Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3908 Mar 27- Apr 10 | Page 3

38 Years Serving Sportsmen Up-To-Date and Published Locally... By Sportsmen... For Sportsmen! Monterey Bay Region Map Feature MADE IN U.S.A See Page 14 Mar 27 - Apr 10, 2020 Vol. 39 - ISS.8 Our 38th Year Since 1982 “The Magazine for West Coast Sportsmen!” Hanging Out With Junior Bassers At Folsom Lake C arter Martin and Stellan Edelen haven’t even reached high school yet, but they’ve already set goals for them- selves well beyond their collegiate years. When I asked Edelen what his long-term fishing goals were, he told me, “I want to keep fishing tournaments throughout high school and college, but I also want to pursue engineering and real estate.” Martin also has big plans. He wants to attend Sacramento State and fish on their college team. “When I graduate college, my goal is to get a Master’s Degree, a good job, and fish with B.A.S.S.” Ultimately, he wants to fish the big leagues on the Bassmaster Elite series. The pair is certainly off to a great start; they recently placed first in the Junior Division of the Folsom Open hosted by Vista del Lago High School. The tour- nament, held annually on Folsom Lake, brought in over 75 youth teams from Redding to Fresno. It’s one of the largest high school tournaments in the state and takes a large team of event coordinators and boat captains to plan and execute. Corporate sponsorships and raffle prizes were provided by companies such as Shimano, River2Sea, and Lucas Oil. Lunch was donated, prepared, and served by Vista Gone fishing by Stacy Barawed Special Section KAYAK Fishing: pgs 20 INSIDE Area Reports Freshwater reports Lake Amador - Camanche Lake.............................4 Clear Lake - Collins Lake........................................7 Davis Lake - Folsom Lake......................................8 Klamath River - Knights Landing/Colusa..............11 Los Vaqueros Lake - Oroville Lake...................... 12 Pardee Lake - San Pablo Reservoir............... 17-18 Tahoe - West Delta......................................... 22-23 Saltwater Reports Baja Roundup........................................................... 26 Berkeley/Emeryville - Half Moon Bay.................24-25 Monterey Bay................................................ 26-27 del Lago High School volunteers. Although the sun was shining and the breeze was practi- cally non-existent during the weigh-in, weather posed a bit of Stellan Edelen, Vista del Lago High School Fishing Club. Photo by STACY BARAWED, Fish Sniffer Staff. a challenge earlier in the day. halted their attempts after just an hour. “The day started pretty calm, but then Despite that, they still had some tourna- it got REALLY windy!” said Zachary ment success. Baylasy and Isaac Graves of the Delta “We did OK, we got two fish…they were Teen Team. They caught two right off the about two and a half pounds each,” said bat, but their third fish didn’t come for Kamryn. another two hours. As with every tournament, there are The wind was a factor even in the days always a few teams that find some good leading up to the tournament. Twins fish. Those teams were handsomely Karlee and Kamryn Rosalez of the rewarded with trophies, brand-new East County Student Anglers in Oakley rods donated by Dobyns, and red carpet attempted to pre-fish the weekend prior to the tournament, but blustery conditions CONTINUED ON PG 16 FEATURES Where...When...How... Baja Roundup........................................................26 Bulletin board.....................................................3 Catch & Release - Fly Fishing: Kiene’s Fly Shop... 11 Fish Sniffer Country: Steve ‘Hippo’ Lau..........25 GO FOR IT: Staff.......................................................13 HOW-TO: Cal Kellogg................................................9 Kayak Fishing Spotlight: Courtesy of Hobie ...20 MAP Feature: Dan Bacher...............................14-15 SPOTLIGHT ON CONSERVATION: Dan Bacher......21 STAFF TACKLE That’s The Biggest Trout I’ve Ever Caught! What We’re Using I t’s been an interesting and sometimes frustrating late fall and winter fishing season here in Northern California. The fall was prolonged and warm and the winter has been largely mild and warm. Wes Ward and I were trolling from our kayaks, Wes in his Hobie Outback and Lucy and I in our Pro Angler 14. I was a few yards from Wes when the strike came. “Dude I’ve got one on a spoon,” Wes said excitedly as he snatched the leadcore rod from its holder and started working the reel. Wes is a long-time bass angler, but for the past year and a half he’s focused on learning the ropes of trout fishing, so I was pumped when he hooked up. “I can’t tell how big it is,” he said has he cranked the handle on his Daiwa line counter. The rainbow stayed pretty calm until it saw the kayak and then it got more energetic. Wes kept his cool, dividing his attention between fighting the fish and keeping the kayak moving forward in a straight line, since he had a second bait working 25 feet deep off his downrigger. In a narrow craft like a kayak it takes a lot of vigilance to avoid tangles when trolling two lines. Several seconds later, the trout boiled to the surface within net range and Wes made the scoop in a spray of whitewater. “Wow, that’s the biggest trout I’ve ever caught. It’s bigger than that one I got at Davis last fall,” Wes excitedly shouted as a hefty 3 plus pound rainbow gyrated in the net… Collins Lake was the scene of the crime and Wednesday, March 4 was the date. The weather was perfect. Orig- inally, our plan was to hit Lake Davis, but there was a good deal of wind in the forecast for the high country so we opted for some foothill action instead. And with rain and breeze in the forecast for the next several days, we figured we’d better get our trout on while the getting was good. The day started off slow for me. I beat Wes to the lake by 30 minutes or so. I made the rounds past the Swim Beach and into Elmer’s Cove without a bump. Wes, on the other hand launched WHAT’s Hot by Cal Kellogg Wes Ward nailed this husky rainbow trout while trolling a small orange and chrome spoon at Collins Lake off a hybrid leadcore outfit this March. Photo by WES WARD, Fish Sniffer Staff F ish S niffer T IP OF THE W EEK CONTINUED ON PG 10 Pro-Cure Super Gels will help you catch more stripers. Made from real whole fresh bait, Super Gel is the ideal scent for lures, plugs, jigs, spoons, soft plastics, swim baits and the large rainbow trout plugs or soft baits. Super charged with powerful amino acids and UV enhanced, this sticky gel matrix will stick to lures and plastics for many casts or long troll times. If you are getting boils and short strikes you need to add Super Gel to motivate those following bass to attack! Savvy striper anglers know that adding Super Gel to your artificials will turn follows to hook ups. Cal Kellogg - Fished Lake Almanor from his Hobie Pro Angler 14 kayak with his Labrador Lucy. The duo landed several rainbow trout to 23.5 inches while trolling a combination of orange flies and small orange spoons. The trout were holding from 10 to 20 feet deep, so Cal employed a pair of his signature Hybrid Leadcore Rigs to his offerings into the strike zone. Paul Kneeland - fished Englebright Reservoir with John Brassfield of Trucksmart stores and John Brassfield senior in John’s 18’ Duckworth. They caught rainbow trout to 14 1/2 inches using a 8’ light action Okuma Kokanee Black rod with a Daiwa Lexa 100 line counter reel loaded with 8 lb test P Line CXX line. They trolled Vance’s watermelon dodgers followed by a nightcrawler on a #4 Mustad Slow death hook on the surface at 1.5 mph. Dan Bacher - Fished for rainbow trout at Sugar Pine Reservoir. 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 chartreuse Berkley PowerBait, nightcrawlers and 2/5 oz. gold Little Cleos.