Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3708 March 30-April 13,2018 | Page 3

Up-To-Date and Published Locally... By Sportsmen... For Sportsmen! Monterey Bay Map Feature MADE IN U.S.A See Page 24 March 30 - April 13, 2018 Vol. 37 - ISS.08 Our 36th Year Since 1982 “The Magazine for West Coast Sportsmen!” Die Hard Sturgeon Fishermen Show Grit at Addathon Ironman Sturgeon Derby P 36 Years Serving Sportsmen ITTSBURG - There’s guys that fish for sturgeon, and then there’s fishermen that fish for sturgeon. Want to know what kind of guys fish this derby? Fishermen. A football coach calls one of his best players on the team, a football player. When I meet an angler that’s at the top of his craft, I call him a fisherman. Here’s the statistics for the Spring Addathon according to the derby organizer, Andy Doudna. “A total of 110 sturgeon were landed by 27 teams which included 49 shakers, 39 slot sizers, and 22 oversize.” Pretty amazing. But what’s more amazing is these fishermen fought through some of the worst weather our region has seen in recent memory. Hail, rain, wind, thunderstorms, and day time temperatures only rose to a mere 50 degrees. Sounds like a great time to fish a derby that lasts 30 hours long, right? Separate guys that fish from the guys that are fishermen. The winning team consisted of Dustin Pestana and Kyle Dryer of Brentwood, scoring eight shakers, ten slot, and six oversize sturgeon. When I asked Dustin if they ever took cover in small water during the storms, he laughed. “We stayed in big water the whole time. We found a good stream of fish in Suisun Bay and we just grinded it out. Wind, rain, hail, thunderstorms, dude. It was absolutely brutal.” The second place team consisted of Anthony Cave DeFilippo and Duncan Berseth of Citrus Heights coming in with seven shakers, nine slot and five oversize sturgeon. When I talked to Anthony this week, he mentioned struggling to find fish. “The water was muddy and it took a while but once we found them, they were eating. Grass shrimp worked good.” DeFilippo and his partner also stayed in big water despite the conditions. GONE FISHING Y the angler can do no wrong… Have you ever experience the other side of this coin? Have you ever gone fishing when the fishing is red hot only to experi- ence mediocre action that rebounds right back to red hot the day after your trip? Of course you haven’t, consistently good fishing just doesn’t take a one day dip for no reason and then rebound…. Right? Well ac- tually it can and I felt the pain of just such a shift of fortunes last week. The trip came to life last January at the Sacramento ISE Show when I set up a March Cal Merle got the first keeper striper aboard the Dragon during a March 8 Cal Kellogg School Kellogg School Of Fishing stur- of Fishing adventure. Photo by CAL KELLOGG, Fish Sniffer Staff. Area Reports FRESHWATER REPORTS Almanor - American River.....................................4 Berryessa Lake - Collins Lake...............................9 Colusa/Knights Landing - Eastern Sierra.............10 Feather River - New Melones..............................15 Oroville Lake - Pyramid Lake........................ 16-17 Quarry Lakes - Rio Vista....................................22 Rollins/Scotts Flat - Shadow Cliffs......................26 Shasta/Whiskeytown Lakes - South Fork/Wild Horse Lakes........... 28-29 SALTWATER REPORTS Berkeley - Peninsula Shoreline....................... 32-33 Where...When...How... Sturgeon fishing has been good to very good for anglers fishing the West Delta this March. This beautiful March diamond back was landed aboard the Happy Hooker. Photo courtesy of HAPPY HOOKER SPORTFISHING, Martinez. You Should Have Been Here Yesterday, Wait I Mean Tomorrow! ou should have been here yesterday! That’s a phrase all of us anglers have heard, at times in jest and at other times with earnest sincerity. Yesterday, that one day of the week or month when the stars line up, the fish feed like crazy and INSIDE FEATURES by Roland Aspiras CONTINUED ON PAGE 16 Special Section Baja Roundup PG 34-35 geon and striper combo trip to take place in the West Delta with Captains Hayden and Stacy Mullins of Dragon Sportfishing. When Stacy and I set the date for the trip, we figured the fishing would be productive. The tide looked good and the fishing is usually heating up in the West Delta during the month of March. As January gave way to February, Hayden started putting his client on big stripers. Not fish in the teens, but rather really big bass in the 25 to 40 pound class! As the weeks went by and the date for my trip got closer the fishing did nothing but improve for Hayden and team with bass in the high 20’s and 30’s hitting the WHAT’S HOT by Cal Kellogg CONTINUED ON PAGE 17 White Paper Commissioned by Delta Tunnels Proponents Claims CAWaterFix Would ‘Benefit’ Fish See Page 27 NORCAL TROUT ANGLERS CHALLENGE....6-8, 12-13 SPRING STRIPER JOURNAL....................18-21, 23 BAJA ROUNDUP...............................................34-35 BILL’S TIPS - Bill Adelman...................................... 28 BULLETIN BOARD................................................... 4 FISH SNIFFER HOW-TO: Cal Kellogg................... 14 GO FOR IT: Staff..................................................... 11 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR...................................... 3 MAP FEATURE: Dan Bacher.............................25-26 SALTY TIPS Steve “Hippo” Lau.............................. 34 SONOMA COAST - Kathie Morgan......................... 30 SPOTLIGHT ON CONSERVATION - Dan Bacher.... 27 WHAT’S HOT SALTWATER - Dan Bacher.............. 31 STAFF TACKLE What We’re Using Cal Kellogg - fished for stur- geon in Suisun Bay. For soak- ing eel and salmon roe Cal used 80 pound test Trilene Big Game line leaders tipped with barbless 8/0 Gamakatsu hooks. Cal’s rod was a 7’ Cousins Classic Fi- berglass F870-7 saltwater rod rated for 20 to 30 pound test monofilament. Cal teamed the rod with an Abu Garcia 7000 Big Game Reel spooled with 60 pound FINS braided line. Paul Kneeland - fished New Melones reservoir with Mark Kalinowski in Marks 22’ Rogue. He used a Cousins 7’6” ultra light graphite down- rigger rod with a Abu Garcia Revo MGX Extreme level wind reel loaded with 6 lb test Yozuri TopKnot fluorocarbon line. They trolled Red Racer Speedy Shiners and silver/blue Kastmastersoff the Canon Downriggers 10 to 30 feet deep at 2.4 mph. Dan Bacher - fished for rain- bow trout at Rollins Lake.. He used a Berkley Ugly Stick GX2 6’ 6” medium ac- tion spinning rod, teamed up with a Shakespeare 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 Tiger and Rain- bow color patterns and 1/8 oz. gold and black Panther Martins.