Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3625 Nov 24- Dec8 2017 | Page 20

18 Nov. 24- Dec. 8, 2017 VOL. 36 • ISS. 25

FRESHWATER REPORTS:

CONTINUED FROM PG 17

SACRAMENTO AREA

Metro Chinook Action Remains Off & On

SACRAMENTO- The same salmon fishing pattern continues on the Sacramento River in the metropolitan area – good one day, slower the next.

“ Last week produced good fishing,” said James Netzel of Tight Lines Guide Service.“ We landed 5 fish and lost 3 fish on Thursday; caught 4 salmon and lost 3 Thursday; then landed 2 fish Friday.”

“ Then today, Tuesday, three of us just went out in two hours and landed two fish weighing 3 and 16 pounds,” he noted.“ Many of the late fall run fish we’ ve been seeing so far are jacks in the 3 to 5 lb range.”

They trolled with Brad’ s Cut Plugs and Pro Troll Flashers in the stretch of river from Miller Park to Garcia Bend.

“ The salmon fishing has been hot and cold,” said Jerry Lampkin of TNG Motor Sports Guide Service.“ On Thursday, two of us landed 4 bright salmon weighing 10, 8, 6 and 6 pounds. We trolled with Flatfish at first light and then fished with cut plugs.”

“ The next day fishing was tough,” said Smith.“ We hooked two and lost them both.”

Monte Smith of Gold Country Fishing confirmed the up and down fishing.“ The two anglers fishing with me on Thursday landed three salmon to 13 pounds and two salmon at the boat, he reported. Then Friday’ s trip was slow, with one 16 lb chinook for 3 anglers.”

“ We’ ve been trolling Brad’ s Cut Plugs behind flashers from Miller Park to Garcia Bend,” said Smith.

While most people are targeting salmon, some boaters and bank anglers are starting to fish for striped bass in the Port of Sacramento.

“ Most boaters are drifting jumbo minnows or jigging spoons,” said Dennis Pfanner of Sacramento Pro Tackle.“ Like the salmon fishing, the action is good one day and slow the next.”

- Dan Bacher

Andy Doudna landed released this 25 pound striper while trolling the West Delta with legendary troller Clyde Wands.

Photo by CLYDE WANDS, Sacramento

SAN PABLO LAKE

Season Ends With 28 Lb Channel Catfish Landed

EL SOBRANTE- San Pablo Recreation Area closed for the season on November 12. The reservoir will reopen the 2nd of February 2018.

Yao Saelee of San Pablo finished the season with a bang when he hauled in a 28 lb. catfish while soaking shrimp at the boat launch.

Before the lake closed, anglers found some of the top trout fishing of the season, with the CDFW planting 1,000 lbs of trout at the boat launch on November 1.

Carter Ma of San Francisco caught a trout weighing 1.05 lbs. while using red worms. Chris Carter of San Ramon caught a stringer of trout weighing 10.54 lbs. while soaking PowerBait. His biggest trout weighed 4.66 lbs.

Matt Anderson of Layfette landed 4 trout while soaking chartreuse PowerBait. Mike Antis of Pacifica landed 4 trout using Power Eggs and chartreuse PowerBait.

Ian Deleoz of San Francisco caught a stringer of trout with a Kastmaster. Finally, Heather Grey, an employee of Rocky Mountain Recreation Area, also caught a trout using a lure fishing at the boat launch.

SANTA CLARA VALLEY LAKES

Calero Largemouths Hit Reaction Baits

COYOTE- Angling interest dwindles as fall progresses in the Silicon Valley, with bass headlining reports.

An eight pound largemouth was landed this week at Calero by an angler fishing a jig, as noted by Alex Tran at Coyote Bait and Tackle.

“ The fish are being caught primarily on reaction baits, but that fish apparently wanted a jig,” Tran laughed.“ Ripbaits, spinnerbaits and chatterbaits are all working good down there.”

“ Anderson has really slowed down with only a few guys going out. Your best bet is to fish a drop shot and you can get numbers.”

Crappie and catfish reports were slow, according to Tran.

- Roland Aspiras

SHADOW CLIFFS LAKE

20 Lb. Channel Cat Paces Catches

FREMONT – While trout fishing is occupying most anglers’ attention, it was a huge catfish that led recent catches at Shadow Cliffs Reservoir.

Rudy of Livermore caught a 20 lb. catfish while fishing with chicken livers on the first dock, reported Joe Sullivan of the East Bay Regional Park District.

“ Limits of trout are being caught all over the lake,” said Sullivan.“ Sam of Pleasanton has been catching limits of trout early in the morning on his boat.

“ Brian Schermerhorn also limited out at Shadow Cliffs on Halloween while using a spoon on the first dock,” said Sullivan.“ His biggest fish was 7.7 lbs.”

Robert Muchna caught a 3 lb. trout fishing off the Stanley shoreline with pumpkin PowerBait. Ben of San Jose caught a 5 lb rainbow fishing the east side of the Stanley shoreline while soaking chartreuse PowerBait.

