Show: The Fishing Show Station: KNCO File: 9:5.mp3 Air date: 2026-09-05 Source: OpenAI whisper-1 · shrunk from 98.9 MB to 12.4 MB --- transcript --- The opinions of Denis Peirce do not represent those of ownership, management, and staff of Nevada County Broadcasting and KNCO. But they are all true. The KNCO Fishing and Outdoor Report with Denis Peirce is a service of Craig Johnson Plumbing. Honest, reliable, and fair. Find them online at CraigJohnsonPlumbing.com. Met you goin' fishin' all of the time, baby goin' fishin' too. Met your wife, your sweet wife, catch more fish than you. Many fish bites if you got good bait, here's a little tip that I would like to relate. Many fish bites if you got good bait, I'm a-goin' fishin', yes a-goin' fishin', and my baby goin' fishin' too. I went on down to my favorite fishin' hole, baby grabbed me a pole and line. Threw my pole on and caught a nine-pound cabbage, now you know I brought him home for supper. Time-proven, many fish bites if you got good bait, here's a little tip that I would like to relate. Many fish bites if you got good bait, I'm a-goin' fishin', yes a-goin' fishin', and my baby goin' fishin' too. Baby brother about to run me out of my mind, say, can I go fishin' with you? I took him on down to the fishin' hole, now what do you think that he did do? Pulled a great big fish out the bottom of the pond, now he laughed and jumped cause he was real gone. Many fish bites if you got good bait, I'm a-goin' fishin', yes a-goin' fishin', and my baby goin' fishin' too. Put him in the pot, baby, put him in the pan, honey cook him till he's nice and brown. Make a batch of buttermilk, whole case, mama, and chew them fangs and then chomp them on down. Singin', many fish bites if you got good bait, here's a little tip that I would like to relate. Many fish bites if you got good bait, I'm a-goin' fishin', yes a-goin' fishin', and my baby goin' fishin' too. Good evening, this is Dennis Pearce, and we're here live on Friday evenings with the KNCO Fishing and Outdoor Report. We are on the first Friday of September. A week ago we had our full moon at the very end of August, which in a manner of speaking is the first full moon of September. The hope was that incredible numbers of salmon would come out of the ocean and show up here in the Feather River system, the upper Sacramento system. We do have fish coming up the river system, that's true, but it hasn't been a tsunami wave of fish yet. I think the overall determining thing is how good a fisherman you are. There are guys that are continuing to put some fish in the boat, but it's not a wide open bite yet. Anyways, we're going to get into more details in just a few minutes, but I'd like to thank our sponsors, Drs. Jerry Chan and his daughter, Dr. Tiffany Chan. The Chan Family Optometry Practice is located at 360 Sierra College Drive. If you're looking for quality family eye care, you cannot do any better than the Chan Family Optometry. Our second sponsor is TrollingFlies.com. It's the home of JFair Trolling Flies, and we are headed into the fall trolling season up at Eagle Lake. The fishing actually has been fairly good. I spoke with Val Aubrey this week, and she does water quality testing up there. What's been going on is the water has been one consistent temperature, I think it was up around 70 degrees, something like that, from the surface all the way down to 50 feet. There was virtually no change in that entire vertical column. This past week or so, as the weather has cooled down and that front system has come in, the top few feet of the lake, the top 3, 4, 5 feet of the lake, have cooled off about 3 degrees cooler than the stuff all the way down, and the fish came up. Even just a couple degrees different is enough to motivate the fish to move into that zone there. They really don't have a good choice in August at Eagle Lake. It is not that deep of a lake, I think it's 50-60 feet at the deepest, but what you're seeing, if you've got your electronics on, and you're seeing fish down at 35-40 feet, those are generally two each of, and if there are some rainbow trout down there, they're not the biters. The biters are up on the top, and because your down-looking sonar is looking straight down, you really don't see the fish that are up in the top few feet of the water column, but that's where they're at. Val has continued to do well up there. It's trolling fly time at Eagle Lake. If you want to know more about the JFair style of fishing, you can go to trollingflies.com. There's a JFair section in there, click on that, and there's a really nice movie that Jay had made 25 years ago that still is a really well done piece, and there's some other stuff in there on how to fish the JFair system, which is applicable to more than just Eagle Lake. Alright, I think a lot of people's focus these days is on salmon, and our interview tonight is going to be with Mark Pilgrim. Mark is a bass angler up on Lake Almanor, and that's going to be the bulk of the program, but for a few minutes here, I'm going to talk salmon fishing and what's going on. The very