VOL. 37 • ISS. 08

March 30- April 13, 2018

21 day. We ended up with 13 rainbows, losing another pair by 3:00 p. m., before calling it a day.”

Joe Akasamit of Joefish Guide Service along found success with Jen Lane Mat earlier in the week with two limits of rainbows near the mouth of the river.

Grubs within the top 10 feet of the surface have been the top set up.

Pardee was the host of the final day of the Angler’ s Press Tournament of Champions, and preliminary reports were of a tough bite facing the fishermen in the event.

- Dave Hurley

PYRAMID LAKE

Shore Cutthroat Action Changes With Weather

RENO- Overall, the shore bite for Lahontan cutthroat trout is quite good at

Pyramid Lake. However, the biggest key to having a good day of fishing has been to have a little inclement weather.

By far the best days of fishing have been coming when the weather is at least slightly disagreeable. Cloudy, windy, snowy and rainy have been the conditions most conducive to catching cutthroats. High sun and still conditions are drastically slowing the bite for shore fishermen.

The best circumstances have been when the wind blows from the north or the south. A west wind is actually not beneficial at all for anglers in the Sutcliffe area at popular beaches like the Nets and Pelican. When the wind blows from the north or the south, it tends to build a good swell, and the incoming swell tends to churn up the lake’ s bottom.

Ideal conditions are when the swell is mucking up a good mud line. This will encourage hordes of cutthroat to enter the shallows, and with the reduced visibility,

they usually feel comfortable and strap on the feed bag.

When the water loses visibility, fly rod anglers are really scoring. Those fishing with nymphs under a bobber are really doing well at this time.

When the water is cloudy, it also means that midge larvae are being stirred up off of the lake’ s bottom. The cutthroat will often be seen cruising mere feet away from an angler’ s ladder. The bite can be red hot suspending a midge larvae imitation under an indicator.

- Mike McNeilly

CONTINUED ON PAGE 22

Randall Parvin landed and released 3 dandy largemouth bass while fishing at Lake Camanche on February 26.

Photo courtesy of the LAKE CAMAN- CHE RECREATION AREA, Lake

Camanche.

Brad Schmidt of Reno holds up a quality keeper striper that he pulled out of the West Delta on March 8.

Photo by CAL KELLOGG, Fish Sniffer Staff.

deck daily. In fact, during the three trips before my March 8, School of Fishing adventure, 4 fish over 30 pounds were landed aboard the Dragon.

You can never count big fish before they are actually landed, but I’ ll admit that visions of huge bass being caught on video were dancing in my mind as I made the two plus hour pre-dawn drive to the Pittsburg Marina on the 8th.

The conditions looked perfect. As small low pressure area was moving in late in the day, so I figured the bite would be good. Heck I’ ve had wide open striper fishing in the West Delta while fishing the leading edge of a low pressure area.

Hayden had told me and our six anglers to show up at the Pittsburg Marina at 6:45 in the morning, but of course most of us were early. We all chatted in the parking lot for a while and then made our way past the fuel dock to Hayden’ s impressive yacht. After introductions, we stowed our gear, Zack our deckhand untied the lines and Hayden steer the huge boat beyond the breakwater and into Suisun Bay.

The run to the fishing grounds wasn’ t long, or complicated or even secretive.

“ The fish have been holding and cruising right along the channel,” Hayden related as his eyes scanned the screen of the big Furuno sonar unit.“ I’ ve been fishing a few different spots, but I let the sonar unit determine where I fish from day to day.”

We hadn’ t cruised far when the screen of the Furuno started registering an array of marks from fish that looked to range from big to downright huge.

“ Some of those fish are sturgeon, but a lot of them are stripers. We’ ll concentrate on stripers, but we’ ll have a sturgeon rod in the water just in case,” Hayden told me as Zack lowered the anchor.

With the anchor holding and the final push of the incoming tide underway, Hayden and Zack baited 6 rods with large live and dead baits for stripers and a seventh rod was baited with a spawn sack filled with salmon roe

for sturgeon.

The best fishing for stripers and sturgeon typically takes place at the beginning and ends of the tides and we hoped to convert one of those big marks we’ d seen on the sonar into a big hookup!

But alas our hopes and dreams were crushed during the remainder of the incoming tide when we didn’ t get so much as a nibble.

“ Oh well,” I thought.“ I’ ve had better luck on the outgoing tide”. During slack water Hayden moved down to Honker Bay and repositioned the boat. Back into the water went the baits. An hour passed and then another. We had a few pecks and bumps, but nothing you could really call a bite.

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When the drifting weeds started to get really annoying, we were on the move again to get away from the salad and to find a good spot for the second half of the outgoing tide.

The best marks were in the same basic area where we’ d started the day. Hayden and I were both optimistic. Those big fish were due to go. They been hitting every day …

“ When the bite came on Merle’ s rod it was very light to begin with. The reel was out of gear and the fish moved off slowly playing with the bait. The fish seemed sluggish, but eventually the bass picked up speed and the hook sunk home … Fish On!

Merle’ s 7 pound striper wasn’ t the monster we were looking for, but at least we were on the score board. Better still, Merle’ s bass was barely in the box when Brad Schmidt’ s rod got hit.

Brad’ s fish also moved away slowly, but eventually got serious and took off. Again we were hoping for a double digit trophy, but it wasn’ t meant to be. Brad’ s striper

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was a hair bigger than Merle’ s fish. At this point it seemed like we were in the grove, but as quickly as the fish started biting they stopped and Brad’ s bass was the last fish of the day.

I’ d gotten some decent video, but not of the monster bass I hoped to capture. Both Brad and Merle earned rod and reel combos courtesy of Diawa and Okuma.

Fast forward to the next day and I started getting text messages from Hayden early in the morning. Of course, the big fish action was back on track with bass weighing 40, 31, 10 and 10 pounds coming aboard the Dragon ….

Yes I should have been there yesterday, I mean tomorrow … Well actually I should have been there pretty much any other day …. LOL!

If you’ d like to head out for trophy stripers and sturgeon, give Captain Hayden Mullins a call at( 925) 428-1103. Chances are if I’ m not on the boat with my video camera, you’ ll hook something huge!

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