Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3619 September 1-15, 2017 | Page 3

Up-To-Date and Published Locally... By Sportsmen... For Sportsmen! Marin Coast/Farallon Islands Map Feature MADE IN U.S.A See Page 18 Vol. 36 - ISS.19 Our 35th Year Since 1982 September 1 - 15, 2017 “The Magazine for West Coast Sportsmen!” Captain Chris Smith Turns Lemons Into Lemonade! S ome outdoor writers season their work with a sprinkling of fairies and rainbows. To hear these guys tell it, outcomes are always epic and success in the field or on the water is as easy as a snap of the fingers. Nowhere is this generalization about outdoor communicators more true then in the arena of saltwater fishing. These guys would have you believe that the seas are always flat, the wind never blows and big fish gobble baits and lures with suicidal enthusiasm… I wish such fancy and fantasy were true. In reality for everyday on the salt when you have perfect conditions, you’ll have at least an equal number of days with less than optimum conditions. This is where a positive mental 35 Years Serving Sportsmen attitude and a good skipper can make all the difference in the world. This was certainly the case during my most recent Cal Kellogg School of Fishing excursion aboard Berkeley’s Happy Hooker on August 11. For more than a week prior to the trip the ocean had been flat and the fishing had been great, but then Mother Nature got her bristles up and the Johnny tempted a limit of quality Marin Coast rockfish on weather deteriorated big time. August 11 while fishing with baby octopus, including this colorful canary. “The best lingcod and Photo by CAL KELLOGG, Fish Sniffer Staff. rockfish action has been offshore in deep water. Unfortunately the conditions are With 30 plus Fish Sniffer readers horrible today,” related Captain milling around the deck of the Happy Chris Smith on the morning of Hooker, that’s not what I wanted to hear, our trip. “The wind is blowing but when life gives you lemons… 20 plus knots at the Farallons, so With everyone aboard, prizes stowed fishing offshore isn’t an option. and rods rigged, we slid out of the The conditions along the Marin Berkeley Marina. Captain Chris was at coast will be fishable, but the water is cold the wheel and his sons Jonathan, Joey and and that bite hasn’t really come on strong JT were our deckhands for the day. After yet in that area. We are going to have to a quick stop for bait in San Francisco, work for our fish today.” CONTINUED ON PAGE 25 GONE FISHING by Cal Kellogg SEE OUR NEW BAJA ROUNDUP SECTION ON PAGE 34 INSIDE Area Reports FRESHWATER REPORTS Almanor/Bucks Lakes - American Basin................4 American River - Lake Chabot............................10 Clear Lake - Del Valle Lake.................................15 Don Pedro Reservoir - New Malones............ 20-21 Northwestern Nevada - Sacramento Area..... 22-23 San Pablo Reservoir - Southern Oregon Roundup .......................... 24-25 Stampede Reservoir - West Delta.......................28 SALTWATER REPORTS Berkeley/Emeryville - Bodega Bay........................30 Fisherman’s Wharf - Peninsula Shoreline........ 32-33 FEATURES Where...When...How... TROUT KOKANEE JOURNAL...................6-9,11-14 BAJA ROU NDUP...............................................34-35 BULLETIN BOARD................................................... 4 COOKIN’ YER CATCH Paulette Kenyon................. 14 FISH SNIFFER HOW-TO: Cal Kellogg................... 17 GO FOR IT: Staff....................................................... 5 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR...................................... 3 MAP FEATURE: Dan Bacher.............................18-19 RV LIVING - Cliff Woolard....................................... 23 SALTY TIPS Steve “Hippo” Lau.............................. 34 SPOTLIGHT ON CONSERVATION - Dan Bacher.... 16 WHAT’S HOT SALTWATER - Gordon Hough......... 31 STAFF TACKLE What a Week! Kokanee, Rainbows, Tuna & Marlin What We’re Using planned trip to beautiful Hotel Palmas de Cortez at Los Barriles on Baja’s East Cape. I was joined by Bridget Looney, long time friends Dave and Wanda Barsi of Oak Run, and my brother Ken Knee- land and Dena Salazar of Merino Colorado. We had 3 full days of fishing, and just about loaded the boat! On our first day, Bridget and I landed 5 yel- lowfin tuna that weighed 173 pounds on the dock scale! The largest was 61 pounds that took the two of us an hour and 15 minutes to land on my 7’Cousins compos- ite Rod/Penn Torque reel loaded with 40 lb. test Yozuri Hybrid line. At the end of the day, the tasty margaritas went down smoothly around the palapa bar by the pool, helping to ease the aching muscles in our arms! The next morning we again boarded the 28-foot diesel cruiser and headed out for marlin, dorado and wahoo. The dorado were not to be found, but we did catch a Cal Kellogg - Cal used a Cousins F 870-7 Classic Fiberglass Offshore rod teamed with a PENN Fathom 25 lever drag reel spooled with 65 lb Yo-Zuri braided line for target- ing lingcod along the Marin County coast aboard Berkeley’s Happy Hooker on August 11. While mooching large natural baits and large white Gulp! grubs Cal boated lingcod up to 20 lbs. W orking with The Fish Sniffer certainly has its benefits! I just completed nine intense days that included 7 days of both saltwater and freshwater fish- ing – and – actually catching a ton of fish. The week started out with a long nice wahoo, and 3 marlin, including a 280 lb. blue marlin that fought for an hour and a half, and then came to the boat and died! We normally release the marlin we catch, but with this one already dead, we figured marlin steaks were in our future! The days at Hotel Palmas de Cortez were fantastic, with great fishing, great camaraderie and great food and service. It is one of the best resorts on Baja’s East Cape and I highly recommend it to my friends. For more information, call them at (877) 777-8862 or see them at www.vanwormerres- orts.com We arrived home late Wednesday evening and spent the next two days catching up on work. Then, late Friday afternoon we hooked up the Rogue Jet 21 Coastal and headed to the Barsi’s home in Oak Run. Saturday morning we were on the road to Whiskeytown and the Kokanee Power Whiskeytown Kokanee derby. We launched the boat at Whiskey WHAT’S HOT by Paul Kneeland Paul Kneeland with a limit of fat rainbows caught troll- ing 100 feet deep in the McCloud arm of Lake Shasta. Photo by BRIDGET LOONEY, Colfax. CONTINUED ON PAGE 29 Fitch Ratings Concludes Delta Tunnels Project Would Further Increase Water Rates See Page 16 Paul Kneeland - fished the New Melones Reser- voir with John Brassfield of Trucksmart in the Fish Sniffer 21’ Rogue Jet Coastal. They caught fat rainbows to 4.2 pounds, using a Daiwa DXS 8’ light action IM-7 graphite trig- ger stick rigged with an Abu Garcia 4600 C-3 Kokanee Special reel loaded with 8 lb test Yozuri Topknot line. They trolled silver and holographic Tasmanian Devils and rainbow Wee Tad plugs off the Canon Downriggers at 37 to 90 feet deep at 2.3 mph. Dan Bacher - fished for rain- bow trout on the North Fork of the Stanislaus River in the Sourgrass Gampground area. He used a Berkley Ugly Stick GX2 6’ 6” medium ac- tion spinning rod, teamed up with a Shake- speare GX235 spinning reel filled with 6 lb. test P-Line CX Premium Flourocarbon Coated Line. He found solid rainbow trout action while tosssing out 1/8 oz. Yakima Bait Rooster Tails in Brown Trout, Fire Tiger and Rainbow color patterns and 1/8 oz. gold and black Panther Martins.