Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3722 Oct 12-26

Up-To-Date and Published Locally... By Sportsmen... For Sportsmen! Sacramento River Map Feature MADE IN U.S.A See Page 16 Vol. 37 - ISS.22 Our 36th Year Since 1982 October 12 - 26, 2018 “The Magazine for West Coast Sportsmen!” Late Season Kokanee Tactics F or some folks, late summer and autumn kokanee fishing can be intimidating. The fish go deep and often reject typical trolling methods. For me, it’s my favorite time of year to target these pigmy landlocked sockeye salmon. Let’s take a quick look at a couple of different techniques used to conquer late season kokanee. Jigging, or also referred to as spooning, can be a great late season tactic. To jig for kokanee you want to use a stiff bass fishing type rod, not a limber trolling rod. On the rod, load a spinning or casting reel with 20-pound test braided line. It’s crucial that you use braided line so you can detect the strikes. Tie your braid to a swivel and then run a four-foot long 20-pound test fluorocarbon leader down to your jig. The stiff leader GONE FISHING by Jack Naves helps to keep the jig vertical, so be sure to tie directly to the eye of the jig without using any snaps or split rings. Use a solid lead jig like a Gibbs Minnow, Crippled Herring, Kast- master, Kokanator, or Buzz-Bomb. The size will depend on the depth, wind, and size of the fish. A one or two ounce jig is normally all you need. Hot pink, fluorescent orange, chartreuse, and pearl are good color choices. Once you have your jig tied up, you are ready to hit the lake. Late season kokanee will typically stage in deep water Fish Sniffer field editor Jack Naves caught this outside of creek or river mouths impressive hook jawed kokanee during a recent where they will spawn. In some outing to Stampede Reservoir. Photo by JACK NAVES, Fish Sniffer Staff. lakes, it will be in front of a dam. Big kokanee schools don’t typically form until late in the morning, so hitting schools that look like giant bait balls. It the water at dawn isn’t needed when might be helpful to troll until you zero jigging. Once you are on the water, elec- in on where the kokanee are schooling tronics play a crucial role in finding fish. up tight. Once you find them, it’s time Look for huge schools of kokanee holding to lower your jig! Oh yeah, and don’t in deep water. forget to smear some crayfish gel onto I’m not talking about a few scattered your lure for good measure. CONTINUED ON PG 18 fish here and there. You want to see 12 Year Old Catches Giant Sturgeon! C Cartmen Saxe looks on as the huge sturgeon he battled on the Klamath River prepares to swim away. Photo courtesy of RANDY SAXE, Sacramento. artmen Saxe of Guerneville, California caught a sturgeon estimated to be 10 feet long and approx- imately 500 pounds on the Klamath River over Labor Day weekend. It was September 2, 2018 when my dad, grandpa, and I went on a fishing trip on the Klamath River. We were about 5 miles up from the boat launch, a mile from the ocean. We rode 36 Years Serving Sportsmen through rapids in our Lowe Jet Jon Boat and then stopped to fish on the shore. I walked upstream with my grandfa- ther and he caught a small trout. Then, we went back to the boat and headed upstream again, fishing through the rapids. We drifted back down and stopped, putting the anchor out. We pitched out our roe baits and waited a good 40 minutes. And that’s when I hooked a BIG FISH. I fought the fish for about 30 minutes, it made several runs and we were maneu- vering the boat around to keep up with it. The fish began to lay down in the deep water and I started to sweat. My arms were shaking from the fight. I was using 30-pound test, braided line with a 25-pound test leader. I then turned WHAT’S HOT by Cartmen Saxe CONTINUED ON PG 14 Jerry Brown Announces Satellite Plan as Youth Protest His Environmental Policies See Page 26 Special Section Baja Roundup PG 31 INSIDE Area Reports FRESHWATER REPORTS Almanor - Lake Berryessa......................................4 Bullards Bar/Englebright Reservoir - Eagle Lake... 6-7 Eastern Sierra - Colusa/Knights Landing ........... 13 East Delta - New Melones Lake.......................... 14 Oroville Lake - Redding/Red Bluff.................. 18-19 Rio Vista - Shadow Cliffs................................ 20-21 Shasta Lake - West Delta.................................... 23 SALTWATER REPORTS Berkeley - Bodega Bay................... ......................27 Half Moon Bay - Fisherman’s Wharf......................29 Monterey Bay......................................................30 FEATURES Where...When...How... FALL FISHING BOAT SALE...............................8-12 BAJA ROUNDUP.................................................... 31 BASS FISHING SPOTLIGHT: Cal Kellogg............. 22 BULLETIN BOARD................................................... 3 FISH SNIFFER HOW-TO: Cal Kellogg................... 15 GO FOR IT: Staff....................................................... 6 KAYAK FISHING SPOTLIGHT ................................. 5 MAP FEATURE: Dan Bacher.............................16-17 SALTY TIPS: Hippo Lau.......................................29 SPOTLIGHT ON CONSERVATION: Dan Bacher..... 26 WHAT’S HOT SALTWATER: Mark Fong ................ 28 STAFF TACKLE What We’re Using Cal Kellogg - trolled and drifted for trout at Eagle Lake, Lake Almanor and Antelope Lake during a recent fishing road trip, from his Hobie Pro Angler 14 kayak. Cal chose a Vance’s Tackle trout rods teamed with an Abu Garcia 5500 line counter reels spooled with 10 pound moss green Trilene Big Game line. On the business end Cal ran an 8 pound test Vanish Fluorocarbon leaders tipped with a variety of offerings including Cripplures, Wedding Ring Spinners, Gulp! Crawlers and Minnows and Arctic Fox trolling flies. To get the offerings down to the fish while trolling, Cal employed a small portable Scotty downrigger. Paul Kneeland - fished Davis Lake with John Brassfield of Auburn in The Fish Sniffer Rogue Jet 21 Coastal. They caught rainbow trout to 16 1\2 inches using a Cousins Rods 7’6” ultra light graphite downrigger rod with a Abu Garcia Revo MGX Extreme level wind reel loaded with 6 lb test Yozuri TopKnot fluorocarbon line. They trolled red/gold Jake’s spoons and rainbow F7 countdown Rapalas off the Canon Downriggers from the surface to 15 feet deep at 2.2 mph. Dan Bacher - fished for Chinook salmon on the Sacramento River with Monte Smith of Gold Country Sportfishing, Michael Abourezk and Charles Wilson. They used 9-1/2 feet Phenix Trifecta rods, teamed up with Shimano Tekota line counter reels filled with 40 lb. P-Line Braid. They caught their one fish limits of salmon to 17 pounds while trolling with Brad’s Cut Plugs behind Pro- Troll Flashers at 3 mph.

Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3722 Oct 12-26 | Page 3