Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3904 Feb 1-14 | Page 23

FRESHWATER VOL.39 • ISS. 4 HOW TO By Cal Kellogg surface again…Repeat. Generally you won’t play this game for long before a hard charging bass blitzes the bait. That’s my kind of fun! What about other species? I’ve caught stripers, bluegill, crappie, channel cats, squawfish, carp and king salmon on Rapalas floaters of various sizes. Heavy Spoons Big fish eat small fish. In many of our reservoirs and throughout the Delta threadfin shad are the forage of choice. Spoons do a dynamite job of imitating shad and other baitfish. They don’t offer an exact imitation, rather they give the fish an impression of a baitfish through flash, silhouette and movement. I firmly believe that giving gamefish the “impression” of forage is far more important then providing them with an exact match in most situations. When I say “heavy spoons” I’m talking about spoons that have some heft to them like Kastmasters, Kroc- odiles, half ounce Hum Dingers and my own half ounce Speed Minnows in contrast to light weight spoons intended for trolling such as Needle- fish, Sep’s Pro Secrets and such. It’s the weight of the spoons that gives it versatility. Lightweight spoons work great from trolling, but that’s pretty much the extent or their usefulness. Heavy spoons can certainly be deadly when trolled, but you can also cast them long distances and you can jig with them too. When casting in lakes and rivers a hefty spoon allows you to work a variety of depths by counting the lure down. Once at the level you want, you can employ a range of different retrieves. You can slow roll them or reel them in quickly. You can pause the retrieve, let the spoon flutter down and then begin reeling again or you can work them with pauses and twitches. If you’re not jigging with spoons you are missing out on some outstanding action. Jigging is simple. Figure Pheasant, Chukar and Sporting Clays out the level the fish are holding At Its Finest • 3 PHEASANTS FOR ...$96 at. Drop the spoon to that level and • 8 CHUKARS FOR.......$160 close your reel. • 12 PHEASANTS FOR $388 Snap the rod tip upward a short • 3 PHEASANTS + 4 CHUKARS distance and then FOR $170 let the lure fall and flutter on a slack line. If 17 Station Sporting Clay Course! semi the line pauses or 100 Rounds Sporting Clays twitches set the Only $36 hook. 1000 Rounds One of the great Sporting Clays Only $320 things about Company or Corporate shoots spoons is that available at reasonable prices! most gamefish Pheasant Season Is Now Open, including trout, So Book Early For Best Dates And Rates! bass, panfish, stripers and even 45 Miles North of Sacramento www.lincraahauges.com • traahauge@yahoo.com channel cats will 3 Pheasants & 100 Sporting Clays $130 (530) 724-0552 The KFBK OUTDOOR SHOW 3819 1 Rated Outdoor Radio Show for 26 years! # with your host Bob Simms Fishing • Hunting • Destinations Conservation • History Dedicated to the Northern California Outdoorsman BOB SIMMS Listen Every Saturday Morning from 5 am to 8am CALIFORNIA’S LONGEST RUNNING OUTDOOR TALK SHOW! Jan 31 - Feb 14, 2020 21 continued from page 5 gear out, a hop and pause retrieve right on the bottom using a vibrating crank, much like you’d fish a jig. This approach can be highly effective for black bass. For stripers a fast and steady troll or retrieve is the way to go. Just remember when casting to work out your retrieve all the way to the rod tip. Stripers love to crowd the bait up against the bank or boat before striking. When a 12 pound striper grabs your Rat-L-Trap 24 inches from the rod tip, it will make you heart skip a beat and you’ll probably have to wipe the whitewater off your sunglasses! Curly Tail Grubs Grubs aren’t much to look at, but they are absolutely deadly fish catchers. They were one of the best kept secrets in the trout trolling frater- nity for a long time, but now the word has gotten out and more and more folks are using them. For trout trolling simply pin a 1, 1.5, 2 or 3 inch grub on a hook attached to a piece of fluorocarbon leader. Attach that leader to your mainline with a quality trolling swivel to avoid line twist and troll the bait slowly at the level you think the trout are hanging out. I generally run my grubs naked, but at times I’ll team them with a dodger or set of flashers. For casting you’ll want to team your grubs with darter style jig heads. For trout, bass and panfish 1/8 and ¼ ounce heads work great. If stripers are in the mix you’ll want to upsize both your grubs and the size of your heads. You can work jig rigged grubs a number of different ways. You can toss them out and slow roll them in swimbait style. You can burn them in, try a drop and pause approach or mix in a variety of twitches, rips and pauses. Heck you can even toss them out and let them spiral all the way to the bottom on a semi-slack line. This can be very effective in the late fall when water temperatures really start to drop and the shad start to die. If you are targeting fish that like to hang out on the bottom, such as black bass munching on crawfish a hop We carry Lead Free Pistol ammo for and pause retrieve the hunter who wants to carry his tends to work very handgun in Lead Free Hunting Zones. well. Available in a variety of calibers... One of the great things about grubs CALL FOR DETAILS! is that fish tend THE LARGEST SELECTION OF AIR GUN PELLETS to grab them and ON THE WEST COAST – GUARANTEED!! hang on for a bit, 10% since they are OFF! made from soft “Burst Fire” .20 gram premium high grade airsoft bb’s 5000 count - now only $12.99 plastic and feel AIRGUN like real prey to Largest selection of REPAIR Quality Pellets in California the fish. We are a respond to both cast and retrieve approaches and jigging. All you need to do is match the size of the spoon to the forage in the lake and the size of the fish you are trying to catch. For stripers half to 2 ounce models will likely be appropriate, while panfish and trout will require smaller lighter spoons. Vibrating Crankbait Vibrating crankbaits are made by a long list of manufacturers. Rattle-L- Traps and Cordell Spot are the most famous of the lot, but nearly all of them will hook fish. My first ever fish on a crankbait was a 6 pound Delta striper that jumped all over a blue and chrome Cordell Spot. Catching that fish was quite a thrill and a chrome Cordell Spot remains one of my very favorite striper baits to this day! As with the other lures I’ve mentioned it’s the vibrating crank- bait’s resemblance to a shad minnow and their versatility that makes them so deadly. If there was ever a lure made for fishing quickly and covering a lot of water, it’s the vibrating crankbait. These lures sink like a rock and the faster you crank them in the more sound and vibration their hollow BB filled bodies put out. For trout and panfish I’ve found small versions either trolled or casted and retrieved steadily at a brisk pace to be deadly when the fish are actively feeding. Like spoons you can count them down to work a range of depths. When it comes to black bass you can get really creative with vibrating cranks. One of the tried and true approaches is to cast them out near submerged weeds using fairly stout gear. You’ll want to count the bait down a bit and then start a steady retrieve. As soon as you feel the bait hitting weeds give it a hard rip, basically ripping it through the weeds. A lot of times as soon as the bait rips free a largemouth will smash it. As long as we’ve got the heavy LEAD FREE PISTOL AMMO! ALL PELLETS AND SUPPLIES 3619 .177 to .45 cal Crosman Authorized JSB, H&N, CROSMAN, BEEMAN Repair & Service Center Call for details! GAMO, DAISY, PREDATOR SAM YANG, EUNJIN, MENDOZA, SHOOTING TECH FORCE, DGS, BIG BORE RANGE & AIRGUNS AIRSOFT SUPER STORE 916-564-5225 5207 Madison Ave, Ste. 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