From: dsmith@hplabsz.hpl.hp.com (David R. Smith)
Subject: Re: regional fishing publications
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1992 16:10:24 GMT
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Laboratories Palo Alto,CA

In article <13628@auspex-gw.auspex.com> johnf@Auspex.COM (John Fereira) writes:
>In article <1992Jul20.185540.24985@news.Hawaii.Edu> bill@gaza.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (William J. King) writes:
>... "Fishing and Hunting News" ...
>There is also the "Fish Sniffer" which is even more 
>tabloid-like than F&H news.  Their fishing "forecasts" are usually about
>a week old and since the information primarily comes from marine owners
>it's usually pretty glowing.

The Fish Sniffer's address is PO Box 994, Elk Grove, CA  95759-0994.
A year's subscription costs $27.50, although I signed up at a boat show for
$25 and got a hat, a spool of premium line, and a set of flashers as a
bonus.  (P-line and Sep's Pro Flashers, companies who they are in bed with.)

They cover from southern Oregon to central California (fresh + salt), plus
some of western Nevada, and San Diego & Baja salt.  So it's not surprising
that they print info from the marina owners.  But that's a trap the other
rags fall into, too.  For example, my father in law asked me, "Why do you
keep wanting to come up here [upper Sacramento valley] to fish?  There's a
really good lake right in San Francisco."  He got his info from Western
Outdoor News, a fishing and hunting weekly which prints form charts with a
sentence or two for each lake or river, as compared with the full stories
in the Fish Sniffer.  I figured he must mean Lake Merced.  So this past
February, I took my family to Lake Merced, egged on by a good-sounding report
in the Fish Sniffer, which noted a recent plant.  The lake charges a daily
fee, because of their own stocking program beyond DFG.  Actually, it is two
lakes.  For $0.95, you can fish in the south lake, or for $3 you can fish
the north lake, which is planted with bigger fish.  As we arrived, we saw
a man walking back with a very large trout.  Good sign.  I paid for the
north lake, and we went down to it.  There was a line in the water about
every ten feet, and no one had gotten a bite all day.  Others told me that
the big fish had been taken early in the morning from a boat on the other
side of the lake, around the cattails.  Bank fishermen were allowed to fish
only from the sandy beach, because of environmental concerns.  (Originally,
the whole lake had been ringed by cattails, and the beach area was created
by fishermen tromping them down.)  For bank fishers to get any action,
they need to come soon after a plant.  Some lake.  Well, the next issue of
the Fish Sniffer said fishing was good at Lake Merced, citing the 12-pound
trout that so-and-so had taken on the day we were there.  Never again Lake
Merced for me.

Still, if you follow a given body of water for a while, you find that they
will tell you when it's relatively slow.  Usually something like "Trout
fishing is tough, but the bass are expected to come on soon."  Also, note
that these guys are well-equipped, good fishermen.  They report their own
trips, and will write stuff like "Fishing has slowed at the lake, and it
takes longer for knowledgable fishermen to get their limits."

What I like about the Fish Sniffer is that it tells for each large body of
water where people are catching what kind of fish on what, at what depth.
It does a detailed story plus map feature of a lake or river in each issue.

-- 
David R. Smith, HP Labs | "How would *you* like a job where, if you make
dsmith@hpl.hp.com       | a mistake, a big red light goes on and 18,000
(415) 857-7898          | people boo?" -- former hockey goalie Jacques Plante
Newsgroups: alt.fishing