Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3822 Oct 11-25 | Page 7

Oct 11 - 25, 2019 VOL.38 • ISS. 22 5 Spotlight On Kayak Fishing... Sponsered by Kayak City in Citrus Heights, CA Kayak City.Com 916.565.1400 A Change Of Pace At Rollins Lake By Cal Kellogg Before I get into the fishing, I’ll give you a little background information because the trip I took to Rollins Lake last week actually got started 30 plus years ago. When I was 16 years old and living in the East Bay, I rolled into my favorite tackle store, the Castro Valley Sportsman’s Center. The owner was doing some cleaning in the dark recesses of the store and had a big pile of junk sitting on a tarp ready for the dumpster. In the midst of the artifacts I spotted a box full of vintage Outdoor Life and Field & Stream magazines from the ‘50’s & 60’s. When I left the store that day the box of magazines came with me. They were full of great articles and I read each magazine multiple times. One of the stories that really sparked my imagination was by a guy that floated a creek in the southeast from a makeshift truck inner tube float tube tossing a gold and black floating Rapala. He didn’t catch anything big, but he did catch a mess of small bass and some good panfish. Ever since I read that story, I’ve wanted to replicate what he did. Granted it’s not hard to do. Norcal has dozens of waters where you could pull off an adventure like Rollins offers a lot of cover and structure to that, yet we’ve got lots of explore for anglers looking for bass and panfish. Photo by CAL KELLOGG, Fish Sniffer Staff. stripers, trout, salmon and stuff like that to fish for too. As a result, while I always had visions of my own “down home” plugging adventure it was always something that I planned to do next week or next summer or next year… Well, last week I found myself with a 7-hour block of fishing time. I couldn’t go far and most of the trout lakes near my home were in a late summer slump. Where to go? That’s when the idea hit me. Rollins Lake! I knew the lake was full of small to medium size bass and a few varieties of panfish. On top of that the lake offers up a great mix of cover and structure in the form of downed trees, overhanging vegetation, rock walls, small points, coves and more! I arrived at Long Ravine at daybreak, slid my Hobie Pro Angler into the water and minutes later I was gliding past the floating docks half way to the mouth of the cove. Presently I saw some small spotted bass breaking the surface in open water. I fired a tiny Rebel Pop R into their midst and the hook up was almost instant. After hooking and missing several fish at the mouth of Long Ravine I worked my way along the shoreline toward Free Loaders Cove firing that little popper at targets of opportunity and the bass continued to hit. I was about 200 yards from Free Loaders when I got the best bass of the morning, a 2 plus pound spot. Moving past Free Loaders toward the Bear River Narrows I continued catching the occasional bass, but on one particular downed pine tree I hooked and landed a big bluegill that was larger than my hand. I made a mental note to return to that spot later in the morning once the topwater Cal Kellogg caught over 20 bass on topwater poppers including this 2-pound spotted bass during a recent kayaking trip to Rollins Lake. Photo by CAL KELLOGG, Fish Sniffer Staff. bite slowed. When I fished my way around the Gooseneck in the Bear without a touch I figured it was game over for the popper. I’d caught upwards of two dozen bass so I stowed the bass rod and peddled for my bluegill tree. A short time later I positioned the Hobie about 25 feet from where I thought the panfish would be and lobbed out a red worm suspended 48 inches beneath a slip bobber with one of my three-piece ultra-light spinning rods. Seconds later the bobber zipped under the surface. Bluegill on! For the next 90 minutes, I hooked bluegill and a variety of other panfish one after another. There were a couple dinks, but mostly the fish were the size of my hand or bigger and boy did they fight on that light rod. I was giggling like a school girl! By the time I finished up I’d landed about 20 panfish! Peddling back to the dock that afternoon I reflected that I’d played out a long-held fantasy and it was every bit as fun as I thought it would be. Heck I’d landed upwards of 50 fish! I love fishing for the state’s marquee species, but sometimes a fun fishing Here we see Cal Kellogg departing from the Long Ravine Launch change of pace Ramp. Rollins Lake offers several different boat launch ramps for is nice too! boats of all sizes. The Long Ravine Ramp offers the most immediate access from Highway 80. Photo by CAL KELLOGG, Fish Sniffer Staff. AMERICA’S FAVORITE LANDING NET BRAND! 55555 "BEST NET I HAVE OWNED" "EXCELLENT HIGH QUALITY NET" "GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE" Cal was surprised by the number and size of panfish he encountered while fishing Rollins. Photo by CAL KELLOGG, Fish Sniffer Staff. SAVVY ANGLERS VISIT WWW.EGOFISHING.COM