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New Melones Lake and Reports

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Thursday, January 11th, 2024

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    Report: by StanL » Thu Jan 11, 2024 1:25 am

    I had a chance to get out with my good buddy and Jackson Rancheria teammate Earl Dalton lll.

    It was on a very cold day at New Melones. The fishing was challenging at first but then we started to figure things out. Once we knew the fish were on steep rocky bluff banks, it was on!

    We caught most of our fish in about 35 feet. We were throwing both an ED’s Lead 1/4 oz Ned rig with a Big T.R.D. and a dropshot with a = 4” Keeper 1001b worm.

    We have a saying. That is - ‘it’s only hard until you figure it out and then it’s easy’ and I have to say Earl got my dollar on this day but I’ll be back!

    I love getting out and fishing with my buddies in the wintertime it is by far my favorite time of year! Don’t be afraid to put on some warm clothes and endure the cold it can be very rewarding.
    I hope this helps.
    Good luck fishing.
    Stan lafever

Monday, March 27th, 2023

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    Water Temp: 49-52

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Mainly fished carson creek and soldier gulch. Got 5 for just under 10 lbs. Dragging jigs and ned baits 20-25 ft. Largest fish 3.7 lbs was taken on weightless senko. Talked to a couple guys at the end of the day that said they had success with A-rigs, crankbaits and float & fly.

Sunday, March 26th, 2023

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    Water Temp: 50

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Cold and wind

    Tips: Jigs

Saturday, August 6th, 2022

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    Report: by Jwbassin505 » Sat Aug 06, 2022 6:48 am

    Went to Tuttle Town yesterday the camp grounds are closed ramps are out of the water but why are they locking the gates at the top ramp it is closing the area to bank fisherman we should still have access to the lake

Thursday, June 9th, 2022

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    Water Temp: 74

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: My friend and I only threw Choppos and boated 65. Fished upriver all the way back to tuttletown ramp and last fish caught at 1300.

    Tips: If you enjoy topwater it’s showing up and hopefully will stay strong.

Thursday, January 27th, 2022

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    Report: Glory Hole Sports

    New Melones Brown Trout lake record tied.
    The photo of this Brown Trout just reinforces the fact that New Melones Reservoir remains one of the best fisheries for a multitude of species in the western United States....13.4 lbs, and 32.5". The stars lined up for angler Bobby Aperoch of Yuba City. He had a fight, nearly more than his 6 lb. line and fishing from a kayak could handle. Unfortunately this brown did not survive to be released. Bobby was fishing near the Glory Hole boat launch at 2:30 and was fishing Crappie with a Notorious Jig. He reported his bait was at 50 ft when the brown took his bait. Landing this fish ties the lake record of 13.4 lbs which was caught by Michael Olivera, December 2011.

Friday, May 7th, 2021

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    Report: This week I was able to head over to New Melones with my buddy Earl Dalton for a day of fun fishing, and I have to say we had a blast!

    When we put the boat in the water, the surface temperature was 65.

    We started off with a variety of topwater baits. I settled in on a Rico popper and Earl went with a walking bait. I am not sure what brand he had on.

    For the first couple hours we played the shade, what I mean by that is we fished-any bank that had a shade line and it and it was on!

    When the sun got higher, we noticed the water was pretty clear. After that we started fishing the back of coves. We caught quite a few with a big TRD green pumpkin Ned rig and a brown 3/8 oz Bass Union jig with a Yamamoto Twin Tail trailer. We stopped by Hook'd tackle store in Ione for more big TRD’s and I’m glad we did. With that being said please support your local tackle stores.
    I hope this helps.
    Good luck fishing!
    stanL

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2021

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    Report: 3 Days of Fishing Melones
    Postby StanL » Wed Feb 03, 2021 3:55 am

    I fished 3 days at New Melones. I started off fishing Monday with Earl Dalton and Casey Cabral. On the way up to the lake, there was about 6” of snow on the ground. The surface temp dropped to 50°with about 10’ of visibility.

    We started with jigs and dropshoting in 30 to 50 feet and the bite was slow. Until we started moving deeper and found the fish in 50’ to 60’ on rock and caught around 20 fish.

    The next trip was on Saturday, I fished with George West. The sun was out and the air temperature got to the high 60s. surface temperature was 63". We both fished 3/4 oz jig’s in 30 ‘to 40 and that seemed to be the best depth for that day.

    On Sunday I fished with my buddy John House and 30” to 40”seemed to be good findings. The rock seemed to be the key, but we also caught a few on a Frenzy Nail with a Zoom Trick Worm throwing up on some windy banks in less than 20 feet of water. Each trip we caught over 20 fish per day not bad for January. most of my fish came on a bass union 3/4 oz brown jig and Yamamoto Twin Tail trailer .I hope this helps.

    Good luck fishing!
    StanL

Wednesday, January 13th, 2021

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    Water Temp: 53

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Started the day running lake points . First stop me and my buddy fishing 35 ‘ of water he sets the hook on 3 lb largemouth using a Carolina rig . Couple minutes later I hook up a nice spot 2 3/4 lb on a drop shot . Needless to say we duplicated this around lake with great results .

    Tips: Slow down dead stick you’re bait . Also if you can’t see fish on you’r electronics move on .