best salmon story I heard today was from Tom Monminier up on the Rogue River in Oregon. Things really changed up there. In the last two days, or anyways within a 48 hour period, they had one day with three inches of rain, another day with two inches, but a total of five inches of rain in 48 hours. The deal on the Rogue River is there's an estuary down there before it goes into the ocean that is at sea level, and it goes up and down with the tides, and you have warm water coming down the river that was 70, 71 degrees coming in, and the ocean, as it goes up and down with the tides, it's got 55 degree water coming in, and so you've got that warm river water over top of cold salt water down below. The fish come in, and they're sort of stuck there. They really don't want to go up that 70 degree river water, and so they stay in that cold salt water, and then there's a lot of people go there to fish for salmon, and there's 100 to 200 salmon a day have been caught out of the estuary there, but don't think you're going to go up there and be the only one fishing on that. There can be 100 boats or more in that estuary, sort of doing a bumper car thing, but with that five inches of rain coming through, the river water temp went from 70 down to 63 degrees, and 65 is sort of the magic breaking point for salmon. They like below 65. They'll bite, and they ended up moving. I mean, there's a ton of fish left that estuary and headed up the Rogue River. Tom Monminier fishes down there regularly, and his comment was that when the top water is 40 on the surface and you've got the cold 65 degree water underneath it, the fish stay in the lower two-thirds of that estuary. The upper third, where the river's right coming in, is too warm up there. He said once that two days, five inches of rain came through, the guys fishing were all the way up into the river current coming into the estuary, and there was decidedly fewer fish in the estuary than there had been before. There was a major, major change that took place on the Rogue River. Now, nobody here, I think, is going to hop in their car and drive up to the Rogue. They want to know what's going on here locally. Locally, what has been going on is the Feather River has been up between 7,000 and 8,000 cubic feet per second, and they were dropping Lake Oroville at approximately a foot a day. What I had heard was that they were dropping the lake to make it easy to get in and do equipment repair this winter or this fall, because typically what happens is the lake reaches its lowest point somewhere right around Thanksgiving to the second week in December, and then starting in December, the lake gradually starts climbing up in elevation. Anyways, they were dropping the lake at a foot a day, and what happened today is they dropped the water flows on the lake going down the river 700 cubic feet per second less than over a 24-hour period. They dropped it 700 cubic feet per second, and that's what they're going to be doing into the next week or two weeks, and they're gradually going to be dropping the water flows down, which should bring more fish up, but I don't know. Water is about money. It's not about salmon, and it's not ideal. If they were managing the water for salmon, they'd get it to 3,000 or 4,000 cubic feet and just leave it there and draft the same amount of water down, but there's a lot of other competing interests for the water there, and so it's not perfectly managed for fish. Salmon fishing on the feather has been decent. If you go up to the afterbay hole, you will not be the only person up there fishing. It is a crowded place, whether you're on a boat or from shore. The really high water has made it tougher for the shore-based guys, especially down into the Oroville Wildlife Area, but with the 700 cubic feet per day drop, there should be more and more spots available to fish on the river downstream. I was in contact with Justin Leonard, and what he has been doing is he has not been going up anywhere near the afterbay hole. I asked him if he just laid eyes on it, and he said no, he doesn't get anywhere close to that up there. What he's been doing is trolling early in the day until about 10 o'clock, and then after 10 o'clock, he's been dragging roe back down the river, and that's how he's been able to put fish in the boat. The Sacramento River, I did not get the numbers before I started the program this evening, but the Sacramento River is actually on the rise over there, and with the feather on the drop, there should be more of a balance and cooler water going downstream, especially with the cooling air temperatures that we've had here in the recent past. What we're looking at is there are guides and people successfully fishing Knights Landing, Verona, and down toward the Sac Metro area. It's all about water temperature, but you can get down there. In fact, one of the guides I spoke to this afternoon had been fishing below Shanghai Bend, heading down through Star Bend and below. He said it was slow down there today, and he wasn't really seeing many fish rolling or anything like