20 March 30 - April 13 , 2018 VOL . 37 • ISS . 08

FRESHWATER REPORTS :

CONTINUED FROM PG 15

NEW MELONES cont .

and the group of over 100 anglers was whittled down to 15 for the tournament ’ s final day on Sunday at Lake Pardee after fishing at Melones for Friday and Saturday .

Mike Gomez of Berserk Baits pre-fished several days prior to the tournament as he was in high hopes of making the top 15 , but the hot SWaver bite that he had been experienced ‘ went from great to about non-existent ’ within three days .

Gomez said , “ On Tuesday , I landed a 4.5-pound spotted bas on my third cast with the River2Sea SWaver and then I took the hooks off the lure and must have had 25 to 30 more hits on the SWaver . I didn ’ t want to beat up the fish so I took the hooks off and fished a number of different areas . Wednesday produced another 15 or so fish on the SWaver , all in different areas , but the bite had slowed to 3 or 4 bass on Thursday ’ s half-day trip before the bite went to zero on Friday Fishing with my brother Victor , it took until 2:05 p . m . before we put our fifth fish in the box on Friday , and we landed them on five different baits – an A-rig , an underspin , a Senko , a shakey head , and a Berserk Purple Hornet jig .”

“ The water temperature went from 56 on Tuesday and Wednesday before dropping to the 53 / 54 degree range on Thursday and coming back up to 56 degrees on Friday . The water is dropping one to two feet per day , and the clarity is crystal clear . The dropping water has pushed the bass back out into depths from 25 to 50 feet , and most of the success in the tournament was on plastics on the drop-shot or shakey-head along with jigs ,” added Gomez .

Trout fishing remains fair at best , but the net pens from Kokanee Power will be

Now Booking for …

Smallmouth • Steelhead Salmon • Trout Sturgeon

2315

Phone Bill Kremers at …( 541 ) 754 – 6411 bkremers @ comcast . net 29606 N . E . Pheasant , Corvalis , OR 97333

This angler grabbed his Fish Sniffer cap and headed out to Collins Lake for a day of trout fishing in late February . He was rewarded with two jumbo rainbow .

Photo courtesy of the COLLINS LAKE RECREATION AREA , Oregon House .

released in April with some quality fish getting larger every day .

Crappie and catfish remain slow with the cold weather .

New Melones is at 80 percent between inflow and outflow .

- Dave Hurley

OROVILLE LAKE

Trollers Land Landlocked Kings

OROVILLE – King salmon fishing at Lake Oroville is still going strong , though most guides are concentrating on striped bass and sturgeon fishing on the Sacramento River at press time .

“ I haven ’ t been to Oroville for a couple of weeks , but my

Sonoma County Fairgrounds Friday April 20th – Sunday April 22nd , 2018

buddy and his friend reported catching 10 salmon , including 4 in the 13 to 15 inch range , on his latest trip ,” said Rob Reimers of Rustic Rob ’ s Guide Service . “ After they landed those fish , the bite shut off .”

“ They trolled with Brad ’ s Cut Plugs and Speedy Shiners at 25 feet deep by the Green Bridge ,” said Reimers .

Fishing has been tough for spotted bass at Oroville , but fishing should improve as the water temperature warms up . One local angler reported water temperatures of 48.5 to 48.8 , degrees on his latest trip to the reservoir .

Most bass anglers are still fishing deep , at 25 to 50 feet deep . Expect to catch mostly “ slot limit ” spotted bass in the 12 to 15 inch range , with some fish over 15 inches . Fishing with drop shot rigs with Robo Worms in pond smelt and shad patterns is your top prospect .

The lake level continues to rise slowly . The reservoir is currently holding 1,491,792 acre-feet of water , 42 percent of capacity and 59 percent of average . The lake elevation is 729.26 feet in elevation .

- Dan Bacher

“ We fished the Horseshoe and the Creek in Suisun Bay . We sat through the wind and the waves ,” he said .

Just to give the you an idea of the conditions during the derby : At 1:30PM on Saturday , the Port Chicago wind buoy was showing a steady 18 knots per hour with gusts to 25 knots .

Flags were blowing inside Pittsburg Marina where Doudna and I waited out the weather during slack tide . Imagine what Suisun Bay looked and felt like for DeFilippo and Berseth , and all the rest of the competitors .

Third place consisted of father and son duo Dennis Peidade Sr . and Jr ., with two shakers , six slot and two oversize sturgeon .

The first thing Piedade Sr talked about during our conversation was the weather .

“ It was miserable out there ! I felt sorry for the guys having to fish in the thunderstorm ! The rain and hail was coming down hard ,” he related .

“ We mainly fished in the Horseshoe . The outgoing tide was better overall . We used salmon roe , but had out ghost and grass shrimp out . My son caught a striper on the shrimp ,” Piedade Sr . said .

PARDEE LAKE

Heavy Plants Boost Trout Catches

IONE - Lake Pardee trout plants are paying dividends , and in addition to the massive amount of rainbows left in the lake by the previous concessionaires , the Lake Pardee Recreation Company , the new concessionaires for East Bay Municipal Utilities District , the Rocky Mountain Recreation Company , is planting 1000 pound per week on Friday through the end of April with more plants anticipated after this date . This is in addition to the 13,000 pounds from the Calaveras Trout Farm before opening day in mid-February .

Robbie Dunham of ‘ Koke Machine ’ Guider Service was on the lake this week with John and Diana Stockton , and they were in search of kokanee , but it was the trout that wanted to play . After launching around 7:00 a . m ., they headed up the river arm as far as the log boom before trolling down river towards the mouth .

Dunham said , “ Before the second rod was out , we had a fish on the first rod , and before the third rod was on , it was another fish on . We trolled to the river mouth and back to the log boom , and found some biters around Indian Head Rock later in the

30 hours of fishing through wind , chop , rain , hail , thunderstorms and cold temperatures is not easy . That ’ s why I call all the anglers that have fished the Addathon Derby in the past or present , fishermen . It takes a certain breed of animal to stay competitive in this derby . Andy Doudna related to another element that made fishing difficult during the derby .

“ All winter long we ’ ve had the warm temperatures , but what ’ s key is we ’ ve had a good influx of freshwater that flushed into the Delta . That along with the sudden drop in temperatures really made for tough fishing ,” he related .

The Addathon Ironman Sturgeon derby is held bi-annually during the spring and fall and remains the only 100 % catchand-release sturgeon derby of its kind in Northern California .

Many of us are familiar of the term , slayer - a word to describe guys that are good at fishing . But I think the guys that fish Addathon deserve to be called fisherman , because everyone I ’ ve met that ’ s fished this derby are class acts and they really care about the state of California ’ s sturgeon population .

For more information on the Addathon Ironman Sturgeon Derby , check out the Facebook page or e-mail Andy Doudna at addathonderby @ gmail . com .

3706

For vendor and event info , go to https :// sonomacountyoutdoorexpo . com or call Kevin Wodlinger @ 707-543-0117

Sponsored in part by :

3708

Under New Management

GREAT Fishing for : Trout • Kokanee • Catfish Large & Smallmouth Bass Crappie • Bluegill • Sunfish

Store • Campsites / RV sites Marina • Boat Launch New Boat & Motor Rental Fleet

Call for Information & Reservations

4900 Stony Creek Rd . Ione www . rockymountainrec . com