Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3911 May 2020 | Page 8

8 May 2020 Depending on the size of the worms I’m using, I pin them on either a No. 8 or 10 bait holder hook. A lot of anglers make the mistake of balling their worm up on the hook. This results in a lifeless worm glob. A better strategy is to lightly pin the worm on the hook. This way as it drifts along it is able to move and wriggle, resulting in a much more natural looking presentation and correspondingly more hookups. Running a close second to worms in my stream trout arsenal are crickets. Trout love crickets and grasshoppers, so they are a wonderful choice. The crickets I buy generally come 50 at a time in a VOL.39 • ISS. 11 How To By Cal Kellogg brown tub with a chunk of potato in it for the crickets to feed on. The lids on these tubs come off pretty easily. I only had to loose all my crickets once to realize that I needed a better way of carrying them on the stream. Fortunately for us there are commer- cially manufactured cricket cages available on the market. These cages have a screw on lid at the top, a metal or plastic mesh middle section and a tapered funnel shaped opening on the bottom that is plugged with a cork. When you pull out the cork there is enough room for a single cricket to exit the cage and on the hook he goes! Crickets are pretty active and transitioning them from the tub into a cricket cage can be tough, but there is a trick you can use to We carry Lead Free Pistol ammo for make things easier. the hunter who wants to carry his Crickets are cold blooded. If you pop handgun in Lead Free Hunting Zones. the tub of them into Available in a variety of calibers... a freezer or ice chest for a short time CALL FOR DETAILS! THE LARGEST SELECTION OF AIR GUN PELLETS they will become lethargic, making ON THE WEST COAST – GUARANTEED!! it a simple task to 10% make the transfer. OFF! LEAD FREE PISTOL AMMO! ALL PELLETS AND SUPPLIES “Burst Fire” .20 gram premium high grade airsoft bb’s 5000 count - now only 3619 continued from page 7 When you expose crickets to the cold you want to keep an eye on them. You don’t want them to die. You just want to slow them down. If you choose to take the time to catch grasshoppers they are even more effective than crickets and you can keep them in the same cage you’d keep crickets in. To catch grasshoppers you’ll need some sort of fine meshed net with a long handle. With net in hand, head out to a grassy, brushy area and let the hunt begin. Heck if you’ve got the time, catching ‘hoppers can be almost as fun as stalking trout! Crickets and grasshopper are placed on the hook in the same way. The hook point is inserted into the chest just below the head and exits the body where the abdomen connects to the rear of the chest. To keep them securely in place, push the eye of the hook into the chest. A No. 10 bait holder hook is about right for crickets while a larger No. 8 bait holder works better for grasshoppers. Trout, especially rainbows, seem to be genetically wired to eat salmon eggs, since both hatchery trout and wild trout living in streams that don’t have a salmon run will readily gobble up salmon eggs, despite the fact that they have never seen one before. The first trout I ever caught came on a salmon egg and I’ve caught countless others on eggs over the years. Bait & Tackle 3816 $12.99 AIRGUN Largest selection of REPAIR Quality Pellets in California We are a .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 Visit The Mother Lode Region’s Official Fishing Tackle Headquarters Today For All Of your Inland Fishing Needs! WIDE SELECTION • GREAT PRICES • YOU SAVE! HOOKD4LIFE.COM RODS • REELS • LINE • FROGS • SWIMBAITS • JIGS BAIT • HOOKS • SPINNERS • TERMINAL TACKLE • HARDBAITS • SOFT PLASTICS • SPECIALS • CLOSEOUTS & MUCH MORE! Visit us on your way to: Camanche, Pardee, Amador, Rancho Seco, New Melones And More ! 5207 Madison Ave, Ste. H, Sacramento, CA 95838 (209) 790-5100 There are a few different brands of salmon eggs on the market. The best I’ve ever used come from the Pautzke Bait Company in Washington State. Pautzke’s Green Label eggs are the stuff of legend on most West Coast trout streams, likely having produced more trout than all other baits combined. When most anglers think of salmon eggs they envision bright red eggs. Red eggs work great, but for a subtler presentation I like to have some yellow, orange or natural colored eggs on hand too. Eggs are best fished one or two at a time. I fish my eggs with a No. 12 octopus hook imbedded in them. If I’m using two eggs I pin the hook through the first egg and slide the egg up onto the leader. The second egg has the hook imbedded in it and the second egg is slid down against it. The final bait I’ll discuss in the lowly mealworm. Mealies are a light colored larval worm that are about 1 inch long. They are plump, juicy and helpless, making them a prime target for a hungry trout. I like to place them on a No. 10 bait holder hook. I thread them onto the hook such that the entire shank of the hook and the eye is concealed in the worm and only the bend and the point are exposed. Rods, reels, tackle and baits, that is half the picture for the successful stream trout angler. The second half of the picture is tactics and techniques. When fishing from a boat your sonar unit often locates the fish. The stream angler doesn’t have any nifty technological short cuts for locating fish. Instead, they use their eyes and knowledge of trout behavior to find their quarry. 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