Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3707 March 16-30, 2018 | Page 3

Up-To-Date and Published Locally... By Sportsmen... For Sportsmen!
Lake Pardee Map Feature
MADE IN U.S.A
See Page 14
Vol. 37 - ISS.07
Our
36th
Year
D
Are You Throwing a Ned Rig for Bass?
GONE
FISHING
Courtesy
of Z-Man
I
March 16 - 30, 2018
Since 1982
“The Magazine for West Coast Sportsmen!”
ays on the water with Ned Kehde
aren’t measured by pounds of bass
in the livewell or by “5 good bites.” Rather,
outings with the Hall of
Fame fishing writer mostly
distill down to clicks on
a little handheld counting
device; following many
of Kehde’s daily, 4-hour
forays, the clicker rolls to
some number of bass and
other fish greater than 100.
Dig a little deeper
and you discover it’s not
unheard of for a single, durable ElaZtech
softbait — Kehde’s favorite — to have topped
the century mark. According to Kehde, the
all-time record was set by one particular 4-inch
Z-Man Finesse WormZ, with which he caught
232 fish.
More recently, while testing a TRD HogZ
— a relatively new 3-inch finesse bait —
Kehde caught 55 bass in 69 minutes — all in
frigid 41-degree water. “I mailed the HogZ
back to Daniel Nussbaum of Z-Man,” noted
Kehde, “after this one bait produced 112 fish.
It was still in really good shape.”
The larger truth is Kehde remains chiefly
responsible for developing an amazing
fishing system his friend and fellow Hall of
Fame writer Steve Quinn
originally termed the Ned
Rig. Though the ultra-
finesse presentation
runs counter to much
of bass fishing’s
mainstream, which
often prefers beefy
rods, stout line and
jumbo jig-hooks, the
unassuming Ned Rig
has almost certainly
captured more interest
and acclaim by North
American bassers than any
other presentation in recent
memory.
Even so, if you ask
the humble Kehde — who
isn’t interested in fame or The man behind the Ned Rig, Hall Of Fame fishing writer, Ned Kehde.
Photo courtesy of TRADITIONS MEDIA
being paid to promote any
particular lure or brand —
to talk about the origins of the phenomenal
Ned Rig Renaissance
lure, he’s likely to defer to names like Chuck
In the 1950s, says Kehde, Woods was
Woods and the legendary Guido Hibdon.
alread y fishing a version of the Ned Rig —
“Probably less than one in ten anglers knows
a soft plastic ‘Beetle’ on a jighead with a
that Woods designed the Puddle Jumper, as
spinning rod. “I believe Chuck Woods has
well as the Beetle and Beetle Spin — three
probably caught more Kansas largemouth
classic finesse lures — nor that he also created bass than any man in history.”
the first Texas-rigged jigworm.”
The next big development in the Ned Rig
CONTINUED ON PAGE 20
California’s War on Hunting and Fishing Continues!
t was more than 40 years ago, but for
some reason I remember the comment
like the conversation took place yesterday.
I was probably 7 years old and my dad was
talking about hunting over a cup of coffee
with Bill Elliot, a family friend and rural café
owner up in Tehama County.
Bill was an old man at the time. He’d been
a logger and mechanic and was a lifelong
angler and hunter. Bill wasn’t an educated
man, but he was ripe with life experience and
insight.
“Hell, long before your boy is my age hunt-
ing and fishing in California will be the sports
of rich men. That is if hunting and fishing are
even allowed to continue,” Bill said nodding
toward me.
Those words stuck with me. Bill is long
dead, but every
year his prediction
takes on more
weight as I watch
the quality of
hunting and fish-
ing available in
[phone] www.dragonsportfishing.com
California decline.