that. Tomorrow, he's packing up his gear and he's heading down towards Knights Landing, Verona, and Sac Metro. That general zone down there is where he's going to be fishing. I have gotten reports of guys launching out of Knights Landing and launching out of Verona. Getting down there is what I would recommend people do if you have a boat. There's a lot more water down there, bigger water, and you've got both the fish heading for the Sac as well as the fish heading for the Feather. This weekend, there's going to be a lot of people out fishing. Let's go ahead and make our first commercial break of the evening. When we come back from our break, we're going to have Mark Pilgrim with us. The topic is going to be smallmouth bass fishing, particularly Lake Almanor. Also, he was up on the Columbia River. We'll be back after a word from our sponsors. Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday! Isn't it wonderful when someone sings to you or makes an effort to help you celebrate your special occasion? Hi, this is Jerry Serino from Serino's at Main Street Restaurant reminding you that we're here to help you celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, and any special event. For 43 years, celebrations have been a part of our tradition, and tradition is embedded in the Serino culture, but we recently decided that you deserve more. That's right. However, you must make reservations by calling 477-6000 and remind us that it's your special day, and we'll do the rest. Of course, we can't tell you what that is because it's a surprise. 477-6000 Celebrations at Serino's. Ready to brighten your day? 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And our guest this evening is Mark Pilgrim. Mark is a bass fishing guide up at Lake Elminore, but I think he maybe puts more effort into being a tournament bass angler. He's currently on the tournament trail. Mark, welcome back to the program. Hey, thank you for having me on again, Dennis. Great to talk to you. I wanted to talk about smallmouth bass in general. And we just had a decent... We had, in my house, we got an inch of rain in our rain gauge from last night's storm through there. What kind of weather did you guys get up at Elminore? We had a little bit of rain on, I guess, last night, or night before. Yesterday, we actually expected a little bit of rain, and we got quite a bit. So, seriously, by cooler weather, we had... I think our high yesterday was in the 50s, but we had about an inch of rain also. So that was really good for us. Yeah, it was a little different for this time of year, but it definitely was welcomed. Do you have any idea what kind of an effect it had on the water temperature at the lake? Yeah, you know, I was gone. I left. I was fishing the Bass Angler Magazine pro-am up at the Columbia River the last 10 days. So I left on the 21st of August, and the water temperature up here was 74 degrees. And when I got back, I actually went out today and fished for a couple hours this morning, and the water temperature when I got on the water this morning was 64, and it really didn't raise throughout the day. It stayed kind of cool, and it was 65 degrees when I got off the water at noon. Now, was there much wind today, post-storm? There was a little bit of wind. It actually was pretty calm this morning, but we got the north wind that kicked up about 10 o'clock. Because my thoughts were going that if you had some wind, it would mix the water. Did you get wind with the rain yesterday, or last night? We did. We got some pretty good wind, and the water murkied up a little bit. In fact, what I found today was it almost looked like an algae bloom, but I don't think it was a bloom at all. It was just the wind stirring the water up a little bit, and kind of mixed up some of the sediments in the water, and just murkied it up a little bit. What that would indicate to me is that, was it 64 on the surface currently, or was it 63? It was 64 when I got on. That is a mixed not just the top couple inches on the top of the lake, then. Yeah, I think it was probably that that 64 degree water was down pretty deep. I would imagine at least 5 feet. With the amount of forward facing sonar, I could see that mix in the water. It looked like it was down about 5 feet or so. I think that surface temperature at 64 degrees was down 4 to 5 feet. In a previous interview a few months ago, you had mentioned to me that come September, the top water bite comes on with the smallmouth bass, and it's your favorite time of the year to fish up there. Has the top water bite started yet? You know, it's funny. That's all I had on my deck this morning when I went out. I was kind of focused on catching top water fish. This year has been a little different. We talked about that, I think, last month, where I told you that the water clarity was a lot clearer this year. We have kind of gotten back to our normal state, kind of the way in September where the water clarity is before the fire. That's kind of the way it was. When I left, the water was crystal clear, and you could see down about 20 feet. When I thought