20 July 6- 20, 2018 VOL. 37 • ISS. 15

FRESHWATER REPORTS:

CONTINUED FROM PG 14

DAVIS LAKE cont.

Ron Vanassen placed second with two fish weighing 6 pounds 12.8 ounces. His big fish was a little over 4 pounds.

Peter Hallrud placed third with two fish weighing 5 pounds, 14.4 ounces. His big fish weighed 3-1 / 2 pounds.

In the kids division, Kaiden McKinney placed first 1 fish with a trout weighing 3 pounds, 10.2 ounces caught while shore fishing.

Ryu Crank was second with 1 fish weighing 1 pounds, 7 pounces. He was trolling red dot frog Dick Nites.

Chris and Collin Jackson won the“ dad and me” division by caching a fish going 2 pounds, 12.8 ounces while bank fishing.

“ Trollers are using wee Dick Nites in Copper Redhead, Red Dot Frog and Firetiger and all of the bright Rooster Tails,” tipped Graham.“ They are trolling 15 to 20 feet deep between the two islands.”

Bank fishermen are using worms and rainbow-garlic PowerBait from Mallard, Coot’ s Bay, Eagle Point and Lighting Tree. The bugs are finally starting to hatch; so fly fishing is also improving.

Lake Davis is holding 79,579 acre feet of water, 78 percent of capacity and 119 percent of normal.

- Dan Bacher

DEL VALLE RESERVOIR

Channel Cats Lead Summer Angling Parade

LIVERMORE – A mixture of recently planted and holdover channel catfish are rewarding anglers fishing the warming

Joe Gamez took a break from sturgeon fishing long enough this June to land this monster Delta largemouth.

Photo courtesy of VINCE BORGES, Phenix Rods. waters of Lake Del Valle. The East Bay Regional Park District stocked 750 pounds of channel cats in the lake the week of June 18 and 750 pounds

the week before. The catfish plants have replaced the trout plants until the water temperature cools down in the fall.

For targeting the catfish, use anchovies,

mackerel, nightcrawlers, or chicken livers in the coves. Fishing early and late is your best bet for hooking the catfish.

With trout plants over until the fall, the Rocky Mountain Recreation Company reported that trout bite will be a bit harder to come by, but not impossible.

“ We are still getting reports of anglers catching trout! We recommend fishing PowerBait or Power Eggs, Mice Tails, and Flicker Shad. Make sure you are fishing shallow sand flats and if you are fishing from a boat, make sure you keep moving,” they stated.

There are starting to be reports of striper boils out by the dam, but some people are having success in the Narrows and near the dock. The marina staff recommends using diving spoons and lures out by the dam, in deeper water.

Expect the smallmouth and largemouth to move into their summer pattern. Fish top water lures and glide baits early and late in the day along shoreline structure – and fish Senkos, plastic worms and jigs off the points during the day.

LAKE DON PEDRO

Trout Fishing Shifts Into High Gear

LA GRANGE-Trout fishing has been outstanding at Don Pedro with quick limits of rainbows along with the very occasional kokanee or king salmon. Bass fishing is also strong, and there are crappie to be had as well.

Monte Smith of Gold Country Sport Fishing said,“ I took three trips on the lake this week for trout, and we put in limits on every trip. On Saturday morning, I couldn’ t get the second rod out before we had a fish on, and we were done with limits by quarter to one ounce and a few quarter ounce tungsten drop shot weights. A small selection of glass beads and swivels rounds out the necessary terminal tackle.

Texas Style

This is an old standby that just about everyone knows. The Texas rig refers to both a method of hooking a worm and a fishing method. A worm put on the hook Texas style runs straight and is weedless with the hook point buried in the worm’ s body. Since a worm rigged in this way can be worked around the nastiest structure it is a popular hook rigging method for a variety of fishing techniques.

In the classic sense the Texas rig consists of a worm hooked Texas style with a bullet weight on the line directly above it. Out here in the west this method isn’ t used as much as it is back east, but it can be highly effective. The most popular way of fishing this rig is to cast the worm toward promising structure, allow it to sink to the bottom and them begin slowly inching it across the bottom.

Fished in such as way the worm looks like a substantial meal that a bass can pick off with minimal effort. In addition, since bass spend a lot of time feeding near the bottom on crawfish and other prey items there is a very good chance that a worm fished this way will be in the strike zone of the bass on any given day.

Carolina Rig

This is a method that pro’ s use to put big numbers of fish in the boat, yet you’ ll seldom see a casual angler utilizing it. To set up a Carolina rig slide your main line through a half to one once bullet weight, slide on a glass bead behind it and follow the bead with a swivel. To the swivel attach 18 to 36 inches of leader material

tipped with a Texas rigged worm. This rig is great for working water that is 15 to 30 feet deep thoroughly and quickly. To fish the rig, make a long cast into open water that features bass holding bottom structure such as stumps, boulders, ledges or a creek channel. Once the rig sinks, start crawling it across the bottom. Periodically stop dragging the worm and shake the rod tip. This will cause the weight and glass bead to work against each other and the bottom, creating vibrations that draws bass close to investigate. This is great method to use for seeking out fish at an unfamiliar lake and it is also a winner for pinpointing bass on lightly fished offshore structure.

A finesse fishing variation of the Carolina rig is the split shot rig. This rig utilizes a spinning outfit spooled with 8 pound line with a Texas rigged worm tied directly to the main line. One or more split shot is placed on the line 12 to 20 inches above the worm. A trick I often use with this rig is to place a glass bead on the line before tying on the worm. I then put on a pair of split shot about an inch apart with the glass bead sandwiched between them to create vibration.

Wacky Rig The wacky rig is a variation of the weightless rig. The only difference is that instead of rigging the worm Texas style, the hook is pinned through the middle of the worm with the point exposed. It sounds crazy and looks crazy, but it is deadly on bass holding near rocky structure like that found at many NorCal reservoirs.

The preferred method of fishing the rig is to cast it out and let it sink on a semi tight line without any added action. If it makes it to the bottom without being hit, retrieve it a few feet with a pumping rod tip and them let it fall again. This results in a crippled falling action that shallow water bass have a hard time passing up.

Final Thoughts

Well, there we have it, three rigs that will cover virtually all conditions and situations encountered on the water. Do the three methods we’ ve discussed represent the final word on worming?

Absolutely not, all these methods were stumbled on by enterprising anglers looking to solve a problem they encountered on the water, whether it was how to present an effective bait in thick cover or how best to tempt inactive deep water bass. Every angler develops his or her own method of worming over time.

Some pros do a lot of dead sticking. Other anglers do well casting and retrieving Texas rigged worms as if they were fishing a crankbait. Add to these variations in fishing style things like scents, scented worms, insertable rattles and new tackle innovations, and it’ s easy to see that the versatile plastic worm is still a long way from reaching its full potential!

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