It was barely 9 o’clock in the morning and the wind was already blowing out of the southwest at 15 and gusting to 25. After two weeks of on and off rain, Folsom’s water was badly stained. The air temperature hovered in the 40’s and the lake’s main body was punctuated with whitecaps…ideal fishing conditions right?

Well maybe not, but I was determined to get out on the water. I’d taken delivery of the latest Fish Sniffer boat, a Jet Craft 1825 power by an Evinrude E-Tech 90 horsepower motor from Cope and Mcphetres Marine about two weeks earlier, but my schedule didn’t allow me to take it out fishing until March 10.

Naturally, I wanted to catch some fish on the maiden voyage and that’s why I settled on Folsom Lake. Gary Coe, the president of Kokanee Power and Paul Kneeland the Fish Sniffer’s Advertising Director had taken separate trips to the lake in previous days and had done pretty well trolling the mouth of the south fork for rainbows and kings.

Originally Dad and I had planned on launching at Granite Bay, but the windy conditions sent us around the lake to the Folsom Point launch ramp, since it is located in a sheltered bay. The last thing we wanted to do was try to trailer an unfamiliar boat while getting beaten up by wind and waves.

Whenever you prepare to fire up a brand new engine for the first time there is always the thought in the back of your mind, “I hope it starts…” Well the Evinrude purred to life on the first turn of the key and we were soon cruising toward the mouth of New York Creek as I adjusted the sonar unit.

The fish were supposed to be holding between the creek and Browns Ravine off the southwestern shoreline. We’d been zig zagging for just over a half mile without marking any fish when we came upon an area several hundred yards long, strewn with floating debris. As soon as we got into the “debris field” the sonar unit started showing fish as well as some bait.

Well, dad was raring to get a line in the water so he quickly knotted a silver on silver Cripplure on his line and dropped it back behind the boat. On my first rod I attached a Yo-Zuri 3 inch minnow plug. The second rod was armed with an orange Hum Dinger. It wasn’t long before we started picking up junk on our hooks. I’d already removed sticks from one rod twice and was about ready to head for cleaner water when dads rod slowly loaded up.

“Darn it, now I’ve got a stickfish,” dad said as he reeled in. When the line was with 10 feet of the boat, a rainbow boiled to the surface. The rainbow fought more like a twig than a trout, but never the less we had our first trout of the day and dad had the first fish on the new boat.

A few minutes later dad nailed a second fish, so I replaced the Hum Dinger with a blue on silver Cripplure. For the next two hours we trolled back and forth through the debris, tracking the fish on the sonar unit. Ultimately dad ended up landing 3 rainbows and I picked up a pair. All the fish were in the 10 to 14 inch range. Try as we did, we just couldn’t connect with a king.

Part of our goal for the day was to try some bass fishing while learning to operate the boat’s trolling motor. Given my choice, I would have tried working rocky main lake points with jigs and worms. The water temperature was 48 degrees and a storm was rolling in. I figured the bass would be holding tight to structure in 15 to 30 feet of water. The wind was battering most of the points I wanted to fish, making boat control nearly impossible.

We ended up working some steep shoreline structure on the south shore of the south fork. The surface temperature was 46 degrees, but we chose the spot because it offered relatively calm water. We started off swimming grubs, before trying slow rolled white spinner baits and crankbaits. I’d like to report that we put a bass in the boat, but it just didn’t happen.

On the positive side, I got familiar with the electric motor’s Minn Kota Copilot navigation system. The Copilot system boasts a small remote control that allows you to operate the motor from any location on the boat. I can stand a little more practice, but I can already see that it is going to be great for both the bass and kokanee tournaments that I’ll be fishing in the upcoming months.

We bass fished until 2 o’clock when we decided to head for the dock. When we emerged from the south fork we were confronted with some really rough water, complete with closely spaced 3 foot whitecaps. Such a trip would have been impossible in my old 12 foot Gregor, but it was a routine trip in the Jet Craft and we soon had it back on the trailer.

All in all it had been a productive day. We bucked the odds and ended up catching trout. It would have been easy to stay home by the fire, but that strategy results in surprisingly few winter rainbows!

I always try to learn something about technique when I’m out fishing. On this trip I was amazed at the way the trout were holding in the debris strewn water.

Why? I don’t know. Maybe there was forage there, although the trout dad kept had nothing in their stomachs. Perhaps the water was warmer there or the overhead debris gave the fish a sense of security. Who knows, but one thing is certain. I’ll remember to check out areas that feature floating junk the next time I’m out searching for trout.

The water level at Folsom is coming up quickly at this point. Hopefully, this trend will continue. I think the fishing at the lake is poised to bust open. Clearly there are plenty of trout and salmon around. As soon as the water clears and warms into the 50’s I predict the trolling bite will heat up.