PPK's Fishing Reports

 

4/23/2010

I did not fish this week and will be in Santa Barbara for the next 5 days. Art Carlson and Jack Farson both of Fresno fished Pine Flat this past Friday 4-23-10 and had a great day. In a 4 to 5 hour period of fishing they caught and released 18 to 20 trout all in the 14 inch length and took home a limit each. They trolled the steep drop off area in Lawless Cove staying about 100 to 150 feet off the shore. They used two leaded line pole that were out 3 to 4 colors and two downriggers at 40 feet. The lure that caught the most fish was the PPK’s red sparkle Tomahawk behind a Shasta Tackle UV sling blade on the leaded line poles. The next best was a wedding ring behind a sling blade on a leaded line pole. The down riggers were pulling Needle fish in a shad pattern by it self and with no bait and picked up several trout.

 

4/16/2010

Art Carlson and I went up to Shaver Lake on Thursday, April 6th. The weather was cool with a little wind over cast, but while protected from the wind it was a great day. The fishing was not hot but we hit the lake at 8:30 am and checked several areas of the lake for fish. Just off of Black Rock, the fish finder showed several groups of what appeared to be small fish. They were suspended between 35 to 50 feet of water at a depth of 60 feet. Trolled through these groups several times but no hook ups. Checked out other areas but saw no fish on the finder. In Boy Scout Cove, the finder showed that most of the fish were holding on the bottom in about 40 to 45 feet of water. Fished in the cove for about 5 hours and picked up 2 trout and 4 Kokanee all about 14 inches of length. The biggest Kokanee was 14 1/2 inches and weighed in at 1 lb 3 oz. Not bad for this time of year. We put the tackle box into the lake and only caught one trout on a PPK’s chartreuse Tomahawk tipped with a night crawler and rainbow power bait. Now for the kicker, the other 4 Kokanee and 1 trout were caught by tying a Mustad Intense Crawler Action Size # 2 Slow Death red hook to a 8 lb test Seagar Fluorocarbon leader about 26 inches in length. The opposite end of the leader was tied to a Vision Hooks and Tackle size 10 rolling chain 5 barrel swivel. The chain swivel was attached to a Shasta Tackle Ultraviolet # 3 or # 4 Sling Blade which gave this hook set up an easier spin behind the Sling Blades. A night crawler was strung up the hook and over the eye of the hook with about a ¾ inch tail behind the hook. The shape of the hook with the attached crawler creates a corkscrew type action when trolled through the water. Leave your tag end of the leader tied to the hook about 1/8 inches in length this will help keep the worm attached over the eye of the hook. We then trolled this system for the final two hours in Boy Scout Cove and picked up the other 5 fish. We fished with two leaded line poles and two downriggers. The leaded lines were out 3 to 4 colors and the downriggers were down 17 to 26 feet. Our water depth was 40 to 45 feet and we trolled only the area of Boy Scout Cove that showed fish on the bottom (which was near the creek). We varied our speed from 1.0 to 1.7 mph and most of the fish were caught just after completing our turn. The old wooden dock at Sierra Marina ramp has been replaced with a beautiful aluminum dock. I want to thank who ever is responsible for this improvement. For more information call Paul Kalpakoff of Central Sierra Outfitters at 559-960-6634.