VOL . 37 • ISS . 13
FRESHWATER
June 8 - 22 , 2018
31 and 15 inches long .”
“ We couldn ’ t have asked for better conditions ,” he noted . “ We must have released 30-40 fish also . We trolled with Paulina Peak Tackle purple haze and lemonade with matching dodgers .”
On his previous trip , Netzel took Gary Durbin of kokaneemart . com and Richie Height of Paulina Peak Tackle to Stampede for 3 limits of kokanee to over 15 ”. “ The fish were everywhere and at every depth ,” said Netzel .
TAHOE
Mixed Bag Excitement Persists For Tahoe Fishermen
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE - Mackinaw fishing is very good at Lake Tahoe with most trips producing full limits . Most of the fish are keepers in the 2 to 8 pound class , but there are larger fish in the mix too . Anglers are also landing the occasional rainbow and brown trout .
Mike Nielsen of Tahoe Topliners Guide Service has been doing a lot of trolling with minnow plugs for a mix of rainbows , browns and macks . His clients have been rounding up good numbers of 2 to 4 pound fish , but there have been some much large mackinaw into the high teens in the mix too . Nielsen ’ s last really big fish hit the deck on May 12 when one of his clients landed a mack that was just under 20 pounds .
Gene St . Denis of Blue Ribbon Charters continues to put his clients on limits of mackinaw while trolling dodgers and rigged minnows . St . Denis is trolling from 150 to 250 feet deep off Sugar Pine , Dollar and Calneva Points . The fish are running 3 to 6 pounds with the occasional larger fish to 12 pounds mixed in .
Mickey Daniels of Mickey ’ s Big Mack Charters continues to enjoy good fishing at the lake ’ s north end while pulling a variety of offering in deep water .
The folks at Tahoe Sportfishing are also experiencing solid action while targeting mackinaw . They are tempting their fish mainly with rigged minnows trolled behind flashers . The fish are averaging 3 to 6 pounds , but larger fish are showing up occasionally . Limits have been the rule for most .
TRINITY LAKE / RIVER
Kings , Kokanee and Rainbows Reward Anglers
WEAVERVILLE – Jeff Goodwin Guide Service reported that Trinity Lake is “ fishing fairly well ” for kings , kokanee and rainbow trout .
“ I ’ ve talked with some anglers that are catching kings to 6 lbs and kokanee around to around 9 ”, which is a lot smaller than last year ’ s spring kokanee ,” said Goodwin . “ Trout fishing is also great over deep water near the surface trolling your typical trout gear like Mack ’ s Lure Wedding Rings or Humdingers ”
“ I really like to troll Arctic Fox trolling flies tipped with a worm this time of the year . The trout are averaging 16-18 ” and are pretty easy to get into ,” he added .
Shore anglers are picking up rainbow trout ranging from 10 to 18 inches at the mouths of the tributaries to Trinity Lake , reported Tim Brady at Brady ’ s Outdoors in Trinity Center . Anglers are using PowerBait , Mice Tails , nightcrawlers , marshmallows , salmon eggs , Kastmasters , Rooster Tail spinners and other offerings .
“ The bass fishing is wide-open now ,” said Brady . “ Boaters are hooking largemouths and smallmouths almost every way they can , using everything ranging from swimbaits to Hula Poppers . The dredger piles at the north end of the lake are producing some of the best action .”
Brady hasn ’ t received any reports on spring Chinooks caught yet on the Trinity River , but said that should happen as the spring pulse flows are ramped down .
The Bureau of Reclamation will ramp down the flows until the summer base flow of 450 cfs is reached June 30 . The releases for this “ critically dry ” 2018 water year will result in an annual total volume of 369,000 acre-feet .
A daily schedule of flow releases is available at www . trrp . net / restore / flows / current /, and the public may subscribe to automated notifications ( via phone or email ) of Trinity River release changes .
Trinity Lake is holding 1,904,664 acre feet of water , 78 percent of capacity and 91 percent of the 10 year average .
- Dan Bacher
WEST DELTA
Tung Le nailed this big shad while fishing the Sacramento River on May 16 .
Photo courtesy of FISHSNIFFER . COM .
Striper Limits Are Still The Rule !
BRANNAN ISLAND - “ We ’ ve been on limits for about a month ,” reported Captain David Hammond of Delta Pro Fishing . “ Right now the stripers are spread out some . There are some anglers that are struggling , but we are getting them . You ’ ve got to know the different areas and work the tides .”
“ The combination of on again off again wind and the fact that the fish are spread out a little has been resulting in light pressure . My key to success has been staying on the move . Yo-Zuris , both deep and shallow runners , are the lure of choice right now . Color hasn ’ t been a big factor , but making sure your lure is running clean makes a big difference . We ’ ve had some debris in the water at times and you don ’ t want any junk trailing from your lures ,”
tipped Hammond . “ In terms of size things are variable . Some days it ’ s all schoolie fish , but other days we run into some big bass . It just depends which pods of bass you cross paths with on any given day . We ’ ll keep on running trips up into the first week of June and I expect limit catches to hold up ,” Hammond concluded .
