Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3719 Aug 31- Sept 14 | Page 3

Up-To-Date and Published Locally... By Sportsmen... For Sportsmen! Loon Lake Map Feature MADE IN U.S.A See Page 16 Vol. 37 - ISS.19 Our 36th Year T Since 1982 Aug 31 - Sept 7, 2018 “The Magazine for West Coast Sportsmen!” 2018 High Roller Lingcod Derby: Big Seas, Determined Anglers & Monster Lings! he bite had gone from nerve rackingly slow to red hot in the span of minutes. It was go time and I needed a giant. Digging through my cooler of frozen bait, while struggling to keep my feet on the wildly pitching bow of the California Dawn, I found the bait I was looking for. It was an 18-inch mackerel that weighed nearly 2 pounds. When I caught the mackerel a month before, I’d carefully brined it, wrapped it in plastic wrap and tucked it away in the freezer thinking it might come in handy during the annual High Roller Lingcod Derby. Pinning a massive 10/0 Gamakatsu octopus hook through the mackerel’s head, I then posi- tioned a scary sharp 8/0 Owner treble hook in the mackerel’s back about 3 inches from the tail. Easing the rigged mackerel into the water accompanied by a 32 ounce sinker, I slowly thumbed the rig to the bottom. Controlling the speed of the rig was crucial since the last thing I wanted was for that big bait to start spinning and foul the leader at such a pivotal moment. Presently I felt the sinker hit the bottom. I engaged the big Penn Senator and cranked the reel handle twice. A one pound sinker wasn’t enough weight to hold the bottom, but the two pounder was just about perfect and as a result my line stayed nearly vertical. I expected action right away but that didn’t happen. Five minutes passed and then ten…Periodically I’d drop the bait, find the bottom and then reposition the rig just off the rocks. Will Cook captured the top spot in the 2018 High Rollers Lingcod event with these two Point Reyes monsters! Photo courtesy of CALIFORNIA DAWN SPORTFISHING, Berkeley. the water. “Kirby…right there” I uttered while pointing to his rod. I dropped my rod to grab the net, only to see a rod tip shaking on the opposite side of the boat. “Gary, your outside rod!” I exclaimed. The next few minutes were a blur of pumping rods and nets flying in every direction. When the dust had settled, all six rods laid in tangled heap across the back of the boat. Although the boat trolled onward, no fishing lines were in the water. We couldn’t get corn on our hooks fast enough. The sun still hadn’t crested the eastern peak, but a glowing smoky haze laid silently over the water. Kokanee pandemonium had broken out on Stampede Reservoir. Each year, it seems like one body of water rises to the top as the best kokanee fishery in Northern California. Lake Berryessa held the title for a number of years, only to be knocked off by the drought and the sudden resurgence of Whiskeytown Lake. Last summer at the Whiskeytown Kokanee Power derby, I proclaimed it was the best kokanee fishing I had ever seen. Whiskeytown fished great this year and has the current edge on other lakes as far as average size. However, I have NEVER seen anything like the kokanee fishing this year at Stampede Reservoir. Let me provide some examples. During my first trip this year on August 4 with Kirby Desha and Gary Ledbetter, we limited out for the three of us in 45 minutes flat. Our limits included three fish over sixteen inches. Next up was on August 7, when we fished the three of us plus Kirby’s father-in-law Willie Brusin. We were off the water with 20 fish in the cooler by 7:20 am. There were a few smaller fish mixed in, but for the most part we were WHAT’S HOT by Jack Naves The kokanee have been running large at Stampede Reservoir this season, with fish over 16 inches being common. Photo by JACK NAVES, Fish Sniffer Staff. Area Reports FRESHWATER REPORTS Almanor/Bucks Lake - Bullards Bar/Englebright Reservoirs.......................................................4 Camanche Lake - Colusa/Knights Landing......... 10 Lake Del Valle - East Delta ................................. 13 Eastern Sierra - Klamath River............................ 14 Los Vaqueros Reservoir - Oroville Lake.............. 19 Lake Pardee - Rollins/Scotts Flat ....................... 20 Sacramento Area - Shasta Lake.................... 22-23 Stampede Reservoir - Western Nevada......... 24-25 SALTWATER REPORTS Berkeley - Monterey Bay................................ 28-29 Peninsula Shoreline.............................................30 TROUT & KOKANEE JOURNAL................ 6-9,11,12 BAJA ROUNDUP...............................................30-31 BASS FISHING SPOTLIGHT: Mark Fong............... 24 BULLETIN BOARD................................................... 3 FISH SNIFFER HOW-TO: Cal Kellogg................... 15 GO FOR IT: Staff....................................................... 5 KAYAK FISHING SPOTLIGHT: Savanna Maddox... 18 MAP FEATURE: Dan Bacher.............................16-17 SPOTLIGHT ON CONSERVATION: Dan Bacher..... 26 WHAT’S HOT SALTWATER: Mark Fong ................ 23 Kokanee Pandemonium Breaks Out at Stampede Reservoir had just landed a nice kokanee and was trying to get my line back in INSIDE Where...When...How... by Cal Kellogg I Special Section Baja Roundup PG 30-31 FEATURES GONE FISHING CONTINUED ON PG 21 36 Years Serving Sportsmen CONTINUED ON PG 22 Legislative Budget Committee Postpones Hearing on Extend- ing SWP Contracts to Fund Delta Tunnels See Page 26 STAFF TACKLE What We’re Using Cal Kellogg - trolled for trout at French Meadows Reservoir from his Hobie Pro Angler 14 kayak. Cal chose a Vance’s Tackle trout rod teamed with an Abu Garcia 5500 line counter reel spooled with 10 pound moss green Trilene Big Game line. On the business end Cal ran an 8 pound test Vanish Fluorocarbon leader tipped with an orange Ex-Cel Spoon. To get the spoon down to the fish, Cal employed a small portable Scotty downrigger. Using this gear Cal caught trout to 17 inches. Paul Kneeland - fished Flaming Gorge Reservoir, Wyoming with Mark Kalinowski of Concord in Marks 22’ Rogue Jet. They caught kokanee to 21 inches and 3 ½ pounds using a Cousins 7’6” ultra light graphite downrigger rod with a Daiwa Lexa 100 level wind reel loaded with 8 lb. test Yozuri TopKnot fluorocarbon line. They trolled Vance’s watermelon dodgers followed by a hot pink Yakima Bait Tight Lines kokanee spinner hootchie at 55 feet deep and 1.4 mph off the Scotty Downriggers. Dan Bacher - fished for rainbow trout at Spicer Reservoir.. He used a Berkley Ugly Stick GX2 6’ 6” medium action spinning rod, teamed up with a Shakespeare GX235 spinning reel filled with 6 lb. test P-Line CX Premium Flourocarbon Coated Line. He fished with chartreuse Berkley PowerBait, 1/8 oz. gold and black Panther Martins and 2/5 oz. gold/red stripe Little Cleos.