Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3801 Dec 22-Jan 4 | Page 14

14 FRESHWATER Dec 21, 2018 - Jan 4, 2019 VOL.38 • ISS. 1 FRESHWATER REPORTS: Outdoor Sports. “Anglers have reported catching two oversized sturgeon and one undersized fish near Road 16 at Knights Landing, but no keepers yet,” said Boggs. “The river muddied up after the latest storm.” For the best chance of catching a legal- sized sturgeon, Boggs recommended fishing with ghost shrimp, lamprey eel and salmon roe in Montezuma Slough or Suisun Bay. CONTINUED FROM PG 11 FOLSOM LAKE cont. 392.39 feet in elevation. For black bass, Don Paganelli of Paganelli’s Bass Fishing Experience recommended drop shotting with Robo Worms or Keitech lures in shad and pond smelt patterns at 20 to 25 feet deep. “Fish the deeper edges and humps for the top action,” said Paganelli. “One of the better areas to try is the main body from Browns Ravine towards Mormon Island where there is deep water access. Expect to hook a mixture of spotted, largemouth and spotted bass.” Fishing pressure for trout and salmon at Folsom is very light. Shore anglers can hook rainbow trout and king salmon while tossing out PowerBait, nightcrawlers and minnows under bobbers and on sliding sinker rigs along the points out of Five Percent, Granite Bay and Browns Ravine. - Dan Bacher LOS VAQUEROS RESERVOIR Big Stringers of Trout, Cats and Stripers Top Catches KNIGHTS LANDING Stripers and Sturgeon Lead Catches as Salmon Season Ends RIO LINDA – Striped bass and sturgeon top the angling menu in the Knights Landing and Colusa areas as the salmon season nears its final day, December 16. The fishing isn’t great, but bait anglers are picking up a few stripers and an occasional sturgeon. For example, one local landed a 36 inch long striper while soaking ghost shrimp for sturgeon in the Sacramento River above the Highway 113 Bridge in Knights Landing, reported Tim Boggs at Elkhorn These folks went on the hunt for Capital City salmon and rounded up this beautiful Sacramento River king on the first trolling pass of the day during a trip with Captain James Netzel on November 13. Photo courtesy of TIGHT LINES GUIDE SERVICE, Loomis. HOW TO waiting for that slip bobber to disappear is a great way to spend a winter day! Bass Folsom has a very strong population of spotted bass and these are the main target for winter bassers, but largemouths show up too. For me, smallmouths have been largely missing in action during the winter. You can catch Folsom’s winter bass while dragging jigs and plastic worms, but I find that somewhat tedious. Instead I prefer fishing with night crawlers and live minnows when the water cold. At times, I’ll fish these baits under bobbers, but most of the time when bass are the target I anchor my boat and mooch them just off the bottom in 15 to 35 feet of water, using a single split shot to get them down. Now this all pretty basic stuff, but there’s one more piece of the puzzle that has made a huge difference for me and that comes in the form of location. I only fish off banks that show an By Cal Kellogg expanse of red clay with few rocks. If that bank drops into the water and then flattens out within my preferred depth range, I may have stumbled onto a real hot spot. Why are the bass attracted to the clay? I have absolutely no idea and I admit it might be an illusion. Maybe I had a couple good outings on the clay and now I fish the clay with more confidence and more tenacity. What I do know is that I’ve caught a parade of spots in the 2 to 4 pound class and a few largemouths to 5 while mooching over the clay. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it…LOL! King Salmon For me salmon fishing stinks during the winter in terms of numbers, but most of my big Folsom kings, say fish beyond 3 pounds have come during the winter. I seldom score kings while trolling in the winter. At other times of the year, my go to Folsom king rig is a blue and white hoochie, tipped with anchovy skin trolled behind a 6 inch Sling Blade dodger, but this rig just doesn’t produce for me in Salmon • Trout • Kokanee the winter. What does work for me is mooched • Stampede Kokanee • Oroville Kings • Now Booking Sacramento River Fall Salmon! 3713 Channel Cats The winter channel cat bite at Folsom is a real sleeper. The best area to fish is where a small seasonal stream is flowing into the lake. In terms of baits I’ve had Now Booking for Fall Run King Salmon Feather • Sacramento • American Rivers! Custom 23’ Rogue Jet Salmon • Steelhead • Stripers • Book Now For Best Dates! T.N.G. Motor Sports Guide Ser vice (530) 320-0994 CONTINUED ON PG 13 continued from page 9 bait, but not the worms and minnows I use for trout and bass. Instead I like to use a 2 inch section of anchovy fillet. You can run with regular old bag anchovies, but I prefer to use the super flashy tray bait variety. Some guys use whole anchovies and other use anchovy tails. I think scent really helps draw strikes from kings. I use fillets because they release more scent and I slather them in either anise or anchovy scent Pro-Cure Super Gel. I do most of my salmon mooching in the main body near the peninsula or in the mouth of the South Fork. I don’t try to mark salmon when I’m at Folsom because they don’t exist there in big numbers, but some of the salmon you catch will be very nice fish in the 3 to 6 plus pound class. Instead of looking for kings, I locate bait and try to fish just above and below that level. When you do get hit, be patient. Leave the rod in the holder and let the fish play with the bait until it’s clear the fish has hooked itself. 3621 BYRON – If you want to catch rainbow trout, channel catfish and striped bass all on one trip, Los Vaqueros Reservoir is one to the top places to do it. One of the most amazing stringers of trout, catfish and stripers every caught in California reservoirs recently came out of Los Vaqueros Reservoir John Kitta and John Aviles both limited out on trout, striper, and catfish using while fishing with PowerBait and anchovies on November 26. That’s 10 trout, four striped bass and 20 catfish that they caught from a rental boat in Cowboy Cove, reported Steven Richert of the Los Vaqueros Marina. “This week saw a profusion of catfish being caught,” according to the marina report. “We have seen limits on multiple days coming out of South and Cowboy Coves. For those wishing to target catfish, chicken liver and anchovies are the best choices of bait.” For example, Yekam el-Nakar and his fishing buddy caught 10 catfish between 5 and 8 pounds while soaking anchovies in www.tngmotorsports.com Pro Guide Jerry Lampkin -- 25 years experience! success with night crawlers, sardine fillets and crawfish tails. I always position one bait on the bottom and drift another suspended under a slip bobber near the inflowing current. Most folks don’t think of targeting cats during the winter, but the fish are there. They’ll be more lethargic than they are at other times of the year, but they will still feed. Some folks like to use stink baits or rotten baits, but I don’t. I like a nice fresh bait and I apply plenty of Pro-Cure Super Gel to get a good scent trail going. Final Word All in all, if I could only use one bait at Folsom in the winter, I’d run with live minnows. The best all around minnows are in the 2 to 3 inch range, but I’ve done well on 3 to 6 inch shiners too for bass and cats. Minnows can be tough to find near Folsom Lake. I used to go get mine 12 dozen at a time from a shop in the Delta, drive them home and keep them in my garage in a large plastic storage tote with an aquarium aerator. This set up doesn’t work very well in the summer because the minnows don’t handle heat very well, but in the fall, winter and early spring they do just fine. Feed the little guys standard issue fish food from the pet shop and your minnows will be fat and happy. When and if a minnow dies, pop them into the freezer. They work great for catfish bait or you can rig them to roll and troll them for trout.