FRESHWATER & SALTY TIPS
Be Like To Fish?
26 MARCH 17- 31, 2017 VOL. 36 • ISS. 07
FRESHWATER & SALTY TIPS
The winter mackinaw bite is outstanding at Lake Tahoe. If you’ re looking for family fun and plenty of action, a trip with the Tahoe Sportfishing Team is just what the doctor ordered!
Photo courtesy of TAHOE SPORTFISHING, South Lake Tahoe.
FRESHWATER REPORTS:
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Mickey Daniels of Mickey’ s Big Mack Charters has been taking clients out on his charter boat that features a fully enclosed, heated cabin. Mickey’ s clients have been hooking several fish per outing while pulling Kok-A-Nuts, Sting Kings and other lures.
The fish are running from 3 to 6 pounds in most cases. His clients have been keeping some fish for the table. The rest are tagged and released.
TRINITY RIVER & LAKE
Steelhead Run Winds Down
LEWISTON— The numbers of steelhead moving into the Trinity River Fish Hatchery are beginning to wind down as the season enters its tail stretch. Forty-seven steelhead returned to the facility over the past week.
The facility has trapped a total of 1,555 steelhead to date, compared to 3,236 steelhead by the same date last year. The hatchery trapped a total of 2,550 steelhead in 2014, 2,302 in 2013 and 5,737 in 2012.
Fishing pressure remains very light throughout most of the river as steelhead enthusiasts get ready to switch over to bass and trout fishing on Trinity Lake.
“ The first 1½ miles below Lewiston Dam are getting a lot of boat pressure from fly fishermen,” said Tim Brady at Trinity Outdoors.“ There aren’ t many people getting out on the rest of the river. The river is high, but fishable. It’ s March and the steelhead season is near its end.”
He expected the smallmouth and largemouth bass fishing at Trinity Lake to bust loose as the water stabilizes, the water temperature warms up and the fish go on their pre-spawn bite. Expect jigs, plastic worms, spinnerbaits, Gitzits and Senkos and swimbaits to all work as the bass move into shallow water.
The Fairview, Trinity Resort, Minersville and Trinity Center boat ramps are in the water, but Brady cautioned people to watch for floating debris when boating on the lake.
Trinity Lake is holding 1,916,611 acre-feet of water, 78 percent of capacity and 106 percent of average. Releases to the Trinity River below Lewiston Dam are 384 cfs.
– by Dan Bacher
WEST DELTA
Anglers Brace For Sturgeon And Striper Action To Bust Wide-Open
PITTSBURG— The West Delta is currently muddy and there is lots of debris coming down the system. As if these factors haven’ t made fishing challenging enough, the water temperature has been up and down and nothing can chill a bite like fluctuating temperatures.
Skippers like Captain Steve Mitchell of Hook’ d Up Sportfishing and Captain David Hammond of Delta Pro Fishing are very optimistic about the days and weeks ahead, now that we’ ve gotten a sustain break in the rain and the days are becoming steadily warmer.
Anglers can look forward to the sturgeon bite ramping up throughout the month of March. Key baits will be eel, ghost shrimp and pile worms, but roe is also a very viable spring bait as well.
Striper fishing isn’ t likely to get going in a meaningful way until the early days of April. The bait anglers soaking shad, sardines and chicken liver will note the first spike in the bass action, but as soon as the clarity improves and the temperature hits the 56 degree mark trollers pulling Yo- Zuri and Bomber minnow plugswill start enjoying good action as the fish push up river to spawn.
WILDHORSE RESERVOIR
Ice Fishing For Trout Should Improve
ELKO— The ice at Wildhorse Reservoir is still in good condition with 15 to 20 inches of good ice with about two to three inches of snow on top as of Thursday.
As of Thursday, Feb. 23, the edges were a bit soft making it difficult to get a wheeled vehicle onto the ice, according to Joe Doucette, conservation educator for the Nevada Department of Wildlife.
“ However, with temperatures expected to be below freezing all weekend, chances are they will harden and anglers should be able to drive ATV’ s onto the ice. Fishing has been slow with the unsettled weather, but with good weather and a new moon coming up it should improve,” said Doucette.“ Rainbow PowerBait with garlic scent has been working as has worms and jigging with jigs or spinners.“
“ Look for water depths of four to ten feet and fish about three feet below the bottom of the ice using a jig tipped with a worm or some PowerBait,” he advised.
The sledding hill and the ice skating rink are up and running. The campground is open.
– by Dan Bacher
What Will The Bay
Be Like To Fish?
Rain has been the biggest news on the weather front this year, and where we have had a lack of it for the last few years, now we seem to have more than enough even though the rainy season technically goes on for at least two more months.