this morning that I was going to go out and catch some top water fish, that really didn't happen. I think that after we have this little post frontal, starting today and going through the next four or five days, the water is supposed to stabilize up here, and I think the top water bite is really getting ready to go crazy. Is there a correlation between clear water and a top water bite on Lake Albinor? I think so. When the fish, like right now, when the water temperature cools, when it goes from 74 degrees to 64 degrees, those fish tend to back out a little bit deeper. They were up two or three weeks ago in four or five feet of water, and those fish have backed out to 10 to 15 feet. When you have super clear water, those fish can see a top water bait from a long ways away, and they'll tend to hunt a top water bait. When you get a little bit of murkiness in the water, it's a little tougher to catch them unless they are shallow, and I think once the weather stabilizes over the next four or five days, and the water clears back up, those fish will start moving back up and hitting top water and shallower water. In your opinion, is a top water bite more visual or is it more sound? Because so many of the top water baits that we have, like those buzz baits that have a propeller that's chopping the surface, or that popper plopper, and I don't know, my favorite top water is a pop bar. It's a pretty simple bait, but you can make it bloop as you go through the water. So, is it more a visual thing or is it more a sound thing, in your opinion? You know, in different lakes, other than Almonor, I think it is a sound thing. Those fish tend to chase down top water baits, and I agree with you, my favorite top water bait is a pop bar. It's 100%, you know, my favorite. I think on Almonor, it's definitely a visual thing for these fish. They like to see it. Some of the fish will hear it, but I think they want to see it and hunt it down and chase it. Typical smallmouth pattern. Okay, for those that don't know what a pop bar is, it's about two and a half, maybe three inches long, but it's got a relatively heavy treble hook on the tail end, and it goes to a point at the end, and the face of it is cupped. So, when you pull it, the cupped face gives a blurp, but when you stop it, the tail drops down at a 45 degree or steeper angle, so the bait hangs almost vertical in the water, and then as you move it, it chugs. But, when you retrieve it, you can get a wobble out of it. Do you fish it on the retrieve, or do you primarily fish it as a popper? I fish it as a popper. I like to dead stick that bait a lot, just like you were saying, that you hit the nail on the head perfectly, where when that bait hits the water, I like that bait to sit in one spot for maybe 15 to 20 seconds before I'll even move it, because I like that 45 degree angle where the back of the bait, and a lot of the baits that I throw will have a feather on the back or some kind of bright indicator, where when that bait hits the water and falls at a 45 degree angle, I think those fish key on that brighter color and that slow presentation. Because, yeah, you can buy the popper with just a naked hook on the rear end, or one with the feathers on it. I'm into trolling with flies and that sort of stuff, and I've started tying some flies recently that have that feather tail to them. And the movement that that feather does, even if the bait is still, that feather has just a little bit of movement, which I think movement indicates life. That's sort of my spin on it. No fish has ever told me that, but that's just sort of, you know, what I want to believe on it. And I'll alternate between a white or a red feather on the back. And it really doesn't, I mean, I've never really put together the pieces on why they'll fit a white or a red, but I generally alternate between those two colors. What percentage of the fish have you had hit when you haven't moved the bait at all, it's just sitting there, teasing them, versus after you've started to move it? Oh, this is a good question. I would say 75% of the fish that I catch are on the initial cast, dead sticking the bait. And 25% are moving the bait. But I can tell you this, the majority of the fish over four pounds that I catch at Lake Elminar are dead sticking that bait. So when I say dead sticking, it's hard for me to, that's kind of a weird word, but when that bait initially hits the water, and you leave it sitting there, I kind of wait for the splash rings to completely go away, and that's what I call dead sticking the bait. And that's where I get the majority of my big bites. Because I have done a lot of foothill pond fishing around here, where the weeds get incredibly thick in these warm water ponds here, but you can find watery areas where the weeds are not all the way to the surface, and that pop bar will fish across the top without getting hung up in the weeds like a diving-lipped bait would have. It's just frustrating as all get out. But yes, I've caught more fish with the bait just sitting there doing nothing. Apparently doing nothing. I think