Bait anglers are rounding up limits while fishing both the Sacramento and the San Joaquin Rivers , but you ’ ve got to sort through lots of shakers for a keeper when soaking baits like pile worms , anchovies and shad .
Sturgeon are still on the chomp in the upper reaches of Suisun Bay , but only a handful of anglers are trying for them . If you go , roe and eel are the best performing sturgeon baits at this time .
On the fast side , I ’ ve done this work with minnow plugs from Yo-Zuri and Rapala and a plethora of tiny bass style crankbaits . When moving slow makes sense I might run a Flatfish or even an Apex , but mainly when I ’ m pulling plugs I like to keep the speed up .
As a result , I ’ m very excited about the
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Mag Lip 2.0 and 2.5 from Yakima Bait , that I ’ m told will run up to 4 miles per hour .
I just got a selection of these plugs from the legendary Buzz Ramsey and he speaks very highly of them . The next time I hit a trout lake or river , I will be getting a Mag Lip wet .
Buzz tells me that the plugs have an erratic action that he describes as “ skip beat ”. That sounds perfect to me . I ’ m a big believer in erratic action creating strikes .
The Mag Lip 2.0 will dive to 5 feet ,
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HOW TO By Cal Kellogg continued from page 5
while the 2.5 can hit 8 feet deep . Mag Lips come in a wide range of different colors from Frog on the dark end to baitfish metallic on the light end and there is every color in between including orange and pink .
No . 3 : Flashers and A Threaded Worm
If I had to pick my all time most consistently productive trolling set up , I ’ d have to go with the old school flasher and worm presentation . Not only does this rig catch trout , but it also illustrates that those dang trout aren ’ t quite as smart as we give them credit for being …
“ Hmmm I ’ m a little hungry ,” says Mr . Trout . “ Look at all those shiny whirling metal blades … What ’ s that behind the blades ? A night crawler , spinning through water at an oh so unnatural 1.5 miles per hour . I think I ’ ll grab at that worm and hit it time after time until I get hooked by that No . 6 baitholder that I can clearly see .”
In all seriousness that ’ s about the shape of it . It doesn ’ t look right and it doesn ’ t seem right , but a set of flashers teamed with a dirty old worm catches wild trout and planters , rainbows , browns macks and more .
So what flashers am I running this season ? I ’ ve spent a lot of time playing with Vance ’ s flashers and love them , but this year I ’ m going to field test a couple new sets of flashers . One set is the Mack ’ s Lure Flash Lite flashers . Flash Lites are very innovative in that they don ’ t use metal blades . Instead the blades are made of Mylar and as a result the flashers weigh very little .
The other flashers I ’ ll be using are Rooster Trolls from Yakima Bait . These flashers come in 4 different sizes and make use of the same blade that makes Rooster Tail spinners so deadly .
No . 4 : Dodger and Hoochie
For a long time the only time I rigged up with a dodger and hoochie was when landlocked salmon were on the menu , particularly landlocked kings .
I ’ ve caught a lot of big salmon pulling hoochies behind dodgers , but I ’ ve also caught a lot of hefty rainbows and spotted
bass on this deadly rig too . As an aside , I can think of several instances when I ’ ve found mixed pods of spotted bass , king salmon and rainbow trout holding around bait in open water . I ’ ve found these fish while looking for kings and interestingly when I ’ ve found these species schooled together the fish have always tended to be large .
A few years ago , Paul Kneeland and I found bait about 60 feet deep off one of Shasta ’ s big islands . In three passes , I caught a rainbow , a spot and a king on a watermelon Sling Blade trailing a blue and white hoochie . All three of those fish were over 3 pounds . Paul had a 3ish pound spot , a big rainbow and something big that bolted at the boat and tossed the hook .
Back to the hoochie and dodger . When I say hoochie I ’ m including both traditional hoochies and hoochie like baits such as Ace Hi flies and Kok-A-Nuts . These baits sort of represent the nexus of the hoochie and the trolling fly .
Anyhow when you put a hoochie 2 to 3 dodger lengths behind a blade you ’ ve got a terrific baitfish imitation that has a very attractive pause and pulse action .
Bright colored hoochies work and so do baitfish colored models . I start out with baitfish colors , but some guys troll bright pink most of the time and hook just as many fish as I do … But I like to think the ones I catch are smarter ... LOL
Get some hoochies . Run them behind dodgers . Catch anything that gobbles baitfish in open water … It ’ s that simple , sometimes … LOL !