SMELLS LIKE SKUNK!

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SMELLS LIKE SKUNK!

February 27, 2003.... Skunked! Well I can't remember the last time I went fishing and never caught a fish, but last Sunday was one of those days! I know its called fishing but that's not my idea of fun. I like the catching part of the sport!

I took Ron Fisher and Ken Moore, of Ripon, to Tulloch Lake for a little trout action.

We launched at South Shore where the launch fee is only $6. I heard Poker Flat charges $20 to put a boat in the water, so my advice is stay away from there and go to south shore, and it's closer to the valley towns. We launched the boat and I fired up the kicker motor and then it died, I am not sure what I did wrong but we never did get it started again. So we headed off trolling with the inboard motor. Our speed was about 2 miles an hour!

I used all kinds of Ex-Cel lures and Chucker-T's, but this time of year you want a slow presentation because the fish don't want to have to chase the bait. Anyway that's my excuse for not catching anything and I'm sticking to it! We trolled all around the dam and up to the bridge and back without a single nibble.

There were several other boats also fishing and they were not having much luck either, as I only saw one fish
caught before we left at noon. If nothing else we enjoyed a nice day on the water.

After pulling the boat out of the water I walked around and pulled the starter cord on the 9.9 trolling engine and it fired right up and purred. Darn thing, I got to remember not to flood it!

Norval Pimentel and I have been pre-fishing at New Melones for the upcoming Nor-Cal Bass Pro-Am event
that will be held on March 8th. The fish have been a little finicky. We've been doing ok but I don't think we have found the fish that will win a tournament yet.

We've been catching a few nice ones, but nothing consistent. We haven't narrowed it to the point that we can say "we will be able to catch a good bag of fish". At this time were hoping for a little luck to go along with what we have learned! There have been shallow fish caught on pig and jig, spinnerbaits, worm's and rip fish but the weather has been the key to what you want to be doing and when! More on this after March 8th.

Norval did catch a nice spotted bass in the 5 pound class. This is the biggest spot that Norval has caught in his professional career. That's hard to believe as I know Norval fishes even more than I do and I've caught a couple spotted bass in the 6 pound class out of Lake McClure. Of course that was several years ago when they seemed to get bigger their!

If you don't know how to tell the difference in the bass species rub your finger over the tongue of the fish and if its rough its probably a spot or a crossbred bass as they will crossbreed in the wild!