that there might be, you know, the feathers on the tail moving just a little bit, but yeah, it's interesting. It's a fun bait to fish, and I've got, we went bass fishing this week, Colin and I did on Wednesday, and I had three of those on my boat. I looked at them and said, yeah, I believe in this thing. Yeah, and we have a lot of grass growing right now in the north end of the lake, and you know, those top water baits sitting next to the grass are really a key bait right now. A lot of the smallmouth and largemouth in the lake, like we talked about it before, there are largemouth here too, but yeah, they like that bait sitting next to the grass. If you could find any kind of, you know, minnows or bait in that shallow water next to the grass, that top water bait is just a go-to for this time of year. Yeah, but another thing that I relate it to, I was, when I first moved here 40 years ago, I was, I went fishing at a pond, had a rubber frog, and I went, oh man, there's frogs all over this place, I'm going to spank them on this frog. Threw the frog out there, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, and then I was hiking around the pond later on where a little bit of a creek came in and there was a small frog there, so I grabbed him and took him back out to where I had been fishing before and just threw him in the water and as soon as he hit the water, he froze. He just froze up and tried to be as still and I'm not, I projected into his head, I'm not here, I'm not here. And then he moved just one little kick and whoosh, and he was gone. Something ate him. Yeah, but I, you know, with that with my head fishing a pop bar, I'm going, yeah throw it out there and I'm projecting into it that I'm not here, nobody sees me, nobody sees me. And that's my thing. And that's what's going to trigger those bigger fish to eat. I think if you're moving that bait, those smaller fish will chase it all day long, but those big ones want that fish to sit in one spot. Where are, what is the type of terrain you're looking for for a smallmouth bass topwater bite in late summer, early fall? Is it shallow flats? Is it a steep rocky thing as it points? Is there a place that you consistently do better at? Yeah, you know, this time of year is actually, the reason that I say I like September and October and it's my favorite time of year, because I start dropping the water level here you know, just after the 4th of July. And I was amazed after this 10 days on the road when I came back and got on the water today, that the water level had dropped about 6 or 7 feet. So it's actually down now about 6 feet from where it was in July, which puts the water level in a position where it's that 7 to 10 feet of water is right in the stump line. So there's a lot of stumps here, there's a lot of rock in that shallow water, but now that water level has dropped out enough to where the fish are actually they're in that zone where the majority of the stumps are. So that's where I like it. And it continues, you know, it'll continue to fall until November, but right now is the time where the fish are staging in that 7 to, you know, 14 to 15 feet. And when the water's clear and you get over the stumps, it's just a feeding frenzy on Elmore. It's a fun place to be in September. I need to interrupt you because I let the time get away from me and we need to go to our second commercial break. Our guest this evening is Mark Pilgrim. He's a professional tournament bass angler, but he also lives at Lake Elmore and guides up there if you ever wanted to go out and learn how to smallmouth bass fish on Lake Elmore. This is Dennis Pierce with the KNCO Fishing and Outdoor Report. We'll be back after a word from our sponsors. Why is my lawn still drinking like it's July? Good question. Even when it's still hot outside, it's a good time to check your water use. Check your irrigation timer. Look for leaks, broken sprinkler heads, and don't forget to check faucets and toilets for leaks around the house. A small leak may not seem like much, but over time, those drops add up. Take a few minutes to make sure you're using water wisely. Nevada Irrigation District, serving our community since 1921. This is Dennis Pierce, host of the KNCO Fishing and Outdoor Report. Drs. Jerry Chan and his daughter, Dr. Tiffany Chan, have been taking care of my family's vision needs for over 35 years. I want to tell a story. I've been with Dr. Chan for years, and years ago, he said, you're going to be a candidate for cataract surgery. I said, yeah. A week ago, I had my second eye done. Dr. Chan referred me to a surgeon, Dr. Hagley, who's local to our area. I got the lenses replaced in my eyes, and I tell you, the difference it makes is unbelievable. I see colors totally differently now. What used to be Navajo white everywhere I looked, is now hospital white with a little bit of light blue to it. Anyways, if you are looking for quality family eye care, you can't do any better than the Chan family optometry at 360 Sierra College Drive. They've done wonders for my vision. Have you been horribly injured by a product made by the Acme Corporation? It's not your fault. There's probably someone to blame. The name of the case is Coyote vs. Acme. Prime Cinema presents movies on the big screen as they were meant to be seen at Del Oro and Sutton Cinemas. Showing through September 10th at your Prime Cinemas at the Del Oro, Cars 20th Anniversary rated G, Fall 2 Deadpoint rated PG-13, The End of Oak Street rated PG-13, The Dog Stars rated R, and Spider-Man Brand New Day rated PG-13. Now let's check on the Sutton. 