Trollers, lure casters nail stripers on Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers

RIO VISTA – Late summer is usually a prime time to hook striped bass on the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta — and this year is no exception.

“The fishing has been outstanding for the past two weeks on the Sacramento River from the Rio Vista Bridge to Broad Slough,” reported Mark Wilson, striper fishing expert. “We’ve been catching 15 to 50 keepers per trip. Most of the fish run from 4 to 7 pounds, with several in the 10 to 15 lb. range boated.”

“We are trolling at 14 to 16 feet deep with Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnows,” he advised. “We are also working the San Joaquin River from West Island to the mouth of Three Mile Slough. The green colors are working best and the outgoing tide is the most productive.”

On his latest trip, Bob Reinhart of West Sacramento, his friend, James of Clarksburg, and Wilson caught 15 keepers and one shaker, keeping six stripers from 4 to 8 pounds.

On a trip the previous day, Ron Retzlaff, Mike Steer and Justin Leonard caught over 30 keeper stripers, with the two largest fish weighing 15 and 13 pounds. “We experienced three triple hook-ups and dive double hookups,” he noted.

Ernie Marlan of Elk Grove and Amy Wellenkamp of Nipomo also got in the striped bass action while fishing the San Joaquin River from the mouth of the Mokelumne River to Broad Slough on Saturday, Aug. 5. Marlan reported that they caught around 30 fish, keeping a couple and releasing the rest, while fishing on the outgoing tide.

“We hooked the stripers on top water baits (Zara Spooks), 5-inch swimbaits, lipless crankbaits and spoons,” Marlan stated. “We targeted the edges of shoals, with my boat often in 16-plus feet of water and our baits in 2 to 5 feet of water.“

“The fish are moving into the system in big numbers and the fishing will continue to get better,” he forecasted. “I haven’t seen these numbers of fish in years.”

Folsom Lake Rainbows – Trollers are battling larger rainbow trout while using spoons on the main body of Folsom Lake.

“Wes Ward and I have been out on Folsom Lake quite a bit lately,” said Cal Kellogg of fishhuntshoot.com. “The size of the fish has definitely changed for the better. Our last three trips to the lake produced fish up to 20 inches each time. We think that now that flows into the lake from the North and South Forks have decreased, larger fish from the forks have come back into the lake.”

The fish average 12 to 14 inches long. Kellogg and Ward are hooking the trout on small shad imitation lures at 25 to 55 feet deep in the lake’s main body.

“The trout are feeding on immature threadfin shad from 1/2 to 3/4 inches long, so we are using the smallest spoons in the box that we can run fast,” he tipped. “The most productive lures are 1 to 1-1/4 inch-long Pinhead spoons. We cleaned one 15-inch rainbow that had a couple of dozen shad inside its stomach.”

“We’re catching most of the fish in the main body, but a few fish are being caught in the lower end of the North and South Forks. We’re targeting underwater humps that come within 60 feet of the surface and have access to deep water. In the open water we are not seeing as many bites,” Kellogg advised.

“We’re using Fish Flash Flashers 40 inches above the spoons,” he tipped. “A dozen trout is a good day on the lake. The fish are a mixture of holdover and wild rainbows. The fish are fighting really hard — most of them are pulling the line off the downrigger clip. In addition to the trout, we’ve also caught a couple of king salmon to 15 inches.”

“We’re really looking forward to cooler temperatures this fall,” added Kellogg. “We will be pulling lead core line while using trolling flies.”

Marin Coast Rockfish/Lingcod – Anglers venturing out to the Marin County Coast are bagging limits of rockfish and lingcod, while the top-notch halibut action continues in San Francisco Bay and off Seal Rock on days with smaller tides.

“Today we landed limits of lingcod to 12 pounds and limits of rockfish for 8 people along the Marin County Coast,” said Aaron Anfinson, Captain of the Bass Tub in San Francisco, on Aug. 4. “We fished at around 70 feet deep. After catching the rockfish and lingcod, we landed two halibut at the South Bar.”

On the previous trip, the 10 anglers aboard the Bass Tub landed limits of rockfish, limits of lingcod to 15 pounds and limits of halibut to 30 pounds while drifting live anchovies aboard the Bass Tub.

“The halibut averaged 18 to 20 pounds,” he noted. “We hooked the rockfish and lingcod along the Marin County Coast and the halibut off Seal Rock.”

Captain James Smith of California Dawn Sportfishing reported excellent fishing also for rockfish and lingcod outside of the Golden Gate on his latest trips.

“We had both boats up the Marin coast today,” reported Smith on Saturday, A. 5. “The rockfish and lingcod bite was stellar. The halibut were off the bite, but fishing should crank up again as the tides are starting to drop.”

The final combined score for the California Dawn 1 and 2 was 22 limits of lingcod (44), 22 limits of rockfish (220) and 1 halibut.

On Sunday, Aug. 6, the halibut bite rebounded. The final count aboard the California Dawn 2 was 23 limits of rockfish (230), 23 limits of lingcod (46) and 15 halibut to 15 pounds, while the count on the California Dawn 1 was 16 limits of rockfish (160), 13 lingcod and 2 halibut.