Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3824 Nov 8-22 | Page 8

6 HOW TO... Nov 8 - 22, 2019, 2019 VOL.38 • ISS. 24 Spoon Feeding Landlocked Kings! < Over the past several years, Cal Kellogg has worked on developing a line of tackle to help him catch more and bigger fish and now he is sharing it with his readers and viewers. Just last week, this massive 5 plus pound Lake Almanor rainbow smashed one of Cal’s chrome Trigger Spoons trolled 8 feet deep at 2.3 mph. ^ Cal’s Trigger Spoons have proven to be a great producer of both trout and landlocked kings. The spoons are big enough to interest trophy size fish, but small enough that they don’t intimidate pansize trout and salmon. Trigger Spoons are highly versatile because they can be trolled across a wide range of speeds from 1.6 to 3 plus mph. > presents Want To Catch More & Bigger Trout? W ell I’ve taken the plunge and I’ve opened my own tackle shop. I’m pretty darn excited! My focus is providing anglers with gear that will help them catch more and bigger trout, but you’ll also find gear for striped bass, halibut and river salmon too. Before I get into specifics allow me to share a little background. This isn’t my first foray into the world of manufacturing trout gear. I started tying trout flies at an early age and by the time I hit my late teens I was selling thousands of flies per year. In fact, the money I made selling flies to private anglers and Bay Area tackle shops helped pay for my under- graduate degree at Cal State East Bay. After a stint in graduate school I went on to become a special education teacher, but I never fully left the fishing industry. I continued to tie and sell flies and then turned my attention to freelance writing for a number of different fishing and hunting publications. This path eventually led me to the Fish Sniffer and over the past 15 years as a Fish Sniffer editor all my fishing dreams have come true. I’ve traveled far and wide, catching a long list of species, big and small, in fresh and saltwater. I love salmon, stripers lingcod, halibut, bass and even panfish, but it’s trout that hold a special place in my heart. The first fish I ever caught was a rainbow trout and since that day back in the early 70’s I’ve caught many thousands more trout. I’ve learned a great deal about trout and trout fishing along the way. First I learned through trial and error and thousands of hours on the water. Once I joined the staff of the Fish Sniffer I got the opportunity to learn from some of the best guides on the West Coast and my knowledge skyrocketed. I learned why trout strike and why they don’t. I learned how to exploit trout that wanted to feed and how to tempt reluctant trout that are off the bite into taking an often-fatal nip at a bait or lure. As a result of these experiences I’ve established a systematic way of fishing for trout and found myself using certain lures and certain presentations more and more. For example, I always try to start off fishing fast and aggres- sive, only slowing down when I have to. At lake’s where the trout feed on baitfish, I take a match the hatch approach and run baitfish colored lures. At lakes where the trout feed mainly on insects, “bug lakes” my first choice is usually a bold brightly colored offering that will spur the trout into striking out of curiosity. And looming in the dark recesses of my tackle selection are soft plastics and tools for trolling natural bait that I break out when the bite is downright tough. A few years ago, I started a YouTube Channel and it became clear from the feedback that there is a big demand for both trout fishing instruction and quality trout tackle that performs well on the water. I’d long toyed with the idea of getting back into the trout tackle business and this year I finally decided to go for it. My goal is to educate anglers, teaching them how to fish in a systematic way and to provide quality gear at a fair price that they can use to establish their own approach to consis- tently catching trout and other species of fish. My YouTube Channel is called Fish Hunt Shoot Productions and we have a website that can be reached by Googling www. FishHuntShoot.Com. That’s where you’ll find my online tackle store. What will you find in the store? We’ll you’ll find a lot of gear I’ve developed over the years as well as gear from some of the country’s top brands. You’ll find rods and FISH SNIFFER HOW – TO ^ Trolling flies have become an important part of Cal’s trout fishing arsenal. This big beefy Lake Davis rainbow crushed one of Cal’s white and brown marabou trolling flies during a kayaking trip this October. Hook Up! Here we see Cal just starting to fight a hard charging trout on one of his bright yellow leadcore rods. The rods are perfectly suited to the Hybrid Leadcore rigs that Cal utilizes for targeting trout in shallow to moderately deep water. The cork grip rods are light enough to make catching pansize fish fun, but provide enough power to successfully battle trout of trophy proportions. by Cal Kellogg CONTINUED ON PG 18