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Big Lou will answer your call and work to fit you into a term life policy that you can afford. Remember, Big Lou's like you. He's on meds too. Call 800-555-1509 or biglou.com. This is Dennis Pierce. We're back with the KNCO Fishing and Outdoor Report. Our guest this evening is Mark Pilgrim. Mark is a professional bass fishing guide at Lake Almanor. He also is on the professional bass fishing tournament. Mark, you were saying that they're dropping the water levels now and there is a level around the lake at which there are stumps and stuff in there. I wanted to get more clarity on my impression on Lake Almanor. If you go to the west side around Prattville and that area, you've got a flooded meadow that gets deep and is very gradual the drop off over there. Whereas if you're coming from the dam up the east side, there's some real steep ground dropping into the lake there as well as other places along the east side. Do both sides fish equally as well? You know, the big flats versus the steeper drop off? Yeah, I think they both fish equally as well. I think you can catch a lot more number-wise. If you're coming up here for the day and you want to go out and just have fun and catch a bunch of numbers, maybe catch 20 or 30 fish, I think that east side is the place to go where you've got the rocks, you've got the stumps, you've got bushes, willow trees in the water, and lots of cover. If you want to come to Lake Elinor and try and catch your personal best and try and catch a giant, I think that west side is probably the place to be where you've got that shallower flat with a ledge about 20 feet out and then a lot more stumps and a lot less cover. Okay. That's a really good point. Numbers on the east side, fewer bigger on the west. Exactly. A lot of tournaments are won here on the west side. There's a lot of tournaments won on the east side also, but it's really hit and miss on the east side. For bigger fish, I'm not saying that there's not a lot of bigger fish on the east side because there is, but for me and my professional opinion of what I do here, I think those bigger fish are on the west side of the lake, the west and north side. Okay. What is on the menu for bass in that lake other than the pond smelt? Right now, crawdads. The crawdads are just everywhere. It's amazing because every fish I'm catching right now is just they're throwing up their breakfast and lunch. Just going through this full moon that we went through last week, when I came back today and got out on the water, they are gorged with crawdads. There's a lot of crawdads in here. There's sculpin. You don't tend to see a lot of sculpin, but there are sculpin, and they're definitely eating the small catfish right now. Okay. The bass are eating the smaller catfish. The bass are eating the smaller catfish. Okay. Is there a major leech population in Almanor that you're aware of? Not very many. You hear about it at times, but no. I think we have smaller ponds that are around in the area that do have leech populations, but in Almanor, not so many. We get back to the pond smelt thing. The pond smelt is just... We talked about this in our last show. I was saying that the pond smelt between I would say the 1st of August through the end of September just absolutely explodes. There's so much pond smelt in the lake right now, it's incredible. Is this a bumper crop year for them, or is this pretty standard, the quantity of baitfish that are in there? I think it's pretty standard. It's different year to year on where those pond smelt stage throughout the year. It's different. If you have a cold summer, a cooler summer, they tend to hang out on those deep water dredges or drop-offs like on the peninsula side and around those deep water areas. If you have really warmer water, they tend to hang out in the flats. This year, we've had a warmer summer and the water has been a little bit warmer up until this week, so those pond smelt have been a little bit shallower. When Tom Monminier, he said to say hello by the way, he knows you, he has a shop up there. He was talking about in September that the pond smelt will tend to move into the shallows. The predator fish, whether they're trout or bass, come through schools of them and just start biting everything. A lot of wounded ones would come to the surface and he used to fish floating pond smelt. I think that's why the top water bite gets so good in September. I think there's so many wounded pond smelt that are floated to the surface. You've got those fish that are picking off those