Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3904 Feb 1-14 | Page 14

12 Jan 31 - Feb 14, 2020 FRESHWATER VOL.38 • ISS. 25 - Dave Hurley FRESHWATER REPORTS: CONTINUED FROM PG 11 LOS VAQUEROS LAKE OROVILLE LAKE cont. to offer the best action at Los Vaqueros Reservoir as trout plants continue. The latest plant of 2,000 pounds of rainbows took place on January 2, 2020. Los Vaqueros is holding 148,808 acre feet of water, 93 percent of capacity, and the water surface temperature is 62 degrees. Some big fish are showing in the catches. Just ask Yekam El Nakar, who caught two 7 lb. and 9 lb. trout while using mini jigs. “Shore anglers are doing the best while using garlic scented PowerBait followed by night crawlers.,” according to the Los Vaqueros Marina staff. “Trolling is doing fairly well, especially in the backs of coves. On days the winds allow rental boats to get out, we have seen a number of limits, as well as anglers with just a couple of fish.” “Striper fishing is decent, with both shakers and legal sized fish being caught from around the reservoir. Cut anchovies or shad are the baits of choice, fished either from shore or a boat. Cowboy Cove and Howden Cove seem to be the hot spot for stripers. Just a reminder, stripers need to be 18 inches or more to be legal.” The trails on the North Side of the lake have reopened for fishing and hiking. Some of the trails on the North side, around the shore of Penn Cove, are closed until further notice, but you can still hike the ridges. NEW MELONES LAKE Bass Abundant, Lacking in Size ANGELS CAMP - The turnover at New Melones is beginning to take place in certain areas, but the bass have yet to move into the shallows; however, the numbers of spotted and largemouth bass are climbing out of the deep water. The best action remains on the bottom in water as deep as 80 feet, and the big one right at the boat at one point, but still managed to attain a limit by 9:30. After that, the bite died in our area so we ventured out toward the main body in hopes of upgrading. At 10:00 we hadn’t had any more bites, but we did have one thing: SUN! I was finally able to feel my toes and relieve some of the tension in my shoulders...and sometimes, that’s all you need. Landlocked Chinooks on Bite John Roco of San Francisco took a trip to Lake Chabot this December and landed this incredible 7.3-pound rainbow. Photo courtesy of the LAKE CHABOT MARINA, Lake Chabot. swimbait bite has yet to occur. If the lake finally turns over, the big bait bite should take off as the next few months are traditionally the time for trophy spotted and largemouth bass out of this reservoir. John Liechty of Xperience Fishing Guide Service said, “We are catching a good number of bass, but the size has been limited. Every once in a while, you are able to find a 3- to 4- pound bass, and at least we are getting bit with more frequency. Everything has been deep with our best action from 40 to 55 feet with plastics on the drop-shot working best. The bass have kind of moved up a bit, but they aren’t found in any real numbers above 25 to 35 feet. “ “I have caught bass as deep as 80 feet, and they are hugging the bottom right now as we aren’t even seeing them on the graph, but we are hooking fish. When they are glued to the bottom, I switch to a short 6- to 8-inch leader GONE FISHING continued from page 1 Just before noon, my money-winning worm got snagged in some rocks and I was forced to break it off and tie on a new one. The prior day, I had picked up some more Big TRDs at the new Fisherman’s Warehouse in Fairfield - this time in the Green Pumpkin Goby color. Water clarity was only around 4-6 feet, and since I was still targeting deeper water I wanted to stick with darker colors; I hoped the addition of gold and purple flake in this new bait would gain some attention. It did, and I was finally able to replace the smallmouth in our livewell - but that improved our total weight by only a pound. With just two and a half hours left, and nineteen other boats competing, I knew we would have to step it up in order to earn a check. I typically fish Largest Trout Stocking Program the ned rig fast and North of Sacramento erratically, hopping it off the bottom to Call for Reservations Lakefront gain attention get RV reaction strikes. Camping www.collinslake.com This wasn’t working P.O. Box 300 . Oregon House . California 95962 3904 during the later • Trout • Bass • Crappie • Bluegill • Catfish 800-286-0576 above the drop-shot weight, and it will make all of the difference. I use my electronics to determine leader length, and I prefer small plastics on the 2.5- to 4-inch range. Browns and greens in crawdad patterns along with shad are working best,” noted LIechty. “There are some parts of the lake that have turned over like the river arm and in the back of