Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3714 June 22-July 6, 2018 | Page 3

Up-To-Date and Published Locally... By Sportsmen... For Sportsmen!
Folsom Lake Map Feature
MADE IN U.S.A
See Page 14
Vol. 37 - ISS.14
Our
36th
Year
Since 1982
June 22 - July 6, 2018
“The Magazine for West Coast Sportsmen!”
Team Fish Sniffer Enjoys Hot Potluck Action Aboard
Capt. James Smith’s Iconic California Dawn!
O
ne moment the rod tip was
bobbing gently up and down as the
sinker glided and ticked across the bottom.
A beat later the tip bent down
a couple inches and stopped
moving. Something had
latched onto my anchovy and
from the way the rod reacted I
knew it was likely a halibut.
Careful not to elevate the
rod tip and pull the bait out
of the fish’s mouth, I slipped
the rod out of the holder and
eased the tip down toward the
water giving the fish a yard or
two of slack.
When the line came tight
I felt a couple tugs. Fighting
the impulse to set the hook
I remained statue still and
let the rod load up. The tugs
became more and more intense. That’s
when I made my move.
Thumbing the spool, I jabbed the hook
home and the rod bent into a satisfying
bend. I could tell instantly that it was a
good fish.
When it comes to catching big
California halibut I typically don’t have
very good luck. I’ve literally spent
thousands of hours drifting
live baits both inside and
outside the bay. And while
I’ve caught more keeper
halibut than I can remember,
the biggest California halibut
I’ve caught weighed in at 21
pounds. That’s a nice fish to
be sure, but far from the 30
pounder I’ve dreamed of for
decades.
With all this in mind, I
played the fish with a light
drag and a delicate touch. I
worked the reel steadily, only
gaining a few inches of line
Brittany Young landed several fish aboard the
now and then.
California Dawn including these quality stripers
The halibut was swimming during the June 1 Cal Kellogg School Of Fishing
along with the boat and was determined event.
Photo by CAL KELLOGG, Fish Sniffer Staff.
to stay near the bottom. I was nervous.
I knew the fish was heavy, but I had
no idea how heavy. It could have been
it no reason to bolt and rip out the hook,
th e fish I’d been dreaming of and I was
tangle a line or snap the leader.
determined to slowly wear it down, giving
CONTINUED ON PAGE 20
GONE
FISHING
by
Cal Kellogg
Trout Troller Hooks Rattlesnake-Eating Catfish
R
not ready for even a stranger surprise.
“The fish didn’t put up much of a fight –
I just dragged it in and my dad netted it,”
said Hollister. “My dad gave me the net so
I could take out the hook and re-
lease the fish. I opened the fish’s
mouth so I could remove the
hook when I saw a scaly diamond
pattern.”
“I told my dad, ‘I think this
fish has
a snake
in it. As
he pulled
the hook
out of
the fish’s
mouth,
the hook
[phone] www.dragonsportfishing.com
grabbed
the
snake, a
rattlesnake,” said
Hollister.
The snake was
already dead, with
Butch Betschart of Milton successfully battled this German brown weighing 9 pounds, bite marks on it
10 ounces while fishing with pro guide Monte Smith of Gold Country Sportfishing at from the bullhead’s
New Melones Reservoir this May.
teeth. “The snake
yan Hollister of Turlock was
trolling a worm on an Uncle Larry’s
spinner for trout at New Melones Lake
when he hooked and landed a surprise
brown bullhead catfish measuring 14 inch-
es long on Sunday, May 27.
He was fishing with his dad, Jim, at 45
feet deep over 115 feet of water near the
spillway, a strange place for this bot-
tom-dwelling species to be. Yet, he was
was longer that the catfish that ate it,”
said Hollister, a high school geology and
environmental science teacher at Turlock
High School.
The duo didn’t get
the species they were
targeting – rainbow trout,
although they lost one
near the boat. They did
release a couple of spot-
ted bass, and of course,
the snake-eating catfish.
