Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3818 August 16-30 | Page 9

7
August 16-30, 2019
VOL.38 • ISS. 18
Catch & Release Fishing!
Hook More & Bigger Fish With Flies...
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When Size Does Matter
It’s another sunny, beautiful summer day on the Lower Sacramento River and I’m
in my drift boat with the anchor set, head down, concentrating on a box of assorted
nymphs.
My brother, Brandon, is in the front of the boat holding a five weight fly rod in
one hand, and the end of a leader I’ve clipped off yet again in the other. He just
shakes his head and sighs to let me know I’m burning his daylight.
I’m thinking to myself that if I stare long enough at this box of bugs that maybe,
just maybe, all of the answers I seek will magically be revealed. A light breeze
blows upriver through the canyon; the kind of breeze I can’t quite blame a poor
cast on, but enough to feel refreshing.
It’s just enough to tickle the dried out grass growing in the no-man’s land
between the lava rocks that are jutting from the bank, and put a shimmer on the
water that looks as though diamonds are floating on the surface from shore to
shore. It’s the kind of day you’d like take home to Mom.
I look up from the fly box and catch my brother staring at me with a trademark
half-grin and raised eyebrows. “You really expect me to be the Oracle-Of-The-
River don’t you?” I ask. He shrugs and turns back around, now grinning ear to ear.
He’s managing to get to me, a small triumph in our world.
Despite all that has been going right so far this morning, one thing was missing;
a crucial part of the equation: biting trout. For some reason the trout are not buying
what we’re selling. We’re not getting skunked, there’s a Mercy Fish now and then,
it’s just that in our minds we should have been doing as well, or better than, the
previous day when we’d been on the same stretch of river with the same setups!
I’ll go ahead and admit it right now, I was getting frustrated. A trout’s brain is
roughly the size of a small pea on a good day, so I took it personally when they
had me baffled. I leaned back in my rowing seat and considered out loud what
we knew. The previous day the conditions were more or less identical. We’d been
nymphing with indicators and using a two-fly leader with a #8 stonefly nymph on
the top and a good old #14 flashback pheasant tail as the dropper.
On this morning, we started with the same rig as the day before, but we’d landed
less than half the number of trout as the day before.
When something seemed “off” in the first couple of runs we started changing flies
out to see if the fish had merely lost their passion for what they’d greedily snapped
up the day before. Nothing new there, that had been a successful tack to take in the
past.
As we continued on and couldn’t find a consistent bite I became flooded with
doubt and started to change rigs over and over again. I found myself mumbling
“We shoulda’ had one there…and there…and there…” as we kept getting further
downriver.
Finally, I went back to square one and
retied the stonefly and pheasant tail to
Brandon’s leader. This time I dropped
the sizes of both bugs. I could hear in
the back of my head the advice I’d once
read long ago, and knew to be true. A
major mistake anglers often make is
changing patterns when they should be
When it comes to fooling trout with flies,
changing sizes.
the cornerstone considerations in terms
We were back in the game and fishing
of fly selection are size, shape and color.
Photo courtesy of JASON THATCHER, River again. Brandon made a big show of
Pursuit Guide Service.
FRESHWATER REPORTS:
CONTINUED FROM PG 4
LAKE BERRYESSA
cont.
After dark the bite was consistent with
the smaller bass, mostly 1-1/2 to 2-1/2
pounders. It’s interesting that all 3 species
of bass were active - almost an equal
number of all three. Texas-rigged Black
Power Worms were the best baits.”
“I noticed that the bait wasn’t very deep
- 15 to 25 feet. That was the depth of most
of our bites. A shout out to the brand new
navigation blinking light buoys all near
points in the narrows. I’m not sure when
they arrived, but they will be a great help
during the dark of the moon,” Hemphill
concluded.
The kokanee fishing continues to be
productive at Berryessa, as evidenced
by the annual trip that Rich Crispi of TW
Guide Service made with his brother in
law Mile Ellingson and his good friend
Jerry Selvitella. The anglers trolled with
Apex lures and Uncle Larry and RMT
spinners, tipped with white corn, behind
RMT dodgers.
“The trip started out with a bang with a
double. Jerry lost his, but Mile got his 18
incher on the nose weighing 2.23 lbs. It
was the biggest of the year we’ve boated.
