Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3821 Sept 27, 2019 | Page 3

Up-To-Date and Published Locally... By Sportsmen... For Sportsmen! Camanche Lake Map Feature MADE IN U.S.A See Page 16-17 Vol. 38 - ISS.21 Our 37th Year Since 1982 Sept 27 - Oct 11, 2019 “The Magazine for West Coast Sportsmen!” Fish Sniffer Staff Slams Bodega Kings With Fish On Charters I My quest to catch an ocean salmon this summer has been quite a challenge. Before you come to the wrong conclusion, perhaps I should clarify. Due to my own extremely crazy schedule I had been unsuccessfully searching for an open date. So, after finally moving my schedule around I was able to free up some time. Luckily when I called Captain Jeff Caramella with Fish On Charters he just happened to have availability. “Sign me up,” I told Captain Jeff and several days later I was on my way to Bodega Bay. When I arrived at Bodega Harbor with my buddy Ian, I met up with Captain Jeff and was greeted with a hearty handshake and a smile from another old friend Captain Anthony. Joining us were Chris and his son Matt. The big question of the morning, “Where are the salmon, on the beach or offshore?” Cardinal Rule Number one in bass fishing is – Ignore the Dock Talk. Well this applies to salmon too. With dense fog shrouding the coastline, I soon lost my point of reference. Captain Jeff politely told me were headed offshore. Did I mention that Captain Jeff has an internal salmon radar. More on that later. As we motored along, we came upon group after group of salmon hunters with their gear in the water. When Captain Jeff finally stopped the Samantha Irene there was not another boat in sight. Instead what I saw were birds working, a graph full of bait and fish, and even a whale or two. Did I mention Captain Jeff has an internal salmon radar. Within five minutes of lines Special Section Catch & Release Fishing - pg 7 INSIDE Area Reports FRESHWATER REPORTS Lake Almanor - American River..............................4 Berryessa Lake ......................................................7 Bullards Bar/Englebright Reservoir - Collins Lake...................................................... 13 Davis Lake - East Delta....................................... 15 Lake Del Valle - Los Vasqueros Reservoir ... 18-19 New Melones Lake - Quarry Lakes/Shadow Cliffs Reservoir .... 20-21 Rancho Seco Lake - Shasta/Whiskeytown Lakes................... 22-23 Stampede Lake - West Delta............................... 25 SALTWATER REPORTS Baja Roundup........................................................... 31 Berkeley - Bodega Bay............................................ 27 Fisherman’s Wharf - Half Moon Bay....................... 29 Monterey Bay......................................................30 FEATURES GONE FISHING Where...When...How... by Mark Fong A 37 Years Serving Sportsmen Bodega Bay was the scene of great summer salmon action for the Fish Sniffer staff. Photo courtesy of FISH ON CHARTERS, Bodega Bay CONTINUED ON PG 12 Monsters and Mining Towns swirling, I had scrambled to schedule a trip to New Melones Reservoir on August 24. I even packed my SLR camera just in case I actually got one. The morning started out slow, with a few fish showing up here and there. R.J. Sanchez and his uncle Danny joined me in my boat. As we trolled across a shaded underwater point, the depth slowly started to drop. 40…45…50 feet deep. I was trying to lower my downrigger weight along the bottom to match the depth. 60…65 feet deep. I saw a small group of fish on the sonar unit hugging the bottom. As I cranked forward on the clutch of my Cannon downrigger, wire played off the Jack Naves headed to New Melones Reservoir this August spool. THUD. I felt the looking for big kokanee and ended up landing his personal best weight contact bottom sockeye when this amazing 19 inch fish decided to strike. t five o’clock Saturday morning in the hills of Amador County, I was zigzagging through windy roads in the dark. The “Historic Main St. Jackson” sign offered a point of light to contrast the dark twisted highways in between. I was about halfway to the lake, on a mission for a lunker kokanee salmon. With rumors of monster kokanee and I locked it into place. I paused with tension - knowing that my lure was fluttering through a school of fish at that very moment. Not more than five seconds later, the rod tip violently surged. “Here we go,” I muttered, as I grabbed the rod and reeled into the fish. After a few cranks, I noticed that I was reeling against the drag. I stopped reeling and held the rod out to the side. PUMP-PUMP- PUMP…I couldn’t gain any ground… PUMP-PUMP-PUMP…but I knew it was a fish. I recovered some line, but the fish suddenly ripped off 20 feet of line in the span of a few seconds. “I wonder if it’s a bass?” I inquired, but in the back of my mind, I was thinking that bass don’t pump or head shake like this. After several minutes, the fish was WHAT’S HOT by Jack Naves Photo by JACK NAVES, Fish Sniffer Staff. F ish S niffer T IP OF THE W EEK Slip bobbers offer trout anglers important advantages. First and most importantly they allow you to present baits and jigs at specific depths. This allows you to put your offering in the trout’s strike zone and keep it there. Secondly, slip bobbers allow the fish to take your bait without feeling significant resistance. This is important when the fish are behaving tentatively since if they feel any unnatural resistance they will likely spit out the bait. - Cal Kellogg CONTINUED ON PG 14 RIO VISTA BASS DERBY.....................................8-13 BAJA ROUNDUP......................................................31 BULLETIN BOARD.....................................................3 CATCH & RELEASE - FLY FISHING: Cal Kellogg......7 FISH SNIFFER COUNTRY: Steve ‘Hippo’ Lau..........28 GO FOR IT: Staff.........................................................2 HOW-TO: Cal Kellogg................................................6 KAYAK FISHING SPOTLIGHT: Kevin Hofer ...............5 MAP FEATURE: Dan Bacher...............................16-17 MIXED BAG FISHING: Ernie Marlan........................24 SPOTLIGHT ON CONSERVATION: Dan Bacher......26 STAFF TACKLE What We’re Using Paul Kneeland - fished Lake Berryessa with Bruce Wicks of Foresthill in the Fish Sniffer 21’ Rogue Jet Coastal. They caught Kokanee to 18 1/2 inches using an 8’ ultralight Phenix Reaper composite kokanee rod with a Team Daiwa Z ultra light levelwind reel loaded with 6 pound Yozuri TopKnot fluorocarbon line.. They trolled a watermelon Vance’s Dodger followed by a pink/chartreuse hootchie and a Paulina Peak red/silver dodger followed by a pink Uncle Larrys spinner with Rooster Tail Trout/ Kokanee spray off the Canon Downriggers 55 to 75 feet deep at 1.4 mph. Cal Kellogg - fished Lake Shasta with Wes Ward from the Fish Sniffer’s 18’ Duckworth provided by Gone Fishin’ Marine. Cal and Wes trolled Cal’s signature series 3-inch Firecracker Grubs behind Mack’s Lure Hot Wings Flashers on Vance’s 7-foot downrigger rods teamed with Abu Garcia 5500 LC reels. The duo caught several rainbows including an incredible 24.5-inch fish that weighed about 4 pounds. Dan Bacher - fished for rainbow trout at Icehouse 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 Fluorocarbon Coated Line. He fished with rainbow Berkley PowerBait, 1/8 oz. gold and black Panther Martins and 2/5 oz. gold/ red stripe Little Cleos. Dan coated his baits and lures with Bloody Tuna scent Pro-Cure Super Gel.