Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition 3810 April 26- May 10 2019 | 页面 3

37 Years
Serving
Sportsmen
Up-To-Date and Published Locally... By Sportsmen... For Sportsmen!
Rancho Seco Map Feature
MADE IN U.S.A
See Page 24
April 26 - May 10, 2019
Vol. 38 - ISS.10
Our
37th
Year
T
Since 1982
“The Magazine for West Coast Sportsmen!”
The Hardest Fighting Freshwater Fish
here are a lot of qualities that make
a gamefish a great gamefish; a fish
that’s a cut above the rest. Beauty, difficulty
to catch, table fare, availability and the
environment the fish calls home
come to mind. However, there
may be an attribute above all
the rest, and that is how hard
the fish fights. The real brawlers
usually live in saltwater. Tuna
and marlin are synonymous with
epic battels. Freshwater fish
don’t get as big, and they don’t
have the endurance, but some of
them can really scrap.
In the lowest bracket are the
wet towel fish that come in like
a rotten log once hooked. A few
underwhelming species that
come to mind are Sacramento
pikeminnow and walleye. The
pikeminnow hits like a freight
train and then comes placidly to hand. The
walleye never does much of anything. Its
fight is typically dead weight. Only the
walleye’s delicious flesh keeps it in high
esteem amongst anglers.
Moving up the scale are diminutive fish
like kokanee salmon. They fight hard pound
for pound, but they usually weigh in in
the ounces. How hard can a 12-ounce fish
possibly fight? Plus, their
mouths are as durable as wet
toilet paper, so there is no way
you are going to pull too hard
on them.
Bluegill and
other sunfishes
are also in this
category. All the
diminutive and
colorful little
fellows in this
genus pull hard,
but once again,
they weigh mere Mike McNielly rates big king salmon near the top of the list
ounces. If bluegill in terms of fighting ability. He battled this big salmon in
the Sacramento River. It made 4 impressive jumps before
commonly
weighed several it came to the net!
Photo courtesy of MIKE MCNIELLY, Fish Sniffer Staff.
pounds, they
would garner a lot
cious battle. It’s not uncommon for a cat’
more respect from anglers.
of this size to pull drag off of a reel and
Then there are the catfishes.
bend a rod to the hilt.
Bullheads find themselves in the same
Another wet sock of a fish is a deep-
category as pikeminnow and walleye. The
water mackinaw. After the first few feet,
typical bullhead fight is the fish trying to
the fish’s swim bladder expands to the
alligator roll while the enthusiastic angler
point where the char no longer fights.
quickly reels it to the bank. 2-4-pound
Only the occasional headshake clues the
channel catfish aren’t much better. Once a
angler into the fact that they have actually
catfish gets in the 7+ pound range, it can
give a decent account of itself. A big catfish hooked a fish. Big mackinaw caught in
over 15 or so pounds can put up a pugna-
CONTINUED ON PG 16
GONE
FISHING
by
Mike McNeilly
Fishing The City With The Cub Scouts!
A
dam hurled a cast towards the
middle of the clear still waters. I
instructed him to prop the rod up against
my backpack so he could detect a bite.
As he positioned his setup,
the rod tip started violently
shaking. “You got one!” I
quickly relayed.
Adam played the fish back
to the concrete shore, where
we quickly put it onto his
stringer. I wasn’t expecting
such quick success, and I
hadn’t even brought my usual
ice chest to pack the fish on.
The scene took place at
about nine o’clock on a
beautiful Saturday morning
at Hagen Community Park
in Rancho Cordova. My son
Adam and I are fortunate to
have a nice fishing boat, so
we don’t typically fish off the
shore. This trip was a special occasion.
Adam’s Cub Scouts pack was attending
a ‘Fishing in the City Program’ event
sponsored by the California Department
of Fish and Wildlife and the Cordova
Recreation and Park District. This unique
program offers the opportunity for kids
who don’t typically get to experience the
outdoors a realistic chance of
catching fish.
