Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3907 Mar 13-27

Up-To-Date and Published Locally... By Sportsmen... For Sportsmen! 38 Years Serving Sportsmen Lake Amador Map Feature MADE IN U.S.A See Page 14 March 13 - 27, 2020 Vol. 39 - ISS.7 Our 38th Year Since 1982 “The Magazine for West Coast Sportsmen!” Halibut Season Is Going To Be Great! Are You Ready? S an Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate region’s coastal waters are the halibut capital of northern California. That has always been the case, but over the past couple years halibut action has been exceptionally good and that trend is expected to carry over into the 2020 season. For decades, the one and only way for sport anglers to hook halibut was drifting with live bait. To be sure, live bait drifting remains the most popular means of hooking Mr. Halibut, but it has become obvious that there is more than one way to skin the proverbial cat. Since drifting has kept us in halibut fillets for so long and since there are some folks reading this that will take their first halibut trip in 2020 let’s begin this discussion with a review of live bait drifting. For halibut drifting you’ll need a medium or medium light rod teamed with a reel spooled with 15 to 20-pound mono or 30 to 65-pound braid. Baitcasting outfits are preferred, but spinning gear will work. The standard terminal tackle used for live bait drifting consists of a 3-way swivel with a 36 inch 25-pound fluorocarbon leader tipped with a 1, 1/0 or 2/0 live bait hook tied on a perfection loop connected to one of the swivel’s eyes. To the second eye a short dropper of 10-pound mono is attached with either a loop or cheap snap on the other end. Your sinker is attached to the dropper. The dropper is made of light line, such that in the event you should snag it will break before your leader or main line. That way you’ll only lose the sinker. This is especially important if the sinker ends up getting snagged while you’re fighting a fish. This way you’ll lose the overpriced sinker, but you’ll still put your halibut into the frying pan. With this rig attached to your rod, you GONE FISHING by Cal Kellogg pring is just around the corner, and stripers will soon be flooding into the California Delta in large numbers. During the spring run, stripers tend to be scattered out, so anchoring and soaking bait can be a hit or miss proposition. Trolling is the best way to cover water until you find the spots where pre-spawn stripers are holding. Before hitting the water this spring, let’s look at some advanced trolling techniques. On February 8, I was lucky enough to be invited to fish on Jim Brittain’s boat. Jim is one of the best striper trollers on the delta, and he has a good network of anglers providing recent and accurate reports. Networking with other anglers is one of the best techniques you can use to put more stripers into your boat. Knowing the latest trends and hotspots is something that the best guides and private anglers use to produce successful trips. Message boards, social media, and radio shows are a good starting point, but first person reports are the best way to get directly onto the fish. After launching at Brannon Island, Jim and I hit the ‘west bank’ area of the FEATURES Where...When...How... Halibut fishing has been outstanding inside and outside San Francisco Bay for the past couple years and the forecast is for excellent action again this year. The season kicks off in April, are you ready? Photo by CAL KELLOGG, Fish Sniffer Staff. arm the hook with a live anchovy by hooking the little guy upward through the nose. You don’t want to man handle the CONTINUED ON PG 21 Sacramento River just below Rio Vista. Although we trolled in some of the spots Jim’s friends had recommended, we came up empty. We pulled lines and Jim shot us across the river to a new area where he advised that we switch over to deep diving plugs. As I held my rod, I felt a sharp BANG. I slowly eased the rod tip forward, and then back towards the lure. BAM! The rod loaded up and started pumping in my hand. “There’s one!” I relayed to Jim as he worked the kicker motor. Once netted, we had our first keeper of the day in the boat. I used a rod-pumping technique to draw the strike. Back when I first started trolling the delta, I fished out of my dad’s 13-foot aluminum boat. It had a 15-horsepower tiller-drive outboard. I had to manually throttle and steer with my left hand at all times. I held my rod in my right hand, as dad’s old boat didn’t have rod by Jack Naves F ish S niffer T IP OF THE W EEK Area Reports SALTWATER REPORTS Baja Roundup........................................................... 27 Berkeley - Half Moon Bay...................................24-25 Half Moon Bay - Monterey Bay....................... 26-27 WHAT’S HOT On February 8 Jim Brittain put Jack Naves into position to land these 2 feisty stripers using deep diving Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnows. Jack employed a rod-pumping technique to draw strikes on a day when a full moon, big tides, scattered fish, and north winds made for the most menacing of trolling conditions. Photo by JACK NAVES, Fish Sniffer Staff. INSIDE FRESHWATER REPORTS Lake Almanor - Bullards Bar/Englebright Reservoirs........4 Camanche Lake - Klamath River.................... 10-11 Los Vaqueros Lake - Pardee Lake...................... 12 Pyramid Lake - Sacramento Area.................. 18-19 San Pablo Reservoir - West Delta................. 22-23 Advanced Trolling Techniques for Spring Stripers S Special Section KAYAK Fishing: pgs 20 The Senko is testament that at times simplicity is the best solution. The Senko is basically a fat salt impregnated plastic worm that doesn’t look like much and when in the water, it doesn’t do much. Well, not much beyond catching lots of fish. To get the most out of your Senkos you want to “wacky rig” them. To wacky rig a Senko you simply tie a medium size octopus hook to the end of your line and then hook it through the center of the bait. Cast or drop the bait near bass holding structure and let it drop on a semi-tight line. When a bass hits you feel a tap or the line will take off moving laterally through the water…Set The Hook! CONTINUED ON PG 13 TROUT ANGLERS CHALLENGE................. 6-9 BAJA ROUNDUP........................................................27 BULLETIN BOARD.....................................................3 CATCH & RELEASE - FLY FISHING: Kiene’s Fly Shop.17 FISH SNIFFER COUNTRY: Steve ‘Hippo’ Lau..........26 GO FOR IT: Staff.......................................................16 HOW-TO: Cal Kellogg................................................5 KAYAK FISHING SPOTLIGHT: Kevin Hofer .............20 MAP FEATURE: Dan Bacher...............................14-15 SPOTLIGHT ON CONSERVATION: Dan Bacher......25 STAFF TACKLE What We’re Using Cal Kellogg - trolled Jenkinson Reservoir with Wes Ward from their 18’ Duckworth Advantage Sport. While trolling Mack’s Lure Cripplures and Wiggle Hoochies Cal and Wes boated 3 mackinaw to 18 inches and a 13-inch rainbow trout. For extra attraction, Cal and Wes used both Anise Krill and Smelt scent Pro-Cure Super Gels on their lures. Paul Kneeland - fished Pyramid Lake with John Brassfield of Trucksmart stores in John’s 18’ Duckworth. They caught lahontan cutthroat trout to 9 pounds, using an Okuma 9’ Kokanee Black Rod with a Daiwa Lexa 100 line counter reel loaded with 10 lb test P Line CXX line. They trolled 4 inch Silver Horde spoons in chartreuse/orange and 3.5 Yakima Mag Lips in silver and green, off the Canon Downriggers at 20 to 40 feet deep and 2.4 mph. Dan Bacher - fished for rainbow trout at San Pablo 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, nightcrawlers and 2/5 oz. gold/red stripe Little Cleos.

Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3907 Mar 13-27 | Page 3