Coyote Creek, but the main lake has yet to turn over. We have been in the fall pattern for some time, but I predict we will get around a month of the winter pattern when the reaction bite improves. There are still sections of the lake at 55 degrees, and I think it has to do with the lack of conveyor belt action with the lake levels remaining steady. There has been minimal water movement as the water releases will help the lake turn over.,” he concluded. Trout trolling remains very slow with the occasional large rainbow taken, but the numbers are lacking. hours, so I switched to a slower, dragging presentation. I got a couple more bites, but lost them a few feet from the boat. On our way back to the dock, we revisited the area where we had success earlier in the day; my partner was able to cull one more fish before our time ran out. I heard some grumbling about the cold weather and tough conditions as I walked to the weigh station. Nice to know we weren’t alone! There are always teams who manage to have great success, however, so I was excited to watch the results. And that successful team turned out to be the last team to weigh in. Our Tournament Director, Jerry Lawler, announced he had a big fish to weigh, in hopes of winning one of the checks awarded for the two biggest fish of the tournament. And it was indeed impressive! His 4.83-pound largemouth knocked a 3.21-pounder, caught by Dick Moore, into second place. To add insult to injury, Jerry and his partner, Shannon Mason, weighed a 13.35-pound bag, knocking Dick and partner Kris Sisto into second place overall with their total of 11.35 pounds. Luckily, we are a learning club that promotes friendly competition so all the ribbing was done in jest. We’ll see how this plays out next month as we’ll find ourselves right back at Berryessa for our January tournament. OROVILLE – If you want to catch some big landlocked king salmon, head to Lake Oroville. On his first trip this year to Oroville, Rob Reimers of Rustic Rob’s Guide Service reported topnotch fishing for quality Chinook salmon. “Steve and I had a great day at Oroville banging out kings while trolling with the kokanee series cut plugs, with Pro-Cure bloody tuna to spice it up a little,” said Reimers. “We caught a total of 12 fish, keeping 10 fish in the 18 to 24 inch range,” he stated. “We fished mostly around the dam at 55 to 85 feet deep but also near the Bidwell Canyon Bridge.” On the next trip that he made with Jimmy Downs, they ended up with 3 big fish up to 23 inches and 5 smaller ones in the 12 to 13 inch range. “We tried different areas all over the lake, including Potter’s Cove, to the left and right of the bridge and near the dam,” he stated. “There were big wads of bait on the fish finder, so the fish were all very fat.” They found the best action while trolling with Brad’s Cut Plugs in the Lady Em and Fatal Attraction colors. Anglers are continuing to find typical winter bass fishing on Oroville, with most of the fish weighing around 1-3/4 pounds. Anglers are doing best while dragging plastics, Senkos and tubes and fishing Ned rigs and jigs at 20 feet deep. The water temperature remains in the fifties. The Spillway Boat Ramp is open to the public seven days a week from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Please note the trail head parking area does not open until 8 a.m., according to California State Parks. Oroville is holding 3,537,577 acre feet of water, 57 percent of capacity and 94 percent of average. The lake level is 783.82 feet in elevation. - Dan Bacher PYRAMID LAKE Trollers, Bank Anglers Battle Big Lahontan Cutthroats RENO – Boaters and shore anglers are hooking some huge Lahontan cutthroats at Pyramid Lake while fishing an array of offerings. “The water temperature is now 40 degrees,” said Sam Shallow of Deep Water Guide Service. “On my last trip, I trolled up north in really shallow water at 10 to 20 feet deep off couple of shelves at 1-1/2 to 2 miles per hour.” “I’m going on and off the gas hard, trying to make the troll as erratic as possible. We landed 11 cutthroats ranging from 8 to 14 pounds in the Hell’s Kitchen area,” he stated. “Shore fishermen are doing pretty well on the south end,” Shallow noted. “They aren’t catching the numbers that boaters are, but one fly fisherman reported catching and releasing a 26 pounder last week. Fly fishermen are using flies and indicators in the Block House area. The guy who landed the big fish reported using a balance leech/Chironomid. Combination.” If you want to fish Pyramid Lake, but don’t know anything about the lake it would be wise to hire a guide and Captain Sam Shallow is a top choice. For more information or to book your trip, give Captain Sam a call at (530) 277-0288. - Dan Bacher QUARRY LAKES Large Rainbows Lead Horseshoe Winter Angling CONTINUED ON PG 17