Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3709 April 13-27, 2018 | Page 3

Up-To-Date and Published Locally... By Sportsmen... For Sportsmen!
Rancho Seco Map Feature
MADE IN U.S.A
See Page 24
Vol. 37 - ISS.09
Our
36th
Year
I
April 13 - 27, 2018
Since 1982
“The Magazine for West Coast Sportsmen!”
NorCal Female Fish Slayers
Bag Sturgeon Limits!
rolled up to the boat launch at 6:30
in the morning on March 11, ready
for an epic day of fishing. I was super
excited to be meeting up with a group of
awesome ladies who
also love to fish!
Nice weather, perfect
tides, and all around
good company, it
was going to be a
great day.
We booked our
trip with Captain
Kyle Dryer and
deckhand, Dustin
Pestana, of Death
Roe Sportfishing.
Capt. Kyle and Dustin put their clients
on a lot of big fish and they generously
offered to run an all girls fishing trip!
I’m getting excited about the trip all
over again just by typing this story. Before
I go any further my friends were Ashley
Watson, Jes Szura, and Sara Marie and as
I mentioned they hard core anglers. We
are all members of the NorCal Female
Fish Slayers group on Facebook.
GONE
FISHING
by
Marisa
Escareno
We launched
at about 7:15am
in Pittsburg.
The girls and I
were ready to
get to work!
Ashley and
Sara had
never caught
a sturgeon
Jes Szura holds up a monster West Delta sturgeon that she boated on March 11
before, so they when the NorCal Female Fish Slayers went on the hunt for diamond backs!
Photo courtesy of DUSTIN PESTANA, Death Roe Sportfishing.
were going to
be first in line
when the fish started biting!
and extremely pumped up!
As Kyle and Dustin set up, we
Dustin grabbed the net and brought
noticed that we would be using custom
Sara’s first white sturgeon on board.
Stubborn Rods.
The fish was a nice 47 inch slot size
With the salmon roe baits in the water
keeper! We were ready for more action!
we all kept our eyes out for any of the
Not too long after, the farthest rod
rods to go off. Moments later, we saw the
to the right started moving. Once again,
first rod to the left bounce lightly.
Dustin ran over and reeled the hook
Dustin ran over and set the hook…
into the sturgeon’s mouth…FISH ON!
FISH ON!
This time it’s Ashley’s turn! She
Sara immediate ly took the rod and
starts reeling and automatically falls in
started reeling on the fish. This is the
love. The feeling of fighting your first
moment that caused all of us girls to
sturgeon is unreal and instantly turns
officially go crazy. We were all so excited
CONTINUED ON PAGE 16
A Day on the Water with Louis Cardenas of the Kayak City Fishing Team
A
s I loaded my brand new 2018
Hobie Pro Angler 12, I was stoked
to get on the water to test its mojo for
the first time. We launched with overcast
skies and no wind into glass water at 7AM
in Capel Cove.
The plan was to
paddle about
30 Min paddle
to our first spot
and test the
reaction bite 10
to 15 foot deep
water in hopes
of finding some
bass that had
move up from
the depths to
feed.
[phone] www.dragonsportfishing.com
After an hour
with no action,
we moved to
my next spot
off a main lake
point with nice
structure and
brush piles. I was
sitting in about
When Louis Cardenas took his brand new Hobie Pro Angler 12 kayak to Lake Berryessa
10
ft of water
this March for its maiden voyage, he caught several quality bass including this muscular
casting into out
largemouth!
Photo courtesy of LOUIS CARDENAS, Kayak City Fishing Team.
36 Years
Serving
Sportsmen
20-25 feet, when BAM, I landed a nice
2.5lb. largemouth on a drop shot. Not a
bad way to break in the new yak!
A few casts later, I shook the tip a few
times with a slow drag and felt the line
slowly coming my
way. I reeled up and
hooked another one
that came unpinned
as the bass broke
the surface. Now I
knew we found a
solid pattern. With-
in a short period,
we landed several
more off the deep
point.
The fish were
holding in 20-25ft water and respond-
ing to a painfully slow presentation.
After watching the bass relate to bottom
structure on my electronics for a good
hour, I decided to switch over to green/
brown jig tipped with a strike king rage
craw as a trailer. Within a few casts slow
dragging the bottom, I get hammered,
and I mean hammered. Its rare that I get
hit that hard on a jig bite. That fish turned
GONE
FISHING
by
Louis
Cardenas
CONTINUED ON PAGE 17
State Senate Appoints Infrastructure
Development Corporation Executive
to Delta Stewardship Council
See Page 27
Special Section
Baja Roundup
PG 34-35
INSIDE
Area Reports
FRESHWATER REPORTS
Almanor - American River.....................................4
Berryessa Lake - Colusa/Knights Landing...........10
Davis Lake - Feather River ........................... 14-15
Folsom Lake - Los Vasquez Reservoir................17
New Melones - Pardee Lake...............................21
Quarry Lakes - Rollins/Scotts Flat......................22
Russian River - Shasta/Whiskeytown Lakes......26
South Chetco Rivers - West Delta................ 28-29
SALTWATER REPORTS
Berkeley - Half Moon Bay.....................................32
Martinez - Peninsula Shoreline.............................33
FEATURES
Where...When...How...
TROUT & KOKANEE JOURNAL........ 6-9, 12-13, 18-19
BAJA ROUNDUP...............................................34-35
BULLETIN BOARD................................................... 4
COOKIN’ YER CATCH - Paulette Kenyon............... 30
FISH SNIFFER HOW-TO: Cal Kellogg................... 14
GO FOR IT: Staff....................................................... 5
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR...................................... 3
MAP FEATURE: Dan Bacher.............................25-26
SALTY TIPS Steve “Hippo” Lau.............................. 34
SPOTLIGHT ON CONSERVATION - Dan Bacher.... 27
WHAT’S HOT SALTWATER - Dan Bacher.............. 31
STAFF
TACKLE
What We’re Using
Cal Kellogg - fished the
middle Delta for striped
bass. For working buck-
tal jigs and Fish Trap style
swimbaits Cal chose a
Fenwick 7’5” Aetos cast-
ing rod paired with an Abu Garcia Orra
Inshore baitcaster with a 7.1:1 gear ratio.
Paul Kneeland - fished
Bullards Bar Reservoir
with John Brassfield of
Trucksmart stores in John’s
18’ Duckworth. They caught
kokanee to 13 inches using
an 8’ Phenix Reaper com-
posite triggerstick kokanee rod with a Team
Daiwa Z ultra light reel loaded with 6 pound
Yozuri TopKnot fluorocarbon line. They
trolled pink/orange Paulina Peak hoochies
tipped with corn behind hammered Paulina
Peak dodgers in silver/pink 25 feet deep
off the Cannon Downriggers at 1.4 mph.
Dan Bacher - fished for
rainbow trout at Scotts Flat
Lake. He used a Berkley
Ugly Stick GX2 6’ 6” me-
dium action spinning rod,
teamed up with a Shake-
speare GX235 spinning reel filled with 6
lb. test P-Line CX Premium Flourocarbon
Coated Line. He fished with chartreuse
Berkley PowerBait, 1/8 oz. gold and
black Panther Martins and /8 oz. Yakima
Bait Rooster Tails in Brown Trout, Fire Ti-
ger and Rainbow color patterns.