By: The Fish Sniffer Staff August 24, 2006 Last Issue My daughter, Jennifer, and I went fishing Wednesday eve 5-24-06 on Lake Tulloch. Around 8:45 pm Jennifer was in the back of the boat, sitting in 5 feet of water, throwing a green 6 in worm on 6 lb test. Her spool was 1/2 empty, so every time she threw out, it would go out about 20 feet and stop. She threw her worm out to the bank and her line took off. She set the hook and kept a tight line as the fish ripped line off the spool running under the boat. The fish jumped behind us on the other side of the boat and that's when Jennifer realized the size of the bass. "Oh my god dad, take the pole," she said. I told her "no it's your fish, you have to fight it." The fish returned to the other side of the boat and jumped 2 feet in the air and took off down the bank peeling off line again, then turned toward us. I was yelling to Jennifer "Reel , Reel , Reel!" I now had the net and Jennifer was reeling as fast as she could, the fish was coming straight to us. I stuck out the net and the fish saw it and took off again, as I stood there watching the fish run, peeling off line, I said to myself, I missed her, she going to get off. The fish went about 30 feet and came up to the top. I started yelling again to Jennifer to reel, reel, reel and keep her head up as the fish was shaking her head side to side. As she came to the boat, I reached out as far as I could and netted her and as I lifted her into the boat, the hook fell out of her mouth. A friend of mine was fishing also and he had a scale, she weighed 11.28 lbs was 26 1/2 in long and had a girth of 21 1/2 inches. What a fish, what a fight, what a trip we will both remember the rest of our lives. Jennifer has not stopped telling me she beat my 10 1/2 lb. and asking me, "When are we going fishing again?" Look out guys she's hooked on fishing. Keep a tight line .. Randy Harris

TRINITY LAKE
Trinity Lake is well known for its trophy-sized smallmouth bass, but it also produces lots of big largemouths every year. Just ask Steve Gildesgard of Creekside Sporting Goods and his fishing buddy, Tim Brady, who caught and released five largemouths weighing 3-1/2, 4, 5, 5 and 7 pounds on last Sunday. "The fish were all in one spot by The Ballpark," he said. "We fooled them all using 3-1/2 inch brown and chartreuse Gitzits in 30 feet of water. We also released 6 undersized smallmouth bass."  

SHASTA
At Phil's Propellers, Greg Agresta reported slow bass fishing and small bass for anglers visiting Lake Shasta. "The larger bass seem to be hiding and suspended. Only the lake's small bass are active. Most of the bass being landed right now measure from 6 to 12 inches," said Agresta.

Agresta advised anglers to concentrate on working drop shot rigs and worms on darter heads in 25 to 35 feet of water. The largest fish are down deep, but to catch them anglers have to put in a lot of work and go through big numbers of smaller fish.  

OROVILLE
Bass fishing is still going strong for anglers using a wide variety of methods. "Last week was my lucky week," said Rick Thompson at McGrath's Bass Plus. "I won Tuesday's evening turkey shootout of Limesaddle by catching an 18-3/4 inch. largemouth weighing 4 pounds. I caught the fish while dart heading Warmouth Robo Worms in the main body."

Then on Thursday, he won another evening tournament, running from 5 to 8:30 pm out of the spillway launch ramp, by nailing an 18-3/4 inch spotted bass. He also landed this winning bass while using a Warmouth worm in the main body. "I caught all of my fish right on the bank," he noted.  

CLEAR LAKE
The largemouth bass action remains hot at Clear Lake, with anglers reported an average of 25 to 30 fish per day.

“Larry Ponci and Dale Cerland from Fortuna caught lots of bass while fishing with me at Clear Lake on August 16 and 17,” said Larry Hemphill, fishing guide. “We caught 32 bass to 4 pounds, 10 ounces while fishing plastic worms in the lake’s midsection.”

On the following day, they had a banner trip. “We launched out of Redbud and caught 29 fish, with our top five fish weighing 29-1/4 pounds,” said Hemphill. “I caught the largest fish, an 8 lb. 3 oz. largemouth, while tossing out a Blade Runner white/chartreuse spinnerbai at 10:30 a.m. Dale’s biggest fish weighed 6 pounds, 2 ounces, while Larry nailed three fish in the 5 pound class.”

The lake has dropped 4 feet, so Hemphill said the fish are moving out into the rockpiles on the lake’s south wend. “We fish up to 100 yards off shore,” he noted.

Night fishing has also been “very good,” added Hemphill, with his largest fish taken on two night trips weighing 6 pounds, 7 ounces. “The fish fell for a 10 inch Berkley Power Worm,” he noted.    

LAKE SONOMA
Chasing bass along the weed flats of Lake Sonoma is the way to go, according to Ed Paul at Outdoor Pro Shop.

“Boaters are catching the bass on chartreuse and white spinner baits on the grass flats as well as pulling fish off rocky points and the weed lines by drop shotting a 4-1/2 inch worm 15 to 18 feet deep,” said. “The fishing pressure is very light at the lake now.”

