|
BEATING THE CROWDS &
STILL ENJOYING THE OUTDOORS!
By: Ron Wilson
 |
|
Norval with a nice
pond lunker! |
June 3, 2004….
Where do you go fishing on a Memorial Day weekend when you want to stay
away from the crowds?
That’s an easy
answer for me. You go to a private fishing club. I invited Pro Bass
Fisherman Norval Pimentel to go along with me to check out the club I
belong to.
We left Modesto at
7:30 a.m. and arrived at the pond a little after 9:00 a.m. We launched
Norval’s new
Stratos bass boat and headed across the wind blow waves that were
coming down from the dam area.
The winds had
created a current along a grass line and we were soon into fish. Norval’s
first black bass was a small one, a couple casts later I saw Norval set
the hook and his
St. Croix mooching rod bowed as the fish took off with the wind.
I hurriedly got my
line out of the way. The fish was pulling drag and cutting a path in the
grass with Norval’s line.
The St. Croix rod
held the fish with minimal problems while I got the net. I knew this fish
would be a picture fish!
I got it into the
net and Norval proudly held up a nice
Florida Strain Bass in the 8-pound class.
“Now you done it”,
I said, “we might as well go home, because this is a catch and eat lake
and I don’t think we’re going to catch anything bigger!”
According to the
logbook, which members fill out, some guys eat the big ones. One guy
stated he took home a bass close to 5 pounds to put on the barby.
Got to educate
these guys to stop eating with their eyes and eat with there taste buds!
Those smaller Johnny fish are a whole lot better on the dinner table!
It’s not easy to
convince anglers to leave the big ones. It took me a couple years to
convince Al Autry, a fellow worker, that those bigger bass don’t have near
the flavor of the smaller ones. Got him releasing anything over 3 pounds
now!
Norval and I
continued fishing around the pond and by the time we made it to where we
started, we had caught and released seventeen bass.
For the next hour
we tried all kinds of baits and styles with no luck. I noticed the cows on
the property were lying down. Don’t know how much that had to do with it,
but my daddy always said, “When the cows are up feeding the fish are
biting”.
An hour later
Norval hooked fish number eighteen, this one was in the 6-pound class. I
just happened to look over on the hillside and the cows were up feeding
again. Hmm, you think Dad knew what he was talking about! We started back
down toward the truck and by the time we got there we had caught 6 more
bass.
 |
|
There are some good
quality bass to be had on this hidden jewel! |
The wind seemed to
be picking up speed. Although it was only 2:00 p.m., Norval was ready to
call it a day. He must be getting old, “hee hee”. I kind of encouraged him
that it was time to leave. I had a grandson’s 8th grade graduation party
to attend that night.
After a stop by
Glory Hole Sports, we wound our way back down the hill to Oakdale
where we stopped by Mark Vejar’s, who rep’s St Croix rods, to pick up a
couple rods and shoot the bull.
Never made it to
the party in time to eat. Didn’t get home until after 5:00, but I wasn’t
that hungry anyway. We had made a milkshake and hamburger stop in Angels
Camp.
I spent Sunday and
Monday chasing
Shad at Fox Grove. The early morning bite just plain sucks and the
evening bite is just average. Anglers lucky enough are scoring 2-3 fish.
The great part
about fishing Fox Grove is that its only 10 minutes from home. It was a
little crowded with the Memorial Day holiday but there’s a lot of fishing
room on the river!
The shad seem to
bite best from 8:00 to 9:00 p.m. Several of us are hoping for another good
school to come through so we can whack ‘em! |
