12-10-12
Water Conditions: New Melones Lake is currently holding 1,540,308 acre-feet
of water. The lake level rose 3ft. this week, and is currently at
1008ft. above sea level and 80ft. from full. Water temperature has
cooled a bit and is 56-59 degrees. The lake is clear, to slightly
stained. The lake will "turn over" when surface water cools to the same
temperature as the deeper water- around 53-54 degrees. This usually
happens around Thanksgiving, few weeks late this year. Soon the trout
bite should really turns on for bank-anglers and trollers alike. Good
news, the middle ramp on Glory Hole Point is open, which makes for an
easy walk.
Harold Keeler had a fun day fishing from the shore, and caught a nice limit of trout.
John Galletti caught his limit using cheese flavored Power Bait.
Trout: Good. Department of Fish and Game is now planting rainbow trout weekly at New Melones. Trolling anglers
caught a few limits this week. The fish are in shallow water near the
shoreline. A great way to target these fish is top-lining, or using a
side-planner. Gold, silver, and blue seem to be the colors they are
responding to best. Try using Rapalas, Excels, and Kastmasters in these
colors. Another way to catch them is trolling a crawler/flasher rig. Be
sure to use a worm threader to
put the worm on the hook. When your crawler is on the hook straight it
has a more natural appearance and will draw more strikes. Bank fishing
was good this last week. Most anglers are catching planted fish with a
few nice holdovers in the mix. There are fish feeding on the surface
near the shore line, in the early morning. Try using to rods, (make
sure to get a second rod stamp on your fishing license) fan cast a
Kastmaster while your bait is soaking. For bait, garlic scented Power
Bait, Power Eggs, or a Mallow/crawler combo will catch them. 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.
The
winner of the Glory Hole Sports Big Fish of the Week Contest goes to
Jack Winter. He caught a beautiful 3-pound rainbow while bank fishing
with a Kastmaster near the Glory Hole boat launch.
Kokanee: Done for the season.
Bass:
Good. There are a lot of fair to nice fish being caught. The spotted
bass are gorging themselves on shad. This is a good time to fish a
vertical presentation. Try locating these balls of shad suspended over
the main creek channels (Morman, Angels, Coyote, etc.) and target the
fish feeding above and below these shad. 1/2oz. and 3/4oz. spoons in
shad patterned colors are good choices. The nice thing about a spoon is
you can draw a reaction strike from the fish. Another great and more
subtle approach is a 1/4oz. tube. Tubes are great little baits that are
easy to fish. Cast into deep water and let them spiral slowly to the
bottom. Then drag and hop them back to the boat. The fish will hit them
on the initial fall, or pick them up off of the bottom. Again, shad and
crawdad patterned baits are hard to beat. There continues to be a good
jig bite on main lake points and secondary points. We carry a large
selection of jigs made by California Reservoir Lures. The nice thing
about these jigs is they are design for our Mother Lode lakes. Like the
color Melones craw. It has a
perfect blend of crawdad colors. Try using a Zoom Baby Brush Hog or a
Yamamoto Fat Baby Craw as trailer. 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. The water is still fairly warm, and the catfish are very
active. This is usually the best time of the year to catch big cats.
Melones catfish 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. Generally cats will feed in
shallow flats or areas with large chunk rock near deep water.
Crappie:
Slow. There are fish in 15-40 foot of water, in the backs of creek
channels near submerged timber. Live minnows or red worms fished under a
slip-float, with a bobber stop is a good way to target these fish.
Also, try using red/white mini jigs, small grubs, and 4" soft plastic
worms. Crappie too, will gorge themselves on shad. Try to locate the
bait in shallow areas and the fish shouldn't be far.
