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THE LAKES ARE LOADED WITH
PLANTERS
By: Ron Wilson
February 24, 2009.... In the central
valley the trout bite is wide open at all our local lakes and
reservoirs. The
unusually warm weather has the lakes now running 55 or so degrees and
the trout are scattered from 5 to 15 feet deep right now and will head
deeper with sunshine and warmer water.
For me
Lake Don Pedro is my lake of choice as the trout limits have been
fairly easy to get. All you have to do is top line a small lure in shad
or fire tiger pattern and troll it 75 or so feet behind the boat in the
back of Rogers arm, Big Creek or Hatch Creek and you should soon be
battling one of the many plants that have been planted by the
Department of Fish and Game there this year.
The reason for the generous plants in the
local lakes and reservoirs is that the DFG got sued for not having an
environmental impact to plant highland lakes. They didn't analyze the
destruction the trout plants do to the little mountain frogs when they
plant trout so they had to put them somewhere else.
I took Everett Beckner to Pedro Friday
and by the time we finally found someone to let us purchase a year truck
and boat pass and get on the water it was after 9 a.m. We launched at
Fleming Meadows and drove straight to Rogers Creek Arm where we used
blue/gold Ex-Cel Lures to limit out in two hours time.
We then switched to
bass fishing and for the next 5 hours we fished Hatch Creek,
Middle Bay and Rogers Creek arm for 2 bass. Talk about tough
fishing! We could see the bass suspended but we couldn’t get them to
bite.
 Saturday
Mike Monchein, his 78 year old young friend Elmer Rafel and I went
trout fishing at
New Melones Lake.
We launched at Glory Hole and fished all over the lake. Our best
lures were Ex-Cel shad pattern both green back and regular. We caught a
couple on the fire tiger pattern but shad pattern was the lure of choice
for some rainbows up to 2 pounds. The lake is like all the others,
really low but with the winter storms coming through and the water
rising there is lots of debris in the water so you need to check your
lures often as once a small piece of grass or other debris gets on the
line you can forget about a fish striking it.
We fished up around Angel Creek and
Mormon creek and down around Bear Creek and caught about 20 trout from 1
to 2 pounds but nothing that would let us place in an up and coming
trout derby that will be held there
on March 7th and 8th.
Right now I would troll a good hundred
feet behind the boat with your lure of choice and 2 to 3 colors deep
with lead core or 15 to 20 feet deep on downriggers.
There are tons of truck trout to be
caught in all the local lakes so head up there and get them. The guys on
the bank are also scoring a few fish on bait. Hey its that time of year
so I hope you get out there and catch a few. |