During a recent trip to Sonoma, Ed and his wife released over a dozen bass using spinner baits and worms at various points around the lake.    

FOLSOM
“The topwater bite has slowed down over the past two weeks, but there are still some opportunities available at first light,” related Don Paganelli of Paganelli’s Bass Fishing Experience. “The nights have been cooler and I think that points to good fishing in the near future. From what I’ve observed the bass may well be moving into a fall pattern. The last time I fished the lake, the spotted and smallmouth bass were holding in 15 to 20 feet of water. We had the most success drop shotting plastics near structure in the main body.”    

AMADOR
Even though daytime temperatures have dropped significantly over the past couple weeks, fishing during daylight hours is still a difficult proposition at Lake Amador. The water temperature is still elevated and the fish are sluggish much of the day. The story is different early in the morning, late in the evening and after dark when the water temperatures drop and the fish begin actively feeding.

"We had a moon light bass tournament last weekend and most anglers did really well," reported Trish Franzi of the Tackle Box Café. "The tournament started at 7 pm and ended at 7 am. The largest bass landed weighed 9.86 pounds. Plastic worms in dark colors are the best lures at this time."

In addition to plastics, spinnerbaits, buzzbaits and Rat-L-Traps will all take fish. When night fishing, it pays to use dark colored lures no matter what you are throwing. The bass don't see the lure's color at night. All they are looking for is a silhouette and dark colored lures have a more distinct silhouette than light colored offerings.  

NEW MELONES
The Glory Hole Sports 5th Annual "Just For Fun" Night Tournament and fundraiser was held last Saturday. Aaron and Howard Cole took 1st place and $1,700 with a solid 5-fish limit weighing 14.28-pounds (their biggest was 4.11-pounds). Steve Marino and Steve Eheler took 2nd place and $1,420 with a 13.19-pound limit that included the big fish of the tournament- an 8.69-pounder. David Neal and Chris James came in 3rd, with 12.22-pounds.    

DEL VALLE
Black bass have moved deep and few are being landed. The best approach for going after them is drop shotting small plastics in 20 to 35 feet of water.    

SANTA CLARA VALLEY LAKES
The numbers of bass caught by anglers have dwindled at Anderson Reservoir, but the crappie are on a late summer upsurge.

“Anderson Reservoir is a great spot to catch a string of crappie in the area and the resident bass offer fair action as well,” stated Thomas Wang at Coyote Bait & Tackle. “Fishing the later part of the day seems to be the time to catch crappie at Anderson. Anglers are using small to medium minnows or mini-jigs around the submerged trees at the north end to entice a bite.”

For the black bass, Wang recommended dart heading Brush Hawgs 5 to 10 feet deep early in the morning and 20 plus feet later in the day.

Meanwhile, anglers fishing Coyote are faring well on largemouth bass in the 12 inch range. “Try a large swim bait for the larger fish and you may come up with something big,” he tipped.

Another good bet for bass in the area is Calero. “Anglers are fishing up in the weeds, flipping Senko's and Spooks or cranking 10 to 15 feet deep,” said Wang. “Try up in Cherry Cove for the best results.”  

MILLERTON
"The Millerton Lake bass bite at night is not as good as Pine Flat Lake, but it's still decent," said Merritt Gilbert of Valley Rod and Gun in Clovis. "I was out here in an evening and managed to get eight or nine fish in the span of about four hours for around twelve and a half pounds."

Gilbert suggested that anglers use the late evening to get accustomed to the darkness by throwing darter heads with the sun still up, then switching to small top water lures and spinnerbaits as dusk turns to dark. Although the better bass bite has been at Pine Flat, Millerton still gives anglers a fair opportunity at some decent fish.

Gilbert also reported that a few incidental striper catches to 10 pounds have been reported. He stated that the anglers have turned to bait fishing, as opposed to artificials, but that a few fish might be taken around the Finegold Creek area, the log jam upriver or around the Fresno ramp very early in the day.

The lake level is currently falling. Millerton Reservoir is holding 388,900 acre feet, 75 percent of capacity, and the water level is 549 feet in elevation. Inflow into the lake is 2,540 cfs, while outflow into the San Joaquin River below Friant Dam is 348 cfs.  

SHAVER LAKE
The area bass clubs gathered again for the semiannual smallmouth bass capture at Shaver Lake. A month or so ago, the groups managed to catch and capture more than 1200 smallmouth bass for relocation to Pine Flat. This month, only eight or nine anglers showed up, but they still managed to capture between two and three hundred fish for relocation. The group used crickets primarily, but fish were caught on small worms and plastics as well  

PINE FLAT
Bass anglers are struggling to catch keepers during the day, but Merritt Gilbert at Valley Rod & Gun in Clovis stated that the night bite is a decent alternative. Gilbert suggested using small dropshot worms or darter head rigs for the daytime fish, but said that the size increases after dark, so throwing a black or white Colorado blade spinnerbait or a big jig would also produce strikes. He said nighttime anglers could expect a two pound average by fishing the upper half of the lake.