Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3802 Jan 4-18 | Page 15

FRESHWATER VOL.38 • ISS. 2 January 4-18, 2019 FRESHWATER REPORTS: CONTINUED FROM PG 7 hook in the lake this ice fishing season. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife stocked an amazing 14,420 pounds of rainbows in the reservoir in August., 2018. Davis Lake is holding 62,779 acre feet of water, 76 percent of capacity and 109 percent of average. - Dan Bacher DEL VALLE LAKE Use Scented Baits to Entice Trout These anglers pulled limits of rainbows out of Lake Camanche on December 12 while trolling grubs with team from Koke Machine Guide Service. Photo courtesy of KOKE MACHINE GUIDE SERVICE, Lake Camanche. planting trout stocks them from the boat launch,” reported Captain Jacob of the Rocky Mountain Recreation Company. HOW TO seaweed, algae, fish eggs and small fish. Shrimp, sand fleas and small crabs are the most common prey items. Terminal Rigs Compared to other types of fishing, saltwater perch fishing is a pretty simple affair. When it comes to targeting surfperch I only use two different types of rigs. The first is a traditional two hook surf leader, also known as a “hi low rig” You can buy these rigs pre-tied at coastal tackle shops, but I prefer to tie my own using 17 pound test fluorocarbon leader material. For many years before the introduc- Natural Baits, Soft Baits And Execution Surfperch are aggressive opportunistic feeders. They will pounce on a variety of different baits. I like a tough bait that will withstand some washing by the surf without coming off. My favorites are pile worms, bloodworms and plain old grocery store white prawns. I’ve caught more perch on half prawns then on worms, but I use prawns more often because they are cheap and easy to find. When you bait your surf rig with prawns, don’t remove the shell. Simply break them in half and put one half on each hook. With worms do the same thing. Cut them in two and use one half to bait each hook. Fishing bait is as simple as casting out, tightening the line and waiting for the DON PEDRO LAKE Trollers Battle Holdover Trout LA GRANGE - Trout action is good for those running shad-patterned spoons on leadcore line near the surface. The shad schools are forming, and the trout and king salmon action is just gearing up for an excellent long line bite. For largemouth bass, a huge 4-fish limit over 32 pounds was taken on big swimbaits during a recent weekday Turkey Shoot, but the norm has been to find deep bass from 50 to 80 feet with plastics on the drop-shot or tube baits. The bass action for big fish is anticipated to bust out within the next few weeks. The lake held at 70 percent, and the parking lot at Blue Oaks is closer to the water than Fleming Meadows, and it is a shorter walk after parking your tow vessel. - Dave Hurley continued from page 6 tion of low visibility fluorocarbon we caught plenty of perch on standard mono leaders, but the huge probing eyes of perch tell me that low visibility line might matter so I spring for the more expensive fluorocarbon. My surf leaders look like this. I take a 30 inch section of leader material and tie a pair of dropper loops in it from 18 to 20 inches apart. If you don’t know how to tie this knot, Google “dropper loop knot” and you’ll find plenty of illustrations. To the bottom end of the leader I tie on a snap swivel. That’s where the sinker goes. To the top end tie a standard swivel. To rig up simply attach a snap swivel to your main line and snap on the leader. Now it’s time to attach some hooks. The surf leaders is used for fishing bait so I like to used No. 4 bait holder hooks. I snell the hook on the same 17 pound fluorocarbon I use for leader construction. Once the hook is snelled I put a surgeon’s loop at the top end of the snell such that the snell is 6 to 8 inches in length. The final step is to arm your leader with a pair of hooks using “loop to loop” style attachment. With the leader finished all you need to do is snap on a 1 ounce pyramid sinker, bait the hooks and you’re ready to fish. The other rig I use is designed for fishing with soft plastics and Gulp! baits, but it will work for bait fishing too. It’s basically a Carolina rig. Set it up this way. Take your main line and pass it through a ½ to ¾ ounce bullet sinker then slide on a plastic bead. Knot on a swivel behind the bead. Next tie on a 24 inch section of 17 pound fluorocarbon and tip it with an octopus hook. The size of the hook depends on the size of the bait. I typically carry No. 2, 4 and 6 octopus hooks to cover all the bases. throwing bait, hot pink is the best color to use with smaller jerkbbaits or user a silver Kastmaster smaller than three eighths.” “The bass bite is still going on, with the trusty Senko working the best. You can also throw weightless nightcrawlers but the water is quite low, so finding structure where they are hiding is the key. The area by the dam has a lot of rocky points where you can try locating bass,” he tipped. “The catfish bite is also productive for anglers using nightcrawlers or anchovies. Many cats are being caught in the mud flats around the south end or in the upper narrows. They prefer to be in the murkier water, so this is where you want to target