NorCal Foothills & Sierras

by Rick Kennedy
We spent Thursday on Folsom Lake pre-fishing for a possible location to film an episode of Angler West TV. I met up with fellow guide Mike Elster for breakfast and we headed to the lake. Mike knows Folsom much better than I do so it was great having him along. We trolled several combinations and ended the day with one rainbow. It didn't take long to decide I needed to call Justin and tell him I would be changing lakes for Saturday. There were a couple anglers that were putting fish in the box. These guys spend a lot of time on Folsom and deserve every fish they pulled in.

After a tough day on Folsom, we headed for Berryessa Friday, based on a tip from Alan Fong of Fisherman's Warehouse. I had my good friend Frank San Marco and son-in-law Steve Brown with me. We cruised around the lake looking for bait breaking the surface. Once we located bait, we dropped the Minn-Kota electric motor and started throwing P-Line Laser Minnows and Shasta Tackle Cripplures. Within 3 or 4 hours we had landed and released 30+ rainbows ranging from 12 to 16 inches.

We normally spend 99% of our time trolling, so throwing spoons and lures was something I haven't done for years. Some friends were giving me a hard time asking how those downriggers were to cast. I have to admit I had a great time doing something different, not to mention it was very productive. We spent most of our time in Wragg Canyon area of the lake fishing the coves and points. The key was finding the bait and once you were on bait your were on fish. We were throwing spoons towards the bank and working them back, staying just off the bottom. It seemed like we either hooked a fish or one followed our spoon back to the boat on every cast.

On Saturday, we returned to Berryessa and I was joined by Don Newman of P-Line, Todd Storm of Davis and Justin Wolff to film an episode for Angler West TV. Stay tuned for this show to air soon it should be a great show! Again, we had a great day throwing spoons and lures and we even spent a little time trolling. I am now convinced that there are other ways to catch fish besides trolling. We will be offering this option to our choices of guided trips going forward on several lakes including Berryessa and Shasta.

by Rick Kennedy

We started off straight out from the ramp and headed for the back of the Island based on a tip from a friend that had caught some nice fish back there. I had Craig Bell who is a Salmon and Steelhead guide himself and Sharon Burningham from Gualala CA. We lost two fish before putting one in the boat. I thought we were in for a good bite, however, we went for about another hour before our next fish. We were marking fish but just couldn't' get them to take anything. We hit school after school and would get a fish now and then, but it was anything but red hot. Finally, we found some fish holding on the bottom in 45' to 50' of water. We hooked our last four fish to make limits in 5 minutes. All the other fish were caught from 19' to 50'. We tried just about everything in the boat today. Several Sling Blades, Dodgers, Spinners, Hoochies and Bugs.

The top producers were a Pink UV Sling Blade with a Gamakatsu Flat Blade Spinners, Orange Sling Blade with an Uncle Larry's Tropical Tiger and a couple on a Black and Yellow Ted's Bug. All these set ups were tipped with White Shoepeg corn soaked in Pautzke Nectar or Red Pautzke Fire Corn. Our biggest fish was 16" and the average was 14" to 15" with a couple a little smaller. Overall considering the bite and talking to others back at the ramp, we did good! Many people struggled to catch fish at all today.


This is Craig Bell and Sharon Burningham of Gualala.