The Reel Fishing Report: 2010

We cleared the weeds,painted the house,planted the garden, cut the walnut trees, now it is time to go fishing again. Started out by taking a charter on Lake Shasta with Ben Raimondi of Fish'in Comfort, (530-238-9789). Ben is the number one guide on Shasta. He gives you your moneys worth in fish and knowledge. We caught and released limits of trout. Two things I do not like about Shasta are the cocopods and the too numerous bass. The cocopods make the trout have sores all over their body. It does no harm to the meat, but sure makes them unappealing to the eye. As for the bass, they are all over the lake. We put on some BassWax crayfish scent on one of the lures, put it back down and caught two bass in 30 min. Now I will get lots of hate e-mail , because we ATE them! Bass taste better than trout. Try them. Keep the small 12 to 14 in. sizes. The lake and fishery will not miss them. The remaining bass will only get bigger. Just remember any large fish of any species should be released to breed. I would rather catch ten large than twenty smaller fish any day.

Fish and Game finally gave the OK to plant our local lakes ,Grace And Nora. They put sterile fish in both ponds. It was worth the wait. The fish are from 10 in. to my personal best 19 in . What is nice about the two lakes is that you can fly fish them both. I finally got to use my latest bargains from Cabelas. I picked up a 3wt. Galvan large arbor reel and a matching Sage rod for a super price during the winter . I am not the best fly caster in the land, so Grace was perfect for me . Twenty foot casts are all that is needed. I have had many 30 fish days on both ponds since. All that is needed is a size 14 to 18 nymph weighted down with two tin split shots 18” up the 6x tippet. Cast out and drag back just over the bottom. The take is nothing more than a slight stop.

I even cheated one day when the fish refused to take the fly. I put a black olive Berkley 1“ leech on the fly. This combo got the trout to bite. What was nice about this set up was the trout took the combo like a fly. All were hooked in the jaw, so I could release them with the help of my Brodin Ghost Net, the best release net on the market.

This leaves only Kilarc to report on. We went up to this scenic reservoir during the rains and caught some small brown trout. Yesterday I went up alone and tried my luck. Lures only caught one small brown. I needed to cast 100 feet out with my fly rod. That was not going to happen. So the old water bobber filled with split shots and a fly was the ticket. A size 14 bead head in any brown or pheasant body on a 6 foot leader did the trick. The further out you cast the bigger the browns you caught. The fish were right on the bottom. Two other people were doing the same thing as I was but without the weights. They fished too high and caught nothing. I started out at the crack of noon, full sun, 80 degrees, and crystal clear water, just the perfect conditions for a sun burn. I fished till 2:30. Much to my surprise I caught fish, big fish. The largest was 15 inches. These browns were great fighters, leaping two feet out of the air and then going straight to the bottom. I caught 18 fish with 7 over 12 inches, 5 0ver 14 inches. ALL released. I DO like the taste of brown trout, but these fish look so beautiful, I have a hard time killing them. It has gotten so bad that I do not like any one keeping one. But each to his or her own ideals people have to eat, just let it be planters!