Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition 3816 Jul 19- Aug 2 2019 | Page 9

July 19 - Aug 2, 2019
VOL.38 • ISS. 14
7
Catch & Release Fishing!
Hook More & Bigger Fish With Flies...
Sponsored by Kiene’s Fly Shop
916-483-1222 • www.Kienesflyshop.com
Trout Trolling With Flies…
You’ve probably heard about trolling with flies, but have you tried it? If not,
commit yourself to picking up a few flies and giving the approach a try, because
I can tell you from experience that trolling streamer flies will help you catch
more and bigger trout throughout the season. I’ve been trolling with flies for two
seasons now and I’ve had great results.
Certainly, like any other lure or bait, flies are not going to work at every lake in
every situation. Yet, I’ve found that they produce with regularity and I’ve used
them to tempt several wild rainbows in the 3 to 7-pound class over the past year.
The folks at Arctic Fox produce some of the best trolling flies available so let’s
start there. If you take an Arctic Fox Trolling Fly and simply draw it through the
water there isn’t much action. If you troll it that way the result won’t be very
good. You can impart action by teaming the fly with a dodger like you’d do with
a hoochie and that works okay, but often I like stay stealthy and leave the blades
in the tackle box.
Enter the Wigglefin Action Disc. For the uninitiated, Action Discs are round
clear plastic discs that you thread onto your leader before attaching your fly.
When you draw the Action Disc through the water pressure builds on the
cupped front surface of the disc. When
the pressure reaches a point of instability
the disc turns to release it. This is where
chaos enters in and creates erratic action.
So, what’s so special about the flies
themselves? The color combinations are
great, but it’s the Arctic Fox fur itself that
really makes the flies shine.
Arctic fox fur is very soft and respon-
sive in the water, but it retains some
stiffness too. It’s soft, but stiffer than
marabou quality makes it the perfect
material for imitating minnows. It has
the somewhat fluid motion that small fish
display, but it also has a robotic quality.
To my eye, there are very few if any arti-
ficial lures that are as good at matching
the shape and movement style of baitfish
as Arctic Fox Trolling Flies when they are
If you aren’t trolling with flies, you
teamed with an Action Disc.
should give them a try because they will
In terms of fly color, the Arctic Fox
help you catch more and bigger fish!
Photo by CAL KELLOGG, Fish Sniffer Staff. line of freshwater trolling flies checks all
FRESHWATER
REPORTS:
with the double glow mini micro plankton
hoochie from Rocky Mountain Tackle and
the orange Brad’s Kokanee Cut Plug and
CONTINUED FROM PG 4
Hollywood Kokanee Cut Plug,” concluded
Crispi.
BERRYESSA LAKE cont.
“The lake was very murky on my
last bass trip to Berryessa,” said Larry
“I had two guys out on a guided trip at
Hemphill, fishing guide. “I had a wonderful
Lake Berryessa,” said Rich Crispi of TW
client - fun and a good stick. I guess the
Guide Service. “We had some tough love
guide is happy to say that when the client
in the morning. We lost a lot of nice fish -
landed a beautiful 4-1/2 lb. largemouth
never even saw them.”
early in the trip and follows that with his
“We ended up with nine kokanee and
first-ever spotted bass at 3 pounds, 5
two rainbow trout; it was a pick-them-
ounces.. The client is from big bass Texas,
off bite after about 7 a.m. We pulled the
so he needed to be impressed.”
plug at 1 pm. We couldn’t land that devil
“He land his two big ‘uns and I lost my
fish. When we took the photo with eight
two toads - one a big smallie that I saw
kokanee, when we cleared the last rod we
for a second or two. I showed him a big
had one more kokanee on,” he continued.
part of the lake and we fished some of the
“We found the fish while trolling down
main body. Most of our action was in the
at 55 to 60 feet. All fish were caught on
narrows, however. The new #980 Senko
Rocky Mountain Tackle Dodgers paired
continues to work
Now Booking Folsom Lake Trout & Salmon! well and produced
several bass. So
Also Fall Run Kings on the Sacramento River
- what does he
Custom 23’ Rogue Jet
catch his two nice
bass on? What
else - a morning
dawn-chartreuse tail
Robo Worm - drop-
shotted. The best
Cpt. Jerry Lampkin – 25 years of experience fishing
five weighed in at
Salmon, Steelhead, Stripers, Trout & landlocked Kings on
16 lbs.”
the Feather, Sacramento, American Rivers and Folsom Lake
“We tried topwater
3813
but only had one
T.N.G Motorsports Guide Service
[phone] • www.tngmotorsports.com
blowup. I figured
9550 Micron Ave. Suite B • Sacramento, CA
By Cal Kellogg
the boxes both in terms of
natural match the hatch
combinations and bright
unnatural reaction strike
creating hues.
