VOL . 40 • ISS . 7 April 9 , 2021
23
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 Striper bite is heating up along the American River
Courtesy of Kiene ’ s Fly Shop
By Tyler Andersen
With temperatures touching the 80 ’ s and that Sacramento Sun shining high and bright , I have been fighting the urge to get out and chase around some Striped Bass . All it took was a couple of pictures from other anglers holding up beautiful Stripers and I was ready to pack up my gear and hit the River . As I have been running around fishing for steelhead over the past couple of weeks , I have recently seen a couple of strikes that produced big splashes of water that I knew could only mean the Striped Bass are beginning to wake up and get active in the river . All of this action has only increased my anticipation , to get out and get my bait in the water as quickly as possible ! I personally fly fish for Striper with either a 6wt or 8wt rod and a wide variety of large flies . After learning the hard way I now attach a 25lb leader and tippet to be able to handle the ferocity of a striper strike . I have been attaching a large variety of colors of both Lefty ’ s Deceiver as well as a Clousers Minnow when doing this and had to simulate either suckerfish or shad ! The destination for this given trip was either side of the San Juan Rapids located in Fair Oaks , and it did not disappoint . I purposely planned to get out around 9 AM when the Sun would have a chance to heat the water and in my head heat up the bite . After around an hour and a half of throwing the Lefty ’ s Deceiver , I switched to a closer minnow that has a strong yellow stripe similar to the Sacramento Sucker and immediately had back-to-back strikes . After making a couple of small tweaks to my presentation I was able to land the next strike which produced a small Striper that was an inch shy of afoot , and back into the water he went to turn into the river monster I strive to someday catch ! The afternoon continued this pattern following the first cast while never producing a fish longer then 15 Inches until the dreadful moment where I snagged and lost the last of that specific coloring of Clouser Minnow that seemed to have an irresistible taste . I continued to fish for multiple hours with a wide variety of flies and colors and it seemed to have turned off the bite single handly by throwing something else into the water . All in all , I will be back , better prepared , and ready to catch more stripers with more size as I continue to study , refine , and target these American River stripers . trout , and Kokanee salmon . I ’ ve been targeting big browns mainly , but the rainbows and Kokanee salmon are showing up in the mix . Big browns will be around through summer , and the rainbows will show in bigger numbers in May . The big news is that we ’ re catching Kokanee salmon daily now and they are 13 ” -14 ” inches and as clean as they get . We ’ ll see 18 ” -19 ” Kokanee before summer ends this year for sure . I ’ m guessing the Kokanee in Shasta will average 3 lbs . but I ’ m sure we ’ ll see some 4 lb Kokanee in the mix . The plankton in Shasta is very abundant and the Kokanee are stuffed with them ! Water temps have come up and are averaging 56 degrees right now . With more warm weather on the way and lower than normal lake levels , we ’ ll see Shasta warm up quickly ! We ’ ve caught a few King salmon lately as well , but I think we ’ ll see the King fishing pick up by May again this year . We ’ re looking forward to another great year on Shasta Lake and can ’ t wait to see all the great fish we ’ re going to see coming over the rail ! The Sacramento River in Redding is about as good as it gets again this spring and we ’ re getting into 2-3 pound trout daily with a few over 6 pounds landed last week . Flows are running at 4,000 cfs now , but should see a sharp rise sometime in the next month . With all the spawning salmon in the river , drifting egg presentations has been a good bet for catching these super charged rainbows .
The Jeff Goodwin Fishing Team put David Dekeyrel of Turlock on this nice brown trout . They were trolling a Trinidad Tackle Optimizer Jr . on Shasta Lake when they landed this beauty .
Photo Courtesy of The Jeff Goodwin Fishing Team
Gary Summers from Stockton was fishing the North Shore of Lake Camanche when he caught this grown sized rainbow . The bait of choice for Gary was chartreuse Power Bait .
Photo Courtesy of Lake Camanche
LAKE TAHOE
Mackinaw Bite in Full Swing
Lake Tahoe – Captain Zach of Tahoe Sportfishing reported that fishing has been full swing and the weather has been amazing with summer like conditions . The bite has been really good in the morning while fishing 100 to 140 feet deep . The fish are moving a little deeper to about 180 to 220 feet deep by the middle of the day . Captain Zach has been fishing the bottom with live bait with the average sized mackinaw being 3-4 pounds . There have been several 8 pounders in the mix and even a fish that weighed in the 10 pound class .
– Ernie Marlan
TRINITY RIVER
Spring Steelhead Trip Yields Great Action
LEWISTON- If you like to catch and release steelhead , the spring can be an excellent time to fish the Trinity River , as Craig Newton of Willfish Tackle found out at the end of March .
“ Steve Cowles and I caught and released five steelhead up to six pounds ,” said Newton , “ The others were 3 to 5 pounds each . The fish were a mixture of hatchery and wild steelhead .” They drifted the river in the stretch from Bucktail to Steelbridge in Cowles ’ drift boat . All of the fish hit Maglips plugs in gold and orange .