Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3821 Sept 27, 2019 | Page 9

7 Sept 27 - Oct 11, 2019 FRESHWATER VOL.38 • ISS. 21 Catch & Release Fishing! Hook More & Bigger Fish With Flies... Sponsored by Kiene’s Fly Shop 916-483-1222 • www.Kienesflyshop.com 9550 Micron Ave. Suite B • Sacramento, CA The Upper Sacramento: Rainbows & Browns Above Shasta! By Cal Kellogg The Sacramento is California’s most important river. When most folks think of the Sacramento they think of the big river you see pushing through the Delta, it’s waters a major artery for both cargo ships and gamefish such as sturgeon, stripers and king salmon. In its upper reaches the Sacramento is much different. Above Lake Shasta the river starts out as a freestone stream below Lake Siskiyou and gradually transforms into a broad placid river that looks and fishes like a spring creek. The upper river’s clear cold spring fed waters are home to a plethora of aquatic insects…This is trout water of the highest degree! While both fly anglers and anglers armed with spinning gear have success on the upper Sac, fly fishing is king in this region. Most of the stream has a zero limit and anglers are restricted to using artificials with barbless hooks. The river’s hard fighting wild rainbows and abundant insects attract fly anglers from all over the world. The short stretch of river from the Scarlett Way Bridge to the County Bridge at Sweetbriar is the only section of the river planted with catchable trout and it’s this area FRESHWATER REPORTS: CONTINUED FROM PG 4 AMERICAN RIVER cont. the Sunrise Area, but the overall fishing on the river remains tough. For striped bass, toss out Pencil Poppers, Zara Spooks and other top water lures early and late in the day or fish crawdad tails, jumbo minnows or live pike minnows during the day. Fly fishing with Clouser Minnows can also be very productive. The American from the U.S. Geological Survey gauging station cable crossing about 300 yards downstream from the Nimbus Hatchery fish rack site to the mouth at Discovery Park is now open to salmon fishing. - Dan Bacher BERRYESSA LAKE Kokanee Anglers Reel In Biggest Fish of Year WINTERS – After a temporary slowdown, the kokanee fishing at Lake Berryessa has improved as the season nears its end and the fish transition into spawning mode. Trollers are landing some of the largest fish of the season now. “It was another stellar day at Berryessa fishing with Julian *Trolling Westerhout,” Motors reported Rich Crispi *Fishfinders of TW Guide Service after his latest trip. *GPS “We caught easy *VHF limits with 16 kokes Radios to the boat and a *Radar few trout. We tossed *Batteries back fish all day and looking for the big ones. We lost some Chargers hogs that were pulling hard. It was Largest Service a pure Apex bite Center and the color gold in the West! dominated!.” Their biggest koke measured 18-1/2 Marine Electronics Sales • Service • Installation Electric Marine ONE DAY SERVICE on Installations with appointment [phone] Sunny’s where standard regulations are in effect. This means that you can keep five trout in the area and you can employ both bait and barbed hooks. This is the stretch that attracts most of the anglers armed with spinning gear, since they generally like to harvest a few fish for the table. Annually this stretch of the river is stocked with trout ranging up to 8 pounds, so you always run the chance of hooking into a jumbo rainbow. Away from the town of Dunsmuir, wild rainbows average 12 to 20 inches in length and have a well-earned reputation for putting on impressive airborne displays when hooked. In the spring and early summer the top tactic is drifting either mayfly or stonefly nymphs. Some anglers score well while drifting two nymph leaders under an indicator. Depending on the conditions it’s not uncommon to see some afternoon surface activity in the spring and early summer. Caddis flies and bluewing olives will likely show on warm days and by June hatches of golden stones typically kick into gear. inches long and weighed 2.02 lbs.. “The fish are still in good shape,” said Crispi. “We had deep bite today, getting then from 68 ft. to 104 ft. The fish are still in the main body and we still have a few weeks of fun.” “Over the past few days, kokanee anglers reported doing very well at Berryessa,” said Craig Newton at Willfish Bait and Tackle in Auburn. “Three of my customers reported landing 15 total kokanee, including 10 over 18 inches, on their most recent trip. The fish are hitting hoochies and Uncle Larry’s spinners, tipped with white corn, behind dodgers at about 80 feet dee0. The jaws of the males are hooking, but the fish still have their scales.” On a trip before the bite rebounded, Newton and his fishing partner reported bagging 6 kokanee in the 16 to 18 inch range and two trout while trolling with spinner hoochies above the big island at 80 to 85 feet deep. The bass fishing is also going strong at Berryessa, as evidenced by the most recent trip to the reservoir by Don Paganelli of Paganelli’s Bass Fishing Experience. “Peter Tira and his son had a good day of fishing at the lake,” said Paganelli. “We caught and released a dozen fish, including 6 largemouths, 4 smallmouths and 2 spotted bass. The biggest fish was a smallmouth weighing about 3 pounds that was caught on a Keitech swimbait.” “There was a heavy marine layer in the morning and I thought the reaction bite would be good, but it wasn’t,” he noted. Continued on Pg 13 JC BASS FISHING GUIDE SERVICE With Pro Bass Fisherman Jason Cordiale Learn Progressive Techniques for Bass On The Delta, Clear Lake & Berryessa ALL SKILL LEVELS WELCOME www.jcbassfishing.com [phone] [email protected] 3811 ARE YOU FEELING LUCKY? [email protected] SUPERSTITIOUSLURES.COM 3809