We have seen the reports of the tremendous overflow at Oroville Dam, so much so that no one has even mentioned that other mammoth reservoir, Lake Shasta, which will be receiving millions of acre feet of water once the 500 plus inches of snowpack melts.
Even the relatively unmentioned Anderson reservoir received so much rain that it overflowed the dam, which caused unheard of flooding in San Jose.
The question is,“ How will the bay be like to fish?” Due to the drought, there was a steady intrusion of salt water flowing up the delta, so much so that many boat owners, that never worried about such things, had to install zinc anodes on their boats to keep electrolysis away. The water was at the same time turning stagnant in many places, especially dead end sloughs, and large growths of moss and gooey, clingy weeds choked these very waterways.
SALTY TIPS by Steve“ Hippo” Lau
The large volume of water entering the delta system will do much to clean up the place, and that large volume of water is also pouring through the bay. Looking at the bay, there is a large swath of muddy fresh water covering the north bay, and during a good hard flood tide, the incoming salt water is hitting that wall of muddy fresh water and is turned southward in the bay.
The odd thing is that fresh water flowing into bay from the south is rarely a factor, so negligible is that flow. But this year, the torrent of water coming into the bay is very real, and very measurable.
What does this mean? In normal years and situations, salt water during the flood tide enters into bay, is pushed down the west side of the south bay, then swirls around counterclockwise up the east side of the bay.
But, because of the rain this year, the fresh water entering the bay has to flow around the incoming salt water and is flowing up the east side of the bay. This means that the usual south bay game fish; striped bass, white sea bass, halibut, and sturgeon, will be found in greater numbers on the west side of the south bay. This should make finding fish a bit easier this year, with fish stacking in a smaller and smaller space. Now, if we can only get them to bite.
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FISHING SPINNERS FOR TROUT:
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up in a steady, ridged, retrieve mode. Let your spinner work with the current. If you feel a burst of water grab your spinner, slow down or momentarily stop retrieving and let it work in the current. Spinners are the most effective when retrieved slowly, just fast enough to keep the blade turning and spinner working near bottom. Strikes are usually definite, but some trout will just stop the blade from spinning, so when in doubt, set the hook.
Upstream casting is a productive method and best accomplished with a high-speed spinning reel. This method allows you to avoid spooking weary
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trout when waters are clear. Since fish face upstream into the current, they will be less likely to see you when approached from behind. Here’ s how: position yourself just downstream from the best-looking holding water, perhaps a place where the water is deep, and cast across and upstream. Begin your retrieve as or just before the spinner hits the water. Reel as fast as you can until you pick up all slack line and begin to feel the resistance of the spinning blade as it fans out in the water, then slow down and retrieve just fast enough to keep your lure working near bottom.
Another productive river fishing method is downstream casting, which works best on wide tail-outs or large, wide holding areas. Cast your spinner out across and downstream. Since the current is moving away from you,
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it requires a slow or no retrieve as your spinner swings through the holding water.
FORWARD TROLLING Trolling, that is: trailing a spinner 30-to-100 feet behind a moving boat is a method used on lakes and slow-moving rivers that works best during times when trout are scattered over a wide area. With your boat moving slowly, ½ to 1 mph, cast or let your lure out behind your boat and begin your troll.
When forward trolling, the most effective strategy is to run each person’ s spinner at a different distance from the boat. Staggering the distance your lures run behind your craft( for example, varying the amount of let-out from 30-to-100 feet) is a solid trolling strategy since doing so will increasing the number of
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times fish will cross paths with your lures.
In regards to troll speed, the general rule is: when water temperatures are cold a slow troll speed will likely produce best; likewise, when water temperatures increase a little faster troll speed might be what the fish will respond to.
To increase your rate of success, try trolling in a zigzag pattern. A zigzag troll can be more effective than a straight-line troll because following fish may become bored and not strike due to your lure not reacting( running or attempting to flee) when moving along at a consistent speed and direction. Also, when zigzag trolling, keep track of which side of the boat is producing strikes, since the outside rod( positioned opposite from the way you are turning) will pull your lure faster, and the inside rod slower. If
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all the strikes are coming on the inside rod, it’ s an indication you’ re trolling too fast. Likewise, if all strikes are coming on the outside rod you may increase your catch rates by speeding up slightly.
THE STRIKE
Strikes are easily identified but can, at times, be subtle as trout will take a spinner in a variety of ways; which may include arm wrenching strikes, swimming with the spinner while closing their mouth around it, or just stopping the blade and / or forward movement of your spinner. In all cases, it’ s important to set the hook hard, yank back on your rod tip, when noticing any change in spinner action. Sharp hooks can make it difficult or impossible for fish to let go, meaning you will hook and land more fish if you use and keep your hooks sharp.
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