22 June 23- July 7, 2017 VOL. 36 • ISS. 14
FRESHWATER REPORTS:
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 19
SOUTHERN OREGON ROUNDUP cont.
on June 24 through July 31 or until the 18,000 marked coho quota has been met.
Bottom fishing has been good when the ocean conditions allow. Fishing for bottom fish is now restricted to inside the 30-fathom curve. A few black rockfish have been seen feeding on / near the surface recently.
Recreational harvest of bay clams remains open along the entire Oregon coast. Clamming is excellent during low tides near Charleston, off Cape Arago Highway, and Clam Island. There are also good places to dig clams even on positive low tides in Coos Bay.
STAMPEDE / BOCA RESERVOIRS
Kokanee Action Sizzles At Stampede!
TRUCKEE- Kokanee salmon fishing is sizzling at Stampede, while the fishing has slowed down at Boca Reservoir.
“ 30-40 kokanee up to 16 inches are being caught by 10 am,” said James Netzel of Tight Lines Guide Service.“ It has been non stop action from sunrise till we throw in the towel.”
“ I start fishing from the launch ramp and catch fish everywhere I have gone. The kokanee are not schooled up yet and are being caught from the islands to the river arms,” he noted.
“ We started off last month catching them from the top down to 20’. Currently 20’-30’ down has been the best. Anything pink and small has been the best color and for scents, garlic and tuna oil has been the go to,” he explained.
Rocky Mountain Tackle double glow pink plankton and powerful pink Radical Glow Tubes are Netzel’ s favorite 2 lures now, but a tiny pink n purple Dick Nite is working also. Currently the kokanee average 13”-14” with a few topping 15”-16, but they are fat for this time of year.
“ Boca got off to a great start, but recently the bite has slowed,” said Netzel.“ We started off last month catching them from the top down to about 18’ on a variety of different lures.”
“ Powerful pink Radical Glow Tubes were top baits, followed by Radical Red Radical Glow Tubes. We fished near the shoal on the east side. Launching is a little tough to find the accesses in the dark, but once you are at
Casey Seeds hit Lake Tahoe on May 23 and caught this impressive 15 lb. mackinaw while toplining a big plug over 60 feet of water.
Photo courtesy of FISHSNIFFER. COM. a good launching site, as long as you have 4 wheel drive, it’ s not a problem,” he said.“
“ The size of the lokanee is great for this time of year. We were averaging 14-15” fish with our largest 16.5”,” he tipped.
LAKE TAHOE
Joel Anderson Lands And Releases 22 Pound Mack!
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE- Mackinaw fishing is steady at Lake Tahoe. Lots of fish in the 4 to 6 pound class are available and on the top end, fish to 22 pounds have shown up. In addition to the macks some browns and rainbows are being caught too.
Toward the end of May, Captain Gene St. Denis of Blue Ribbon Charters headed out on an instructional trolling trip with an angler named Joel Anderson. While trolling a minnow teamed with a dodger Joel hooked up with the mack of a lifetime when a 22 pounder decided to feed. The bait was 155 feet from the surface off Tahoe City when the strike came. The fish was revived and released after the fight.
“ Currently mackinaw in the 2 to 6 pound range are common fare,” said St. Denis.“ But we are seeing some much bigger fish too. In addition to the 22 pounder we got, there have been a handful of fish landed that ranged from 8 to 16 pounds. Deadman Point, Eagle Point and Skunk Harbor have been producing browns and rainbows, but the action if variable. It will be good one day and poor the next,” related St. Denis.
Mickey Daniels of Mickey’ s Big Mack Charters has been enjoying solid action at the north end of the lake. Mickey’ s clients have been hooking mackinaw up to 7 pounds. Some fish are being kept for the table while the others are tagged and released.
Mickey hooks his fish on a variety of offerings including Shasta Tackle Kok-A- Nuts teamed with Sling Blade Dodgers.
These anglers rounded up three limits of kokanee to 15 inches while trolling a variety of different lures at Boca Reservoir on May 22.
Photo courtesy of TIGHT LINES GUIDE SERVICE, Loomis.
FRESHWATER
TRINITY RIVER / LAKE
Boaters Battle Smallmouths And Largemouths
WEAVERVILLE – Black bass fishing is in full swing at Trinity Lake, while rainbows are hitting best in the mouths of the tributaries.