We. pounded structure hard and got a
total of 11 fish to the boat. We kept 6 nice
kokes and tossed back 4 kokes and a
baby king. We also lost at least 5 nice
fish that came off half way up from 90 ft
down,” Crispi reported.
- Dan Bacher
CAMANCHE LAKE
South Pond Produces 26 Lb.
Channel Cat
BURSON – Huge channel catfish and
black bass topped the catches at Lake
9550 Micron Ave. Suite B • Sacramento, CA
By Jason Thatcher
yawning after his cast and his first
two mends. Mid-yawn, with arms
stretched wide and looking to the sky,
his indicator shot down and disap-
peared. He choked on his yawn as he
flailed around trying to set the hook
and started hiccupping as the trout
jumped and the rig sailed back at us.
“Had to be a -Hic- fluke –Hic,”
Brandon stammered as I rowed
back up the slot. Presently, Brandon
made another cast, only this time the
indicator had his full attention. Again, Jason Thatcher is a top guide and expert fly
the indicator went down and as he set angler. The Sacramento River is Jason’s home
the hook another trout rocketed out of water, but he fishes all over northern California
for trout, salmon, stripers and more!
the water and did a barrel roll. This
Photo courtesy of JASON THATCHER, River
time Brandon brought the A-Game
Pursuit Guide Service.
and the fish stayed stuck and ended
up in the net.
“On -Hic- the PT –Hic- eh?” Brandon mumbled with a sidelong glance in my
direction as the fish was released. After about six more passes through that drift and
a trout hooked on the PT every time, we were both chanting “Size Matters.”
It’ll suffice to say that our day really came together and turned around for us from
that point on. Simply scaling down made all the difference. I sure enjoy hearing
complaints about sore shoulders during the short drive home at the end of the day.
I think one of the things that I enjoy the most about fly fishing is dissecting
all of the variables involved in making a trout eat a wad of feather and fur. With
thousands of fly patterns available to anglers these days it can be very easy to forget
some of the basics of fly selection and get caught up in cutting and retying time and
time again when you’re not getting the desired results. Picking one or two bugs out
of a fly box lineup can turn into a daunting task!
I believe that a winning fly selection can really be boiled down to size, shape, and
color. If you already have a proven, effective pattern (that takes care of shape and
color), turn your attention to going bigger or going smaller. It seems that more often
than not, with all of the information sharing out there, anglers are usually tuned
into the right patterns for the time of year and body of water. I believe that paying
special attention to size can turn out to be a crucial factor in fishing success. Having
a broad selection of sizes can be hard to do with all of the hot new flies out there.
Personally, I try to keep stocked with a reasonable selection of “key” patterns in all
of the different sizes I’m likely to need.
My fly boxes may not be the diverse potpourri one would expect, but there are
many chewed-to-a-frazzle bugs in the back of my boxes that have been retired.
These veteran flies serve as a reminder to the effectiveness of sticking to the basics.
Next time a trout has you stumped out there on the water, just remember that size
really does matter!
Captain Jason Thatcher offers both fly and gear trips on the Sacramento River
and other north state waters for a variety of different species including trout, king
salmon, steelhead, stripers, shad and more. Jason’s is the owner operator of River
Pursuit Guide Service. For more information or to book a trips give him a ring at
[phone] or check out his website at www.riverpursuit.com
Camanche over the past couple of weeks.
Big fish honors go to: Mike Houdasheld
of Oakley, who hauled in a monster 26.04
lb. catfish from the pond. He stated that
he was throwing nightcrawlers, reported
Terry of the Camanche Recreation
Company.
Twelve-year-old,
Moses Blanco on
San Jose was fishing
with his dad in the
Riverview area of
Camanche when
he landed a 7.2 lb.
catfish while using
squid.
Austin Barker, of
Austin Barker’s Guide
Service, out of Rio
Linda, landed his
personal best fish, a
10.62 lb. largemouth,
at Lake Camanche
while using a jig.
“It happened,
3813
finally,” Austin wrote on Instagram. “I have
worked so hard for this fish. Hundreds of
hours, thousands of dollars, great days,
terrible days, all of the above. I needed
this fish more than ever right now, which
Continued on Pg 12
UNCLE LARRY’S LURES
Time after Time,
the most successful
Trout & Kokanee Spinners!
Use the best, catch the best and the biggest!
www.unclelarryslures.com
[phone]
MADE IN THE USA