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Fishing Report
fishing1

While driving home from Sacramento earlier in the week, my son reminded me of two of my favorite activities that fewer of our youth are participating in now more than ever. Tackle football has shown a big decline in participation over the past ten years for obvious reasons, unfortunately so has fishing. As someone who works with youth daily, I’m amazed at how many of them have never been fishing before. Unfortunately, a lot of kids nowadays would rather sit at home and play an online game than getting out and going fishing. The fishing industry has definitely taken notice of this but I’ve yet to see any real push towards getting kids out fishing. There are college team fishing tournaments but very few opportunities for children. I’d really like to see in the future, more events for children who’ve never been fishing before.

 

Delta Report:

Early fall is a great time to throw rattle traps and crank baits on the delta. You may think that it’s too early in the year but our nights have been getting colder and our days have become shorter. The fish definitely know that there’s a change occurring so don’t discount your favorite lure for bass. Catfishing continues to be good for anglers using just about any bait that they can keep on the bottom. Striped bass are starting to be caught throughout the delta right now leading me to believe that it won’t be long before they really start biting; anglers currently catching them are using live bait.

 

New Melones Lake:

Kokanee fishing continues to be sporadic for a lot of anglers. Those that are willing to grind it out are being rewarded with some of the biggest fish of the year which at times have exceeded 20 inches in length. Anglers trolling are trolling as deep as 100 feet deep. Bass fishing remains good for anglers fishing in the early and late part of the day with top water lures. During the day anglers are targeting the bass with small plastic bait from the shore down to 30 feet deep. Catfishing is really good right now for anglers fishing at night with sardines or anchovies.

 

Lake Don Pedro:

There are a lot of large schools of shad being found throughout the lake right now. Anglers fishing or trolling around those schools are having luck catching trout and king salmon. Fishing for kokanee has died down as many of the lake’s kokanee have begun their annual spawn. Bass anglers are also fishing around those schools with crank baits or drop shotted worms. During the morning and evening hours the top water bite for bass has been good. During the day anglers are searching out the schools of bait fish.

 

Lake New Hogan:

Fishing for bass is good right now as there are a lot of fish being caught by those fishing small plastics and crank baits. The problem during the day is all of the boat traffic. There are areas of the lake that are five mile zones but they quickly get churned up as well. My advice if planning on going there is to fish early and leave early. Otherwise you’re definitely going to have plenty of company and possibly spend a good amount of time waiting at the launch ramp.

 

Lake Pardee:

Fishing on the lake is good for those fishing for kokanee. The numbers being caught have declined but the quality has definitely improved. Anglers trolling for kokanee are trolling early in the day with their favorite kokanee rigs between 50 and 100 feet deep. Bass fishing continues to be good for numbers of bass for anglers fishing top water baits in the morning and small plastics during the day.

 

Product of the Week:

I must admit that when it comes to fishing gimmicks, I’ve been had more times than not believing that I had the secret bait or technique. A few years ago, I was turned onto Trapper Tackles Trapper Hook and haven’t looked back. The hooks at first sight look so different than anything I ever used before but the results are hard to ignore. If you get a chance to buy some I highly recommend you giving them a chance. Especially the new Trapper Treble hook, once hooking a fish, it’s not coming off. My only fear is how a person would remove an imbedded hook. Take a look for yourself and you’ll know exactly what I mean.