Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition 3813 June 7-21 2019 | Page 3

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Feather River Map Feature
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Vol. 38 - ISS.13
Our
37th
Year
I
Since 1982
June 7 - 21, 2019
“The Magazine for West Coast Sportsmen!”
The Spring of Big Stripers
don’t get out after stripers the way
I used to. Logistically, I just can’t
get over the hurdles. They are a long ways
from my home, and my time
is stretched thinner than ever.
There are many clichés I can
cite, work, kids and lack of
funds… etc. I used to have
a real fire in my belly for
stripers, but now I just enjoy
being out on the delta. There’s
something about that fertile
green water and the rolling
lush hills of the Lower Sacra-
mento that beckon to me this
time of year.
This has been an exception-
ally wet winter/spring, and
the fishing has been a little off
of its usual pacing from what
I can see. During the peak of
the drought in 2014-15, the
striper spawn started as early as mid-Feb-
ruary. This year winter extended well into
the end of March. The first real signs of
a spring bite began somewhere around
early to mid-April. The Sacramento side
of the delta was blown out. The river was
scooting along briskly, and the color was
turbid brown at best.
That meant that everybody with cabin
fever found their way to the relatively
clear waters of the San Joaquin side of
the delta. There undoubtedly
were plenty of stripers in
the off color waters of the
Sacramento, but the condi-
tions were poor for targeting
them. Suffice it to say that the
fishing pressure on the San
Joaquin side was pretty stiff
early this spring.
In early April, I found
myself trolling amongst the
masses on my buddy JW’s
“stanky” brown Smokercraft.
The brown boat started out
slow, but we managed to
scratch out some quality fish
shallow trolling Yo-Zuri’s
along a flat of witches’ hair.
The bite was far from hot, but
we ended the day one fish short of limits
for 4 guys.
Better yet was the grade of fish we ran
into. They were slabs. At one point my rod
bent to the cork, and a big fish yanked line
off my line counter reel willy-nilly. After
a spirited battle, braided line and galva-
nized treble hooks prevailed in putting the
I
5. I never pass up the opportunity to
peer over the rail to see if any boats are
anchored up on the river. When I see
groups of tightly packed boats in the
springtime, I know what time
it is. Shad fishing has arrived.
I’ve always heard of “100
shad days” and kind of rolled
my eyes. Is it is even possible
to catch 100 shad in a day?
On May 8th, I learned that not
only is it possible, but it is a
whole lot of fun.
I met my fishing partner
Mick Berklich on the morning
of May 8th at the Miller Park
boat ramp near Downtown
Sacramento. We motored
upstream against the ripping
current and anchored above
the I Street Bridge. With the
roar of the freeway in the
background, we lowered our
offerings using four and eight once sinkers
to create a spread.
I was trying to explain to Mick that
shad usually don’t start striking until
mid-morning, when one of the rods went
down. As Mick battled the first shad of
the day, another rod buried towards the
Where...When...How...
Mike McNeilly, Fish Sniffer field editor, landed
and released this impressive 20 plus pound
striper while fishing the West Bank on the
Sacramento River during a recent outing.
Photo by MIKE MCNEILLY, Fish Sniffer Staff.
lineside in the net. It was a quality fish
of almost 15 pounds.
It’s always good to see the captain get
in on the action. For many years I have
been the guy driving the boat, and now I
CONTINUED ON PG 25
water - a double to start the day.
We began to realize that 100 shad days
really are possible. The fishing was so
good that we couldn’t keep one or two
rods in the water at any given
time. We had doubles, triples
and even landed two shad on
one rod, when both lures on a
high-low setup hooked shad.
Mick even picked up a nice
keeper-sized striper on the
shad rig.
For American Shad, I run
a high-low setup similar to
what would normally be
used for surf fishing or ocean
bottom fishing. You fish
vertical, with a sinker clipped
to the very end of the line that
rests on the bottom. Eighteen
inches above the sinker, there
is a ten-inch dropper leader
coming off the main line.
A second ten-inch dropper leader is
spaced 24 inches above this. You slowly
lower the rig down and back bounce
it until the sinker rests on the bottom.