Bass fishing has been best in the Arroyo Del Valle ponds. G. Rezendes caught and released 8 bass float tubing in the arroyo and he was using Senkos.

The water temperature is 60 degrees, depending on depth. The water visibility seems to vary between 10-15 feet.

SHASTA LAKES

Scout Trolling Key For‘ Bows

REDDING- With salmon in the Sacramento River and overall tough trout fishing at Shasta, the fishing pressure has been light on the big lake.

As of press time, Shasta’ s rainbows and browns remain scattered across the lake at a variety of different depths. Once the weather cools the trout will be drawn up to the surface where anglers will be able to target them as they bust bait, yet with fair warm weather in place over the north state it’ s anyone’ s guess when that type of action will develop.

The bright side right now is that there are rainbows to 5 pounds available for trollers that find themselves in the right place at the right time. In order to achieve success, it’ s important to stay on the move quickly pulling shad imitating lures across a range of different depths. Some anglers refer to this approach as“ scout trolling” since they are basically scouting for trout while pulling lures.

Once you get hit, you’ ll want to work the area for a while. You might have crossed paths with a single biter or you might have stumbled on a micro area that holds several fish. The area where the river arms join the main lake are good places to start your search, but after that be prepared to roam far and wide in the hunt for hookups. folks think that since crabs are scavengers they’ ll eat just about anything. That may be true to some extent, but just as with other forms of fishing for the best success you’ ll want to put some time and effort in making sure you have the most effective bait available.

Over the years, I’ ve tried all kinds of different baits, but these days I rely primarily on three: turkey wings or chicken wings, squid and sardines. Scent draws crabs to your trap. Once inside you want the crabs to find plenty of tasty hard to eat food. The sound of crabs having a party inside your trap, does nothing but attract more and more crabs. If the crabs inside the trap run out of snacks not only will the trap stop attracting new crabs but the crabs you’ ve already got inside will get restless and unless your traps are really fool proof some of them will find their way back out!

Crabs make their living cleaning up fish carcasses. If you use something like filleted bottom fish carcasses for hanging bait, crabs clean the bones in nothing flat. Apparently, they don’ t get much practice dealing with the turkey skin because it takes them a lot longer to clean a couple turkey wings than it does a lingcod carcass.

When I bait my traps, I like to put a bait bottle inside crammed full of chopped squid and sardines. I wire a pair of turkey wings inside making sure that they are suspended in the center of the trap. It’ s the scent of the

chopped bait that draws the crabs in, but it’ s the turkey that keeps them eating and satisfied once they get inside.

Pots baited the way I’ ve just described will catch plenty of crabs, but you can take things one step further and make your sets even more effective by incorporating Pro- Cure Crab & Shrimp Attractant into your baiting routine. Crab & Shrimp Attractant is a moderately priced blend of potent fish oils, salmon egg oil, amino acids and a touch of anise. This blend has been extremely effective for both species.

You can add Pro-Cure Crab & Shrimp Attractant to your jar baits right before you put them into the water, but I prefer to prepare my bait at home. After chopping or grinding my squid and sardines I put the bait in a bucket, pour in Pro-Cure Crab & Shrimp Attractant and mix. I then bait the jars and put them in a garbage bag and toss all of them into the freezer.

Next I put my turkey or chicken wings in large one-gallon zipper bags, pour in a good shot of Crab & Shrimp Attractant and then put the bags in the fridge. I like to marinate them for at least 24 hours and if you can let them soak for two or three days they’ ll work even better!

As I mentioned earlier I like to work shallow water areas and if possible I like to work close to port. This means I’ ll usually have competition in the form of other angler’ s pots soaking in the vicinity of mine. Using

Pro-Cure Crab & Shrimp Attractant requires a bit of preparation time, but it’ s worth it because out on the water I’ m confident that my bait will out fish the bait in the other guy’ s pot every time … Well that is unless he reads this piece and stocks up on turkey wings and Crab & Shrimp Attractant too. Did I just shoot myself in the foot …?

Well we’ re out of space for now. I wasn’ t able to touch on any of the finer points of crabbing like the pro’ s and cons of cooking your crabs alive and then cleaning them versus killing, cleaning and then cooking, but maybe I’ ll do a follow up piece in the future and we can talk about that and more.

For now, get your traps in order, stock up on a supply of bait and grab a few bottles of Pro-Cure’ s Crab & Shrimp Attractant to

Hosted by Cal Kellogg

• $ 15 Per Chukar

• $ 25 Per Pheasant Single And Group Hunters Are All Welcome!

tip the odds in your favor. Crab season is on and you’ ll want to claim your share of the tasty bottom crawlers!

at Raahauge’ s Hunting Club

Lunch Included

Bird Cleaning Dogs and Dog Handlers

Available!

DEC 2, 2017

This Hunt Is Going To

SELL OUT FAST!!( 530) 724-0552

A Sheldon Bright Production

3620