Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3704 Feb 2-16, 2018 | Page 27
FRESHWATER
VOL.37 • ISS. 04
Feb 2 - 16, 2018
25
hooked, but most are in the 2
to 4 lb. range,” reported Tim
Brady of Trinity Outdoors.
“There are fair numbers of
both hatchery and wild fish
showing.”
Anglers are employing
a vast array of offerings,
including spoons, spinners,
nightcrawlers, roe, plugs and
flies. “There doesn’t appear
to be any one thing working
better than the other,” he
tipped.
If you want to catch planted
and holdover rainbow trout,
head to Lewiston Lake.
“Fishermen are hooking the
fish from the marina to the
dam on flies behind plastic
bubbles and on marshmallows,
TRINITY RIVER/LAKE
nightcrawlers and Power Bait
on sliding sinker rigs,” Brady
Feisty Steelhead Offer Top
Richard, Nathanial and Keely took a trip on Lake Amador on January 7 and rounded up these quality rainbows.
tipped.
Winter Sport
Photo courtesy of THE LAKE AMADOR CAFÉ, Lake Amador.
Fishing
pressure
is
very
light
WEAVERVILLE - Anglers continue to
on Trinity Lake, as normally the
experience decent steelhead fishing on the
case this time of year. Shore
Trinity River from Lewiston to Del Loma.
“Over a period of 3 trips, we landed three
but fishing pressure is very light. Casting or
anglers and boaters can bag
You can expect more steelhead to move
stripers weighing 30, 30 and 27 pounds,”
trolling gold/fluorescent orange Rapalas is
rainbow
trout
in
the
16
to
18-inch
range
at
upriver with the arrival of the last round of
said Mullins. “We also caught fish in the
the most productive method.
the mouths of the tributaries to Trinity Lake,
winter storms.
12 to 15 lb. range. We averaged 2 to 4 fish
Expect the bass fishing to pick up when
mainly
the
Upper
Trinity
and
the
East
Fork,
“Steelhead to 9 pounds are being
per trip.”
the water temperature warms
“It’s like sturgeon fishing – don’t expect
up in coming weeks and
a lot of bites – but it’s worth the wait,” he
the fish begin to stage in
noted. “We’re fishing in Suisun Bay at
shallower water.
the Mothball Fleet, Grizzly Bay, Honker
Trinity Lake is holding
Bay and off Pittsburg. I’ve been using
1,758,359 acre-feet of water,
Sacramento splittail minnows for bait in 40
72 percent of capacity and
feet of water.”
104 percent of average.
He also fished part of the time for
- Dan Bacher
sturgeon on one of the trips. His clients
ended up with two keeper sturgeon while
fishing eel, roe and shrimp. “We then tried
for stripers again in Big Cut, catching one
WEST DELTA
of those 30 pounders,” he
added.
Sturgeon and
On his latest trip
Stripers Hitting In
focusing
on sturgeon,
Deep Water
fishing
was
very slow
PITTSBURG - After
because of a stiff
sturgeon fishing slowed
wind going against the
down in the West Delta and
tide. “We saw many
Suisun Bay in mid-December,
fish on the graph,
Captain Hayden Mullins of
but they wouldn’t
Dragon Sportfishing switched
Rick Gonzalo took a West Delta fishing trip with Captain David Hammond on December 29 and landed this
bite.”
chunky keeper sturgeon.
over to fishing for big stripers.
clients have been hooking mackinaw up
to 6 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.
At Donner Lake, Shaun Rainsbarger of
Shaun’s Guide Service has been putting
his clients on macks in the 3 to 5 pound
range while pulling a variety of offerings
behind Sling Blade Dodgers.
According to the folks at Mountain
Hardware, the macks are holding from 20
to 75 feet deep. Shore anglers have been
able to pick up some macks while tossing
small to medium size spoons.
Photo courtesy of DELTA PRO FISHING, Elk Grove.
WHAT’S HOT
to January 14 and Rob Bundy’s trip to
Folsom. Rob teamed up with his son Drew
and his buddy Brock Benton to brave the
fog and land some trout.
They ended up doing really well while
trolling a variety of offerings. At the end
of their short trip they put two kings to 18
inches and three rainbows to 16 inches into
the boat…Nice work Team Bundy!
After a so-so trout trip to the Folsom, I
decided that my next trip to the lake would
be focused on hooking bass…Well actual-
ly, the focus was on hiking the Rattlesnake
Bar section of the North Fork but I carried
a bass rod and some soft plastics.
After working some spots where I’ve
traditionally caught fish this time of the
year and getting blanked with wacky
rigged Senkos and Texas Rigged worms I
decided to give a drop shot rig armed with
a 2 inch Gulp! minnow a try. The bass must
have been dreaming of pond smelt.
Catch
3704
Continued from page 1
Over the next 90 minutes I landed 6
spotted bass that ranged from about 10
inches to 2 pounds. Not only had I gotten
some much needed exercise, I also caught
my first black bass of the 2018 season.
With a couple Folsom trips under my
belt and the report I got from Rob Bundy I
was ready to run with this story, but then I
got even more information during a recent
trip to the dump when I ran into my long-
time buddy Ronnie Ramirez.
“Hey Cal,” Ronnie exclaimed. “You’ve
got to get out to Folsom and try hooking
some catfish. On my last trip, I got three
channel cats that weighed 3, 4 and 7
pounds.”
Turns out Ronnie had some shad and
sardines in his freezer left over from striper
fishing this fall and decided to give Folsom
a try for cats.
“I rigged up two rods with sliding sink-
er rigs. I tossed one out baited with a whole
shad and the other
one was baited with
half a sardine fillet.
The sardine fillet got
hit almost immedi-
ately. I had my rod
propped up against
my pack. I thought it
had just fallen over,
but when I picked it
up to reposition it I
them at your local tackle shop!
felt a fish trying to
fishingbutler.com / 1-905-807-3221 swim away,” Ronnie
laughed.
“I know that
Folsom has shad in
it, but those catfish
were not interest-
ed in shad. All the
action came on the
sardine rod. I let the
two smaller fish go,
but I kept the big
one,” he stated.
“It was the
biggest catfish I’ve
ever landed, but
I’ve got to say I was
disappointed when I
cooked it. The meat
looked good, but
it cooked up tough
and rubbery. I think
for eating I would
have been better off
keepin