Up-To-Date and Published Locally... By Sportsmen... For Sportsmen!
Vol. 36- ISS. 13
Our 35th Year
MADE IN U. S. A
Since 1982
35 Years Serving Sportsmen
SEE OUR NEW BAJA ROUNDUP SECTION ON
PAGE 30-31
“ The Magazine for West Coast Sportsmen!” INSIDE
Area Reports
Fish Sniffer Readers Smack Feather River Stripers!
The Minn Kota was keeping the boat almost stationary below the falls on the Feather River. Using the term“ falls” might be a bit of an over statement. The falls are basically a section of rapids that punctuate a relatively placid stretch of the Feather not far from Yuba City.
Whether you call them falls or rapids they look fishy, with lots of current in some areas, current breaks in other places and big eddies swirly near the banks.
We already had landed over a dozen stripers that morning up to about 22 inches, but when Captain Manny hooked up and passed the rod to Richard Cummings, we could tell right away that it was a much larger fish.
WHAT’ S HOT by Cal Kellogg
5 DAYS CHASING STRIPERS UP AND DOWN THE VALLEY
Mike McNeilly bagged this beautiful striper while fishing a live minnow in the Sacramento River.
Photo by MIKE MCNEILLY, Fish Sniffer Staff.
The Cousins rod bent heavily and the reel grudgingly payed out Yo-Zuri braid as the bass surged away using the current to its advantage.
“ Pull in your lines guys,” Manny exclaimed.“ We may have to follow this one.”
With my line in, I turned my attention to shooting video of the developing battle.
Richard has fought his share of big fish and it showed. He stayed calm, kept the rod loaded as Manny eased the boat several yards down river matching the pace of the bass.
When the striper realized that it wasn’ t creating any real distance between itself and whatever was fighting it, the fish changed strategy. In true husky striper manner, it dropped to the
CONTINUED ON PAGE 23
Day one dawned breezy and cool in the Marysville area. The Feather River raged by. It normally would be flowing around 5,000 CFS, but today it scooted by at 9x that amount. Entire trees floated down the muddy torrent, but across the river lay the confluence of the much clearer Yuba River. There had been a hot striper bite underway in the area for the past several days, but today the water had spiked on the Feather.
Through my friend Jeremiah Wattenburger, I had found my way onto noted north coast salmon and steelhead guide Mario Arguilles’ s boat. I had met Mario once before at his salmon camp on the Klamath River. It had been a wild night of
GONE FISHING by Mike McNeilly
Lower American River Map Feature
See Page 18
boozing and gorging on tri-tip that Mario had cooked that afternoon. I had already formed an opinion of Mario that he is a great dude, and it’ s hard not to feel like you’ ve known him for years.
He is pretty much an open book. Also with me was the aforementioned Jeremiah and our mutual friend from Nebraska, Vance. Vance is always good for entertainment’ s sake.
At least once per day he will lose his wallet. There’ s 5 minutes of frantic paranoia until he finds it. It’ s usually located in his pocket. He’ s also famous for his dark and morbid sense of humor and his hatred for eating any kind of plant matter.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 17
New Report: Extinction Likely for Majority of California’ s Native Trout and Salmon
See Page 28
June 9- 23, 2017
Bill Groome battled a bunch of striped bass while fishing the Feather River on May 5 including these feisty fish.
Photo by CAL KELLOGG, Fish Sniffer Staff.
FRESHWATER REPORTS Lake Almanor- American River............................. 4 Lake Berryessa- Carson Pass.............................. 7 Clear Lake- Eagle Lake...................................... 10 Davis / Frenchman Lakes- East Delta.................. 16 Eastern Sierra- Lafayette Reservoir................... 21 Los Vaqueros- Lake Pardee............................... 22 Pyramid Lake- San Pablo Reservoir................... 25 Sacramento Area- So Oregon Roundup............. 27 Lake Tahoe- Wild Horse Reservoir..................... 29
SALTWATER REPORTS Berkeley & Emeryville to Fisherman’ s Wharf......... 33 Half Moon Bay- Shoreline Peninsula............ 34-35
FEATURES
Where... When... How...
BAJA ROUNDUP............................................... 30-31 BULLETIN BOARD................................................... 4 COOKIN’ YER CATCH- Paulette........................... 24 FISH SNIFFER HOW-TO: Cal Kellogg................... 11 GO FOR IT: Staff....................................................... 6 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR...................................... 3 MAP FEATURE: Dan Bacher............................. 18-19 TROUT & KOKANEE JOURNAL... 5,8,9,13-15,17 SALTY TIPS Steve“ Hippo” Lau.............................. 34 SPOTLIGHT ON CONSERVATION Dan Bacher.... 28 WHAT’ S HOT – SALTWATER................................. 31
STAFF
TACKLE
What We’ re Using
Cal Kellogg- fished Rollins Lake for rainbow trout. Cal utilized a 7’ Fenwick HMG 70 ML rod rated for 4 to 10 pound test matched with an Abu Garcia Revo SX spinning reel. The reel was spooled with 8 pound Trilene Big Game line. A 6 lb. Vanish fluorocarbon leader was employed. Cal caught 3 trout to 14 inches while soaking green Zeke’ s Sierra Gold floating trout bait. The best action took place from 6 in the evening until dark.
Paul Kneeland- fished Boca Reservoir with Matt, Mark and Bridget Looney in the Fish Sniffer 21’ Rogue Jet Coastal. They caught Kokanee to 15 1 / 2 inches using a Cousins 7’ 6” ultra light graphite downrigger rod with a Abu Garcia Revo MGX Extreme level wind reel loaded with 6 lb test Yozuri TopKnot fluorocarbon line. They trolled pink & purple Mack’ s Lure Double Whammy Mini Kokanee spinners and Paulina Peak spinner hootchies behind Vance’ s and Sep’ s Watermelon dodgers off the Canon Downriggers 10 to 25 feet deep at 1.4 mph.
Dan Bacher- fished for rainbow trout at Pardee Lake. He used a Berkley Ugly Stick GX2 6’ 6” medium action spinning rod, teamed up with a Shakespeare GX235 spinning reel filled with 6 lb. test P-Line CX Premium Flourocarbon Coated Line. He fished with Berkley chartreuse glitter and fluorescent orangee PowerBait on # 14 gold Eagle Claw hooks rigged with 4 lb. test Berkley Trilene 100 % Fluorocarbon leaders on sliding sinker setups. He also tossed out 1 / 4 and 1 / 8 oz. Yakima Bait Rooster Tails in Brown Trout, Fire Tiger and Rainbow color patterns.