Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3720 Sept 14-18 | Page 22

22 Sept 14- 28, 2018 VOL. 37 • ISS. 20

FRESHWATER REPORTS:

CONTINUED FROM PG 17

SHASTA / WHISKEYTOWN LAKES cont.

trout action was fantastic every day.”

“ I usually favor the McCloud Arm, but with the fire activity up there I opted to stay on the Sacramento Arm. The trout were holding around 60 feet deep and they hit a variety of different lures. The best thing I used was a cop car colored Speedy Shiner in the large size trolled at 2.5 to 3.5 miles per hour,” reported Baxter.

“ Most of the trout I caught were rainbows that went 2 to 3.5 pounds, but I also got 4 brown trout. All the browns were over 3 pounds. The largest one on my Rapala digital scale weighed 5.56 pounds,” Baxter exclaimed.

Bass fishing is good to very good. Throughout the midday hours hooking up is all about working soft plastics in 20 to 50 feet of water. The most exciting action is the walking bait bite that takes place early and late. Get tight to the shoreline and make long casts parallel to the bank.

When working plastics most of the bass being caught are 1 to 2 pound spots. On the surface lure, you’ ll catch plenty of spots, but there are some largemouths that range up to and beyond 5 pounds in the mix too.

Shasta is currently just over 60 feet from maximum pool and boat launching is in full operation at several locations around the lake.

There are zero fishing reports coming out of Whiskeytown. There should be some big late season kokanee up for grabs, but fishing has been on hold due to the massive fire that burned the area surrounding the lake.

STAMPEDE RESERVOIR

Trollers Nail Quality Kokes

TRUCKEE – James Netzel of Tight Lines Guide Service finished his season off at Stampede Reserovir with superb kokanee salmon action.

“ My last trip of the year produced phenomenal fishing,” said Netzel.“ My three clients were done with their limits of kokanee by 10:00 a. m. We eeeded through at least 50 or so 12”-15” to get our boat limits to over 17.”

“ Since we began our season at the lake, we experienced the best fishing

a gaudy colored bait for working muddy or stained water and there is no better finish for this work than the tried and true chartreuse, orange and black combination known as firetiger. Before we start thinking about how to present these baits let’ s consider the type of tackle you’ ll want to employ. Like most cranks, lipless crankbaits sport small trebles that are prone to tearing out if you use a rod that is too stiff. For this reason, reasonably flexible sticks are a wise choice, with fiberglass cranking rods offering the best chance of avoiding mishaps. You’ ll want to team the rod with a highspeed bait caster that has a gear ratio of at least 6.4 to 1. I prefer an Abu Garcia Revo STX that features a 7.1 to 1 gear ratio. For working relatively open water with half ounce baits 12 to 17 pound mono or fluorocarbon works well. Many knowledge able anglers advise using mono over fluorocarbon because mono tends to float up and they feel this helps to avoid snags when working shallow water. If the game plan calls for you to work weed beds or tule edges, forget about using mono and spool up with 30 to 50 pound braid. When using braid, remember to fish with a relatively light drag to keep from straightening out hooks when a good size bass strikes, but you’ ll appreciate the power braid offers when you have to rip you bait free from the matted salad. Fishing lipless cranks can be super simple or as complex as you want it to be. At times, all you need to do is make a long cast and steadily crank the bait back to the rod tip. When the water is clear, you’ ll want to crank quickly. When the water is stained or muddy, back off with the speed. Most lipless cranks sink. This allows you to systematically cover a broad range of different depths with a simple cast, count down and crank approach. As with most crankbaits, lipless cranks will catch a bass once in a while when retrieved through open water, but it’ s when they are worked near or actually bouncing off cover that they are at their most effective. Bass anglers encounter three basic types of cover … rocks, wood and weeds. Rocks are the easiest to work for the beginner. Simply cast the bait beyond the area where you think the bass are holding, allow it to