They were fishing
about 75 yards from
shore near the spillway.
“I don’t know what that
catfish was doing that far
from the bank, but it was
a very memorable day,”
he concluded.
In a tweet to Hollister,
Jon Rosenfeld, a conser-
vation biologist and lead scientist for
The Bay Institute, quipped, “Congratu-
lations on catching a personal example
of how food webs really work. Fish eat
whatever they (a) overlap with in space
& time that (b) fits in their mouth + (c)
WHAT’S
HOT
by
Dan Bacher
Photo courtesy of GOLD COUNTRY SPORTFISHING, Oakdale.
36 Years
Serving
Sportsmen
CONTINUED ON PAGE 19
California Lacks Real Marine
Protection as Offshore Drilling
Expands in State Waters
See Page 22
Special Section
Baja Roundup
PG 27
INSIDE
Area Reports
FRESHWATER REPORTS
Almanor - American Basin.....................................4
American River - Camanche Lake.........................7
Carson Pass Region - East Delta ..................... 8-9
Eastern Sierra - New Melones Reservoir............11
Oroville Lake - San Pablo Reservoir.............. 12-13
Santa Clara Valley Lakes - West Delta......... 16-17
Wild Horse Reservoir.........................................19
SALTWATER REPORTS
Berkeley - Bodega Bay.........................................22
Half Moon Bay - Half Moon Bay............................25
Monterey - Peninsula Shoreline...........................26
FEATURES
Where...When...How...
BAJA ROUNDUP.................................................... 27
BASS FISHING SPOTLIGHT: Randy Pringle.............. 14
BULLETIN BOARD................................................... 4
FISH SNIFFER HOW-TO: Cal Kellogg..................... 5
GO FOR IT: Staff....................................................... 6
KAYAK FISHING SPOTLIGHT: Matt Mayes............ 10
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR...................................... 3
MAP FEATURE: Dan Bacher.............................14-15
SALTY TIPS: Steve “Hippo” Lau............................. 26
SPOTLIGHT ON CONSERVATION: Dan Bacher..... 22
WHAT’S HOT SALTWATER: Kathie Morgan .......... 24
STAFF
TACKLE
What We’re Using
Cal Kellogg - fished for San
Francisco Bay halibut and
stripers aboard the California
Dawn. Cal used a 7’ Cousins
Classic Fiberglass F870-7 rod
teamed with a PENN lever drag Fathom reel
spooled with 65 pound test Yo-Zuri Super
Braid in the blue color. On the business
end of the rig Cal used a three way live bait
leader constructed of Yo-Zuri H.D. Carbon
fluorocarbon leader material tipped with an
Eagle Claw Lazer Sharp octopus hook.
Using this rig Cal landed 4 keeper halibut
and 6 keeper size stripers.
Paul Kneeland - fished
Pyramid Lake with Bridget
Looney in the Fish Sniffer
21’ Rogue Jet Coastal. They
caught Lahontan cutthroat
trout to 8.8 pounds, using a Daiwa DXS 8’
light action IM-7 graphite trigger stick rigged
with the new Daiwa Lexa 100 Line counter
reel loaded with 8 lb test Yozuri Topknot
line. They trolled Canberra Killer Tasmanian
Devils and Bottom Line Tackle B-21 spoons
in bloody frog off the Canon Downriggers at
35 feet deep and 2.5 mph.
Dan Bacher - fished at Folsom
Lake with Captain James
Netzel of Tight Lines Guide
Service. He caught five rain-
bows to 15 inches while trolling
with 1/6 oz. Speedy Shiners in copper, brown
trout, nickel/chartreuse and wonderbread
colors. He used Cousins kokanee composite
7’ 3’’ and 7’ 9’’ rods teamed up with Daiwa
Lexa 100 reels, filled with Fins 25 lb. test 40 G
Braid line and tipped with 30 feet of Gamma
Edge 12 lb. test fluorocarbon.