Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3822 Oct 11-25 | Page 3

Up-To-Date and Published Locally... By Sportsmen... For Sportsmen!
37 Years
Serving
Sportsmen
Sacramento River Map Feature
MADE IN U.S.A
See Page 16-17
Vol. 38 - ISS.22
Our
37th
Year
T
Since 1982
October 11 - 25, 2019
“The Magazine for West Coast Sportsmen!”
Have Duckworth, Will Travel…
Livin’ The Dream Fish Sniffer Style!
he past week was so packed with
action that it went by in a blur and
served to define the lifestyle I love, being
both a full-time editor at the
Fish Sniffer Magazine and the
producer/host of one of the
West’s most popular fishing
focused YouTube channels,
Fish-Hunt-Shoot Productions.
In addition to writing articles
and reports to fuel the engine
at the Fish Sniffer and creating
daily video content to feed
the F.H.S. channel, I spent a
good deal of time on the road
with both my Duckworth
powerboat and Hobie Kayak
in tow, seeking out the best
fishing Fish Sniffer Country
has to offer. What a week it
was!
The week started off with a crazy trip to
Lake Shasta to play around with my new
lineup of trout fishing grubs. With late
summer trout fishing being consistently
poor at my home lakes, Wes Ward and I
decided Shasta offered the best option.
Yes, it was a 3-hour drive from home.
Yes, we’d only be able to fish for about
4 hours. And yes, we’d have
to drive another 3 hours back
home…
That’s 6 hours driving for 4
hours fishing. The positives
were that the drive-up
Highway 5 is easy and that
we’d have Wi-Fi and cell
phone reception the entire
way so that we’d be able to
take care of a bunch of calls
and office work while on the
road. Plus, I had a source up
on the lake, named Robert that
had identified an area for us
that was holding fish, meaning
we wouldn’t have to spend a
lot of time searching.
After a dark-o-thirty drive, Wes and
I were in the parking lot at Bridge Bay
before sunrise and by the time we had
filming light we were motoring down the
McCloud River Arm of the lake. When
T
Cal Kellogg was elated after landing this 24.5-
inch Lake Shasta rainbow while fishing with
the Fish Sniffer’s Wes Ward.
Photo by WES WARD, Fish Sniffer Staff.
we started marking fish 75 to 100 feet
deep off a long rock wall we dropped
the downriggers and started working
the marks with Fire Cracker and Cotton
CONTINUED ON PG 11
which told me that fish were here to
be caught. Dan set us up with 8’ 2” G.
Loomis graphite rods with Shimano
Curado reels loaded with
red Tuf Line braid. Terminal
tackle was T55 and T60
Flatfish in chartruese/silver
and hot pink/silver, with a
sardine wrap and 40 lb P Line
leader.
We started in about 12
feet of water, with 2 rods
having 6 ounce weights and
2 with 5 ounce weights on
the dropper. Dan set us up
to backtroll above a couple
other boats. I dropped my
Flatfish down, felt it bounce
the bottom once, and then felt
a good hit from a salmon!
I wasn’t in the water 10
seconds when I had the first fish of the
day on and fighting!
The heavy salmon took line immedi-
ately, and then jumped behind the boat
3 times as he sought to throw the hook.
After a strong fight, Dan netted our first
fish of the day, a muscular 12 pound
WHAT’S
HOT
by
Paul Kneeland
David Barsi landed this huge Sacramento
River king salmon while working a T-55
Flatfish during a recent trip with Captain
Dan Ponciano and the Fish Sniffer’s Paul
Kneeland.
Photo by PAUL KNEELAND, Fish Sniffer Staff.
F ish S niffer T IP OF THE W EEK
Area Reports
FRESHWATER REPORTS
Lake Almanor - Berryessa Lake.............................4
Bullards Bar/Englebright Reservoir -
Collins Lake ........................................................7
Collins Lake.......................................................... 13
Davis Lake - Eagle Lake...................................... 15
East Delta - Feather River............................. 18-19
Folsom Lake - Redding/Red Bluff ................ 20-21
Shadow Cliffs/Chabot Lakes -
San Pablo Reservoir.............................. 22-23
Shasta Lake - West Delta.................................... 25
SALTWATER REPORTS
Baja Roundup........................................................... 29
Berkeley - Bodega Bay............................................ 28
Fisherman’s Wharf - Monterey Bay................. 30-31
Where...When...How...
Sacramento River Salmon
Starting to Heat Up!
he Sacramento River salmon
season is underway, and the fish
are starting to fill the river and fish boxes
up and down the system. I
fished the upper river with
guide Dan Ponciano and my
friends Dave Barsi of Oak
Run and Brian Garcia of
Colfax.
Brian and I hit the road in
Colfax at 3:30 am and were
at the Ball’s Ferry Boat ramp
about 10 after 6. Dave drove
in at the same time, and Dan
was ready to launch his 25
foot North River sled as we
arrived. It was a gorgeous
morning on the river, with no
wind and a cool temperature
of about 54 degrees. The river
looked beautiful, fairly high
but very clear with a water temperature of
52 degrees.
We boarded the North River and ran
downstream for about 20 minutes and
set up to backtroll just above the famous
Barge Hole. There were several boats in
the area, even on a Thursday morning,
INSIDE
FEATURES
GONE
FISHING
by
Cal Kellogg
Special Section
Catch & Release
Fishing - pg 7
CONTINUED ON PG 27
Typically, river run kings strike plugs with a good deal of force. When you feel
the strike, wait as long as you can and then drive the hooks home with authority.
Salmon are strong and the fish is likely holding your plug very firmly in its mouth.
To effectively set the hooks you’ve got to break the fish’s grasp on the lure.
FALL FISHING BOAT SALE......................... 8,9,11,12
BAJA ROUNDUP......................................................31
BULLETIN BOARD.....................................................3
CATCH & RELEASE - FLY FISHING: Cal Kellogg....14
FISH SNIFFER COUNTRY: Steve ‘Hippo’ Lau..........29
GO FOR IT: Staff.........................................................2
HOW-TO: Cal Kellogg................................................6
KAYAK FISHING SPOTLIGHT: Cal Kellogg ...............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
Cal Kellogg - fished the
West Delta with Wes Ward
from the Fish Sniffer 18
foot Duckworth Advantage
Sport. For soaking a variety
of baits Cal and Wes used a pair of Cal’s
8 foot Striper-Halibut-Salmon rods topped
with PENN Fathom 15 level wind reels
spooled with 65 pound Yo-Zuri braid. The
duo landed stripers to 23 inches during the
outgoing tide near the power lines on the
Sacramento.
Dan Bacher - fished for
rainbow trout at Loon Lake.
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.
Paul Kneeland - fished
the Indian Ocean out of
St. Lucia, South Africa with
his brother Ken and John
Brassfield of Trucksmart
stores. They caught yellowfin tuna to
25 pounds using Shimano Beastmaster
Rods and Shimano TLD 25 reels loaded
with 65 lb Daiwa Braid, trolling silver and
chartreuse Rapalas at 7 knots on the
surface right behind the boat.