Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3826 Dec 6-20 | Page 3

Up-To-Date and Published Locally... By Sportsmen... For Sportsmen! 37 Years Serving Sportsmen Rollins Lake Map Feature MADE IN U.S.A See Page 14 Vol. 38 - ISS.26 Our 37th Year I Since 1982 “The Magazine for West Coast Sportsmen!” Rounding Up Crabs & Rockfish Aboard The Happy Hooker! ’d been wanting to book a trip with Captain Jonathon Smith and his crew for a while now, so when an opening became available on Sunday’s rockfish and crab combo on the Happy Hooker, I couldn’t pass it up! I boarded, amid the buzz of how epic dinner was going to be and how great the weather had been over the course of the week. No one was concerned about missing any football that day, but a few were concerned about their lack of preparedness, and I was one of them. “Where the hell am I going to put all my crab?” I pondered, glancing at the single 5-gallon bucket I had toted with me. This was going to be interesting. My thoughts quickly turned to the water GONE FISHING by Stacy Barawed I December 6 - 20, 2019 conditions. It was cold and the boat was rockin’, and I regretted not taking a double dose Dramamine that morning. The captain advised it would be a four-hour run to the Limits of big commercial size crabs have been the rule for Golden Gate Farallon anglers so far this fall. Photo by STACY BARAWED, Fish Sniffer Staff. Islands for the rockfish portion of our trip, so I settled into a rod was hit, the deckhands were scram- corner of the captain’s quarters, silently bling, and you could hear squeals and fighting off the symptoms of seasickness, cheers from all around the deck. and slowly nodded off after pestering The bite was so good, I didn’t even Captain Jonathon Smith with all of my have to tip my hooks with any sort of questions as a first-time crabber. live bait and just used the bare shrimp Once we arrived at our spot, deckhands flies that were tied on. That didn’t seem Greg and JT got right down to business. to deter the fish because less than 30 As soon as we dropped our lines, rod after CONTINUED ON PG 16 A 5 Pound Slump Buster At Collins Lake! trout, prompted me to come back to the lake two days later with my Hobie Pro Angler kayak in tow. Conditions were perfect and anglers were catching fish, but I just couldn’t get hit. I trolled a long list of lures and tried soaking bait for zero results. I left the lake that day, scratching my head and licking my wounds. I don’t mind a tough bite, but I hate getting skunked, especially when guys are hooking fish all around me! Fast forward to this week… The skunking was still gnawing at me, so I decided to run back up to Collins Lake in hopes of evening up the score. I arrived at the Cal Kellogg caught a pair of big rainbows when he visited Collins lake by 6:30 am and Lake, including this 5 plus pounder that gobbled down a ball of had the Hobie in the PowerBait fished toward the back of Elmer’s Cove. Photo by CAL KELLOGG, Fish Sniffer Staff. water by 7. I started f you are a serious angler, getting skunked from time to time is part of the game, but you don’t have to like it! A few weeks back I attended the Norcal Angler’s Challenge Trout Tournament at Collins Lake. During the event, multiple rainbows in the 4 to 8-pound class were brought to the weigh in. Seeing those big F ish S niffer T IP OF THE W EEK out trolling down the west shoreline and across the face of the dam. Near the dam a power boater fishing next to me hooked and landed a rainbow that looked to be about 3 pounds and I still hadn’t gotten a strike. Oh no it was happening again! At the eastern corner of the dam, I made a left turn, angled across the main body and trolled offshore of the swim beach, heading towards Elmer’s Cove still without a strike. Remembering a November day about 20 years ago when my wife Gena landed a 24-pound limit of Collins Lake rainbows while fishing PowerBait and salmon eggs in Elmer’s Cove, I decided to look around for some trouty looking WHAT’S HOT by Cal Kellogg Scented, colored marshmallows for trout? You bet! You can use marshmallows in a variety of different ways. Team a marshmallow or two with a salmon egg or two of various colors to form a “Shasta Fly”. You can team marshmallows with worms too, forming a “big trout” bait that has been serving bank anglers well for decades. Despite the fact that the marshmallows add floatation, it’s still advisable to inject the worm with a shot of air. You want your bait floating boldly off the bottom so any trout coming close can see it! CONTINUED ON PG 20 Special Section KAYAK Fishing: pgs 5 INSIDE Area Reports FRESHWATER REPORTS Almanor - Camanche Lake.....................................4 Clear Lake - Del Valle Lake....................................7 Don Pedro Lake - Feather River.............................9 Folsom - Oroville Lake/Thermalito Afterbay ........11 Pyramid Lake - Sacramento Area................... 12-13 Santa Clara Lakes/San Luis Reservoir - Shasta.......................................................... 17 Tahoe - West Delta.............................................. 19 SALTWATER REPORTS Baja Roundup........................................................... 26 Berkeley - Half Moon Bay...................................24-25 Monterey Bay......................................................27 FEATURES Where...When...How... BULLETIN BOARD.....................................................3 CATCH & RELEASE - FLY FISHING: Cal Kellogg............8 FISH SNIFFER COUNTRY: Steve ‘Hippo’ Lau..........26 GO FOR IT: Staff.........................................................2 HOW-TO: Cal Kellogg................................................5 KAYAK FISHING SPOTLIGHT: Kevin Hofer ...............5 MAP FEATURE: Dan Bacher...............................14-15 SPOTLIGHT ON CONSERVATION: Dan Bacher......22 STAFF TACKLE What We’re Using Cal Kellogg - fished Collins Lake from his Hobie Pro Angler 14 kayak. During the trip, Cal caught a pair of large trout. One weighed 5 pounds and the other went about 3. For fishing PowerBait, Cal employed one of his signature series 6’6” spinning rods teamed with and American Premier spinning reel spooled with 175 yards of 8 pound Trilene Big Game line. On the business end Cal employed an 8 pound Vanish Fluorocarbon leader and a No. 8 Eagle Claw Lazer Sharp octopus hook. Paul Kneeland - fished Pyramid Lake with Brian Garcia of Colfax and Matt Looney of Penn Valley in the Fish Sniffer 21’ Rogue Jet Coastal. They caught Lahontan cutthroat trout to 5 pounds, using a Okuma 9’ light action Kokanee Black Rod with a Daiwa Lexa 100 line counter reel loaded with 8 lb test Yozuri Topknot Flourocarbon line. They trolled Shallow Glass spinners and Tasmanian Devils in green and orange off the Canon Downriggers at 10 to 20 feet deep and 2.4 mph. Dan Bacher - ished for rainbow trout at Lake Camanche. 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 nightcrawlers, rainbow and garlic Berkley PowerBait and 1/4 oz., 1/3 oz. and 2/5 oz. silver/blue Little Cleos.