Monday, October 22, 2012

New Melones Fishing Report from Glory Hole Sports

Water Conditions:  New Melones Lake is currently holding 1,486,280 acre-feet of water. The lake level dropped a foot this week, and is currently at 1002 ft. above sea level and 86ft. from full.  Water temperature has cooled a bit and is in the upper 60's to low 70's.  The lake is clear, to slightly stained. Good news, the middle ramp on Glory Hole Point is open, which makes for an easy walk.
1Excel spoons continue to catch quality fish. Dan Clinton of Sacramento landed this hefty 2-pound, 14-ounce brown trolling an Excel spoon in 65-foot of water, by the 49 bridge.

Trout:  Fair! Trolling anglers are catching a few limits in the main lake and in the mouths of major creek arms. We have had reports of fish being caught from 35-65 feet of water. Try using shad patterned trolling spoons such as, Needlefish, Excels, Slimfins, and Speedy Shiners. The fish are feeding heavily on 3-5" shad. Large plug baits like Countdown Rapalas, Rattle traps, and Speed traps are working well too. At this time of the year we will start to see more days of rain and cloud cover. These can be great day for fishing. Try using bright colored baits, like fire tiger, and hot steel Rapalas. Also, gold and copper blades seem to work better than silver during low light conditions. 
1The Glory Hole Sports Big Fish of the Week Contest goes to Ray Rogers of Murphys. He went out with "Take it to the Limit Guide Service" and caught a beautiful 4-pound, 2-ounce brown trout while trolling with a blue/silver rip bait. 

Bank fishing has been slow, but should start to pick up as the water temperature cools down. Also, try fishing small feeder creeks and inlets whenever we get some rainfall. Cooler running water attracts fish, and also washes nutrients and insects into the lake. River and stream season ends on November 15th.

Kokanee: Slow. The schools are heading to the back of creek arms, and upriver for their annual spawn and die. There are still some fish being caught in the main lake. Most of the kokanee being caught are dark with hooked mouths. Some clean silver fish are showing up in the dam/spillway area, but are fairly small. They are taking standard kokanee setups, sling blades and hoochies in pink, orange, and green. Be sure to add plenty of Pro Cure Scent to your dodger and your bait. Garlic, anise, carp spit, and kokanee special have all been producing.  Don't forget to bring corn soaked in these same scents.

Bass: Good. The shad are staging in 15-30 feet of water on main lake points and at the mouths of major creek arms. There are small little clusters of shad, and there are huge schools. A lot of the fish are targeting shad as their primary food source. Try using shad patterned deep diving crank-baits and deep rip-baits to get to the depth they are feeding at. Strike King 6xd in a sexy shad pattern is a great bait for deep cranking, and a Lucky Craft Staycee 90 is a good rip bait that will get down deep. A good trick to get a little more depth out of your baits is to add some suspend dots or suspend strips. These adhesive pieces of lead are easy to apply to any bait and you can make a suspending bait slowly sink, or make a floating bait suspend. When you locate fish that are too deep to target with plugs, try using a ½-ounce spoon or a drop-shot rig. Remember to practice catch and release!  If you do keep a bass, please keep the spotted bass and release the big female (largemouth) black bass.  Glory Hole Sports can teach you the difference, so you can practice good conservation of the species.
                                 
Catfish:  Fair.  Melones cats tend to be fish-eaters rather than bottom foragers, so use live minnows, frozen shad, mackerel, or anchovies for best success.  Move/drag your bait slowly across the bottom to cover more water and target fish that are aggressively feeding. Use heavy weights to stir up the bottom and cause more commotion. This will attract fish from far away. Larger cats will also feed on natural bait like crawlers, so to target large cats try using a big ball of crawlers- many anglers use a weightless set-up.  Generally cats will feed in shallow flats or areas with large chunk rock near deep water. 
1Glory Hole Sports Big Fish of the Week contest goes to Rob Morris of Arnold. He caught a 10-pound, 4-ounce lunker on anchovies.
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Nick Ageno caught a nice rainbow and this 7-pound, 2-ounce catfish on frozen shad.

Crappie: Good. Anglers that are night fishing, using submersible lights in the backs of coves are catching some nice crappie. The fish are in 15'-30' of water near standing timber and brush. Live minnows are working well. Also, try using red/white mini jigs under a slip-float rig. Crappie to will gorge themselves on shad. Try to locate the bait in shallow areas and the fish shouldn't be far.