Lake Davis a n d Eagle Lake Bucks Lake Captain Bryan Roccucci Lake Tahoe www.BigDaddyFishing.com Call for Best Dates – (530) 370-1001 LAKE AMADOR Sturgeon are on the chomp for anglers working the upper reaches of Suisun Bay. This handsome keeper was caught in late September. Photo courtesy of DRAGON SPORTFISHING, Pittsburg. AMERICAN RIVER Nimbus Hatchery Plans to Spawn on November 5 SACRAMENTO – The Nimbus Fish Hatchery on the American River plans to spawn the first fall Chinook salmon of the season on Monday, November 5. “We will turn the water on in the ladder on November 1 and then let the fish up the ladder on November 2,” said Gary Novak, hatchery manager. “The hatchery water is currently 62-1/2 degrees. Our target is for the water to go below 60 degrees by November 1.” The releases below Nimbus Dam will also go up to 1800 cfs on November 1. “We are seeing salmon jumping in the river near the ladder, but there’s not a lot of fish showing yet,” he noted. The relative lack of fish in the river to date was underscored by the fishing reports. “Salmon fishing has been slow,” said Alan Fong of Fisherman’s Warehouse. “A few boaters have been catching a few salmon on glow-in-the-dark Gitzits in the dredger holes of the lower river at night.” “Very few salmon have been coming from the American this season to date,” said Dennis Pfanner at Sacramento Pro Tackle. “Most of the fish are showing in the Sacramento at this time. The river should be loaded with salmon now, but it isn’t. Hopefullly, more fish will move into the American in November.” However, Daryl Carter of Sacramento managed to land a bright chinook weighing between 30 and 35 pounds while shore fishing on the American River at Paradise Park. “It took a half hour to get the big fish in,” said Carter. - Dan Bacher LAKE BERRYESSA Autumn Bass Action Heats Up NAPA – The black bass bite is picking up at Lake Berryessa with the arrival of cooler fall weather. “It was totally flat water again - 5 out of 6 trips - NO breeze even after 3 pm,” reported Larry Hemphill, fishing guide. “We used the Lowrance again to find bait, and about 1 pm - we did. The bait was not in the typical tight baits balls we have seen recently.” “We are back at drop- shotting and spooning,” said Hemphill. “Blade Runner 1-3/4 oz. spoons (black shad) were working almost as well as in previous years. We finally found bait that were not in tight schools. The average depth was 40 feet.” “This trip had a special blessing as I had not seen many smallies in my previous trips. It is sort of normal that the 3 species of bass have their ups and downs of activity during the year. We were still fishing morning shadows as one of the clients sticks a good one. As I got a glimpse of her near the boat, I almost freaked! I got the net quickly and soon boated a 3-1/4 lb. smallie. “Soon I landed a 3 lb. even smallie! There’re back (maybe)! We didn’t catch big numbers of bass, but they were bigger this trip - guessing around 14-15 lbs. for the best five. Hemphill said shad color Robo Worms were working better on this trip, along with MM111 –he even used a blue shad color. He didn’t see any bass chasing bait, but saw fish breaking the surface occasionally, with no particular pattern. “One here, one there - all off-shore. The bass didn’t seem to be chasing anything. Bass are moving some - areas that had been good last month, are dead now. I’m working new areas with my clients now - it worked on my last trip,” he concluded. Rainbow trout are scattered at Lake Berryessa, but the fish being hooked are beauties in the 16 to 18 inch range, Continued on Pg 7