Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3818 August 16-30 | Page 18

16
August 16-30, 2019
MAP FEATURE
VOL.38 • ISS. 18
Stampede Reservoir is full this year and fishing for kokanee salmon is going strong.
Photo by DAN BACHER, Fish Sniffer Staff.
Trollers Battle Limits of Tasty Stampede Kokanee Salmon
T
he kokanee salmon, a landlocked
sockeye salmon that was intro-
duced to select lakes in northern Cali-
fornia many decades ago, is one of the
most popular fish pursued by trollers
during the spring and summer.
Though small compared to
the much larger Chinook
salmon that anglers target
in the ocean and northern
California rivers, the fish
is pursued by a passionate
group of fishing enthusi-
asts, due to its willingness
to bite, the scrappy battles it
offers on light tackle and the fine
tablefare it provides.
Stampede
Reservoir, located
on the Little
Truckee River
on the
eastern
slope
of the
Sierra
Stan Wong of
Concord holds
up a Lahontan
cutthroat
trout and
kokanee
salmon that
he landed
while trolling
with Captain
James Netzel
of Tight Lines
Guide Service
on Stampede
Reservoir on
July 20.
Photo by DAN
BACHER, Fish
Sniffer Staff.
Nevada 15 miles northeast of
Truckee, is producing some of the
most exciting and consis-
tent kokanee fishing in
the state this year.
Craig Holley and
Chris Dyke of
Fair Oaks,
Stan Wong of
Concord and
I experienced
a solid day
of kokanee
fishing at
Stampede
Reservoir
with
James Netzel of Tight Lines Guide
Service on Sunday, July 21.
We got out on the lake around 5:30
a.m. Netzel set out the Lamiglas
kokanee rods and Lexa LC100 reels
with pink lemonade and clown colored
Paulina Peak hoochies, tipped with
white corn, and dodgers, at a variety
of depths from 50 to 80 feet deep. We
also used Paulina Peak Flutter Bugs in
purple.
We started fishing near the dam,
moved to Davies Creek and then
finished up at the mouth of the Little
Truckee. Netzel trolled at a speed
of .8 to 1 mph. We caught our five
fish limits of kokanee and one bonus
cutthroat trout, keeping the larger fish
and releasing the smaller ones.
“The kokanee fishing is excellent
this year at Stampede,” said Netzel.
“We have limited out on kokanee
every day we’ve fished at the lake so
far this season.”
In addition, his customers have
caught a total of 6 wild rainbows
to 4 pounds and around 20
Lahontan cutthroat trout while
targeting kokanee.
We caught four different
classes of fish: two-year-old
kokanee 14 inches and above,
two-year-old fish 12 to 13 inches
long, one-year-olds measuring 10 to
12 inches, and one-year-olds around 8
inches.
Based on the numbers of kokanee
planted by the California Department
of Fish and Wildlife, Netzel believes
the larger two-year and one-year-old
fish are naturally spawned salmon and
the smaller fish are CDFW planters
CDFW plants at Stampede vary by
years. The CDFW stocked 127,710
kokanee fingerlings in Stampede in
2017, 39,706 in 2018 and 75,260
in 2019. The kokanee planted at
Stampede were part of the 792,942
fingerling kokanee released into 16
waters in California in 2019.
The CDFW urges anglers to help out
with a study the kokanee population at
Stampede.
“Monitoring and evaluations of
these fisheries are vital to providing a
balance between numbers of fish and
their average size,” according to Kyle
Murphy, CDFW Fisheries Branch.
“Stocking too many fish may provide
an abundance of fish, but not produce
fish of a desirable size To evaluate
stocking efforts, CDFW has begun
marking stocked Kokanee Salmon
prior to their release.”
In 2018, CDFW marked kokanee
were released into Stampede. All fish
were marked with an adipose fin clip
for easy identification and to distin-
guish from naturally spawned fish.
“To assist in these evaluations,
CDFW has partnered with the Cali-
fornia Inland Fisheries Foundation,
Inc. (CIFFI) and Kokanee Power (KP)
to develop an online angler survey.
The Kokanee & Inland Chinook
Anglers Survey allows anglers to
provide catch and effort data from
any device with internet connectivity.
Anglers are asked to report their effort
and catch, both the number kept and
released by size class, for each angling
day. This data will assist fisheries
managers in evaluating manage-
ment goals for these fisheries,” said
Murphy.
The kokanee that Netzel fishes for
are the fish most avidly pursued by
anglers at Stampede, but the lake
also hosts an array of other fish
species, including Lahontan cutthroat,
mackinaw trout, brown trout, rainbow
trout and smallmouth bass.
The CDFW is no longer planting
rainbow trout in Stampede, having
replaced the rainbow plants with
Lahontan Cutthroat trout plants.
“While conducting angler surveys up
at Stampede in 2009-2010 we found
that over 80% of the anglers surveyed
were in favor of changing manage-
ment strategies from rainbow trout
to Lahontan Cutthroat trout, as well