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CHECKING OUT A NEW HIDDEN JEWEL!

By: Ron Wilson

April 29, 2004…. I recently joined a private fishing club nestled in the foothills near Angels Camp. It’s a neat area with one large pond and two smaller ponds within walking distance.

It was only my second trip to the lake. The first time the weather was plain horrible and I spent most of my time just visiting with my cousin Blaine Wilson.

This trip the weather was made for fishing! I took Ron Fisher, of Denair, and my webmaster Tim Paes, of Turlock, to help me find fish.

Ron could use his expertise with a fly rod and diminutive baits to give us a good idea of the food supply available for the black bass. My plan was to use finesse baits. Tim, however had visions of a big beautiful dark green 10-pounder on bubba baits!

We started out at the first pond, there was some surface action but the fish were small and not very active. Although we did score a few perch!

I sent Ron to the upper pond while Tim and I launched my bass boat and headed out onto the 100 acre big pond.

Grass beds were everywhere and the water was gin clear. I could see perch all around us; they were just the right size for a black bass snack!

I was targeting bass with small baits but couldn’t catch anything of size. I down sized again to a number 8 hook and 1/64th oz. Darthead. Boy that was a mistake. I was quickly whipped by a fish that took me down in the weeds and straightened out my hook. Tim really gave it to me, “Hey Ron that one sure handed you your lunch!”

I continued down the bank giving Tim the information I was reading from my depth finder. The boat was in 15 feet of water while the weeds were within 5 feet of the surface. This enabled Tim to get a visual of what was down below.

There were plenty of areas for the fish to hide, but we weren’t having a lot of luck enticing them out to bite.

Tim said, “Damn Ron, here I came up here hawg hunting with my bubba baits and now I’m going to have to finesse them!”

Tim took out a St, Croix dropshot rod he had brought along and put on a baby Brushog. He was soon rewarded with one in the 4-pound class. The fish was chunky and had a beautiful dark green back. I took a couple pictures and then she was put back.

Tim soon had fish number two out of the same school of bass. We were getting a few bites, but decided to leave them and continue looking the lake over.

My downsize action was starting to pay off, but on downsized fish! I caught a small bass, then a perch and then a real nice crappie that I quickly dropped back in the water.

Tim said, “Ron that would have been a nice picture fish.” The camera at my feet and never even thought about snapping a picture of it before releasing her!

By now it was 10:30 a.m. and time to go pick up Ron and see how he did. He had found lots of perch and a bass to release. He even saw a few bass still on beds, but left them alone to do there thing.

Ron started to get in the boat with all his gear and I told him, “Just put it in the truck we’ve got enough junk in this small boat.”

Ron grabbed his spinning rod and climbed in. I started down the bank as Ron pitched a little baby Senko into the holes in the weeds.

Ron soon was rewarded with a bite. The fish quickly pulled drag as it parted the weed patch and then suddenly we heard a snap. “Hey Ron, I don’t know what type of line your using but it’s not big enough!” I knew because I had my 6-pound test line airmailed back to me a couple times already!

Ron gave me a funny look since I made him leave his tackle back at the truck, which would include his baby Senko’s!

Ron started going through the ton of baits I had in boxes, bags and on the floor and was soon back after them.

I was catching a fish every now and then; it might be a perch, crappie or bass. The fish that were big enough to get the bait in their mouth would run off with it. The issue was finding the ones with a big enough mouth!

You didn’t have any problem with my light tackle unless it was a fair size bass, then it didn’t take long to figure out you had a problem!

At 11:30 a.m. Tim found a frog pattern, thanks to his partner who backed the boat in so that he could present the  frog properly.

Here I'm holding a nice solid bass from the big lake.

He caught 3 bass out of one cove while all I did was spook them. I tried several different colored frogs but they just didn’t want what I was throwing at them.

I hurriedly covered the lake because I knew we had to  leave soon. Ron caught a small crappie which I made him hold up for a quick picture.  I haven’t had a good crappie picture for a long time and even though it was just the size of a perch it still made a nice picture.

As we continued down the bank I heard a quizzical “hum” from Ron as he reached into his back pocket and pulled out a 10 pack of baby Senko’s! “I wonder when I put those in there,” Ron said with a dumbfounded look on his face.

No sooner had he put one of the baby Senko’s on and pitched it into a pocket in the grass, I heard the zing of his drag followed quickly by the snap of his light line! Guess I’m going to have to pick up a pack of those Senko’s before my next trip out here.

With a dinner engagement to follow it was time to load up and head for home. We didn’t slay them but the fish we caught were all healthy. I think this lake has a lot of potential.

The only drawback I see is the lakes are catch and eat facilities. I’m not sure how conducive that is to finding trophy bass.

By the end of the summer I should be able to tell you how important catch and release is or isn’t. I will be comparing these ponds to the ones at Kelsey Bass Ranch that are catch and release. I’ll keep you posted.