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FINDING
THE RIGHT BAIT IS THE KEY
By: Ron Wilson
July 17, 2003….
Saturday Guide Bruce Hamby of Ripon, Dave Graham of Oakdale and I went
to New Melones to
fish for kokanee. The goal was to locate concentrations of fish and see
what they wanted to eat. Bruce
and Dave were fishing a Kokanee tournament the next day.
Bruce took off
towards the 49 Bridge to see if there may be fish heading up river. A
few marks on the graph, but no action.
We then headed back
to Angels Creek arm. The big fish we had located a few weeks earlier had
moved to who knows where. Anyway we couldn’t find them on the depth
finder.
I was trying all
kinds experimental Ex-Cel Lures in different colors. I caught a good one
on a darker pink/white lure, but the fish jumped and tossed the bait!
Out in front of Glory
Hole point we spotted a few fish on the graph. We tried several
different lures with limited success.
Next we headed down
south past the islands below Rose. Seems we should have checked this out
earlier as several boats in the area were having success.
We worked an area
near the Tuttletown boat ramp where Dave hooked a nice one. We then
nailed another in the 1.9-pound class as we trolled away from the school
that we just located. The idea when pre-fishing is to locate the fish,
but not beat them up, since you want them to bite the next day in the
tournament.
Our fishing was hit
and miss all day long, but by the time we left for home, Bruce had a
real good idea what he was going to use and how he was going to fish it
the next day.
He must have done his
homework correct because he ended up finishing 7th. Anytime
you can finish in the top 10 with 130 competitors you have earned
bragging rights! Dave Graham of Oakdale finished just out of the money.
Not to bad for a guy who has only been fishing twice this year.
Sunday the plan was
to go after the Koke’s at Don Pedro. Once again, the guy I was
supposed to go with canceled out. However, all it took was a quick phone
call to change the plans. Now I was heading to Kelsey Bass Ranch with my
website partner, Tim Paes of Turlock.
On the way up we
stopped to have lunch at the Foster joint in Snelling. I talked to a
pair of anglers from Merced that were on their way home. They had
limited out on kokanee up to 2 pounds at Don Pedro. They said the fish
were from 60 to 90 feet deep and the lure of choice was a watermelon
apex. They went on to say the lake has been red hot with very little
pressure and they’ve been limiting out every trip.
 After
lunch Tim and I headed to Kelsey to get our black bass fix! We had the
lake to ourselves as I launched Tim and his Stratos bass boat. Although
the weather was toasty, there was a stiff wind that kept us from feeling
how hot it really was.
Tim started picking
up small fish near the dam with a dropshot rig. I was tossing all kinds
of baits trying to find what the better fish wanted. I finally came up
with an alewife fluke the fish wanted. After four quality fish Tim
decided it was time to go rummaging through my tackle bag to find my
flukes! Seems he left his at home.
Tim said, “Hey Ron,
how many places can you go in July, have the lake all to yourself and
catch a limit of fish in less then an hour”! I had to agree, the
fishing here is always good and sometimes it can be down right
fantastic! Even with the previous nights full moon, the fish were on the
bite.
The 20-knot wind was
really moving the water and the fish were active when you found them.
You could catch three or four out of a cove go to the next one, catch a
couple more and then move back to the cove you just left and catch three
or four again.
All our better fish
came on the alewife flukes. The bass were holding in the shallow grass
and the fluke was perfect for working through the grass beds. I did hook
a good one on a pink Sumo frog, however the frog bite never did
materialize. It really needs to be calm on the lake for the frog bite to
kick into high gear and with the wind we had Sunday, calm wasn’t going
to happen anytime soon!
We had a ball, more
so for me as I didn't have to fight the waves with the trolling motor.
By 6 p.m. we had went through 4 bottles of water apiece and 2 Pepsi’s
along with a few bags of peanuts. The wind and heat seemed to be sucking
the liquids out of our system.
I had hurt my ankle
several months ago and it was starting to let me know. I usually sit in
a seat while trolling so it doesn’t bother me, but standing on a
rocking boat for a few hours causes it to act up.
Tim nailed another
good one in the 5-pound class so after a few snapshots of his fish I
asked him to call it a day. Sore ankle and sore arm, its nice to have
fun catching fish but sometimes a guy can just overdue it!
Check out Sierra
Sportfishing for information on a guided Kokanee trip and check out Kelsey
Bass Ranch for more information about membership and the lake! |
