Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3818 August 16-30 | Page 9

7 August 16-30, 2019 VOL.38 • ISS. 18 Catch & Release Fishing! Hook More & Bigger Fish With Flies... Sponsored by Kiene’s Fly Shop 916-483-1222 • www.Kienesflyshop.com When Size Does Matter It’s another sunny, beautiful summer day on the Lower Sacramento River and I’m in my drift boat with the anchor set, head down, concentrating on a box of assorted nymphs. My brother, Brandon, is in the front of the boat holding a five weight fly rod in one hand, and the end of a leader I’ve clipped off yet again in the other. He just shakes his head and sighs to let me know I’m burning his daylight. I’m thinking to myself that if I stare long enough at this box of bugs that maybe, just maybe, all of the answers I seek will magically be revealed. A light breeze blows upriver through the canyon; the kind of breeze I can’t quite blame a poor cast on, but enough to feel refreshing. It’s just enough to tickle the dried out grass growing in the no-man’s land between the lava rocks that are jutting from the bank, and put a shimmer on the water that looks as though diamonds are floating on the surface from shore to shore. It’s the kind of day you’d like take home to Mom. I look up from the fly box and catch my brother staring at me with a trademark half-grin and raised eyebrows. “You really expect me to be the Oracle-Of-The- River don’t you?” I ask. He shrugs and turns back around, now grinning ear to ear. He’s managing to get to me, a small triumph in our world. Despite all that has been going right so far this morning, one thing was missing; a crucial part of the equation: biting trout. For some reason the trout are not buying what we’re selling. We’re not getting skunked, there’s a Mercy Fish now and then, it’s just that in our minds we should have been doing as well, or better than, the previous day when we’d been on the same stretch of river with the same setups! I’ll go ahead and admit it right now, I was getting frustrated. A trout’s brain is roughly the size of a small pea on a good day, so I took it personally when they had me baffled. I leaned back in my rowing seat and considered out loud what we knew. The previous day the conditions were more or less identical. We’d been nymphing with indicators and using a two-fly leader with a #8 stonefly nymph on the top and a good old #14 flashback pheasant tail as the dropper. On this morning, we started with the same rig as the day before, but we’d landed less than half the number of trout as the day before. When something seemed “off” in the first couple of runs we started changing flies out to see if the fish had merely lost their passion for what they’d greedily snapped up the day before. Nothing new there, that had been a successful tack to take in the past. As we continued on and couldn’t find a consistent bite I became flooded with doubt and started to change rigs over and over again. I found myself mumbling “We shoulda’ had one there…and there…and there…” as we kept getting further downriver. Finally, I went back to square one and retied the stonefly and pheasant tail to Brandon’s leader. This time I dropped the sizes of both bugs. I could hear in the back of my head the advice I’d once read long ago, and knew to be true. A major mistake anglers often make is changing patterns when they should be When it comes to fooling trout with flies, changing sizes. the cornerstone considerations in terms We were back in the game and fishing of fly selection are size, shape and color. Photo courtesy of JASON THATCHER, River again. Brandon made a big show of Pursuit Guide Service. FRESHWATER REPORTS: CONTINUED FROM PG 4 LAKE BERRYESSA cont. After dark the bite was consistent with the smaller bass, mostly 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 pounders. It’s interesting that all 3 species of bass were active - almost an equal number of all three. Texas-rigged Black Power Worms were the best baits.” “I noticed that the bait wasn’t very deep - 15 to 25 feet. That was the depth of most of our bites. A shout out to the brand new navigation blinking light buoys all near points in the narrows. I’m not sure when they arrived, but they will be a great help during the dark of the moon,” Hemphill concluded. The kokanee fishing continues to be productive at Berryessa, as evidenced by the annual trip that Rich Crispi of TW Guide Service made with his brother in law Mile Ellingson and his good friend Jerry Selvitella. The anglers trolled with Apex lures and Uncle Larry and RMT spinners, tipped with white corn, behind RMT dodgers. “The trip started out with a bang with a double. Jerry lost his, but Mile got his 18 incher on the nose weighing 2.23 lbs. It was the biggest of