Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3905 Feb 14-28 | Page 20

18 Feb 14 - 28, 2020 VOL.39 • ISS. 5 Catch & Release Fishing! Hook More & Bigger Fish With Flies... Sponsored by Kiene’s Fly Shop 916-483-1222 • www.Kienesflyshop.com 9550 Micron Ave. Suite B • Sacramento, CA The Mokelumne River’s Valley Fly Action! Courtesy of Kiene’s Fly Shop Below Camanche Lake, the Mokelumne River courses through private agri- cultural land that has public access at certain intervals. The tailwater section runs for about eight miles. Most of the best water can only be accessed by watercraft, but there is a productive wadeable section adjacent to the boat ramp near the hatchery. Being that the river is located in the lower elevation foothills, the flow characteristics are in the form of pools and deep tailouts which is typical of the other central valley tail-waters. One of the great things about the Moke is that it runs primarily through private agricultural land so it gets little fishing pressure and to fish its whole length you must float it in some sort of watercraft. The river has a fair number of rainbow trout in the ten to twelve inch range, and most of them are probably steelhead smolts. There are a lot of them year round. But when the winter weather warms up a little in February, the larger adult steelhead arrive on their spawning run, which is when things get real exciting. Hooking a six to eight pound fish just fresh from the saltwater is one of the most exciting experiences in the sport of freshwater fishing. For most fishermen, pound for pound, steelhead are the strongest fighters than almost any other fish species that can be caught in fresh water. Returning steelhead begin entering the system in January and continue until April when they pair up and begin spawning. These fish average from twenty to twenty five inches and possess a chrome sheen when they first arrive. This is one of the best times to float the Moke as the flows are usually at a manageable 350 cfs and only blow out occasionally HOW TO By Cal Kellogg into the lake’s forage base consisting of threadfin shad and immature sunfish. Bank anglers prosper at Collins soaking floating dough bait and inflated night crawlers along the western shoreline from the dam to Elmer’s Cove. Bankies shouldn’t be afraid to fan cast with a shad imitating spoon. The rewards can be great. Boaters do well pulling baitfish colored spoons and small plugs. Threaded worms, plastic grubs and baitfish colored hoochies work well too. A sleeper approach is to run up the lake, beach your boat and soak standard baits off a seldom fished shoreline. Lake Davis Plumas County’s Lake Davis was once heralded as one of the West’s five star trout fisheries and then a dark cloud in the form of Northern Pike descended on the lake. Someone planted the pike in the lake. The California DFW, fearing that the pike would make it into the Feather River and ultimately the California Delta poisoned continued from page 5 the lake twice. The last round of poisoning took place in 2007 and no pike have been found since. The spring after the pike were gone, 750,000 pounds of trout were planted into the lake and Davis has received heavy planting in the years since. Today Davis is approaching its old glory days both in terms of the number of rainbows being caught and the size of the fish. Last season hard charging ‘bows in the 20 to 27-inch class were common. Much of Davis is shallow and weedy. Bugs of various types dominate the trout economy making Terry Davis a favorite destination for wading and float tubing fly anglers. Fly guys score on a variety of wet flies, with leach and dragon fly larva imitations being favorites. Bank bound gear anglers score with spoons and inflated worms, while trollers rely on small spoons and trolling flies worked slowly. Pheasant, Chukar and Sporting Clays At Its Finest • 3 PHEASANTS FOR ...$96 • 8 CHUKARS FOR.......$160 3 Pheasants & • 12 PHEASANTS FOR $388 100 Sporting Clays • 3 PHEASANTS + 4 CHUKARS $130 FOR $170 Raahauge’s 17 Station Sporting Clay Course! 100 Rounds Memorial Hunt Sporting Clays Feb. 22nd & 23rd Only $36 w G laSS l ur llo eS a h Trout • Mackinaw S Pheasants $27 Ea Chukar $15 Ea Lunch $5 per person Kokanee • Salmon Bright, Durable, Unique BOOK EARLY! Glass Lures Handmade In Northern California www.shallowglasslures.com 3810 (530) 386-8064 exceedingly difficult for anglers that managed to launch a boat. “What a difference a couple wet winters have made at Eagle,” related Bryan Roccucci, a prominent north state guide. “Late in the season last year we were seeing rainbow pushing up into the 6-pound range. I’m not going to say the fishery is back to where it once was, but it’s become very good again.” In the spring, Eagle Lake trouters will prosper while pulling plastic grubs, orange spoons and flies and threaded ‘crawlers. If you’re a fly angler, you owe it to yourself to do some research and pay Eagle a visit in late October or November. That’s when huge rainbows move into very thin water looking to feed. The action on streamers can be incredible! Collins Lake Collins is a central state favorite pulling in urban anglers from the Bay Area and rural anglers from places like Grass Valley, Yuba City and Marysville. The lake is managed for fishermen. There are regular private trout plants, DFW plants and like at Shasta, non-profit organizations maintain trout pens at Collins. Standard DFW planters go into the net pens within the lake. These fish are then fed a high protein diet for 9 months to a year. When they are released they are beautiful square tails that run 2 to 4 pounds. Best of all these fish are used to the conditions in the lake. They are already chomping on wayward baitfish, so when they are released they are already dialed during heavy storms that come in off the Pacific. As the storms tend to be somewhat less frequent in the spring, you usually have good water to fish in. The number of fish can increase dramatically right after the river subsides at the end of a big storm. The most important bugs that make up the fish cuisine are the caddis & pale morning duns (summer) and blue wing olives in the cooler months so patterns representing them are a must regardless of the time of year. Crawdad imitations aren’t a bad idea either. In the winter and spring, any two fly set up should include an egg pattern. In the summer and fall dry flies can be productive so size #16 and #18 Pale Morning Duns and Blue Wing Olive imitations (after September when the weather begins to cool off) are productive. Double nymph rigs with a bead head olive Caddis larva imitation and a #16 or #18 Pale Morning Dun nymph imitation such as a small bead head Pheasant Tail or olive Bird’s Nest, cover all of the bases in the spring and summer. 45 Miles North of Sacramento 1000 Rounds Sporting Clays Only $320 Company or Corporate shoots available at reasonable prices! Pheasant Season Is Now Open, So Book Early For Best Dates And Rates! (530) 724-0552 www.lincraahauges.com • traahauge@yahoo.com