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KOKANEE POWER EVENT AT
NEW MELONES
By: Ron Wilson
July 2, 2010.... Captain Gary Vella
called a couple weeks ago and asked me if I would like to fish the
Kokanee
Power two day event to be held at
Lake New Melones.
I said sure as my plans to go to
Wyoming to fish at
Flaming Gorge had
been canceled.
Captain Gary and I started pre-fishing
the lake a week before the tournament. We started fishing the main lake
areas like Rose Island, the dam etc. All the fish were in the 14 inch or
so class of fish. We finally found the grade of fish that we were
looking for in Angels Creek area of the lake. The small pod of Koke's
were in a small area and holding tight to a hump on the lake.
In the coming days we picked the upper
section of the lake apart. At the 49 bridge we found a very large school
of kokanee all in the 14 1/2 inch range. Up above the bridge around the
Island and up into Coyote Creek area we caught all the same size fish
and smaller. Up above the second bridge we discovered even more kokanee
on both sides of the bridge.
A couple days before the event we went
all the way up to the Camp 9 Bridge and found lots of trout and also
more kokanee in the 14 1/2 inch size.
 The
day before the event we decided to go to
Lake McClure and
play. We left New Melones at 5 a.m. and it rained on us all the way to
Lake McClure. We launched at 6 a.m. and headed to Temperance where we
caught salmon, trout and small kokanee. The trout and salmon were all in
the 17 inch class and all the fish were caught around 40 feet deep. We
used pink hoochies, apexes and spinners to catch fish. We tried all
kinds of lures but if it wasn't pink they would not hit it.
The day of the event we started at Angels
Creek arm of the lake but the fish did not want to cooperate as in the
first hour we only had one kokanee in the box.
We decided to make a move to the 49er
Bridge where it was wall to wall boats where everyone was catching fish.
We quickly boxed a couple and moved further up river for another koke
there. Not satisfied on the size we moved back to Angels Creek Arm and I
put a small orange hoochie down to 60 feet and was rewarded with an
immediate hookup. Its one of the big gals that live here I told Gary as
I free lined the fish letting it run freely. Gary put the boat in
neutral and when the fish came yup near the top it made a mad dash
sideways dislodging the hook.
Dam that one hurt I said to Captain Gary.
On the next pass I put a nice fish in the boat and then Gary hooked up
with one that we needed and it came unbuttoned also. Oh well were on
them and they are chomping I told Captain Gary.
We started our next pass and this jet
skier came out of nowhere and started doing donuts right over the top of
the school of fish
we were targeting. We made a couple more passes with no luck as it
seemed the skidoo had done his job and drove the fish off to god knows
where.
At the weigh in we sucked big time and
were down past the middle of the pack where it was a 3 way tie for blind
boggie! That's where the highest weight and the lowest weight are taken
and divided and if your in the middle you win cash.
That evening Captain Gary and I decided
that our best hope to make a buck would be to head upriver and try for a
large brown trout.
 At
5 a.m. we were on the water and cruised upriver almost all the way to
Camp 9 that is a dozen miles from the Glory Hole boat ramp. We arrived a
little after start time of 5:30 a.m. and put them in. Ex-Cel lures blue
and silver for me naturally and Captain Gary used a pink apex. We didn't
travel a 100 feet until I had a nice kokanee in the box. Captain Gary
was next with a nice koke and then trout. Things were looking up 2 nice
Koke's by 6 a.m.
The bite suddenly died for an hour and
then they picked up again with Koke's and trout being placed in the box
and then we started shaking fish off the hooks. Small browns and
rainbows were plentiful and then the one we were after hit the pink
apex. Captain Gary was busy keeping the boat under control as I fought
the nice brown. This one will work for
big fish I said as
I worked the fish to the top of the water and saw it. Captain Gary and I
had dollar signs in our eyes as the fish got almost in netting range
when it suddenly shook his head and the lure came flying back at us.
Dam it seems we couldn't catch a break! We lost two nice Koke's
yesterday and now a real nice brown trout. We finished our 10 fish limit
and called it an early day.
We were one of the first to weigh in at
12:30 and were surprised that we had 62.5 ounces of Koke's. Boy if we
hadn't fell on our butts the first day we would of been in the money.
That afternoon after another great lunch
put on by Kokanee Power they had a raffle. Gary and I never won a single
raffle prize either day.
The raffle was broken up with the awards
presentation and Gary and I were surprised when they said we placed
18th.
Every entrant received a ticket for a
special drawing for a 42 inch Plasma Panasonic TV. During the raffle I
had an extra $10 bill to spend so I bought an extra ticket for the TV
drawing. Boy was I surprised and excited when they called my name as
the winner.
Guide Captain Gary Vella can be reached
at 521-0164 or 652-7550 or
bones2606@att.net. For more
information about Kokanee Power email
info@kokaneepower.org
or call Al Millan
415-279-7875 or Mario Lopez
209-505-3882. |
