Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3716 July 20- Aug 3 | Page 28

24 July 20 - Aug 3, 2018 VOL.37 • ISS. 16 Saltwater Match the Catch: It All Started at the Kelp T eleven 30-pound white rout fishermen and small- seabass at Anacapa Island, I pond bassers are encouraged to caught all but the first three “match the hatch,” to replicate with on a large white Tady Lure. your artificial fly whatever the target Those first three, however, fish is eating. So when the mayflies were caught on squid, so hatch, they say, you should catch one maybe the white lure looked yourself and find the fly in your box like squid to my victims and closest to it in size, shape, and color. not like a member of the That’s the one to use. clan. Hard to say. Generations of anglers have tested Even surf- – and accepted – this fishing at the beach theory, and so do I, with helped confirm my reservations.  suspicions. Barred My main disagreement perch, silver-and- is, if you feed me gold, responded best nothing but peanut butter to a shiny chrome/ sandwiches on whole yellow bucktail jig.  wheat bread for a week, I Bonito were the suspect I am more likely exception to my to choose the tuna on Match the Catch sourdough first chance I theory. Find a school get. Of course, I am not a of marauding bonito trout. Match the forage, catch the fish. Vermilion rockfish like this beauty gobble baitfish, so metal jigs and and they would eat Instead of brooks and by other baitfish imitating lures are the way to go! anything. Might be ponds, I have fished big Photo courtesy of DAVE LEWIS, Dave Lewis Outdoors. Kathie Morgan colorblind. Might just waters most of my life. be ravenous. Maybe 50 years ago I hit Perhaps one reason David and I on the idea of matching the catch, loved striped bass fishing is that we not the hatch. I think it began when never did get it figured out. We had I discovered that I could catch more both swimbaits and Rat-L-Trap-style barracuda by switching from my lures that looked like baby stripers, beloved white feathers to chrome- but they were not our most effective and-yellow Tady Lures. At Horseshoe baits. Kelp I landed an 11-pounder, and River2Sea made a pinkish-red when I cleaned it later I found a small swimbait that was deadly, and we barracuda in its stomach. Hmmmm. bought up all the orange/brown Gross! Cannibalism in nature? Well, rattletraps we could find when the big yeah. In our eat-or-be-eaten world, fish out past the island began to show “love your neighbors” and “love your a preference. But we never did find a family” take on different meanings. pattern that we could count on.  So for barracuda I would start with Part of it, of course, is that first you chrome-and-yellow on a sunny day, must find the fish. Next, you must chrome-and-blue for overcast. present your lure in such a way as to For kelp bass I would throw various make the fish’s mouth water.  combinations of brown, gold, and Sorting through the tackle box, I’ll olive or moss green. My favorite be looking for you on the banks. yellowtail lure, until I lost it, was an old beat-up yellow-and-gray Salas 6X. Other lures in gray, mustard-yellow and baby blue also worked well as I learned to match the catch. New Easy Rider Sportfishing The famous day when I caught What’s Hot Saltwater SUMMER OUTBOARD SALE! The 2019 Outboard Models are now arriving! Departures from Berkeley Marina 3712 N ow B ookiNg SALMoN, HALiBUT, BASS LiVE BAiT TRiPS Rock & Ling Cod and Sturgeon Reservations & Information (707)422-2050 captainjgallia@neweasyrider.com www.neweasyrider.com All Remaining 2018 Outboards at SUMMER BLOWOUT PRICES!!! Call for information and availability. (similar to illustration) (800) 726–2848 3710 (510) 533–9290 1926 – 2018 Your Bay Area Dealer For 92 Years 333 Kennedy Street Oakland, CA 94606 www.outboardmotorshop.com All Prices INCLUDE freight & prep, plus tax & license only.