floaters, so they tend to heat top water. That's exactly 100% correct. They move into the shallower waters in September. The trout chase them too. Ten days ago when I left, I didn't see very many rainbows. Today, when I was out there, I caught four of them. I think the smallest rainbow I caught was about four and a half to five pounds and the biggest one was about seven. Rainbows are definitely chasing them also. Were they hitting the pawpaw? They were actually hitting an urchin style bait, which is kind of weird. The new craze right now in all the bass guys across the nation is urchin style baits. I was throwing an urchin style bait today. It was funny because with my fork facing, I was throwing to that. I would actually physically see one throw to it and have that fish come up and eat it. If they wouldn't eat it, I would reel it back and I was actually having the rainbows chase it and grab it while I was reeling it back. That is that thing that's got a central ball and all these rubber arms coming off in the shape of a sea urchin? It's a sea urchin and it's the ugliest thing, but for some reason it works. I saw it recently online and I looked at that and I went, what? I wouldn't waste my time throwing something like that, but apparently other people do and catch fish. It's the ugliest thing. There's nothing in our lake that resembles anything like that. I think the delta is the only thing I've ever seen that resembles anything to an urchin. Up here, I've never seen anything that resembled it, but they sure love it. You're supposed to learn something every day. I got a little behind on our commercials. We've got one more commercial break to do and we'll be back afterward from our sponsor with our guest Mark Pilgrim and we're going to give you his contact information on social media. We'll be back afterward from our sponsors. Imagine getting the keys to your own front door for the very first time. A safe place for your children to grow, a kitchen for family dinners, a backyard for birthdays and a place to finally call home. You can help make that dream possible at Street of Dreams, Nevada County Habitat for Humanity's signature annual fundraiser. 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Maybe your water heater just quit, your drains are backed up, the lights are flickering or your furnace is acting up when you need it the most. Whatever the problem, my team and I are here to help. Fast, reliable and done right the first time. So if something goes wrong at your house, don't stress, just give us a call. Plumbing, Electrical, Heating and Air, it's as easy as ABT. Call us at 530 230 9092 or visit us at abtplumbing.com The number again is 530 9092 We're your hometown team and we've got you covered. It's as easy as ABT This is Dennis Pierce. We're back with the KNCO Fishing and Outdoor Report. With me this evening is Mark Pilgrim. He lives up at Chester on the shores of Lake Almanor and he's a tournament bass angler. Mark, you recently returned from fishing at the Columbia River and I have fished the Columbia and before I went up to fish it, I had always thought of the Columbia River sort of like the Sacramento River, only bigger but with all the dams and everything on there, there's rather lake-like sections of the Columbia. Could you describe the waters where that tournament was? That's exactly right. Each section of the river is broken up by dams which split the river in about 50 mile to 60 mile sections and each one of those sections, you go from Tri-Cities all the way to Portland, Oregon and they could range from areas where you have shallow water fisheries to areas where there's 60 to 70, 80 feet of water but the majority of that river is kind of funny. You think about it like the Sacramento River being maybe the widest spot a quarter mile wide, the Columbia River could be two and a half to three miles wide. It's amazing how big the fishery is so it's definitely a monster. It's like the delta on steroids for sure. It's a fun place to fish and I have to say I had a great event up there. I had a super good event and I could say that if anybody has ever wanted to go and catch 50 to 100 fish a day, small mouth, that's the place to go. It's an amazing fishery and a very neat place to just go hang out and visit. Now, was there an actual current to the water where you were fishing, river fishing in effect or was it really more lake like? The pool that we fished is actually out of Boardman, Oregon so when you go to the northern and southern pools from where we were you have a current of about five miles an hour which is a pretty fast current. The pool that we were fishing has a current of about two to three miles an hour when they're running a full current through that pool and they adjust those flows every day depending on how much water is coming out of the Olmentia pool down to the John Day River. The current is constantly changing but the fish there are a different breed. They're not like Elmner small mouth or any other small mouth that I've seen. They're just mean. They're a river small mouth and they're