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WRIGHT BITE AT NEW
MELONES
By: Ron Wilson
February 23, 2010....
New Melones Lake has been kicking out lots of spotted bass, trout
and a few black bass to anglers the last few weeks.
Last Thursday
Black Bass Fishing professional
Norval Pimentel and
I did a little pre-fishing for an upcoming black bass tournament. We had
been there a week earlier and caught bass down to 70 feet but Norval
never found any fish that would help him place in the money in a
tournament.
Thursday Norval headed up Angels Creek
arm and we were soon into the fish that would help him win an event with
fish in the 3 pound class and they were largemouth's to boot. Norval was
dropshotting a Wright Bait B601 6" straight tail type bait.
Wright Baits are a new bait made by Sandy
Wright, Judy Clarks sister who used to own Keeper Worms. Sandy has hand
poured worms for Judy almost since the start of the Keeper Worm Company
that Judy gave to her son Rob. Rob who borrowed money from some of his
pro staff and others then moved the shop making commuting for Sandy
impossible so she started her own company Wright Baits with the help of
her sister.
Wright Baits has all the old original
formulas for the
green weenie 082 that are now WB001 and other styles of hand
poured baits and is in the process of coming out with NEW COLORS OF
WRIGHT BAITS almost daily. Here is a sample of new numbers the old 1001b
is now WB101B, 1050 is now WB003. Check out the new baits as they are
now in 10 stories in the area. For more information about Wright Baits
call Sandy at
559-587-1330.
We worked the area in Angels creek arm
area and only caught black bass in a hundred yard area of the bank and
then left. We headed up by the marina to work a
big fish area of the lake for no love. Heck we never got a bite
there.
Norval headed up past the bridge and hit
and area with large rocks and wood and a medium steep bank and we were
soon into a big school of spotted bass that was a hundred yards long. We
boated fish after fish in the 40 foot depth they were staged, but we
could not catch anything that would help in a bass tournament. We used a
drop shot method to catch them, and a Carolina rig and they both worked
equally well as long as you could feel the mush style take the fish used
to suck in the bait.
Norval moved up to about the middle of
the two bridges to a rock wall for a few scattered fish but still not
what he was looking for.
Next move was up just in front of the
second bridge and we worked our way back down river catching lots of
spotted bass but the 1 to 1 1/2 pound fish were still not what Norval
was looking for.
I told Norval that if I was him I would
head to Angels Creek arm and work it over all day long looking for 5
good bites to try to catch the 15 pound bag he is going to need in the
tournament
on Saturday.
Norval had to spray his almonds trees
before the upcoming rain so we headed back toward the boat ramp a little
early. For Norval it was way early as the sun was a good 3 hours from
setting yet.
On the way Norval stopped at the large
school of spotted bass so we could whack several more before calling it
a day. Norval had tied up a couple setups to use on Saturday and he had
to see how they worked he said. Well that sounded good to me I just hate
leaving fish when they are biting and since he was not going to fish the
area in the tournament we pounded them until Norval forced himself to
call it an early day and put his Champion boat on the trailer.
At the boat ramp we ran into a
Department of Fish and
Game Warden checking out the anglers who were catching and
keeping fish. So far everyone he had checked was legal he said.
For some reason I chose not to take any
fish home for dinner that evening. The best part of catch and release is
you don't have to clean them, but then again you don't get to eat them
either.
If your going to take fish from New
Melones I suggest you take a limit of spotted bass as there are a lot of
them there to catch and by taking them you let the largemouth live so
they can spawn. The lake is getting over populated by spotted bass now
and they will soon crowd the largemouth out if left unchecked.
Spotted bass spawn early and there fingerlings will get big
enough to eat the largemouth fingerlings by the time they spawn.
Norval and his partner Harvey placed 9th
in the event. They were just one good bite away from getting a paycheck. |
