Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3821 Sept 27, 2019 | Page 3

Up-To-Date and Published Locally... By Sportsmen... For Sportsmen!
Camanche Lake Map Feature
MADE IN U.S.A
See Page 16-17
Vol. 38 - ISS.21
Our
37th
Year
Since 1982
Sept 27 - Oct 11, 2019
“The Magazine for West Coast Sportsmen!”
Fish Sniffer Staff Slams Bodega Kings With Fish On Charters
I
My quest to catch an ocean
salmon this summer has been quite
a challenge. Before you come to the
wrong conclusion, perhaps
I should clarify. Due to my
own extremely crazy schedule
I had been unsuccessfully
searching for an open date.
So, after finally moving
my schedule around I was
able to free up some time.
Luckily when I called Captain
Jeff Caramella with Fish On
Charters he just happened to
have availability. “Sign me
up,” I told Captain Jeff and
several days later I was on my
way to Bodega Bay.
When I arrived at Bodega
Harbor with my buddy Ian,
I met up with Captain Jeff
and was greeted with a hearty handshake
and a smile from another old friend
Captain Anthony. Joining us were Chris
and his son Matt. The big question of
the morning, “Where are the salmon, on
the beach or offshore?” Cardinal Rule
Number one in bass fishing is – Ignore the
Dock Talk. Well this applies to
salmon too.
With dense fog shrouding the
coastline, I soon lost
my point of reference.
Captain Jeff politely
told me were headed
offshore. Did I
mention that Captain
Jeff has an internal
salmon radar. More on
that later.
As we motored
along, we came upon
group after group of
salmon hunters with
their gear in the water.
When Captain Jeff
finally stopped the
Samantha Irene there
was not another boat
in sight. Instead what I saw were
birds working, a graph full of
bait and fish, and even a whale or
two. Did I mention Captain Jeff
has an internal salmon radar.
Within five minutes of lines
Special Section
Catch & Release
Fishing - pg 7
INSIDE
Area Reports
FRESHWATER REPORTS
Lake Almanor - American River..............................4
Berryessa Lake ......................................................7
Bullards Bar/Englebright Reservoir -
Collins Lake...................................................... 13
Davis Lake - East Delta....................................... 15
Lake Del Valle - Los Vasqueros Reservoir ... 18-19
New Melones Lake -
Quarry Lakes/Shadow Cliffs Reservoir .... 20-21
Rancho Seco Lake -
Shasta/Whiskeytown Lakes................... 22-23
Stampede Lake - West Delta............................... 25
SALTWATER REPORTS
Baja Roundup........................................................... 31
Berkeley - Bodega Bay............................................ 27
Fisherman’s Wharf - Half Moon Bay....................... 29
Monterey Bay......................................................30
FEATURES
GONE
FISHING
Where...When...How...
by
Mark Fong
A
37 Years
Serving
Sportsmen
Bodega Bay was the scene of great summer salmon
action for the Fish Sniffer staff.
Photo courtesy of FISH ON CHARTERS, Bodega Bay
CONTINUED ON PG 12
Monsters and Mining Towns
swirling, I had scrambled to schedule a
trip to New Melones Reservoir on August
24. I even packed my SLR camera
just in case I actually got one.
The morning started out slow,
with a few fish showing up here and
there. R.J. Sanchez and his uncle
Danny joined me in my boat. As we
trolled across a shaded underwater
point, the depth
slowly started to
drop. 40…45…50
feet deep. I was
trying to lower my
downrigger weight
along the bottom
to match the depth.
60…65 feet
deep. I saw a
small group of
fish on the sonar unit
hugging the bottom.
As I cranked forward
on the clutch of my
Cannon downrigger,
wire played off the
Jack Naves headed to New Melones Reservoir this August
spool. THUD. I felt the
looking for big kokanee and ended up landing his personal best
weight contact bottom
sockeye when this amazing 19 inch fish decided to strike.
t five o’clock Saturday morning
in the hills of Amador County, I
was zigzagging through windy roads in
the dark. The “Historic Main St. Jackson”
sign offered a point of light to contrast the
dark twisted highways in between. I was
about halfway to the lake, on a mission for
a lunker kokanee salmon.
With rumors of monster kokanee
and I locked it into place. I paused with
tension - knowing that my lure was
fluttering through a
school of fish at that
very moment.
Not more than five
seconds later, the rod
tip violently surged.
“Here we go,” I
muttered, as I grabbed
the rod and reeled
into the fish. After a
few cranks, I noticed
that I was reeling
against the drag. I
stopped reeling and
held the rod out to the
side. PUMP-PUMP-
PUMP…I couldn’t
gain any ground…
PUMP-PUMP-PUMP…but I knew it
was a fish. I recovered some line, but the
fish suddenly ripped off 20 feet of line in
the span of a few seconds.
“I wonder if it’s a bass?” I inquired, but
in the back of my mind, I was thinking
that bass don’t pump or head shake like
this. After several minutes, the fish was
WHAT’S
HOT
by
Jack Naves
Photo by JACK NAVES, Fish Sniffer Staff.
F ish S niffer T IP OF THE W EEK
Slip bobbers offer trout anglers important advantages. First and most importantly
they allow you to present baits and jigs at specific depths. This allows you to put
your offering in the trout’s strike zone and keep it there.
Secondly, slip bobbers allow the fish to take your bait without feeling significant
resistance. This is important when the fish are behaving tentatively since if they feel
any unnatural resistance they will likely spit out the bait. - Cal Kellogg
CONTINUED ON PG 14
RIO VISTA BASS DERBY.....................................8-13
BAJA ROUNDUP......................................................31
BULLETIN BOARD.....................................................3
CATCH & RELEASE - FLY FISHING: Cal Kellogg......7
FISH SNIFFER COUNTRY: Steve ‘Hippo’ Lau..........28
GO FOR IT: Staff.........................................................2
HOW-TO: Cal Kellogg................................................6
KAYAK FISHING SPOTLIGHT: Kevin Hofer ...............5
MAP FEATURE: Dan Bacher...............................16-17
MIXED BAG FISHING: Ernie Marlan........................24
SPOTLIGHT ON CONSERVATION: Dan Bacher......26
STAFF
TACKLE
What We’re Using
Paul Kneeland - fished Lake
Berryessa with Bruce Wicks of
Foresthill in the Fish Sniffer 21’
Rogue Jet Coastal. They caught
Kokanee to 18 1/2 inches using
an 8’ ultralight Phenix Reaper composite kokanee
rod with a Team Daiwa Z ultra light levelwind reel
loaded with 6 pound Yozuri TopKnot fluorocarbon
line.. They trolled a watermelon Vance’s Dodger
followed by a pink/chartreuse hootchie and a
Paulina Peak red/silver dodger followed by a
pink Uncle Larrys spinner with Rooster Tail Trout/
Kokanee spray off the Canon Downriggers 55 to
75 feet deep at 1.4 mph.
Cal Kellogg - fished Lake
Shasta with Wes Ward from
the Fish Sniffer’s 18’ Duckworth
provided by Gone Fishin’
Marine. Cal and Wes trolled
Cal’s signature series 3-inch Firecracker Grubs
behind Mack’s Lure Hot Wings Flashers on
Vance’s 7-foot downrigger rods teamed with Abu
Garcia 5500 LC reels. The duo caught several
rainbows including an incredible 24.5-inch fish
that weighed about 4 pounds.
Dan Bacher - fished for rainbow
trout at Icehouse Reservoir. 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 Fluorocarbon 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. Dan coated his baits and
lures with Bloody Tuna scent Pro-Cure Super
Gel.