aggressive and they're just fun to catch. What did you throw? Soft plastics? Top water? What was your general approach? The first day I threw it was kind of crazy. The first day I threw a seven inch glide bait. A glide bait is a fish that actually I was trying to mimic the perch that is the main forage for the Columbia River for small mouth and that glide bait is giant. It's really like seven inches long and the second day I went back. We had really big winds the second day so I went back to kind of a jig set up more like the old style jig and it was phenomenal. Was the second day your jig was it pretty much a crawdad imitation? It was. The first day I was keen on shallow fish when the wind wasn't blowing. I moved up really shallow in the grass and I was throwing that big glide bait over the top of the grass and catching my fish that way. Correct. The second day I went back to just a crawdad imitation and was keen on fish that were out in about 15 feet. Had you ever fished up there before? I have. I think that was probably my 10th or so tournament that I fished on the Columbia River. I've got several days experience fishing up there. Like I said, it's a different fishery. That river runs from east to west and it has current and they have a lot of wind. The wind kind of came into play on my second day. We had five and six foot rollers up there with the current. It got a little sketchy on the second day, but that kind of worked to my strengths. Going back to the jig and fishing in deeper water and that wind really worked out well for me. Okay. Well, 17th out of a field of 100 boats typically? Yes. Generally at a minimum 100 boats. It was a great event. I was in 35th place after the first day. The second day, like I said, I just went back to the jig and caught a really good five fish limit the second day and almost got a top ten there. It was a lot of fun. What's a top ten fish there on the Columbia? How big can smallmouth get there? There's big ones in there. There's a lot of two to three pounders, but there's a lot of four and five pounders there. To tell you the truth, there's giants in there. There's smallmouth in that fishery that are up to seven pounds. They're rare, but there are giants in the Columbia River. How big is the biggest smallmouth you're aware of that's been caught at Lake Elminore? The biggest one that I've seen here was about seven pounds. I caught one last year that was about six and a half. I caught one today that was fine. They're out there. There's big ones, and they're getting bigger every year. I keep seeing fish. It's turning into one of those fisheries. It's like Trinity Lake. It's just turning into one of those amazing ... It's just like a trout fishery here. It's a world class trout fishery, and I think it's going to become a world class smallmouth fishery. The food chain at Lake Elminore, I don't know. I think it's my favorite lake to fish in Northern California anymore, just due to the food chain that's in there. Eagle Lake is really good, but it doesn't have the bass fishery, or the variety of stuff going on there. We're up against the end of the show. If someone wanted to follow you on social media, how do they find you on the web? Follow me on Facebook and Instagram. I'm Mark Coverum, Pro Angler. They can call me. 020-249-3810. If someone's coming up and they want information on what to do and where to go. I have to say this too. I've got a new bait that just came out through Getzit. Everyone throws a Getzit. I have a Mark Coverum 2 tailspin that just came out on the Getzit website. If you guys want a really cool bait, go to the Getzit website and check it out. Definitely come up and give me a call, and let's go out and catch some fish. You've designed a bait that Getzit is now manufacturing. Yes. I'm working with them right now. We're going through a test phase on their website. I believe that the bait's going to be it sounds like it might be in some big stores here pretty soon. That's pretty exciting. It's a bait that I've been throwing for about 25 years that I've made. I guess it's been one of my sponsors for about 5 years. They came to me with a new product design and development on a bait. I pitched this to them and we're kind of running with it. It's selling like crazy right now. If somebody goes to the Getzit website and uses your name as a keyword, that's how they can find it? They can use my name or just use TubeSpin and it will take you to the TailTubeSpin right to the section where you need to be and it will pop up. Alright. Basically are tube jigs crawdad imitations? Exactly. It's just a hybrid. Alright. Mark Pilgrim, professional angler. Mark, thank you for taking the time to be with us. I always learn something every time I talk to you. This is Dennis Pierce for the KNCO Fishing and Outdoor Report. We'll be back here next Friday evening. We've got Nevada Union High School football coming up right after the show. And... ... ... ... Now with beer just 6 minutes away from the car show on KNCO Grass Valley, Nevada City 106.9 FM and 830 AM It's 6 o'clock --- end of transcript ---