Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3802 Jan 4-18 | Page 24
22
January 4-18, 2019
FRESHWATER
FRESHWATER REPORTS:
RANCHO SECO LAKE
CONTINUED FROM PG 20
Winter Is Trout Time
NEW MELONES LAKE
cont.
outings, and tournament anglers were
coming in with small bags. However, in
between our first couple storms Michael
Alaga caught a 12.6- lb. largemouth
bass on New Melones. With the cooler
water temperatures, bass are becoming
lethargic and looking for an opportunity
for a meal with minimum effort on their
part.”
“Look for bass opportunity using
finesse techniques over deeper
submerged trees and rocky cover in 30
to 50 feet in depth. Vertical jigging with
P-Line Laser Minnows are effective as
well as hitting the bottom with plastics
on a Texas-rig, Ned-rig, or wacky rig
with a VMC Neko Skirted Nail weight,”
he stated.
“The trout bite has been slow as the
lake is still in a transition stage with
trollers running their gear between 20
and 40 feet. with reports of lots of marks
on the fish finder with just mild results.
Ken and Barbara Capitlavich landed
a 6-pound rainbow on an Excel Lure,”
Hildebrand advised.
John Liechty of Xperience Fishing
Guide Service said, “The best times of
the year are coming up, and once we
have some rain, wind, and inclement
weather, the reaction bite should start
to improve. Every year the months of
January and February bring out the big
spots and largemouth bass.”
For rainbow trout, the Kokanee Power
New Melones pen was planted this last
week with rainbow trout with help from a
number of volunteers. The Department
of Fish and Wildlife supplied the fish
and a bucket brigade was put into place
to haul the fish down to the pen at the
Marina. These trout will fatten up over
winter and get released in the spring.”
The lake held at 74 percent of
capacity.
- Dave Hurley
Tracey Cooper took a Sacramento River salmon trip with Captain Mike Bogue recently and
ended up landing this monster king.
Photo courtesy of MIKE BOGUE’S GUIDE SERVICE, Redding.
OROVILLE LAKE
Spotted Bass Lead Winter
Angling Parade
OROVILLE – Spotted bass are the
dominant species that bass enthusiasts
are hooking at Lake Oroville, but there are
some hefty largemouths in the lake that
can really spice up an angler’s day.
For example, veteran basser Don
Reighley managed to hook a 7.98 lb.
largemouth there on a recent trip to the
lake. “He caught it on a brown and purple
plastic worm,” reported Jamey Sorensen at
North Valley Tackle.
Otherwise, anglers are hooking and
releasing large numbers of spotted bass
while fishing a variety of baits from the
bank to 20 feet deep off main lake points.
“One my last trip out on the main body,
I caught and released of bunch of spots
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averaging 1-1/2 pounds each while
fishing drop shot rigs, tubes and jigs,”
said Sorensen. “I also landed a 3 lb. king
salmon that fell for a shakey head with a
Bass Innovations Flirt Worm.”
The California Department of Fish and
Wildlife stocked 139,000 chinook salmon
from the Feather River Fish Hatchery in
late September 2018 for Lake Oroville’s
popular landlocked salmon program,
according to Penny Crawshaw, hatchery
manager 2. The fish were about 23 to the
pound, about 6 inches long, when stocked
in the lake.
Lake Oroville continues to drop. The
water level has dropped to 664.02 feet
above sea level. The reservoir is holding
1,000,523 acre feet of water, 28 percent of
capacity and 45percent of average.
The only boat ramp available to
launching is Bidwell Canyon. “The ramp
was still on the concrete when I fished
the lake, but that could change at any
time with the dropping lake level,” said
Sorensen. “When launching on the dirt
becomes necessary, you will need a 4WD
vehicle to launch a boat.”
- Dan Bacher
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RENO - As of this writing, the weather
is unseasonably warm and mild in the
Great Basin. That wasn’t the case on a
recent outing for this writer. The weather
was an all-day frigid cold and grey slog.
As an added bonus, it was intermittently
breezy, which allowed the cold air to bite
at exposed skin and find its way around
clothing. Despite the cold weather, the
fishing was damned hot.