Once the line is reeled tight, the main
line stays vertical and the leaders trail
WHAT’S
HOT
by
Jack Naves
Big shad like the pair Mick Berklich caught
recently provide excellent eating when
prepared properly.
Photo by JACK NAVES, Fish Sniffer Staff.
F ish S niffer T IP OF THE W EEK
Area Reports
FEATURES
Shad Pandemonium in Downtown Sacramento
often find myself driving through
Downtown Sacramento on Interstate
INSIDE
FRESHWATER REPORTS
Almanor - Bullards Bar/Englebright Reservoir.... 4-5
Clear Lake - East Delta........................................ 14
Lake Del Valle - Folsom Lake ........................ 18-19
Klamath/Trinity Rivers - Rio Vista Area........ 20-21
Rollins/Scotts Flat Lakes - West Delta............ 22-23
SALTWATER REPORTS
Baja Roundup........................................................... 31
Berkeley - Bodega Bay............................................ 27
Fisherman’s Wharf - Half Moon Bay....................... 29
Monterey Bay......................................................30
GONE
FISHING
by
Mike McNeilly
Special Section
Catch & Release
Fishing - pgs 6-7
Salmon eggs and stream trout fishing go hand-in-hand. Spring is a wonderful
time to reconnect with this age-old technique. Current seams, which are nature’s
food conveyors, are perfect spots for presenting eggs. The rigging is simple. A
small egg hook hidden inside an egg. Fluorocarbon is a definite advantage. Not
only does fluorocarbon leader go invisible underwater, but it’s heavier than monofil-
ament as it absorbs water and will get your egg into the strike zone faster. - Cal Kellogg
CONTINUED ON PG 18
TROUT & KOKANEE JOURNAL..........................8-12
BAJA ROUNDUP......................................................31
BULLETIN BOARD.....................................................3
CATCH & RELEASE - FLY FISHING: Cal Kellogg......6
CATCH & RELEASE - FLY FISHING REPORTS........ 7
FISH SNIFFER COUNTRY: Steve ‘Hippo’ Lau..........28
GO FOR IT: Staff.........................................................2
HOW-TO: Cal Kellogg..............................................15
KAYAK FISHING SPOTLIGHT: Cal Kellogg ...............5
MAP FEATURE: Dan Bacher...............................16-17
MIXED BAG FISHING: Ernie Marlan........................24
SPOTLIGHT ON CONSERVATION: Dan Bacher......28
STAFF
TACKLE
What We’re Using
Cal Kellogg - made an early
morning hike up the North
Fork of the American River
for spring bass. Cal used a
6’6” medium light Berkley
Lightening Rod balanced with an Abu Garcia
S30 Cardinal spinning reel spooled with 8 lb.
Yo-Zuri Hybrid line. Cal used this rig to work 3
inch grubs rigged on darter heads and 4 inch
wacky rigged Senkos coated with crawfish
scent Pro-Cure Super Gel. Cal caught two
spotted bass and two smallmouth bass. The
largest fish was a 14 inch spot.
Dan Bacher -fished the San
joaquin River for stripers with
Mark Wilson, Clyde Wands
and James Netzel of Tight
Lines Guide Service. They
caught limits of striped bass to 8 pounds
while trolling with 7 foot Mark Wilson Lamiglas
rods with Shimano Tekota LC 500 reels, filled
with Fins 40g 25 lb. line. They trolled at 2-1/2
to 4-1/2 mph with shallow and deep diving
Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnow lures in an array of
colors, tipped with plastic worms, on 25 lb.
test P-Line CXX leaders.
Paul Kneeland - fished
Pyramid Lake on Mother’s Day
with Bridget and sons Mark,
Matt and Peter Looney and
Chyna Odum in the Fish Sniffer
21’ Rogue Jet Coastal. They caught Lahontan
cutthroat trout to 6 pounds 10 oz., using a
Okuma 9’ light action Kokanee Black Rod with
a Daiwa Lexa 100 line counter reel loaded
with 8 lb test Yozuri Topknot Flourocarbon
line. They trolled “Dill Pickle” Lyman lures and
Tasmanian Devils in “Canberra Killer” color off
the Canon Downriggers at 10 to 25 feet deep
and 2.5 mph.