Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3725 Nov. 23-Dec 7 | Page 3

Up-To-Date and Published Locally... By Sportsmen... For Sportsmen! Collins Lake Map Feature MADE IN U.S.A See Page 8-9 Vol. 37 - ISS.25 Our 36th Year Since 1982 Nov. 23 - Dec. 7, 2018 “The Magazine for West Coast Sportsmen!” 2018 Shasta Fall Trout Derby: Beautiful Weather and Tough Fishing! GONE FISHING INSIDE Area Reports FEATURES Where...When...How... Kurt Koch of Rocklin caught this beautiful 4.5 lb Lake Shasta rainbow while pre-fishing for the big Lake Shasta fall derby. Photo by Jeff Brassfield of Auburn. mouth of Big Backbone. Too bad they didn’t catch a trout like that on Saturday! We had dinner at the Basshole Bar & Grill, along with many of the partici- pants in the tournament. There was a general agreement – the bite was very CONTINUED ON PG 22 Kayaking For Almanor’s Trophy Trout! L ake Almanor is at The reservoir boasts both a prolific once inspiring and amount of aquatic insect life and a frustrating. To be sure, huge biomass of Japanese pond smelt. the trout that dreams are The nutrient rich lake waters make for made of swim a vast reserve of plankton the waters of that the pond smelt eagerly Almanor, but gobble up. they don’t The result is that come easy! Almanor’s browns and Back before rainbows are never far the present from their next meal and dam was they respond by growing to completed in massive proportions. 1927 centuries “It’s no big secret that old meadows Almanor has browns that dotted with run up to over 10 pounds, springs covered but a lot of folks overlook the valley that the size of the lake’s by now makes up I have an Almanor Cal Kellogg rainbows. the bottom of rainbow on my wall that Lake Almanor. weighed over 10 pounds,” It’s the rich soils of those exclaimed Bryan Roccucci of Big meadows that drives the Daddy’s Guide Service. food chain at the north Roccucci is perhaps the most knowl- state trout factory. CONTINUED ON PG 12 WHAT’S HOT While Cal Kellogg was fishing from his kayak at Lake Almanor, Captain Bryan Roccucci of Big Daddy’s Guide Service swung by to say hello after his clients had rounded up some quality rainbows and browns. Photo by CAL KELLOGG, Fish Sniffer Staff. Special Section Baja Roundup PG 27 FRESHWATER REPORTS Almanor - Lake Camanche.....................................4 Clear Lake - Del Valle Lake.......................................7 Don Pedro Reservoir - Los Vaqueros Reservoir ........................ 10-11 New Melones Reservoir - Pyramid Lake............ 13 Redding/Red Bluff - Rio Vista Area...................... 14 Sacramento Area - Shadow Cliffs Lake............... 19 Shasta.................................................................. 19 Tahoe - West Delta ............................................ 19 SALTWATER REPORTS Berkeley - Fisherman’s Wharf...............................26 Half Moon Bay - Monterey Bay....................... 28-29 T he 19th Annual Shasta Lake try different areas of the lake, not our Fall Trout derby took place on the favorite spots. We tried several spots in weekend of October 20 and 21. The lake the Sacramento arm, Dry Fork and Big was in good shape, down Backbone. about 90 feet which is about There was one very consis- normal for this time of year. tent factor – everywhere we John Brassfield and I went we saw tons of bait – arrived at Sugarloaf Cottages mostly near the surface and in Lakehead and were joined sometimes down to 50 feet by Bruce Wicks and Al or so. We trolled through Fiske of Foresthill, Dave these bait balls for hours and Barsi of Oak Run, and Mark caught – nothing but bass! Kalinowski of Concord. We The water temperature was launched the Fish Sniffer 66 degrees and was very Rogue Jet 21 Coastal and clear. I ran a top line most parked it in the slip below the of the morning using several cabins. As the sun set and the different lures to no avail. by night cooled, we barbequed about noon, we Paul Kneeland Finally steaks and had cocktails caught our first trout – a fat and cigars overlooking the 15-inch rainbow that hit an beautiful Sacramento River arm of RB Tackle spoon. Shasta Lake. John’s brother Jeff Brassfield was Friday morning we were in the boat fishing with Kurt Koch of Rocklin in and heading down the Sacramento Kurt’s 20’ Thunderjet and Kurt landed River arm of the lake about 6:45 am. a beautiful 4-½ pound rainbow at the On pre-fish days, John and I like to 36 Years Serving Sportsmen Delta Stewardship Council Staff Finds California WaterFix Is Inconsistent with Delta Plan See Page 23 HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE...........................15-17,18,21 BAJA ROUNDUP...............................................30-31 BASS FISHING SPOTLIGHT: Mark Fong.............. 11 BULLETIN BOARD................................................... 3 FISH SNIFFER COUNTRY: Jack Naves ................ 27 GO FOR IT: Staff....................................................... 2 HOW-TO: Cal Kellogg.............................................. 6 KAYAK FISHING SPOTLIGHT ................................. 5 MAP FEATURE: Dan Bacher.................................8-9 SALTY TIPS: Hippo Lau.......................................30 SPOTLIGHT ON CONSERVATION: Dan Bacher..... 23 STAFF TACKLE What We’re Using Cal Kellogg - fished the San Joaquin Delta for striped bass from his Hobie Pro Angler 14 kayak. Cal used a 7’ Lamiglas Certified Pro baitcasting rod matched with an Abu Garcia Revo baitcasting reel spooled with 65 lb Yo-Zuri braided line for plugging and trolling with Fish Trap style soft plastics. Cal landed and released several stripers in the 16 to 24 inch range. Paul Kneeland - fished Frenchman Reservoir with Gary Caruso of Auburn and Brian Garcia of Colfax in The Fish Sniffer Rogue Jet 21 Coastal. They caught rainbow trout to 18 inches using Cousins 7’6” ultra light graphite downrigger rod with a Abu Garcia Revo MGX Extreme level wind reel loaded with 6 lb test Yozuri TopKnot fluorocarbon line. They trolled small Tasmanian Devils in frog pattern and Luhr Jensen Needlefish in copper/ red on the surface and off the Canon Downriggers 15 feet deep at 2.4 mph. Dan Bacher - fished for rainbow trout at Union 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.