My buddy, Dan, and I found constant
action throughout the day landing 36
Lahontan Cutthroats with three of them in
the 9 pound size range. The real beauty
of the day was that the fishing was as
easy as it gets. Drag a size 4 Lyman 250’
behind the boat and wait for a trout to
smack it.
Not only did we land a boatload of trout,
but we also had almost constant action
with short strikes and briefly hooked fish.
Of course, the true wizard of the lake, Jeff
Morris, bested us on that day with fish of
11, 12 and 14 pounds. Needless to say,
there never was a dull moment with both
the quantity and quality of the fish being
so good.
Since that recent trip, the bite has
slowed down, but there are still some
good reports rolling in. The shore bite
has been hit and miss at most locations
with more misses than hits. A good day
of shore fishing right now is going to yield
somewhere around 2-5 fish. A poor day of
shore fishing will result in a strike out.
- Mike McMeilly
HERALD – Anglers are hooking rainbow
trout at Rancho Seco Reservoir, now that
trout plants are in full swing and the water
is chilly at the SMUD reservoir.
The last two plants consisted of 500
pounds of catchable rainbows the week
of December 3 and another 500 pounds
the week of December 20. A CDFW trout
plant was also scheduled for the week of
December 30.
Anglers are hooking trout while tossing
out PowerBait, worms, Kastmasters, jigs
and spinners from both shore and boats.
“Several anglers caught their limits of
trout up to 5 pounds while fishing here
yesterday,” according to Shane Oneto of
the Rocky Mountain Recreation Company.
Florida-strain largemouth bass, redear
sunfish, crappie and bluegill are also
available for anglers on the lake.
Rancho Seco Recreational Area
is a 400-acre park overflowing with
recreational opportunities including
camping, boating, fishing, swimming and
wildlife viewing. The 160-acre lake is fed
by the Folsom South Canal and is a great
year-round day or overnight getaway
located in California’s Central Valley, just
25 miles from downtown Sacramento.
The area was acquired by the
Sacramento Municipal Utility District in
1992 and has developed into a scenic
recreational area and wildlife refuge.
Locals and visitors enjoy the land, wildlife
and water activities offered throughout
this facility. Developing recreational
opportunities for nearby cities and
preserving the land is a central focus at
Rancho Seco.
For more information, call 209-
748-2318, or visit: http://www.
rockymountainrec.com/lakes/lake-rancho-
seco.htm or https://www.smud.org/en/
about-smud/community/recreational-
areas/rancho-seco-lake.htm
- Dan Bacher
RIO VISTA
Boaters Bag Broad Slough
Stripers
SACRAMENTO – Boaters power drifting
with mudsuckers continue to land limits of
striped bass on Broad Slough.
“We had a lot of fun on our last trip, but
the wind made for some tough drifts,”
said James Netzel of Tight Lines Guide
Service. “9-year-old Josh Newton fought
them like a champ. The four anglers
fishing with me landed their limit of
stripers.
“The fog did not lift until after 10 a.m. so
we were limited on where we could fish,”
reported Netzel from his previous trip. “But
persistence paid off with 5 limits. 2 fish
over 7 pounds made it nice. Live or dead
mudsuckers, it did not matter”
The latest trip to Liberty Island by Alan
Fong at the Fisherman’s Warehouse
produced only one striper, but the black
bass fishing was good. “My fishing partner
and I caught and released over 50 fish,
with our top five fish weighing a total
of 16 pounds. We used Senkos and
chatterbaits,” he explained.
The two anglers then fished Snodgrass
and Hog sloughs, where they landed
lots of crappie while tossing out finesse
minnows. “We kept our limits,” he said.
“The crappie were small but plentiful. The
biggest one weighed a little over a pound.”
- Dan Bacher
ROLLINS/SCOTTS FLAT
LAKES
Trout Tackle Lures & Baits
COLFAX - “I had a chance to haul my
kayak up to Rollins Lake this week and
I had a really good trip,” reported Jason
Pleece of Meadow Vista. “I was expecting
it to be really cold, but it wasn’t bad. The