sink and retrieve it such that it bangs and bounces off the rocks. If you are working a fairly deep rocky bank when the water is cold and the bass are not responding to the bait when it is bounced along the rocks, a yo-yo type retrieve might be the ticket. To do the yo-yo, make a long cast along the length of the bank over 10 to 20 feet of water. Allow the bait to sink on a tight line. When it reaches the desired depth, sweep the rod tip upward, use the reel to retrieve the slack and repeat. This will make the bait shoot upward while vibrating violently and then it will fall like an injured baitfish. Typically, you won’ t feel the bass hit the bait. Instead the fish will just be there when you make your next sweep. The procedure for working wood is pretty much the same, except you’ ll usually have a more defined target. If you are working a downed tree, for example, you’ ll know exactly where the tree is. You want to cast the bait well beyond the target and then retrieve it such that it bangs off a certain section of the tree. Lipless cranks don’ t hang up too often when working rocks and when they do you can usually shake them loose. Wood is a different story. When dealing with wood the front hook will often hang up and if it gets buried there is no getting the bait loose. For this reason, if your game plan calls for encountering a lot of wood, for example if you were going to work the standing timber in Shasta’ s Pit River Arm, it is a good idea to remove the bait’ s front hook. You’ ll still hook plenty of bass, but the number of snags will be cut down tremendously. Weeds and crankbaits don’ t mix, everyone knows that, but this assertion is dead wrong when it comes to lipless cranks. When working submerged weed beds and weed edges, a lipless crank is one of the very best baits you can employ. Bass will emerge from the weeds and whack a lipless crank, there is no question about that, but that is really generalizing. Most of your strikes will occur just after the bait hangs up, provided you react the right way. When you feel your bait load up in the weeds you want to respond by ripping it loose and then burning it with the reel. This is the way that you trigger reaction bites when working the salad. Remember, if you’ re not hanging weeds, you’ re not fishing the bait correctly.

These anglers smacked limits of quality Stampede Reservoir kokanee while fishing with Captain James Netzel in late August. Photo courtesy of TIGHT LINES GUIDE SERVICE, Loomis.

when it was still dark and then the fishing slowed down when the sun hit the water,” he noted.“ However, during the last two weeks of the season, the best fishing began after the sun hit the water.”

“ On the final day, we started across the lake from the ramp and then worked toward the dam. We started at 50 to 60 feet deep and then went down to 60 to 80 feet deep after the sun hit the water. We used the Paulina Peak clown pattern micro hoochies behind a new prototype dodger.”

After taking a couple of weeks off, Netzel will begin fishing for salmon on the Sacramento River in the metropolitan area.

- Dan Bacher

18th

Annual

TAHOE

Mack Bite Ranges From Slow To Good Depending On The Day

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE-“ We had a mix of everything this week from good fishing to a very slow pick bite along with some big surprises in the form of double digit macks. We’ ve had macks up to 20 pounds this week. The bite is going to be stabilizing over next few weeks with lakers and kokanee on good jig bite,” exclaimed Mike Nielsen of Tahoe Topliners Sportfishing.

The Tahoe Sportfishing Team is putting their clients on exciting mixed bag action. The kokanee bite at the south end of the lake is hot with limits and near limits coming in when salmon are the target.

Tahoe Sportfishing skippers are using minnows and flashers to hook macks that average 3 pounds and range up to 10. Last week a handsome 4 pound rainbow showed up on a mackinaw trolling adventure.

“ The kokanee bite has gotten really good at Tahoe,” reported Reggie Wilks of Carson City.“ The kokanee at Stampede are bigger, but I really love catching them at Tahoe. I’ ve been scoring with hoochies and blades from Paulina Peak Tackle in Reno. I’ ve gotten limits of kokanee to 13 inches the last three times I hit Tahoe. I also picked up an 11 pound mack on a micro hoochie, so there are some good lakers hanging around the salmon.”

Mickey Daniels of Mickey’ s Big Mack Charters has been enjoying solid action at the north end of the lake. Mickey’ s clients have been hooking mackinaw up to 7 pounds. Some fish are being kept for the table while the others are tagged and released. Mickey employs a variety of different lures for his fish including Shasta Tackle Kok-A-Nuts teamed with Sling Blade dodgers.

Saturday & Sunday, October 20 & 21, 2018

$ 250 for big fish on Saturday & Sunday( 833) 347-4661

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