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Frank McConnell shows his prize-winning catch, a 4-pound, 9-ounce rainbow trout caught on Feb. 28 at Englebright Lake. McConnell used one color of leadcore line, followed by 125 feet of 6-pound monofilament half a nightcrawler on the forward hook and a small ball of Power Bait on the trailer. He and his partner, Dave Nelson landed nine rainbows during the one-day tournament.
Submitted photo
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Denis Peirce
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Letters to the Editor Candidates
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Denis Peirce: Warming water helps striper bite in NorCal
By Denis Peirce
» More from Denis Peirce
12:01 a.m. PT Mar 25, 2008
The first day of spring has come and the fishing has picked up all across the north state.
The biggest news is the striper bite. These fish are hitting from Suisun City through the delta and up the Sacramento River as far as Colusa. The fact of longer days after the equinox and the warming water teamed up to get a good early start to the annual striper run.
I spoke with Pat from "Kittles Outdoors" in Colusa (530-458-4868) and he reported a good striper bite from there down river to Knights Landing for his customers. The stripers were biting all manner of techniques.
Trollers were doing the best, but anglers fishing bait and those casting worms to rip-rap banks on the drift, all reported decent action. Part of the reason for the good bite was that there were not too many anglers on the water. Heavy boat traffic is the biggest detriment to good action when the fish are in.
The river water temps are in the high 50s near Colusa and rise to the 60 degree mark at the lower delta. The water temp is a function of many factors including volume of cold water drafted from Lake Shasta, local run off, water clarity as well as warm sunny weather.
"This first run of fish is a couple of weeks early due the above normal water temps," Pat said.
The Colusa area is one of the main spawning areas for stripers. Most years there are five to eight waves of fish that move into the area, spawn and migrate back down river. This group is the first of this series that will last until early June. Late April through mid May sees the largest numbers of fish present in this stretch of the Sacramento River.
Angling from a boat is the most effective way to fish. For shore-based anglers there are some spots accessible to the public. Currently, the boat launch ramp at the State Park in Colusa has only one foot of water over the sand bar at its entrance. The dredging permit for the ramp takes effect starting April 1 and hopefully the dredging will happen shortly thereafter. The other option is Ward's Landing.
At Rollins Lake, Mike Pumphery spent last Wednesday afternoon fishing for small mouth bass. He was ultimately chased off the water by the evening rain. The water was dirty with less than 2 feet of visibility. He concentrated his fishing on rocky banks, keeping his boat over 15 to 20 feet of water casting toward the bank.
All of his fish hit in 5 to 10 feet of water. Mike fished with Rattle Traps and Beetle Spins because they make vibrations the fish could use to locate the bait. His biggest fish went 3 pounds. Water temp was 48 to 50 degrees. The lake level had fallen from 8 feet down to about 20 feet below full pool. Hopefully it will start to refill soon.
The Lake Wildwood Fishing Club held a trout fishing tournament late last week at Scott's Flat Lake. They located a concentration of trout a half mile below the Deer Creek inlet. The trout were close to the surface and responded well to trolled crawlers and power bait.
In the high country all of the lakes above Bassett's Station remain frozen. At Davis Lake there is a little water at the bank near the dam. The rest of the lake is still frozen solid. The storm expected mid week is predicted to provide rain at the lake level. Once Davis starts to melt it goes quickly. Lake Almanor has iced out on east side and near the dam. The west shore still has ice.
In the Truckee area, Donner Lake is ice free with good boat launch access. Boca and Prosser are ice free with no boat access.
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