the year we’ve boated. We. pounded structure hard and got a total of 11 fish to the boat. We kept 6 nice kokes and tossed back 4 kokes and a baby king. We also lost at least 5 nice fish that came off half way up from 90 ft down,” Crispi reported. - Dan Bacher CAMANCHE LAKE South Pond Produces 26 Lb. Channel Cat BURSON – Huge channel catfish and black bass topped the catches at Lake 9550 Micron Ave. Suite B • Sacramento, CA By Jason Thatcher yawning after his cast and his first two mends. Mid-yawn, with arms stretched wide and looking to the sky, his indicator shot down and disap- peared. He choked on his yawn as he flailed around trying to set the hook and started hiccupping as the trout jumped and the rig sailed back at us. “Had to be a -Hic- fluke –Hic,” Brandon stammered as I rowed back up the slot. Presently, Brandon made another cast, only this time the indicator had his full attention. Again, Jason Thatcher is a top guide and expert fly the indicator went down and as he set angler. The Sacramento River is Jason’s home the hook another trout rocketed out of water, but he fishes all over northern California for trout, salmon, stripers and more! the water and did a barrel roll. This Photo courtesy of JASON THATCHER, River time Brandon brought the A-Game Pursuit Guide Service. and the fish stayed stuck and ended up in the net. “On -Hic- the PT –Hic- eh?” Brandon mumbled with a sidelong glance in my direction as the fish was released. After about six more passes through that drift and a trout hooked on the PT every time, we were both chanting “Size Matters.” It’ll suffice to say that our day really came together and turned around for us from that point on. Simply scaling down made all the difference. I sure enjoy hearing complaints about sore shoulders during the short drive home at the end of the day. I think one of the things that I enjoy the most about fly fishing is dissecting all of the variables involved in making a trout eat a wad of feather and fur. With thousands of fly patterns available to anglers these days it can be very easy to forget some of the basics of fly selection and get caught up in cutting and retying time and time again when you’re not getting the desired results. Picking one or two bugs out of a fly box lineup can turn into a daunting task! I believe that a winning fly selection can really be boiled down to size, shape, and color. If you already have a proven, effective pattern (that takes care of shape and color), turn your attention to going bigger or going smaller. It seems that more often than not, with all of the information sharing out there, anglers are usually tuned into the right patterns for the time of year and body of water. I believe that paying special attention to size can turn out to be a crucial factor in fishing success. Having a broad selection of sizes can be hard to do with all of the hot new flies out there. Personally, I try to keep stocked with a reasonable selection of “key” patterns in all of the different sizes I’m likely to need. My fly boxes may not be the diverse potpourri one would expect, but there are many chewed-to-a-frazzle bugs in the back of my boxes that have been retired. These veteran flies serve as a reminder to the effectiveness of sticking to the basics. Next time a trout has you stumped out there on the water, just remember that size really does matter! Captain Jason Thatcher offers both fly and gear trips on the Sacramento River and other north state waters for a variety of different species including trout, king salmon, steelhead, stripers, shad and more. Jason’s is the owner operator of River Pursuit Guide Service. For more information or to book a trips give him a ring at (916) 997-2765 or check out his website at www.riverpursuit.com Camanche over the past couple of weeks. Big fish honors go to: Mike Houdasheld of Oakley, who hauled in a monster 26.04 lb. catfish from the pond. He stated that he was throwing nightcrawlers, reported Terry of the Camanche Recreation Company. Twelve-year-old, Moses Blanco on San Jose was fishing with his dad in the Riverview area of Camanche when he landed a 7.2 lb. catfish while using squid. Austin Barker, of Austin Barker’s Guide Service, out of Rio Linda, landed his personal best fish, a 10.62 lb. largemouth, at Lake Camanche while using a jig. “It happened, 3813 finally,” Austin wrote on Instagram. “I have worked so hard for this fish. Hundreds of hours, thousands of dollars, great days, terrible days, all of the above. I needed this fish more than ever right now, which Continued on Pg 12 UNCLE LARRY’S LURES Time after Time, the most successful Trout & Kokanee Spinners! Use the best, catch the best and the biggest! www.unclelarryslures.com (209)609-7034 MADE IN THE USA