“ Boaters are hooking smallmouth and largemouth bass up to 5 pounds while using just about any bait you want,” advised Tim Brady of Trinity Outdoors.“ Fishermen are hooking fish on swimbaits, surface baits, Senkos, spinnerbaits and spoons throughout the lake.”
The north end is the most popular area to fish, but Brady but the bass can be found holding around submerged weeds, brush, timber and structure around the lake.
Kokanee salmon and king salmon fishing is still very slow.“ Locals are at a loss to where these fish are,” he noted.“ The deep trollers aren’ t finding them.”
However, shore anglers and boaters fishing in the mouths of the tributaries, including the East Fork, Stewarts Fork, Swift Creek and Upper Trinity, are picking up rainbows, a mixture of holdovers and planters. They’ re fishing marshmallows, nightcrawlers, PowerBait, Kastmasters, spinners and other offerings for the trout.
The reservoir is holding 2,267,634 feet of water, 93 percent of capacity and 108 percent of average at press time.
Reclamation water releases from Lewiston Dam began ramping down from 5,400 cfs starting on June 4. The Bureau will ramp the releases down from 2,700 cfs on June 16 to 1,100 cfs on July 15.
The releases for this“ extremely wet” 2017 water year will result in an annual total volume of 815,000 acre-feet. More information www. trrp. net / background / rod /
WEST DELTA
Stripers And Sturgeon Still Biting As Crowds Thin
BRANNAN ISLAND- It’ s a classic late spring, early summer scenario in the West Delta. The winds are up and fishing is good in S. F. Bay and the ocean. As a result, serious anglers are dwindling in the Delta, despite the fact that the fishing for both striped bass and sturgeon is good to very good. For sturgeon you’ ll want to go
west into the upper part of Suisun Bay. Look for the diamondbacks in the usual areas and you’ ll find them. The outgoing tide has been offering the best fishing for sturgeon, but of course this is the most difficult tide to anchor during with the almost daily spring wind out of the west.
If you were only going to take one bait, you’ d be wise to run with eel. Two? Eel and salmon roe!
Stripers can be found scattered or in groups, but they all seem to be on the move. Some are spawned out and swimming down the system or simply cruising and feeding. The other fish have yet to spawn and are pushing up river into the big cold flows that are still pouring out of nearly full reservoirs in the foothills.
Both bait anglers and trollers can score limits of fish with a good effort most days. Trollers will want to work primarily with deep running plugs such as Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnows. Seek out areas of clean water and stay on the move to locate fish. Once you find a willing biter work the area carefully and watch for signs of other fish on your graph.
For bait anglers fishing with shad, bloodworms, sardines or live minnows, deep water near the channel on the Sacramento River is one of the best places to look for action. Trust your sonar. Don’ t drop the anchor and start fishing until you’ ve found a good number of marks on and near the bottom.
WILD HORSE LAKE
Trout Lead Summer Angling Parade
ELKO- Very little change here as Wildhorse continues to receive a lot of snow melt keeping the water level very high and there is a lot of water going over the spillway as well as lots of water still in the form of snow in the basin. You can launch a boat and the boat dock is in the water.
Fishing for trout was good last week as the surface water temperatures were pushing into the 60’ s. Anglers report some good fishing in the Hendricks Arm, near the warm springs on the west side and in the last cove before the canyon by the highway.
The occasional wiper and smallmouth have been caught. Though expect bass fishing to be slow this year as the bass fishery recovers from the drought. If you do catch some smallmouth, they must be returned immediately to the water until July 1.
Bait fishermen should use the usual worms or PowerBait here. Garlic PowerEggs of just about any color seem to work very well. Spin fishermen should be using spinners and minnow imitators like Rapalas. This time of year gold, black and gold, or green and gold spinners work well. For the minnow imitating lures, black over white or silver, dark blue over white or silver and dark green over white or silver work well.
Fly rodders should be using chironomids, hares ears, PT’ s and wooly buggers. Wildhorse received another 7000 trout last week for a total of just under 12,000 fish this month.
The campground is open and is on a first come first served basis.
-by Joe Doucette
Natural Bug Spray
No More Bug Bites!
www. NoSeeUmNoMore. com