Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3906 Feb 28- Mar 13

Up-To-Date and Published Locally... By Sportsmen... For Sportsmen! 38 Years Serving Sportsmen San Pablo Reservoir Map Feature MADE IN U.S.A See Page 14 Feb 28 - Mar 13, 2020 Vol. 39 - ISS.6 Our 38th Year Since 1982 “The Magazine for West Coast Sportsmen!” Cal Kellogg’s 18’ Duckworth Advantage Sport Is For Sale! D uckworth boats can be hard to purchase and that fact is doubly true when it comes to the new Advantage Sport line of aluminum fishing machines. Why? Well that’s simple, Duckworth’s reputation for top notch performance and attention to detail is well known, yet only so many Duckworth boats come out of the factory annually. That’s why most Duckworth dealers are perpetually sold out. In many cases, there are customer waiting lists and when new boats become available they are quickly snapped up. If you want to live the Duckworth dream and would like to do it while enjoying significant savings on one of the hottest aluminum boats in the country bar none, I’ve got a great opportu- nity for you. It’s time for me to pick up a new Duckworth for the 2020 season and as a result I’m selling the fully equipped Duckworth Advantage Sport I’ve run for the last 10 months. Being a full-time editor at the Fish Sniffer and full time video producer means that when I hit the water I need results, not excuses so I started with the rock solid and nimble Duckworth Advantage Sport platform and equipped it the best gear available. The results have spoken for themselves. We’ve subjected the boat to long runs and rough water while exploring many of California’s most iconic fishing destinations and the Duckworth has performed without a hiccup. And the boat has been proven to be a fish producer. Indeed, king salmon, trophy rainbows, browns, macks, kokanee and stripers have all been given tours of my Advantage and some of them have even taken a trip home with me for dinner! Let’s take a closer look… GONE FISHING by Cal Kellogg I season here in Northern California. The fall was prolonged and warm and the winter has been largely mild and warm. When I look up at the Sierra peaks every morning, I’m surprised by the amount of snow I see because we just haven’t had that sustained pushe of storms that we often have during the late winter. My other gauge of winter conditions is my woodpile. I heat my house exclusively with wood and I’d say I’ve used about 30% less wood than I do in an average year. Sometimes in the winter I’ll keep a fire going for a solid month or more. The longest stretch I’ve had a fire going this winter is something around 10 days or so. Based on this, I’d say that the winter has been significantly warmer than usual in my little piece of the Sierras. Looking at the precipitation charts for Norcal, it looks like we are sitting at anywhere from 55% to 71% of normal The 18’ Duckworth Advantage Sport Rigged to the hilt by Gone Fishin’ Marine, the 2020 Duckworth 18 Advantage Sport has all the bells and whistles. This boat is AWESOME! Built on the long-proven Advantage platform, the New Sport model is a lighter, nimbler version of its big brother without compromising stability or performance. At 18’3” long and 86” wide, the Advantage Sport is a well-designed, fishing play- ground with plenty of room for a full crew and gear. The hull has 12 degrees of deadrise at the stern that steps to 24 CONTINUED ON PG 16 and we are starting to slide out of what is traditionally the wet season, so I don’t anticipate any big rallies in terms of rain and snow fall. In the big picture this isn’t horrible news. We are coming off a couple solid winters and most of our lakes and reservoirs are full or will fill in the near future. If this dry trend extends into next winter we could have some problems, but for now it doesn’t look like we’ll have any water woes this year. So how has this mild weather impacted the fishing? All in all, it seems to have tamped down the action and this is especially true for trout anglers. We haven’t seen that intense late winter bite that we often see at places like Shasta, New Melones and Folsom. With a few exceptions such as the Oroville king bite and Tahoe mack action, I’d describe trout and salmon fishing as mostly inconsistent so far this year. by Cal Kellogg F ish S niffer T IP OF THE W EEK Area Reports FRESHWATER REPORTS Lake Almanor - Bishop Area...................................4 Bullards Bar/Englebright Reservoirs - Davis Lake......................................................8 Del Valle Lake - Don Pedro Lake..........................11 Donnor Lake - Feather River............................... 12 Folsom Lake - Quarry/Shadow Cliffs Lakes........ 17 Redding/Red Bluff - Santa Clara Valley Lakes/ San Luis Reservoir................................... 18-19 Shasta Lake - West Delta............................... 22-23 FEATURES WHAT’S HOT Folks fishing with Rustic Rob have been rounding up big numbers of winter kokanee at Bullards Bar Reservoir. While not huge, the salmon are plentiful and make for great eating. Photo courtesy of RUSTIC ROBS GUIDE SERVICE, Yuba City. INSIDE SALTWATER REPORTS Baja Roundup........................................................... 26 Berkeley/Emeryville - Half Moon Bay.................24-25 Monterey Bay................................................ 26-27 Chasing The Late Winter Bite… t’s been an interesting and sometimes frustrating late fall and winter fishing Special Section KAYAK Fishing: pgs 20 Stream trout season will open at the end of April, so it’s not too early to start thinking about gear. When targeting stream trout with gear double sided boxes that are 6 to 8 inches long and about half that width work well. You can cram enough terminal tackle and lures into one of these boxes for many days on the stream and still have plenty of goodies left over. And of course boxes like that are compact and easy to carry as you walk the stream. CONTINUED ON PG 10 Where...When...How... SPRING LAKES GUIDE........................ 6-7,9,10 BAJA ROUNDUP........................................................26 BULLETIN BOARD.....................................................3 CATCH & RELEASE - FLY FISHING: Kiene’s Fly Shop... 11 FISH SNIFFER COUNTRY: Steve ‘Hippo’ Lau..........25 GO FOR IT: Staff.......................................................13 HOW-TO: Cal Kellogg................................................5 KAYAK FISHING SPOTLIGHT: Courtesy of Hobie ...20 MAP FEATURE: Dan Bacher...............................14-15 SPOTLIGHT ON CONSERVATION: Dan Bacher......22 STAFF TACKLE What We’re Using Cal Kellogg - trolled the West Delta for stripers with Wes Ward from the duo’s 18’ Duckworth Advantage Sport. While pulling P-Line Predators and deep running Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnows Cal and Wes landed 7 stripers 25 inches. They tipped the plugs with 7 inch white worms and coated the worms with Bloody Tuna Pro-Cure Super Gel. Paul Kneeland - fished Rollins Lake from shore. He caught rainbow trout to 13 inches using a Cousins 7’ graphite spinning rod with a Daiwa Emblem Z spinning reel loaded with 6 lb. test Yozuri Hybrid line, casting gold/red and red dot frog Thomas Buoyants near the dam. Dan Bacher - fiished for rainbow trout at San Pablo Reservoir. 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 Fluorocarbon Coated Line. He fished with rainbow Berkley PowerBait, nightcrawlers and 2/5 oz. gold/red stripe Little Cleos.

Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3906 Feb 28- Mar 13 | Page 3