Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3710 April 27- May 11 2018 | Page 13

FRESHWATER REPORTS:

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BERRYESSA LAKE

The Spring Bass Bite Is On

WINTERS – Larry Hemphill, fishing guide, reported solid black bass fishing on his latest trip on Lake Berryessa.

“ I was beaten by a six-year-old,” Hemphill quipped.“ It is actually true, but not like it sounds, sorta!! I was looking forward to guiding a six-year-old young lady with her dad and his brother! I fished some and they fished hard and she beat all of us men with her 3 = 1 / 4 lb largemouth. She hooked, fought, and landed the bass by herself. Do I hear junior high bass tournaments?? Fun, fun!!”

“ We had another good day at Berryessa and doing some sight fishing for the first time. Water is clear enough to do that. With 4 in the boat, we were limited to mostly drop-shotting Robo worms, and MM111 was again the best color. Morning dawn worked too. Points to the very backs of coves held bass,” he said.

“ We stayed in the narrows as I wasn’ t sure how the little one would do after several hours,” stated Hemphill.“ She did fine!! We found some deep bass also, 25 to 30 feet We caught 20 + bass with again a nice limit around 14 lbs, all released. Mostly spots and largemouth with a very nice smallie.”

“ I saw an amazing thing that one doesn’ t see often,” he disclosed.“ We were fishing a good spot in the early afternoon and saw a few bass close to the boat. Along comes this 4 to 6 lb smallmouth, swimming slowly about 2 feet under the surface. What a sight! She seemed to be fine- don’ t think anything was wrong with her.”

The water temperature was 61-64 degrees and the water clarity was 4 + visibility.

The Berrryesa trout fishing is also improving with the spring weather.“ The trout bite is starting to ramp up with the warming surface temperatures; it rose to 58 degrees by 1pm on my last trip,” said Rich

Crispi of TW Guide Service.

“ It’ s been a good morning bite,” he stated.“ My buddy Joel Gleason from Novato and I landed 7 fish total, as well as losing 3 right behind the boat. We had a total of 14 take-downs.”

“ We trolled Rocky Mountain Tackle Serpent spoons and # 3 Trinidad Tackle spoons in Skier’ s Cove at 20 feet deep. We fished the Serpent spoons at 2.5 mph and Optimizers at 3.8 to 4.1 mph,” he stated.“ We landed trout to 3 lbs., 21inches long.”

BULLARDS BAR / ENGLEBRIGHT RESERVOIRS

Trollers Nail Kokanee Salmon Limits

AUBURN- Boaters are still bagging limits of scrappy kokanee salmon at Bullards Bar Reservoir, though the bite has slowed down a bit.

“ The Willow Creek area of the lake is producing the top action,” reported Craig Newton at Willfish Bait and Tackle.“ Anglers are doing best while trolling micro hoochies and Arctic Fox flies in pinks, reds and oranges behind Shasta Tackle Sling Blades at 15 to 40 feet deep. The fish average 12-1 / 2 inches long and go up to 13-1 / 2 inches.”

Anglers are also picking up some quality spotted bass in the 3 to 5 lb. range while fishing jumbo minnows on Bullards Bar, reported Tim Boggs at Elkhorn Outdoors in Rio Linda.

Bullards Bar is holding 870,254 acre feet of water, 90 percent of capacity and 121 percent of average.

The Skipper’ s Cove Marina in March released over 5,000

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Ron Brown used yellow PowerBait to tempt a limit of Amador rainbows on April 4.

Photo courtesy of the LAKE AMADOR CAFÉ, Lake Amador.

pounds of their pen-raised trout into Englebright Reservoir, resulting in hot fishing for rainbows in the 2 to 5 pound range after the release.

However, the recreation area has just reopened after flooding from recent storms, reported Kelsey at the

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Skipper’ s Cove Marina. The water was still muddy at press time.

- Dan Bacher

CAMANCHE LAKE

Trollers Find Solid Trout Action

BURSON- Trout plants continue with 1800 pounds of Mt. Lassen Hatchery rainbows split evenly between the South Shore Marina, the South Shore Pond, and the North Shore launch ramp.

The water of the main lake and the river arm remains clear despite the inflow, and trolling continues to be solid near the dam at depths to 25 feet with Speedy Shiners, Needlefish, or Rapalas.

Bass fishing has been outstanding with the fish in the shallows from 3 to 5 feet with plastics on the drop-shot, brown / purple jigs, or Senkos as the bass are on the beds. There are also a number of smaller fish in the 1.5 to 2.5-pound range in the shallows with most of the bass in the main lake being largemouth while the river arm is loaded with spotted bass. The lake has risen to 82 percent of capacity.

- David Hurley

Largest Trout Stocking Program North of Sacramento

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CLEAR LAKE

The Crappie Bite Is Amazing

CLEARLAKE – The crappie bite has ignited on Clear Lake, with the top action going to anglers fishing the lake’ s north end.

“ The best areas to fish include the County Park, State Park and Library Park,” said Dave Burruss at Clear Lake Outdoors.“ Most of the fish range from 1-1 / 2 to 3 pounds. Shore anglers and boaters are hooking them on a mixture of jigs and minnows.”

The crappie are showing in 6 to 8 feet of water off docks and near shore, although some are moving into even shallower water.

Bluegill are also showing around docks and structure in the coves as they get ready to spawn. Fishing for them is best with redworms or mealworms.

Black bass fishing has shifted into high gear on the lake also.“ The fish are now spawning on the north end and are in prespawn mode in the south end,” Burruss explained.

“ Boaters are hooking fish from 2 to 10 pounds while using an array of lures, especially small Keitech swimbaits,” he tipped.“ Other anglers are drop shotting with Robo Worms in the Margarita Mutilator # 3 color or fishing with jigs. We’ ve even heard of some bass caught on spinnerbaits.”

“ We’ ve heard of quite a few bass in the 8 to 10 lb. range caught lately,” he noted.“ However, the largest fish reported was a 12 lb. largemouth taken on a spinnerbait.”

- Dan Bacher

COLUSA / KNIGHTS LANDING

Striped Bass Bite Will Resume After Water Clears

COLUSA – The Colusa and Knights Landing areas of the Sacramento River were producing both good striper action before the river rose from the Pineapple Express storms that hit Northern California.

As anglers waited for high flows to recede, anglers reported catching some channel catfish averaging 1-1 / 2 to 2 pounds in the Knights Landing area of the river. Tim Boggs at Elkhorn Outdoors recommended fishing with G & S Dip Bait and chicken liver for the channel cats.

Before the river blew out, Stewart Mattos at Kittle’ s Outdoors in Colusa reported catching and releasing shaker and keeper stripers while tossing out soft plastic swimbaits after work from shore in the Colusa area.

“ The fishing was on fire before the river below out,” said Mattos.“ Anglers were catching stripers while fishing both above and below Steelhead Landing. Anglers caught the fish on pileworms, ghost shrimp and jumbo minnows.”

The river now is still a little high, but receding, although another spring storm could result in the river level going up again.

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