28 July 6- 20, 2018 VOL. 37 • ISS. 15

FRESHWATER REPORTS:

CONTINUED FROM PG 17

QUARRY LAKES cont.

caught a monster channel catfish( not weighed) while fishing a shrimp with the shell on by Fishermen’ s Row.

Joaquin Gutierrez also landed a rainbow while fishing from his boat on Horseshoe Lake. He was using a red and gold spoon.

Reminder: the use of lead fishing tackle is prohibited at Quarry Lakes. You can exchange lead tackle at the kiosk in a“ 1 for 1” trade for stainless steel weights.

- Dan Bacher

RANCHO SECO LAKE

Largemouth Bass, Sunfish Offer Top Summer Sport

HERALD- The Sacramento Municipal Utility District’ s Rancho Seco Reservoir, a scenic 160-acre year-round recreational facility nestled in the rolling countryside of Sacramento County between Galt and Ione, is a great spot to target largemouth bass, redear sunfish and crappie this summer.

There are big bass available on the

Liam landed and release this incredible Crowley Lake rainbow during a June outing. Photo courtesy of SIERRA DRIFTERS GUIDE SERVICE, Bishop.

lake, as evidenced by the recent catch and release of a 10 lb. largemouth. The angler hooked the fish while using a plastic frog, according to Dee Sawyer of the Rocky Mountain Recreation Company.

Besides frogs and other top water lures, anglers can hook largemouth bass at Rancho Seco while using Senkos, other plastic worms, jigs, swimbaits and crankbaits.

Rancho Seco is a lake with the potential for producing a state or world record

largemouth bass. The lake has the three characteristics needed to produce record class fish: Florida-strain genes; conditions that allow the fish to reach large size; and a good food source, particularly planted rainbows.

The lake also features good populations of redear sunfish, black crappie and bluegill, along with channel catfish. Fishing for all four species is best for boaters, float tubers and shore anglers in the spring and summer.

On August 16, 2015, Brad McGarity of Galt set a new California state record for“ hybrid sunfish” when he landed a fish weighing 1 pounds, 4 ounces and measuring 11 inches long and 11.25 inches in girth at Rancho Seco.

Trout fishing will resume in the fall when the water temperature cools down and rainbow trout plants begin.

Fishing at the family-oriented facility, operated by the Rocky Mountain Recreation Company in conjunction with the Sacramento Municipal Utility District,( SMUD), is available year-round.

For more information about the Rancho Seco Recreational Area, call 209-748-2318 or visit http:// www. rockymountainrec. com / lakes / lake-rancho-seco. htm or https:// www. smud. org / en / about-smud / community / recreational-areas / rancho-seco-lake. htm

- Dan Bacher forward to tangling with some halibut and bass.

As Captain Jonathan motored out of the Berkeley Marina and our deckhand / commercial halibut angler Greg Brown gave a seminar on fishing technique near the bait tank we spotted the first sign of trouble. Jonathan had planned to make an early halibut stop right near the old Berkeley Pier, but the water was muddy … really muddy. The big tide, combined with a stiff 20 plus knot wind had stirred up the bottom and severely impacted visibility. Muddy water and live bait fishing don’ t go together. Halibut and bass feeding in the bay rely on their vision to locate the bait. If they can’ t see your live anchovy, you aren’ t going to get hit.

Well offshore from Berkeley, Jonathan

Rancho Seco Recreational Area

Open year round with RV sites, waterfront campsites and BBQ’ s. You can rent electric and row boats, kayaks, and paddle boards for more water fun!

• Wet a line

• Hike a trail

• Pitch a tent

Visit smud. org / RanchoSeco or call 1-800-416-6992.

© SMUD 1223-17

• Launch a boat

• Have a picnic

located a strip of water that seemed to have a little better clarity so we dropped our baits in. We got a couple halfhearted bites on that drift, but no fish were hooked.

“ Roll up your lines folks,” Jonathan announced over the boat’ s microphone.“ We’ ve got to go find some better water.”

To make a long story shorter, the only fishable water we could locate was up north at Paradise. It was a small area and just about every boat fishing that day ended up there.

The fish were biting and we immediately started landing and releasing big numbers of undersize bass and halibut, but there were very few keeper size fish mixed in.

As the day went one the wind blew

Rancho Seco Recreational Area is located 25 miles south of Sacramento at 14960 Twin Cities Road in Herald, CA.

80

N

1-5

From Sacramento, take Highway 99 South to the Highway 104 exit. Go East on Highway 104, 15 miles, to the Rancho Seco Park exit.

Park Operator

Sacramento

99

Twin Cities Rd.

104 harder and harder and we kept on landing shakers. Once in a great while a small keeper would show up. Our anglers had a good time, but when we headed in around 4:30 our score for the day was pretty dismal, consisting of a handful of schoolie stripers and a few halibut just over the 22 inch minimum.

With more wind in the forecast for the next day and an even bigger tide predicted we knew we needed to change things up.

Captain Chris Smith was at the dentist on June 14, but the 15th both he and Jonathan were aboard the boat.

“ We are going to bounce around a lot today,” Chris announced.“ We are going to hit some central bay rocks to see if they are holding some stripers and we’ ll also sneak outside and work the coast for a couple hours for rockfish and lingcod. We’ ll do whatever it takes to find some action.”

After leaving the marina Friday morning we shot over to the bait docks in

Vicinity Map

Herald

Clay

Clay Station Rd.

Park Entrance

Rancho Seco Recreational Area

San Francisco and then Captain Chris piloted the Happy Hooker under the Golden Gate Bridge and up the north coast. It was rough and windy offshore, but calm enough to fish along the coast.

We pushed north for about a half hour and then stopped on some rocks in 40 to 50 feet of water. Down the live anchovies went and a mix of black and brown rockfish started coming over the rail. Jonathan, Greg

With slow halibut action inside the bay, the Happy Hooker ventured beyond the Golden Gate on June 15 for a mix of rockfish and lingcod.

Photo courtesy of HAPPY HOOKER SPORTFISHING, Berkeley.

and I worked the deck, baiting hooks, laughing with anglers, bagging fish and gaffing the occasional keeper lingcod.

In all we spent about 2 hours working the rocks. When the tide changed and the weather came up around 11 o’ clock we headed back into the bay with half limits of rockfish and 7 keeper lingcod in the box. With some meat for our anglers to take home, it was time to start the search for halibut and stripers!

On the way in Chris talked to some skippers that had opted to stay inside the bay and the reports were pretty bad. We’ d made the right call heading outside.

Despite the tough conditions, we put a handful of keeper bass and a single halibut into the box in the afternoon. One of the afternoon highlights was watching an old fishing buddy of mine named Joe Schwark Jr. battle a massive stingray to the boat that we estimated at around 80 pounds. What an epic give and take fight that was!