The flies are
constructed on high
quality, super sharp No.
2 hooks. From what
I’ve observed, the trout
that strike the flies are
often hooked in the
cartilage in the corner
of the mouth. Once that
big hook locks into the
trout’s mouth like that,
there is very little chance
of the trout getting away.
That’s awesome since my This quartet of hefty rainbows couldn’t lay off an tui chub
pattern Arctic Fox trolling fly.
flies seem to be hooking
Photo by CAL KELLOGG, Fish Sniffer Staff.
bigger than average trout!
I think anytime an
effective bait pops up on your radar, it’s key to experiment with the bait to figure
out how it best fits in with your style of fishing and this is certainly true when it
comes to trolling flies.
Personally, I’ve just scratched the surface in terms of fly trolling, but I like what
I’ve seen so far. I’ve been mostly trolling my flies at 1.5 to 2 mph with the smallest
size disc right on the eye of the hook. I’m running the flies on a 48 inch 8 or
10-pound fluorocarbon leader with a quality trolling swivel at the junction between
the main line and the leader to prevent line twist.
While I’ve pulled flies off my downrigger with success, I prefer to team them
with one of my hybrid leadcore rigs for the sake of simplicity.
These rigs utilize 20-pound braid for backing, 3 sections of leadcore and a 60
foot 20lb fluorocarbon top shot that terminates at a bead and trolling swivel.
The 48-inch leader sporting the fly trails off the trolling swivel. With this rig I
can get down to 25 plus feet on the deep end or I can run one color of lead with the
fly swimming along at about 5 feet deep about 100 feet back.
Get some flies and get after those trout! A great source for flies and information
here in the foothills is Willfish Tackle in Auburn, Ca.
the cool breeze shut that bite off. I caught
a few on Keitech swimbaits. A good early
summer pattern worked for us, finding
every last east shore tree shadow we
could find. Bass were there until shadows
were no more,” added Hemphill.
The surface water temperature was 80-
83 degrees.
BULLARDS BAR/
ENGLEBRIGHT
RESERVOIRS
Trollers Nail Feisty Kokes
DOBBINS – Bullards Bar remains the
best prospect in northern and central
California if you’re interested in going
home with up to 10 kokanee salmon.
“The fishing isn’t wide-open, but the
action is good,” said Craig Newton at
Willfish Bait and Tackle. “I caught 8
kokanee to 13 inches on a recent solo
venture in my boat.”
“I landed the fish while trolling with
orange hoochies behind dodgers. I also
lost a lot of fish, including 3 in just one
spot. I found the best action while trolling
off the backside of Garden Point near the
houseboats,” he stated.
Newton found the best fishing at 35 to
45 feet deep. “The fish are still scattered.
Most of them are in the 11 to 12 inch
range,” he said.
Boaters can hook some wild rainbows
while trolling nightcrawlers behind
dodgers in the river and creek mouths,
but Newton said almost all trollers are
concentrating on kokanee now.
“The fishing was awesome on Bullards
today,” said Rob Reimers of Rustic Rob’s
Guide Service after his latest fishing
adventure. “We ended up with easy limits
for my clients on the Brad’s Kokanee Cut
Plug in the Gold Diver Down color. A half
a dozen of the fish were 10 to 11 inches,
while the rest were in the 13 to 14 inch
range.”
Bullards Bar is holding 953,432 acre feet
of water, 99 percent of capacity and 114
percent of average.
Engelbright Reservoir is holding 71,012
acre feet of water, 101 percent of capacity
and 106 percent of average.

- Dan Bacher
CARSON PASS
Anglers Bag Rainbows,
Mackinaw and Browns at Bear
River and Caples
PIONEER – Anglers are battling good
numbers of rainbows at Lower Bear
River Reservoir while using worms and
chartreuse and rainbow PowerBait.
Big fish honors go to 11 year old Talon
Hunson, who landed five rainbows to 3
CONTINUED ON PG 8