Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3909 April 10-24 | Page 3

Up-To-Date and Published Locally... By Sportsmen... For Sportsmen! Pardee Lake Map Feature MADE IN U.S.A See Page 14 Vol. 39 - ISS.9 Our 38th Year W April 10 - 24, 2020 “The Magazine for West Coast Sportsmen!” Fear & Loathing In Pandemic City! ell from that title you can tell I’m a fan of Hunter S. Thompson. The fact is, I’ve been reading a lot of his work recently, while sheltering in place as the country, indeed the world weathers out this unprece- dented COVID 19 pandemic. Here at the homestead, we’ve had a challenging couple weeks. Those big late season storms that blitzed through the north state raised hell in the Sierra Foothills. Apparently, the dry warm weather we enjoyed in February caused the sap to rise in our trees. When the snow came, the already heavy trees began snapping. When they came down they took out a huge number of power lines. We had two poles go down within a couple hundred yards of my drive way. PG&E crews were so busy that we had a GONE FISHING by Cal Kellogg A Since 1982 shattered pole and transformer in our street for two full days before a PG&E team showed up. On my property, a good size oak went down that had been used by the Here we see Fish Sniffer editor Cal Kellogg in action just after a feisty Rollins PG&E for a substitute Lake rainbow grabbed a trolling spoon zipping along at 2.7 MPH. While the lake is now closed, the fishing promises to be great when the lake reopens. power pole There are a lot of trout in the lake. They are gobbling pond smelt and gaining when they weight every week! Photo by CAL KELLOGG, Fish Sniffer Staff. brought the power line stranger to cutting up trees, but cutting up to my house. Somehow The power line that oak so I could repair the fences was a pulled free and the line didn’t get ripped challenge. The tree was tangled in wire, it out of my house. The tree also barely missed cleaving my was laying across several elevated cement block planting boxes and the quarters swamp cooler off the side of the house… were tight. In short it was a bad situation That’s the good news, but the bad news for running a big powerful chainsaw. was that the tree took out two 8-foot- tall wire deer proof fences. Now I’m no CONTINUED ON PG 23 Trolling with Snap Weights for Lake Camanche Rainbows got to try out some new ideas at Lake Camanche, now closed to fishing and other recreation during the corona virus pandemic. On February 12, I kicked off my 2020 trout fishing season with Kirby Desha of Lincoln. We motored down Highway 99 to the Liberty Road exit in Galt which quickly transported us to the Lake Camanche north shore facility. As I crept the rig down the incline of the ramp, the black silhouette of the tree line provided a stark contrast to the dim orange glow of the horizon. By the time we had the boat warmed up, there was enough available Kirby Desha of Lincoln used an Arctic Fox tube fly behind a light to motor up the WiggleFin Action Disc to produce this beautiful rainbow trout at Mokelumne River arm s trout anglers, we are constantly searching for new and better ways to put fish into our boats. While there are always hot new lures that everybody catches on to, we still experiment on our own to see what might work. I recently Lake Camanche. 38 Years Serving Sportsmen to our starting point. During late winter and early spring months, I’ve done well fishing the area below the Buena Vista Road Bridge. The game plan was to start off trolling slow, then speed up or change locations if we weren’t getting fish. The surface water temperature was 52 degrees, unseasonably warm for February! We spread the gear between two side planers, one down- rigger set to 6 feet deep, and one topline. We attached my favorite trout lure to the ends of all four lines. It consists of an Arctic Fox tube fly behind a small-size clear round WiggleFin Action Disc. I run the disc flush with the eye of the hook, then tip the hook with an inch-long piece WHAT’S HOT by Jack Naves Photo by JACK NAVES, Fish Sniffer Staff. F ish S niffer T IP OF THE W EEK CONTINUED ON PG 16 Wash Your Hands! Don’t Touch Your Face! See Page 2 for an update about the Fish Sniffer and Coronavirus Special Section KAYAK Fishing: pgs 20 INSIDE Area Reports FRESHWATER REPORTS Amador Lake - Berryessa Lake..............................4 Bullards Bar/Englebright Reservoir - Davis Lake...............................................11 Don Pedro Lake - Eastern Sierra........................ 12 Feather River - Folsom Lake............................... 17 Knights Landing/Colusa - Rancho Seco Reservoir .................... 18-19 Rio Vista - Sacramento Area/American River..... 21 Santa Clara Valley Lakes/San Luis Reservoir - West Delta......................................... 22-23 SALTWATER REPORTS Berkeley - Monterey Bay....................................24-25 Monterey Bay......................................................27 FEATURES Where...When...How... TROUT AND KOKANEE JOURNAL........... 6-10 BAJA ROUNDUP........................................................27 BULLETIN BOARD.....................................................3 CATCH & RELEASE - FLY FISHING: Alex Cady............12 FISH SNIFFER COUNTRY: Dan Bacher.....................4 GO FOR IT: Update on Covid-19................................2 HOW-TO: Cal Kellogg................................................5 KAYAK FISHING SPOTLIGHT: Kevin Hofer .............20 MAP FEATURE: Dan Bacher...............................14-15 SPOTLIGHT ON CONSERVATION: Dan Bacher......26 STAFF TACKLE What We’re Using Cal Kellogg - with COVID 19 concerns and a long-term power outage at his home due to snow, Cal didn’t hit the water this week, but he did spend some time rigging gear. He spooled up an Abu Garcia 5500 LC with a hybrid leadcore rig utilizing 20 lb FINS braid backing, 3 colors of 15lb Sufix leadcore line and a 17 pound 60-foot top shot of Yo-Zuri TopKnot Fluorocarbon. Paul Kneeland - fished Shasta Lake with John Brassfield of Trucksmart stores in the Fish Sniffer 21’ Rogue Jet Coastal. They caught rainbow trout to 18 inches and a fat 26 inch german brown, using an Okuma 8 1\2 foot light action SST graphite rod with a new Okuma Coldwater low profile line counter reel loaded with 10 lb test Soft Steel line.. They trolled Silver Horde Kingfisher Lite spoons in orange/nickel and white/nickel both on the surface with Big Jon sideplaners and off the Canon Downriggers at 40 to 50 feet deep and 2.3 mph. Dan Bacher - shore fished for rainbow trout at Rancho Seco 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.