According to the Cali-
fornia Department of Fish
and Wildlife website, ”The
Fishing in the City Program
was established in 1993 and
serves Californians living
in the Sacramento, San
Francisco and Los Angeles
metropolitan areas.
The goal for the Sacramento
area program is to teach youth
and their families the impor-
tance of taking care of lakes
and ponds while enjoying
them, starting right here in
their own back yard. We stock
nine inner city ponds in the
Sacramento area on a regular basis. We
want families to come out and spend
time together while learning to fish.
WHAT’S
HOT
Adam Naves pulled a nice stringer of trout
out of Hagen Park Pond when his Cub Scout
pack attended the recent Fishing the City
event at the park.
Photo courtesy of JACK NAVES, Fish Sniffer
Staff.
by
Jack Naves
F ish S niffer T IP OF THE W EEK
Anglers targeting trout from the shore will want to carry a few minnow plugs. While
floating minnows work at times, a sinking minnow plug like the Yo-Zuri L Minnow is
a better choice overall. A sinking bait allows you to work the entire water column by
counting the bait down. Often, you’ll find that the trout are cruising within a few feet of
the bottom. - Cal Kellogg
CONTINUED ON PG 20
Special Section
Catch & Release
Fishing - pgs 8-9
INSIDE
Area Reports
FRESHWATER REPORTS
Almanor - Berryessa Lake......................................4
Bullards Bar/Englebright Reservoirs -
Eastern Sierra.................................................. 8-9
East Delta .............................................................11
Feather River - Los Vaqueros Reservoir............. 12
New Melones Lake - Pyramid Lake .................... 17
Quarry Lakes -
Santa Clara Valley/San Luis Lakes.......... 18-19
Shasta Lake - West Delta.................................... 21
SALTWATER REPORTS
Baja Roundup........................................................... 25
Berkeley - Half Moon Bay...................................24-25
Monterey Bay......................................................26
FEATURES
Where...When...How...
BULLETIN BOARD.....................................................3
CATCH & RELEASE - FLY FISHING: Jason Thatcher.....6
CATCH & RELEASE - FLY FISHING REPORTS................ 7
FISH SNIFFER COUNTRY: Dan Bacher...................27
GO FOR IT: Staff.........................................................2
HOW-TO: Cal Kellogg..............................................10
KAYAK FISHING SPOTLIGHT: Cal Kellogg .............13
MAP FEATURE: Dan Bacher...............................14-15
MIXED BAG FISHING: Ernie Marlan........................... 5
SPOTLIGHT ON CONSERVATION: Dan Bacher......22
STAFF
TACKLE
What We’re Using
Paul Kneeland - fished
Folsom Lake with Brian
Garcia of Colfax in the Fish
Sniffer 21’ Rogue Jet Coastal
They caught rainbow trout
to 19 1\2 inches using a new Okuma 9’
ultralight Black Kokanee rod with a Daiwa
Lexa 100 LC line counter reel loaded with 8
lb test P Line CXX line. They trolled bloody
frog Mag Lips and Excel spoons behind
Vance’s cannonball flashers off the Canon
Downriggers at 30 feet deep and 2.4 mph.
Cal Kellogg - Fished Collins
Lake for rainbow trout with
a 7’3” Cousins fiberglass
spinning rod. The rod was
paired with an Abu Garcia
Revo spinning reel spooned with 8 pound
Yo-Zuri TopKnot fluorocarbon. A variety
of baits were used including Berkley
PowerBait, Atlas Mike’s salmon eggs and
inflated ‘crawlers. The best bait was a
worm covered with Pro-Cure Garlic Super
Gel. In about 3 hours Cal was able to land
4 rainbow trout that ranged from 1 to 3
pounds.
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
Flourocarbon Coated Line. He fished with
rainbow Berkley PowerBait, 1/8 oz. gold and
black Panther Martins and 2/5 oz. gold/red
stripe Little Cleos.