Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3906 Feb 28- Mar 13 | Page 14

12 FRESHWATER Feb 28-Mar 13, 2020 FRESHWATER REPORTS: CONTINUED FROM PG 11 DONNER LAKE Trollers Battle Mackinaw Trout TRUCKEE - Donner Lake, located in Truckee on the east slope of the Sierra Nevada between Interstate 80 to the north and Schallenberger Ridge to the south, provides anglers a good chance of catching a trophy mackinaw during the winter. Renowned for its alpine beauty, Donner hosts the same species that the much larger Lake Tahoe does – mackinaw trout, rainbow trout, brown trout, kokanee salmon and planted Lahontan cutthroat trout. In search of big mackinaws and browns, Shaun Rainsbarger of Shaun’s Guide Service and Janes Netzel of Tight Lines Guide Service ventured to Donner on Saturday, February 1 on a relatively warm day during a break in the weather in his heated boat. Although they did not get the monster fish they had hoped for, they landed two gorgeous mackinaw trout up to 5 pounds while trolling with big custom painted AC plugs at 50 to 60 feet deep. “We launched at sunrise and fished until 1:30 p.m.,” said Rainsbarger. “The water was very cold, 38 to 40 degrees. It’s difficult to fish the lake when it’s cold because the mackinaw are lethargic. At the same time, the winter is the best time for your chance to hook a larger mackinaw or brown.” In 2016, a client of Rainsbarger’s landed a mackinaw weighing 25 pounds and measuring 39-1/2 inches long, the biggest he’s ever weighed and photographed. Rainsbarger hooked and released a larger fish measuring 47 inches in 2005, but never weighed it. The largest brown he’s ever hooked was a 11-pound beauty that a client boated while trolling an F-18 Rapala last year. “When the water warms up to around 50 degrees, the mackinaw bite usually goes crazy,” he noted. “Exactly when happens, they move quickly to coral the baitfish up against the rocks. Show these hunting trout a small crankbait erratically bouncing along the rocks and chances are you’ll be yelling fish on. The best baits for this type of work are shallow to moderately deep running crankbaits that are in the 1 to 2.5-inch range. These baits should closely mimic the appearance and movement of threadfin shad or crawfish. Yakima Bait Mag Lips in the 2.0, 2.5 and 3.0 sizes work very well for this work and they are also a great trolling bait with their skip beat action, so a selection of them • Trout • Bass • Crappie • Bluegill • Catfish VOL.39 • ISS. 6 this happens all depends on the snowmelt. Some years it’s in April and other years not until June.” - Dan Bacher FEATHER RIVER Smallmouth Bass Show On River MARYSVILLE – Mark Morrison of Mark Morrisons Guide Service and his dad, John, made a scouting trip on the Feather EAST DELTA River out of the Riverfront Park ramp to Anglers Gear Up for check out river conditions and to see what Spring Stripers and they could find. “The water was low, but we trolled Largemouths minnows and fished nightcrawlers in a 1 STOCKTON – Striped bass mile stretch of water that is 8 to 10 feet action remains very slow for trollers. deep,” said Morrison. “We picked up three Dave Houston of Livermore was smallmouth bass in the 1-1/2 to 2 lb range out this week, and he said, “The on the nightcrawlers. The smallmouths water is very murky from the high were about 15 feet off the bank in still winds this past week, and the water water. The water was clear and cold at 49 temperature is just under 52 degrees degrees.” in the San Joaquin and 50 on the “We always get smallmouth bass on Sacramento. this stretch of river this time of year,” he “We only found three keepers to stated. “The smallmouths are just starting 24 inches working from the Antioch to make nests. Two of the fish were Bridge to Connection Slough in the females and loaded with eggs. Last year San Joaquin. The fish were dark, we picked up some nice stripers in this indicating that they were resident stretch of river.” fish. Any day now, we should start Morrison is available for guided striped getting the spring run fish,” he bass and smallmouth bass trips on forecasted. the Feather, as well as for trout and Captain Zach Medinas of salmon trips on Folsom Lake. For more Gatecrasher Fishing Adventures information, call (916) 308-3226. was able to find a few sturgeon for Water releases below Oroville Dam are release on his cured salmon roe, only 1750 cfs. and Kevin Pohley of Auburn, along The Feather River Fish Hatchery is with Ian and Thom McMahon of Rob Cooper nailed this big 21-inch king salmon seeing another good steelhead run this while trolling at Folsom Lake during the last week of Ferndale, were able to pose with a season, with 1738 total adult steelhead, January. big diamondback before release. including 912 males and 669 females, Photo courtesy of ROB COOPER, Sacramento. For largemouth bass, Randy counted to date. They also returned 80 Pringle, the Fishing Instructor, said, half pounders to the river. “It’s been fun on the Delta right now “The egg total is 1.5 million eggs so far,” the weeds.” as we are fishing light line at 8-pound reported Anna Kastner, hatchery manager. “The weight of the hook is light, and mono working the outside weed