Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3719 Aug 31- Sept 14 | Page 26

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FRESHWATER
Aug 31 - Sept 7, 2018
VOL.37 • ISS. 19
FRESHWATER REPORTS:
WHAT’S
HOT
CONTINUED FROM PG 20
Continued from page 1
SACRAMENTO AREA
Striper Fishing Best In Port
with Blade Runner spoons are catching and
releasing good numbers of schoolie stripers.”
“A few salmon are being caught by anglers
fishing spinners and plugs below the mouth
of the American at Discovery Park,” reported
Uncle Larry Barnes at Sacramento Pro
Tackle. “One customer reported catching a
28 lb. Chinook while anchored up above the I
Street Bridge.”
Bank anglers fishing Steelhead Creek
and local sloughs continue hooking channel
catfish in the evenings. Use mackerel,
chicken liver, anchovies and prepared catfish
baits.
Other local waters to target catfish include
Lisbon Slough in the Yolo Bypass, the
Port of Sacramento and Sacramento
Deepwater Channel and Sutter Bypass.
Fishing is most productive this time of
year during the evenings and at night.

- Dan Bacher
SACRAMENTO – Although the Port of
averaging solid fifteen
Sacramento usually produces the best striped
inchers.
bass action in the fall and winter months,
Stampede Reservoir
big schools of threadfin shad have attracted
is a scenic high sierra
stripers into the port and Sacramento
lake formed by a dam
Deepwater Channel this summer.
impounding the Little
“There are massive schools of bait in
the port,” said Alan Fong of Fisherman’s
Truckee River. It sits
Warehouse in Sacramento. “Boaters fishing
at an elevation of 5,949
feet above sea level,
about seven miles
Fish Sniffer field editor Jack Naves shows off a jumbo
northeast of the town
Stampede Reservoir kokanee that he caught during an
of Truckee. It features
early August outing.
two campgrounds and
Photo by JACK NAVES, Fish Sniffer Staff.
one launch ramp with
a single dock. While
I have camped there before, this year I have been making morning runs that
take me about an hour and forty-five minutes from my driveway in Roseville.
If you are lucky enough to make it to Stampede this year, I can offer a few
SAN PABLO RESERVOIR
tips before heading up. One thing to note is that the dam road is currently
Catfish, Crappie Action
closed due to construction, so you have to access the reservoir from HWY 89
Offer Solid Action
to the West. Follow the orange detour signs along the winding back roads.
SACRAMENTO – If you want to
You will reach a hard to read brown sign indicating a left turn to the boat
hook channel catfish, fish the boat
ramp.
launch area at San Pablo Reservoir.
I would suggest getting to the ramp just before dawn, as the early morning
Use anchovies, sardines, mackerel,
bite has been the best time to be there. As the day progresses, the action
chicken livers for the top success,
tapers off and tougher fishing sets in. However, there will still be flurries of
advised Marcella Shoemaker of the
activity throughout the day. Just remember that Stampede is famous for gusty
Rocky Mountain Recreation Company.
afternoon winds that will stir up unpleasant whitecaps.
Crappie are also hitting crappie jigs
and small swimbaits. For the larger
Fishing wise, insane numbers of big kokanee are making the catching
fish, try fishing Scow Canyon around
process fairly easy this year. That being said, here are a few pointers to set
the reeds and cover.
you in the right direction.
Anthony Paul of Hayward caught 2
During my latest trip at the Kokanee Power derby on August 11, the fish
catfish in Scow Canyon while soaking
were stacked up over deep water from the launching ramp to the dam. The
shrimp. Dimitri and Mario Novoa of
area south of the islands was also holding a lot of fish. We started catching
Oakland caught 3 catfish and 10
fish between 50 and 65 feet deep in the morning, but got fish 80 feet down
crappie fishing with chicken liver in
later in the day. In most cases, I was fishing over at least 100 feet of water
Scow Canyon.
with the downriggers set at higher depths where I was marking fish. The
The latest plant of 1,000 pounds of
depths and locations will change as the year progresses, but as of press time it
channel catfish from Tsai Enterprises
went into the lake at the boat ramp on
was wide open out there.
August 1.
You will want to troll in the normal kokanee speed range of 0.8 to 1.3 miles
The lake level is 304.5 feet in
per hour, depending on your preference. Anglers have been doing well using
elevation and the surface water
micro hoochies with and without small spinner blades added. Fluorescent
temperature is 73.9 degrees
orange, pink, and red are the popular colors, but stick with what you have
This young man did some trolling at Lake Shasta on
confidence in. Run your lures behind nickel dodgers, and don’t forget to tip
August 10 and was rewarded with this huge rainbow.
each hook with a kernel of white shoe peg corn scented to your liking. Tuna
Photo courtesy of SACRIVERGUIDE.COM, Redding.
seems to be popular these days, but krill and
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Once the male kokanee salmon start devel-
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I tend to favor Apex-style lures over anything
else. I use a lot of speed variations and turns
to elicit strikes from aggressive pre-spawners
looking to attack. It’s my favorite style of
kokanee fishing without a doubt.
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If you can make it up to Stampede
Reservoir this year, by all means do it. When
you factor together the size and numbers of
kokanee, 2018 is shaping up to be a class for
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As you can see, the kokanee at Stampede are
still chrome bright and awesome, but some
fish like the one shown here on the left are
starting to show the first subtle signs of the
upcoming spawning season.
Photo by JACK NAVES, Fish Sniffer Staff.
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