them,” he advised. “The striped bass are slow to bite now, but the large ones are chasing the smaller trout around the marina. Trolling big swimbaits is one of the only ways you are going to get these predatory fish to bite this time of year. You can also throw anchovies around the island or drift them around the marina for the stripers,” Captain Jacob concluded. strike. Perch hit hard. When you feel a series of hard tugs, set the hook and the fight will be on! These days, I much prefer fishing soft plastic grubs in the 1.5 to 3 inch range or Berkley Gulp! soft baits over bait fishing when I’m fishing from ocean beaches. Bait tends to work better in bays because the water is calmer, making soft plastic style baits less effective in most cases. To fish with soft baits, take a brown or olive tone grub, Gulp! sandworm or Gulp! crab and pin it on your “Carolina” rig. Gulp! sandworms are about 6 inches long. They will work whole, but I prefer to cut them in two, making a pair of 3 inch baits. Use one piece now and save the second section for later! Fishing the Carolina rig is super simple yet it’s deadly effective. Cast the rig out EAGLE LAKE as far as you can, let it sink to the bottom Trout Fishing Hot As Year End and bring it back in with a slow steady Closure Looms retrieving keeping it moving right along the bottom. SPALDING - The air temperature is frigid, the water is chilly, but the rainbow Work each cast all the way back to trout fishing is red hot at Eagle Lake for your feet. The perch will follow the bait trout in the 2 to 6 pound class and it looks into water that is a foot deep or less. CONTINUED ON PG 14 It’s amazing how many perch will strike right at your feet when you are SAN PABLO SHADOW least expecting it. Strikes are typically RESERVOIR CLIFFS LAKE robust and the perch (510) 223-1661 (925) 426-0197 usually hook them- selves…One second LAKE LAKE nothing, a beat later, DEL VALLE RANCHO SECO FISH ON! (925) 449-5201 (209) 748-2318 When I’m targeting perch I like LAKE PARDEE (209) 772-1472 to stay on the move. Offer valid on all boat rentals Monday - Friday When beach fishing For more information about Boating, Camping & Recreation with soft baits I Visit WWW.ROCKYMOUNTAINREC.COM slowly walk along All other boat rental terms and conditions still apply.Offer subject to boat rental availability. Offer expires on 12/31/2018 and is not valid with any other coupon/discount with any other coupon/discount. the sand fan casting. CAPTAIN When I get hit I JAMES stick around until NETZEL the action subsides. Full Time Guide When fishing bait I cast my rig out a 888-975-0990 good distance and reel in 15 to 20 feet of line every We also fish Folsom, 5 minutes or so. Donner, Stampede, Boca, If there are perch Lake Tahoe and the around you’ll know Sacramento River. right away. If you don’t hook up with 15 to 20 minutes, move on in search of greener pastures aka perchier waters! 20% OFF ALL-DAY BOAT RENTALS AT Surfperch Tackle There was a time when most surfperch fishing was done with massive 10 to 14 foot surf rods matched with big reels spooled with 30 to 40 pound test monofil- ament. These rods were teamed with 4 to 10 ounce sinkers to sling baits into the surf zone. Typically the rod was put in a sand spike while the angler waited for the hookup at which time the perch, be it large or small, was unceremoniously hauled out of the white water and across the sand with zero fight being felt by the angler…Sounds like fun stuff huh? While you’ll still see big heavy surf rods being used by some anglers, most serious modern day surfperch enthusiasts go the light tackle route so they can enjoy the strike and fight of the fish. Truth be told these new-fangled light tackle approaches produce more fish than the heavy stuff ever did. For fishing ocean beaches I prefer an 8 to 9 foot graphite steelhead style spinning rod capable of slinging an ounce of weight. The length of the rod allows you to keep your line up out of the reach of the closest breaking waves. Pair the rod with an appropriately sized spinning reel. Monofilament line in the 15 to 20 pound class will get the job done, but I much prefer braided line. Braid in the 15 to 30 pound class features diameters similar to 6 or 8 pound mono and herein lies its advantage. Thin braid cuts through the water easily and this means that breaking waves won’t disturb you bait much. Braid also makes for longer casts and since it has little if any stretch, sensitivity goes through the roof. For fishing bays and estuaries the same tackle will work just fine or you can go even lighter with a 7 foot trout style rod and reel combo, since you won’t be dealing with breaking waves. By Cal Kellogg “From boat, Swallow Bay is where most fishermen are hooking into the trout. If you want to toss a lure instead of Now Booking DELTA STRIPERS LIVERMORE - The water temperature at Lake Del Valle has been at a steady 50 to 55 degrees, a good temperature for pursuing trout. The trout fishing is still going strong, with garlic scented PowerBaits the best baits for getting the attention of the fish. “Across from the marina on the West Beach is where the shore fishermen catch most of the planted trout, since the 13 888-975-0990 WWW.FISHTIGHTLINES.COM