As if this
weren’t bad
enough, the rights
of California’s an-
glers and hunters
have been steadily
legislated away
and the cost of
Remember the days when you were a kid and you’d go out and soak some bait for trout or
catfish with your dad or grandpa? Assembly Bill 2787 puts experiences like these directly engaging in these
in the crosshairs. With zero science backing up his position Assembly Member Bill Quirk, sports has soared
is putting forth the bill that would outlaw lead weights and sinkers.
as a result of both
Photo by DAN BACHER, Fish Sniffer Staff.
36 Years
Serving
Sportsmen
regulations (ever increasing and expanding
license and tag fees)
and legislation that
makes participation
in hunting and fish-
ing more and more
costly.
Now, I’m going
to end up talking
about a dark cloud
that is now looming
over fishing in our
state, but before
I move forward I
need to offer a bit
of background.
As most of you
know, I’m an avid
hunter. I know
some of my readers
are hunters and shooters, but many are not,
so I want to explain something that has tak-
en place in the world of California hunting.
In 2007 Assembly Bill 821 established a
Condor Zone in Central California where
lead ammo could no longer be used for
hunting big game. The ban was based on a
study at UC Santa Cruz that indicated that
WHAT’S
HOT
by
Cal Kellogg
CONTINUED ON PAGE 16
Former Panoche Water District Staff
Charged with Embezzlement, Illegal
Disposal of Hazardous Waste
See Page 11
Special Section
Baja Roundup
PG 26-27
INSIDE
Area Reports
FRESHWATER REPORTS
Almanor - American River.....................................4
Berryessa Lake - Clear Lake.................................7
Collins Lake - East Delta................................... 8-9
Eastern Sierra - Folsom Lake..............................10
Klamath River - Quarry Lakes....................... 12-13
Redding/Red Bluff - San Pablo Reservoir.... 16-17
Santa Clara Valley Lakes - Topaz Lake........ 18-19
West Delta..........................................................21
SALTWATER REPORTS
Berkeley - Half Moon Bay.....................................22
Martinez - Peninsula Shoreline....................... 24-25
FEATURES
Where...When...How...
BAJA ROUNDUP...............................................26-27
BULLETIN BOARD................................................... 4
COOKIN’ YER CATCH - Paulette Kenyon............... 21
FISH SNIFFER HOW-TO: Cal Kellogg..................... 5
GO FOR IT: Staff....................................................... 2
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR...................................... 3
MAP FEATURE: Dan Bacher.............................14-15
SALTY TIPS Steve “Hippo” Lau.............................. 26
SPOTLIGHT ON CONSERVATION - Dan Bacher.... 11
WHAT’S HOT SALTWATER - Dan Bacher.............. 23
STAFF
TACKLE
What We’re Using
Cal Kellogg - fished the
San Leandro shoreline of
South San Francisco Bay
for surfperch. Cal used a
Fenwick 7’5” Aetos cast-
ing rod paired with an Abu
Garcia Orra Inshore baitcaster with a 7.1:1
gear ratio. The reel was spooled with 30
lb FINS braid. Cal set the outfit up with
a sliding sinker rig constructed of 20 lb
test Berkley Trilene Big Game Line tipped
with a No. 4 baithlder hook. For bait Cal
used medium white prawns broken in half.
Paul Kneeland - fished Eng-
lebright Reservoir with John
Brassfield of Trucksmart
stores in John’s 18’ Duck-
worth. They caught rainbow
trout to 14 inches, using a
Rogue Rods 7’ 6” light action IM-7 graphite
trigger stick rigged with an Daiwa Lexa 100
counter reel with 10 lb test Berkley Fireline.
He trolled small silver Tasmanian Devils and
red/white Apex trout killers off the Canon
Downriggers at 10 to 20 feet deep at 2.2 mph.
Dan Bacher - fished for rain-
bow trout at Halsey Forebay.
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 Flourocarbon Coated Line.
He tossed out 1/8 oz. Yakima Bait Rooster
Tails in Brown Trout, Fire Tiger and Rain-
bow color patterns and 1/8 oz. gold and
black Panther Martins.