lines “We have to take at least 1 million eggs it will allow a slow-moving bait. I run it with access into deeper water as the to meet our production goal of 450,000 weedless by hooking one side of the bass are slowly working up into the smolts.” plastic and reversing it to hook the other spawning grounds. I have been using The CDFW is now planting steelhead side. There is a good window in the early plastics like the Berkley General with smolts in the river. They also hope to morning before the bite slows down, but it Max Scent with a Texas-style light wire stock 15,000 steelhead or more into the will pick up again by mid-morning into the hook in the middle of the worm. I want afterbay. afternoons from 11:00 to 3:00 p.m. The both sides to hang over the weeds, and - Dan Bacher south-facing banks along the north sides using this style of rigging the plastic of the levees on east/west waterways are will keep them on top of the weeds and CONTINUED ON PG 17 still the best locations to target,” he stated. allow it to parallel instead of a drop-shot - Dave Hurley or Neko-rig that will have the plastic into HOW TO By Cal Kellogg will do double duty for you as both trolling and casting baits. Since small crankbaits are light and trout waters tend to be clear, I like to fish these bait on a medium light spinning rod spooled with 8 to 10-pound test fluoro- carbon line. Crankbaits can be fished either from a boat equipped with an electric trolling motor or from the bank using the same basic technique. In general, you want to make a long cast at a shallow angle parallel to the bank. If you are fishing from a boat, stay a few yards offshore and make your cast right up against the bank. If you are on the bank, fire your lure down the bank, so that it lands 10 to 20 feet offshore. After the plug lands start cranking it steadily back. You want it moving quickly in most cases. When it makes contact with the rocks, don’t worry about continued from page 5 snagging. The crankbaits lip will almost always keep the bait from hanging up. When you feel it bounce off the rocks, either twitch the rod tip or speed up the reel, making the lure dart away from the rocks. The strike will often come just as the lure accelerates. Cranking is a simple way to cover lots of water and I’ve found that often the trout I hook using this method average larger than the trout I get trolling or bait fishing in the same lake. I stay out of coves when cranking for trout. Experience has shown me that points and steep shorelines in a lake or reservoir’s main body represent the most productive areas for cranking. Spooning is the secret method of many tournament bass anglers. Spooning refers to vertically jigging a heavy spoon out in open water or around deep water structure that either holds gamefish or baitfish. As the spoon rises and falls it gives the impression of being a mortally wounded baitfish and this makes it look like an easy meal. Trout like an easy meal just as much as bass do and many bass anglers fishing lakes such as Collins, Shasta, Folsom and Berryessa have accidentally found out that Now Booking American River Steelhead and Folsom Lake Trout Drift Boat Trips Custom 23’ Rogue Jet Largest Trout Stocking Program North of Sacramento Lakefront RV Camping Call for Reservations 800-286-0576 www.collinslake.com P.O. Box 300 . Oregon House . California 95962 Cpt. Jerry Lampkin – 25 years of experience fishing Salmon, Steelhead, Stripers, Trout & landlocked Kings on the Feather, Sacramento, American Rivers and Folsom Lake 3906 3802 T.N.G Motorsports Guide Service (530) 320-0884 • www.tngmotorsports.com hefty rainbows won’t hesitate to grab a spoon intended for hard charging spotted bass. For trout spooning you don’t want a light weigh trolling spoon such as a Needlefish, nor do you want one of the heavy 1 or 2 ounce slabs that bass anglers routinely use. Instead, the ideal choice for average size rainbows and browns is a relatively small dense spoon that produces a lot of fluttering action when it falls through the water. Good choices include Kastmas- ters, Krocodiles, Little Cleos, half ounce Hum Dingers, Speed Spoons and Cripple Herring spoons. My personal favorites are quarter to half ounce Hum Dingers or Speed Spoons. I don’t think color is a huge issue when spooning, but just the same, I adhere to a match the hatch philosophy with metallic colors being my top choices. In terms of technique, spooning is pretty simple. The first task is to find an area using your sonar unit that is dotted with fish, bait or preferably both. Note the level of the sonar returns and drop your spoon down to a depth just above the sonar marks. Using an 8 o’clock to 11 o’clock motion lift the spoon with a flip of the wrist and then let it fall on a slightly slack line. Strikes seldom occur on the up stroke. Both trout and bass prefer to hit a spoon as it falls. If the line stops or you feel a tap, it’s time to set the hook. Generally, you won’t feel a thing, but when you start the next upstroke the fish will simply “be there”. There are other bass techniques that can be applied to the sport of trout fishing such as drop shotting and ripping, but alas we are out of space for now.