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NORTH
TO SHASTA FOR A LITTLE DERBY ACTION!
By: Ron Wilson
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Bruce with his day 1 catch. |
Last Friday local
guide, Bruce
Hamby and I headed to
Lake Shasta to
fish the Central
California Inland Fisheries Kokanee and
Salmon Foundation's inaugural Kokanee Power Lake Shasta Trout and
Salmon derby.
Our first stop was at
the Basshole
to check in before heading to our cabin at the
Lakeshore Inn and
RV Park.
That evening I was
reacquainted with Wayne Douma who now lives in Oregon, and met R&K lure
manufacturer Robbie Thorson, also of Oregon. Robbie makes all types of
Kokanee and
trout gear like spinners, bugs, ball trolls etc.
I was surprised when
he said “Hi Ron, I remember talking to you on the phone.” Don’t know if
that was good or bad but we had a good time the next couple of days
visiting when we had a chance.
On the first day Bruce
headed to Dry Creek, his favorite
salmon area. After a couple hours he had a 3 pounder in the box while
I threw my small fish back looking for something over 2 pounds to keep as
fish number one.
Bruce was looking for
a big fish so he headed to the Bridge Bay area of the lake. After a couple
hours and no fish on the screen we moved back toward Dry Creek to fish an
old honey hole.
We didn’t find any
fish in it so then we moved back into Dry Creek where Bruce put a 1-pound
salmon in the box for fish number two. We then called it a day.
We were surprised when
we weighed in and Bruce was 8th on the board. By the time
everyone else showed up Bruce was still on the board but in the lower part
of the top 20.
Rock Howser, a local
central California angler was on top of the board with almost a 2-pound
lead over second place. He looked like a sure winner if he could score a
couple 2 pounders the next day.
I didn’t feel to bad,
as the fishing was really tough. But I knew that I needed a large brown to
even think about placing in the money after blanking the first day, I
could see where a couple 1 pounder’s would have really made a difference!
That night the local
Lyons Club supplied a great meal for all to enjoy. The raffle was Ok but
Kokanee Power needs to move things along more quickly The anglers had a
hard day of fishing planned for the next day and needed to get some sleep!
The next morning Bruce
and I were at the five-mile buoy line in the Backbone area, waiting for
the 6:30 a.m. start time. This area is one of the best places to possibly
catch that big brown trout.
The fish were stacked,
with lots of salmon, trout and bass on the graph. The screen was lit up
from the surface to 100 feet of water.
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Rock Howser with his day 1 catch. |
Rock was working them
over, catching fish after fish, but they had gotten smaller and nice fish
were hard to find.
Bruce kept a 1.3-pound
salmon as we moved back out into the lake trying to find where the big
boys had gone.
We didn’t have any
luck so Bruce took a 15-minute nap and then decided to make a quick troll
into Dry Creek. If we didn’t have any luck we would head for home.
We got about half way
into Dry Creek when Bruce hooked a fish in the 3-pound class. He caught it
on a perfectly rolling shad. Bruce said the fish would hit if they were in
the area.
The fish wrapped
around two other lines. We had a mess on our hands! It was just meant to
be, because I somehow got the fish in the net!
“Now you’ve done it,”
I said. “You have to weigh that fish in, with this tough bite that fish
will put you in the money!”
We got back to the
Basshole weigh in site and Bruce was 8th again but by the time
the other anglers weighed in he was bumped to 12th not bad
considering there were 186 anglers in the event!
I thought Rock Howser
would be the sure fire winner, but he ended up second with over 12 pounds
of fish. A couple nice browns beat him by just a couple ounces.
See
Kokanee Power’s web
site for final results from Shasta. Several of our local anglers
fished at this tournament and some locals made the top 10!
Guide Bruce
Hamby can be reached at (209) 599-2023, if you would like to book a
fishing trip for Kokanee, trout or salmon on our local lakes.
If your thinking about catching some 2 and
3-pound Kokanee at Whiskeytown this year, you better book him in a hurry
as his schedule is filling up fast! |
