Fishing in February can be quite good

If we lived near the northern border of the USA, we might not consider February to be that good of a fishing month.

But we live here and the fishing in some locations is pretty good.

But then again, if we lived in North Dakota we would be happy to move to Nevada County.

This past weekend we had quite a bit of wet weather but it did not dampen the fishing for those with rain gear or a top for their boats. The Gold Country Bass Masters held their February tournament on Lake Berryessa north of Vacaville in the coast range. The conditions on Saturday covered the spectrum from rain squalls with wind to drizzle to brief periods of sun.

The water was that perfect green stain that gives the fish cover yet clear enough to see a lure 5 feet away. The water temp was 53 degrees, at the lower end of the prime temps for bass fishing.

Mike Gallo from southern Nevada County won the event with a five fish limit weighing in at 10.44 pounds. He also took large fish for the tournament at 2.44 pounds. He started the morning fishing tube baits to no avail. He switched to dart-headed Senco style worms. He finally got on to the winning pattern when he stopped moving his lure to fix some gear on the boat. When he resumed his retrieve he had a fish on.

Stopping all movement with the darthead on the bottom turned out to be the winning combination for the day. The spotted bass wanted a stalled presentation rather than movement.

The next Gold Country Bass Masters tournament will be held Saturday, March 17 on Lake Oroville.

Ed Everhart fished in the rain on Saturday on Scotts Flat Lake. Scotts Flat is at 3,000 foot elevation and the water is only 43 degrees. Ed also started out fishing tube baits for bass without success. He noticed a submerged stump and tried a rip bait. That turned out to be the pattern for the day. Ed caught a total of seven fish between noon and 3:30 p.m. when he left.

All the fish were smallmouth bass with a pair of them breaking the 3 pound mark. The lure he used was a suspending Ghost Minnow rip bait from Lucky Craft. It is one of the better pond smelt imitating lures. Ed fishes it frequently at Scotts Flat, Oroville and Folsom where the pond smelt is the dominant forage fish.

My son and I fished Saturday with John Kusanovich on Lake Oroville.

I have not given up on the coho salmon fishery there. I had heard that the previous weekend the salmon were on a bite in the Middle Fork arm of the lake. We stopped in at "Oroville Outdoors" on our way to the launch ramp to ask about current conditions. A bass angler heading to the lake commented that all of the river arms had cohos back near the incoming water. He had been to the north fork and had seen a lot of them. We were headed for the Middle Fork and did not want to spend the time to travel to the north fork.

We got on the water by 10:30 a.m. and were back up the middle fork after 11.

We trolled a variety of flies and lures at depths from the surface down to 50 feet looking for a pattern. The water was 50 degrees and that perfect stained green. The sky was dark and darker depending on the cloud cover and intensity of the rain.

The first fish of the day was our largest , an 18-inch rainbow that came on a black tube fly just below the surface. The rainbow was unusual because the DF&G has not planted rainbows here in more than a decade. The fish had a square tail and I would guess that it came down from the Feather River. I had heard reports that there have been a few rainbows up to 3 pounds caught in the lake recently.

The rest of the day we did well catching cohos as we worked our way farther back the river arm. We caught a dozen cohos with the largest going 13 inches. The majority of them were 11 to 12 inches. We caught nothing at depth with the down riggers or with lures. All of our salmon came from the surface down to 10 feet on flies. The majority came on dark colored flies with a couple taking orange and chartreuse. We caught nothing on a white pond smelt pattern.

This day definitely proved the old adage: day dark fly, bright day bright fly. If you held a fly up against the gray sky, black gave the best contrast and white did not show up.

The fish were in schools. We would hit a few and then nothing. Since we were trolling multiple lines, stopping would require bringing all of our gear in to keep it off the bottom. A different strategy might be to troll a few lines and when fish are located stop and cast to them with fly rods or spinning gear. The fish are at the surface in the narrow river arms. We did see a few fish surface feeding. The fish I kept had pond smelt in their bellies.

Back in November and December these cohos were planted at 8 inches long.

Their growth rate in Oroville is excellent due to the abundant forage fish available. The lake biologist expects these salmon to be over 15 inches within a few months. The other quality of these fish is their fighting ability. Many of these fished come out of the water when hooked.

I would suggest light tackle for the best action. As long as the surface temps are in the low 50s, I expect these salmon to remain up near the surface.

February can be a good fishing month.

<i>Denis Peirce writes a weekly fishing column for The Union and is host of "The KNCO Fishing & Outdoor Report," which airs 6-7 p.m. Fridays and 5-6 a.m. Saturdays on 830-AM radio. He may be reached via e-mail at denisp@theunion.com.</i>

Fish plantings

If conditions permit, the following lakes, reservoirs and ponds, listed by county, will be restocked with catchable-size trout from Department of Fish and Game hatcheries.

Week of Feb. 26

Butte County: Thermalito Forebay

Nevada County: Rollins Reservoir

Sacramento County: Gibson Ranch Park Pond, Mather Lake, Rancho Seco Lake

Yuba County: Collins Lake



Week of Feb. 19

Amador County: Amador Lake, Pardee Reservoir

Sacramento County: Mather Lake

San Joaquin: Camanche Reservoir

Solano County: Solano Lake



Source: www.dfg.ca.gov