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FINDING THE RIGHT SCHOOL!
By: Ron Wilson
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Norval with a nice Melones Spotted Bass |
May 13, 2004….
Professional bass fisherman, Norval Pimentel of Modesto, and I went to
New Melones to pre-fish for this Saturday’s
Nor-Cal Pro-Am.
I had called to
congratulate him on his
Everstart
finish on the Delta. No he didn’t win, but he placed in the money, which
beats a poke in the eye with a sharp stick!
As we chitchatted, he
asked what I was doing over the weekend. I said, “fishing the private
ponds near Angels Camp.” Norval said, “that won’t do me any good in
finding fish at Melones!” So I said, “hey, pick me up and we will head to
Melones.”
5:00 a.m. rolled
around and it was already looking like daylight was breaking over the
mountains as we headed towards Oakdale.
There already was a
crowd on the water as we arrived. It looked like a lot of them were
fishing for Kokanee near Rose Island.
We launched and headed
upriver past Parrott’s Ferry Bridge, with the plan to fish our way back.
We fished rocks, trees, mud and combinations of all three combined, trying
to find a good location where the fish might be schooled up.
We found catching fish
easy when you were on them. Being on them was the tough part! The fish
were schooled and when you weren’t on them it was like fishing the Dead
Sea!
We would go through a
school and catch them on 1001B and 082 6-inch
Keeper
worms, Senko’s
and Brushogs.
Splitshotting, dropshotting and dartheads worked the best.
We ripped and cranked
but for some reason the fish didn’t want our fast moving baits. The water
temperature is right for an active bite but we just couldn’t seem to get
one going.
Norval found some fish
for the tournament but nothing that will win it. His biggest fish was a
nice black in the 2-pound class.
While an 8-pound limit
should be easy, he is going to have to find some of the bigger Melones
fish in order to take another paycheck home this weekend! |
