Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3711 May 11-25 2018 | Page 17

COLLINS LAKE

Trout, Bass Action Heat Up with Weather

OREGON HOUSE- It’ s spring, the time when both rainbow trout and black bass go on the bite at Collins Lake.

“ It’ s the week of the big trout up here at the lake with a couple 7 pounders, several 6 + pounders and a whole lot more up for photos at our store,” reported Ed at the Collins Lake Resort.“ Surface temperatures are rising, but more than a few feet down it’ s still cool so the trout aren’ t too deep.”

Ken Lordier from Roseville caught his 7 pound rainbow on chartreuse PowerBait right out in front of the Water’ s Edge Group camping area. David and Patty Bradley nailed a 5-1 / 4 pound rainbow from the shore by the 100’ s, Jaden and Jared Knox from Richmond caught five trout right out front of camp 307, and Jonny and Katie landed a 6 1 / 4 pounder off Road 6.

“ If you’ re on the shore, PowerBait is your best bet,” he tipped.“ Johnny Grizzle caught his 7 pounder on that magic dough out front of the new campsites near the dam. Daryl Carter won’ t say where he caught his 4.7 pound trou, t but I bet you could guess what he caught it on,” said Ed.

“ It’ s no wonder trout fishing is so hot, since we’ ve had two private plants, each 1000 pounds, and four raised-in-the-lake net pens released in the last two weeks, for a total of 25 fish plants so far this spring. This is in addition to nearly twelve thousand pounds planted fall 2017 means overall trout population should be nearing its peak.” he tipped

“ Lots of folks are trolling with good success, again, not too deep, no downrigger required. I took my wife and son out trolling Rapalas 60 ′ to 100 ′ behind grandpa’ s pontoon boat and in one pass up and down the main channel my wife pulled in three and my boy caught his first trout … and then his second,” he stated.

“ Up until two weeks ago I had been under the impression that bass fishing was still slow,” he said.“ The first real hint I saw that the season might be on was when Justin Wright and his buddies from Sacramento brought up a bunch of trout, three redear sunfish, a catfish and two decent bass. They weren’ t fishing for bass specifically and caught everything on nightcrawlers.”.

“ But the real news came when Riley, Gary & Zack from Yuba City went out with Roboworms targeting bass in habitat on the east side. Their haul included 10 good-ized bass in just a few hours of fishing,” he added.

COLUSA / KNIGHTS LANDING

Stripers Convene for Spring Spawning Session

COLUSA – Striped bass fishing has been superb on the Sacramento River from Colusa to below Verona, with boat

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anglers and shore fishermen both finding success.

“ This is the best spring striper run we’ ve seen in a long time,” said Scott Kittle of Kittle’ s Outdoors.“ It was slower yesterday on the river with the rise in the water level, but I expect fishing to bounce back. There are a lot of fish on the river, with most locals launching our of Ward’ s Landing or the Steelhead Lodge.”

“ Most of the fish are still smaller ones in the 16 to 22 inch range, with some larger fish mixed in,” said Kittle.“ Boaters are finding the best success while drifting with jumbo minnows in the Colusa area.”

“ Both striper and sturgeon fishing continue to be good at Verona, Grimes and Colusa, as well as on the Feather River,” confirmed Tim Boggs of Elkhorn Outdoors.

“ For example, Chu Vang reported catching and releasing two sturgeon in the 57 inch class while using pileworms from a boat below Verona,” said Boggs.“ Another fisherman, Mick, landed a 59-1 / 2 inch sturgeon in the Verona area.”

The Sacramento below the mouth of the Feather is also the hottest spot for stripers.“ Most are males in the 3 to 6 lb. range. The key to success for both shore anglers and boat fishermen is to fish your baits close to the bank as long as the water level is still high,” advised Boggs.

This little lady named CJ fished Lake Amador with her dad on April 22 and nailed some big bad rainbows and lightning trout.

Photo courtesy of the LAKE AMADOR CAFÉ, Lake Amador.

DAVIS LAKE

Trout Fishing Shifts Into Gear

PORTOLA – The water temperature is still cold, 44 degrees, at Lake Davis, but the trout fishing is on the upswing with the arrival of warmer spring weather.

“ Trout fishing is best for shore anglers at Camp Five and Mallard,” reported Jeanne Graham of J & J’ s Grizzly Store and Camping Resort.“ Anglers are hooking rainbows from 1 to 3 pounds while fishing with worms and PowerBait on the bottom. Fishermen are hooking quite a few fish, but it’ s not red hot yet.”

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Graham hasn’ t heard any reports from trollers lately, but that should be improving also.

An angler also reported catching two largemouth bass while tossing out Rooster Tails at Camp Five.

Lake Davis is holding 82,214 acre feet of water, 99 percent of capacity and 125 percent of average. The boat ramps are all open, but the docks weren’ t in the water at press time.

Trout fishing has been slow at Frenchman Lake, but anglers fishing from shore and boat are hooking some quality rainbow trout, according to Johnny Hernandez at Goodwin’ s General Store in Chilcoot. All of the boat ramps are now open.

Frenchman Lake is holding 55,998 acre feet of water, 101 percent of capacity and 132 percent of average.

- Dan Bacher

DEL VALLE RESERVOIR

Boaters Nail Trout and Black Bass

LIVERMORE – Lake Del Valle has been producing some good bag limits of trout in the warm

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The largest reported trout came from Joe Jordan and son Zachary Jordan( from Livermore, CA) weighing in at 7.0 lbs. The large fish was caught just past Swallow Bay, while throwing Kastmasters from shore, reported Jeff Cooper at Lake Del Valle.

“ Ray Muscat and fishing partner had a very successful day on the water using nothing more than backyard earth worms. They boated several trout, with the largest at 5 lbs. a nice cat fish, and several largemouth and small mouth bass,” he said.

“ I once again ran into Bernie from Fremont on the water. In the morning hours he boated several bass using Brush Hogs,” Cooper stated.“ The bite was tough, and morning seemed to be the key word for most fishermen on Saturday.”

“ Almost all of my bites came before noon as well. Finishing my day with 7 opportunities, I boated 5 smallmouth bass and 1 largemouth, and lost another largemouth at the boat. Two bass came on a weightless 5” Senko in Swallow Bay, and the rest came while testing two reaction baits- a 3-1 / 8” Storm, Arashi Spinbait, and a Strike King, Pro Blue KVD J200 Jerkbait.”

“ I caught my largest smallmouth on the day at 2 lbs. with the Spinbait. I was able to reel it slowly and its 3-2 prop design preformed perfectly, like a subtle baitfish sneaking around. The bulk of my hits came from jerkbaits.”

Hector Lopez and fishing partner, Craig Jeong, from Palo Alto and San Jose, landed quality rainbow trout from the shore in the narrows, the largest weighing 5 lbs., while using mini nightcrawlers. In addition to the trout, they caught a 2 lb. pumpkinseed( related to the bluegill).

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Ken Salvi caught this 4 lb, 24 inch German brown in July 2017 near Emigrant Creek. For information, call( 209)-258-8888

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