Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3802 Jan 4-18 | Page 3

Up-To-Date and Published Locally... By Sportsmen... For Sportsmen!
Quarry Lakes Map Feature
MADE IN U.S.A
See Page 16
Vol. 38 - ISS.2
Our
36th
Year
U
Since 1982
January 4 - 18, 2019
“The Magazine for West Coast Sportsmen!”
Circle The Wagons For
Delta Striped Bass
sing bait is a great way to put fish
into the boat when fishing for striped
bass. Soaking bait works, but the biggest
issue some anglers have is
timing when to set the hook.
They typically set the hook too
soon, and end up ripping their
bait off without hooking the
fish.
Over the past several years,
I’ve been doing a lot of exper-
imentation with circle hooks.
A circle hook looks similar to
a conventional J-shaped hook,
but the point curls around
and aims at the shank. At
first glance, it seems like you
wouldn’t be able set the hook
with these things. You would
be correct, and this is where
circle hooks deviate from
J-hooks. With circle hooks,
the hook is pulled into the corner of the
fish’s mouth by reeling slowly. Instead of
swinging for the sky like one of those bass
fishing shows, you slowly reel to set the
hook.
For hooks, I’ve settled on Gamakatsu
8/0 inline octopus circle hooks with a
straight eye (265418 INLINE OCTOPUS
CIRCLE SE). I use a three-foot long
25-pound test P-Line CXX
monofilament leader. I tie a
snell knot so the leader comes
out of the eye on the same
side as the hook point. This
forces the hook point towards
the line when you hook a fish.
I found this to be the recom-
mended method by a commer-
cial fishing website that had a
bunch of test data to support
the method.
If you think using circle
hooks for stripers sounds
crazy, wait until you hear
what kind of rod I am using.
Long limber rods help to
read the bites and load up on
the hooksets. Ugly Sticks or
downrigger rods seem to work nicely, but
I’ve settled on the 10 foot “B’n’M West
Point Crappie Pole” as my favorite rod.
Yes, a crappie rod for stripers. I’ve caught
fish up to 21 pounds on these rods. I like
to use 65-pound test braided line for my
GONE
FISHING
by
Jack Naves
L
INSIDE
Area Reports
FEATURES
Where...When...How...
Jack Naves displays a 9 lb striper he landed
using a circle hook in the West Delta.
Photo by JACK NAVES, Fish Sniffer Staff.
mainline, as it doesn’t stick to the rod
blank as bad as mono does when loaded
up on a fish.
As for bait, anything will do, just
be sure that you don’t block the gap
CONTINUED ON PG 26
just a stone’s throw from the California
Delta. With nearly 300 instructional
videos, countless documented
monster catches, and a loyal
fanbase, you can bet he
knows a lot about fishing.
Nick also gives back to the
fishing community. One of
his annual events is IF’mas,
which kicks off at dawn with
free bass and trout tour-
naments at beautiful Lake
Camanche. The tournaments
draw anglers from all over California
and the fun continues into the afternoon
and evening with a catered dinner,
meet-and-greets with Nick and local
pro anglers, vendor tables, and a free
raffle with thousands of dollars in prizes.
One top of that, a small handful of fans
are randomly chosen each year to fish
portions of the bass tournament with a
pro... on the pro’s boat!
This year was my year.
Three days before the event, Nick
reached out through Instagram,
informing me I’d been chosen to fish
GONE
FISHING
by
Stacey
Barawed
Stacy Barawed poses with her two best bass
caught and at IF’mas with bass pro Matt Frazier
at Lake Camanche this December.
Photo by STACY BARAWED.
Special Section
Baja Roundup
PG 31
FRESHWATER REPORTS
Lake Amador - Bullards Bar/Englebright Resv.......4
Camanche Lake - Lake Davis...................................7
Del Valle Lake - Eagle Lake ................................ 13
East Delta............................................................. 14
Eastern Sierra - New Melones Lake.................... 20
Oroville Lake - Shasta Lake............................ 22-23
Smith/Chetco Rivers - West Delta ..................... 24
SALTWATER REPORTS
Berkeley - Fisherman’s Wharf......................... 28-29
Half Moon Bay - Monterey Bay.............................31
Learning From A Bass Pro at Lake Camanche
ike many anglers, I have a
full-time job and can’t spend as
much time as I would like
on the water, especially
during these winter months
as daylight continues to
dwindle. So, I make the
best of my free time doing
as much research as I can
to prepare myself for my
next fishing trip, wherever
that may be.
I prefer video tutorials
over reading, so YouTube has been
extremely useful to me. There are
a handful of pages that I follow,
and one of the first that was recom-
mended to me was the channel
belonging to Nick Smith, AKA the
Informative Fisherman, or “IF” to
his subscribers. IF resides in my
hometown of Stockton, California,
and is fortunate enough to live in
the Brookside neighborhood on the
western side of the city.
Not only does he have access to
a private community lake, but he’s
36 Years
Serving
Sportsmen
CONTINUED ON PG 21
State Water Board Approves
Increased Flows for
Lower San Joaquin River
See Page 20
SPORTS EXPO PREVIEW........................8-12,15,18
BAJA ROUNDUP.................................................... 30
BASS FISHING SPOTLIGHT: Steve Pennaz......... 25
BULLETIN BOARD................................................... 3
FISH SNIFFER COUNTRY: Steve ‘Hippo’ Lau ...... 27
GO FOR IT: Staff....................................................... 2
HOW-TO: Cal Kellogg.............................................. 6
KAYAK FISHING SPOTLIGHT ................................. 5
MAP FEATURE: Dan Bacher.............................16-17
SPOTLIGHT ON CONSERVATION: Dan Bacher..... 20
STAFF
TACKLE
What We’re Using
Cal Kellogg - fished Folsom
Lake and got skunked despite
trolling for 9 miles from his
Hobie Pro Angler 14 kayak.
Cal targeted trout and kings
with his “hybrid” leadcore rigs consisting
of Vance’s Tackle Rods, teamed with Abu
Garcia 5500 line counter reels spooled as
follows: 20 lb P-Line braid backing, 3 colors
of Suffix 17 lb leadcore and an 18 foot 20 lb
test fluorocarbon topshot tipped with a 48
inch 10 lb fluorocarbon leader. Using these
rigs Cal employed Hum Dingers, Speedy
Shiners, Yo-Zuri L Minnows, threaded worms
and Arctic Fox Trolling Flies.
Paul Kneeland - fished
Englebright Reservoir with
John Brassfield of Auburn
in John’s 18’ Duckworth.
They caught rainbow trout
to 13 inches using a Lamiglas Fish Sniffer
special 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
Vance’s and Sep’s Dodgers followed by
nightcrawlers toplined at 1.5 mph.
Dan Bacher - fished for
rainbow trout at Halsey
Forebay near Auburn.. 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.