Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3704 Feb 2-16, 2018 | Page 3

VOL.37 • ISS. 04 and Up-To-Date Published Locally... By Sportsmen... For Sportsmen! Sugar Pine Reservoir Map Feature MADE IN U.S.A See Page 16 Vol. 37 - ISS.04 Our 36th Year I Since 1982 February 2 - 16, 2018 “The Magazine for West Coast Sportsmen!” Early-Season Jerkbait Bass: 11 Tips To Become A Better Angler f you want to become a better jerkbait angler, here are 11 tips that will improve your success. Lesson #1: Down, down, down! - Some anglers have the tendency to fish jerkbaits by moving the rod horizontally, even vertically. Actually, its better to fish jerkbaits by moving the rod tip in downward sweeps from roughly the 3:00 o’clock to 5:00 o’clock position. Quick rips at the beginning of your retrieve will help your bait reach your target depth zone sooner, and subsequent strokes and pauses will keep the neutrally-buoyant bait more or less on a horizontal retrieve toward the boat. Lesson #2: Slack is good - Introduce slack line between the lure and the rod tip before you start the actual jerk-stroke down and immediately after. The introduction of slack line produces more erratic lure GONE FISHING by Steve Pennaz action and allows the bait to glide naturally after the stroke. You want to hear “tsst, tsst, tsst” during each cast. Lesson #3: Cadence - I quickly learned that the right cadence and stroke combination is key to These chunky largemouth bass couldn’t resist a well presented rip bait. When jerkbait bass are in the mood to feed, they find the stop and dart action of rip baits very fishing. attractive. During our Photo courtesy of BERKLEY FISHING. filming, water was cold and bass did not want the baits fished fast; the pause followed by a pause that got bites. Lesson #4: Painfully long pauses - was key, those moments in the retrieve As a general rule of thumb, the colder when the bait would just sit in the water the water, the slower you should fish column, neutrally buoyant. Instead of a a jerkbait. There may be times when pop, pop, pop, and pause – or even two pops and a pause – it was a single stroke CONTINUE D ON PAGE 22 Folsom Lake Offers Opportunities For Bass, Trout & Cats! W ith sturgeon biting in the bays, stripers still chomping in the Delta and hot trout action at places like New Melones and Berryessa, Folsom Lake is being largely overlooked these days. On one hand, the fishing at Folsom isn’t red hot, yet the trout, king salmon, bass and even catfish are on the feed. All it takes to hook up is a little detective work and patience. Best of all, for those of us living in the Sacramento area the lake is close. This means if we fish Folsom, we’ll spend more time actually fishing and less time driving! I’ve fished Folsom twice over the past three weeks or so and both trips produced fish. The first trip was a trolling adventure with Capt. James Netzel of Tight Lines Guide Service. James hadn’t trolled Folsom for trout in nearly a year and I hadn’t either, so we weren’t expecting stellar results. How- ever, we both had sets of Brad’s Kokanee Cut Plugs in exciting new colors and we wanted to give the unique rolling baits a try for trout and kings. In all we trolled for about 4 hours in the main body and at the mouth of the South Fork. Despite a full moon and glassy conditions, we got a half dozen strikes. We missed some fish, lost others and ended up landing a sin- gle planter rainbow. Our takeaway from the trip was that there were plenty of trout around. Had we downsized and tried some other offerings, such as a ‘crawler and small dodger combo we probably would have boated more fish, but we were dedicated to scouting and playing with our new toys from Brads… Fast forward WHAT’S HOT by Cal Kellogg Drew Bundy holds up a beautiful Folsom Lake rainbow that he caught while trolling the lake with his dad, Rob Bundy during a mid-January adventure. Photo courtesy of ROB BUNDY, Loomis. CONTINUED ON PAGE 25 Delta Tunnels Hearing Delayed, Water Board Investigates Illegal Meeting Charges See Page 23 1 36 Years Serving Sportsmen Feb 2 - 16, 2018 Special Section Baja Roundup PG 30-31 INSIDE Area Reports FRESHWATER REPORTS Amador Lake - American River.............................4 Berryessa Lake - Collins Lake...............................7 Colusa/Knights Landing - East Delta...................13 Eastern Sierra - Folsom Lake..............................14 Klamath River/Siskiyou Reservoir - Pyramid Lake........................................ 18-19 Quarry Lakes - Shadow Cliffs Lakes............. 20-21 Shasta Lakes - West Delta........................... 24-25 SALTWATER REPORTS Berkeley - Half Moon Bay.....................................26 Monterey Bay - Peninsula Shoreline............... 28-29 FEATURES Where...When...How... NORCAL TROUT ANGLERS CHALLENGE .............................8-12,14 BAJA ROUNDUP...............................................30-31 BILL’S TIPS Bill Adelman........................................ 23 BULLETIN BOARD................................................... 4 FISH SNIFFER HOW-TO: Cal Kellogg..................... 6 GO FOR IT: Staff....................................................... 5 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR...................................... 3 MAP FEATURE: Dan Bacher.............................16-17 SALTY TIPS Steve “Hippo” Lau.............................. 30 SONOMA COAST - Kathie Morgan......................... 19 SPOTLIGHT ON CONSERVATION - Dan Bacher.... 23 WHAT’S HOT SALTWATER - Dan Bacher.............. 27 STAFF TACKLE What We’re Using Cal Kellogg - fished Rollins Lake for trout. For bank fishing at Freeloader’s Cove Cal chose a long casting 7’6” Fenwick HMG spinning rod rated for 6 to 12 pound test line. The rod was teamed with an Abu Garcia SX 30 Cardinal Reel spooled with 15 pound FINs braid with a 10 foot 8 pound Vanish Fluorocarbon topshot. Using this rig Cal landed 3 rainbow trout to 2 pounds on corn flavored Zeke’s Sierra Gold trout bait. He added some Carp Spit Pro-Cure Super Gel to his dough bait for added attraction. Paul Kneeland - fished Rollins Lake in the Fish Sniffer 21’ Rogue Jet Coast- al. He caught rainbow trout to 14 inches and spotted bass to 12 inches using using a Powell Rods ultralight trigger stick with a Shimano Calcutta 150 level wind reel loaded with 8 lb test Yozuri Hybrid line. They trolled “cutthroat” Tasmanian Devils and “Red Racer” Speedy Shiners off the Canon Downriggers at 10 feet deep and 2.4 mph. Dan Bacher - fished for rainbow trout at Sugar Pine Reservoir. He used a Berk- ley Ugly Stick GX2 6’ 6” me- dium action spinning rod, teamed up with a Shake- speare GX235 spinning reel filled with 6 lb. test P-Line CX Premium Flourocarbon Coated Line. He tossed out 1/8 oz. Yakima Bait Rooster Tails in Brown Trout, Fire Ti- ger and Rainbow color patterns and 1/8 oz. gold and black Panther Martins.