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    Water Temp: 48

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Went to my new Melones and fished for 8 hours. Got on the water by 9 and roads were very icy coming in. Not sure why they were icy but I saw two accidents. Tried a lot of patterns and they all didn’t work, jigs deep, jigs shallow, swimbaits, drop shot, Ned, none produced bites.

    Fished a float and fly and let my bait soak for 10 minutes per cast to get bites. Only had a handful of keepers, none of them were big.

    I went on Wednesday the 13th and there were probably 70 boats on the water, mostly bass boats. Couldn’t fish half of my spots and people were less than courteous when I was fishing and rolling up very close to me.

    Not worth it. Berryessa is fishing too good right now to drive that icy road in.

    Tips: Don’t go.

Thursday, December 31st, 2020

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    Report: by StanL » Thu Dec 31, 2020 4:51 am

    Last week my buddy Ed Austin and I made trip over to New Melones to get out of the fog.

    When we started fishing we noticed the water was pretty clear with about 10‘ of visibility and the surface temp was at 54*. It looked like the water had been falling so we hit the points first and started getting bit right away!

    Remember, when the water is falling, yhr points are always a good starting spot. There’s an old saying I heard from Rick Clunn..... “falling lakes point’s fish out“. Well it is true and The fish are on points big time. We found them scattered from 20’ to 65‘.

    Ed started with a dropshot with a 4” worm and I used a Bass Union 3/4 oz jig because that’s what I have been using at every reservoir for the past month Shasta, Camanche,and Hogan. It didn’t take long to start catching them, so take your favorite bait, get on some points and don’t be afraid to fish out to 70‘.

    We had such a good time that we decided to go back on Tuesday and had a another awesome day with over 30 fish, but while we where fishing Ed got a text from his son Jason that was fishing at Camanche. Jason was fishing with his son Cole and HOLY MOLY !! It was a picture of a 13.88. Jason had just caught it on a swimbait.

    Congratulations to Jason.Tthat is a fish of a life time for most people! This is my favorite time of year to fish!

    So put on some warm clothes and get out and enjoy some of the best fishing of the year!

    I hope this helps! Good luck fishing!
    stanL

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    Report: Last week my buddy Ed Austin and I made trip over to New Melones to get out of the fog.

    When we started fishing we noticed the water was pretty clear with about 10‘ of visibility and the surface temp was at 54*. It looked like the water had been falling so we hit the points first and started getting bit right away!

    Remember, when the water is falling, yhr points are always a good starting spot. There’s an old saying I heard from Rick Clunn..... “falling lakes point’s fish out“. Well it is true and The fish are on points big time. We found them scattered from 20’ to 65‘.

    Ed started with a dropshot with a 4” worm and I used a Bass Union 3/4 oz jig because that’s what I have been using at every reservoir for the past month Shasta, Camanche,and Hogan. It didn’t take long to start catching them, so take your favorite bait, get on some points and don’t be afraid to fish out to 70‘.

    We had such a good time that we decided to go back on Tuesday and had a another awesome day with over 30 fish, but while we where fishing Ed got a text from his son Jason that was fishing at Camanche. Jason was fishing with his son Cole and HOLY MOLY !! It was a picture of a 13.88. Jason had just caught it on a swimbait.

    Congratulations to Jason.Tthat is a fish of a life time for most people! This is my favorite time of year to fish!

    So put on some warm clothes and get out and enjoy some of the best fishing of the year!

    I hope this helps! Good luck fishing!
    stanL

Wednesday, November 25th, 2020

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    Report: by Whoopbass » Wed Nov 25, 2020 5:02 am

    I was there on Saturday. There were bait balls all over the lake in the 30-60' range but nothing was feeding on them. Partner and I fished mainly in 15-50' of water with neko rigs and drop shots for around 25 fish with no size to speak of.
    If you can't find active bait balls then the fishing stinks. There's trout feeding on the surface so have a rod ready with your favorite trout lure tied on.
    The water is clear with temps around 55 degrees.

Monday, August 3rd, 2020

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    Water Temp: 81 avg

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished Angel's arm from 6:30 pm - 11:30 pm. Bite was dead until dusk when I picked up a 1.5-2.0 lb fish on a jig. After dark, got 2 more on a jig.1-1.5 lbs. I got no bites on any other lure. Bite died about 2 hours after dark. Maybe Mondays are a bad day to go since a guide (drives ChampioN) said there was maybe 500 boats on the lake the day before (Sunday). Or, maybe the fishing is just lousy or maybe I'm not fishing in the right places.

    Tips: Maybe dont fish Angel's arm;)

Monday, July 20th, 2020

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    Water Temp: 80-84

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: We got on the water right at dawn and fished until about 1 PM. Went with topwater right away and got a few dinks on a popper. The zara spook and whopper popper did not produce. Then we ran crank baits some and got nothing. Drop shots with oxblood roboworms produced small ones. We finally got into a few keepers to 2 points with jigs worked slowly around wood. Overall a very slow day.

Saturday, May 9th, 2020

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    Report: Fished from sun up til after sundown on the day of the opener. Hit Angels first thing and caught 3 decent fish from 2.5-3.75 lbs. I believe we caught all of those on a neko rigged senko. From there headed to the back of Mormon creek. Decent bite there. Caught a few more in the 3 lb class plus a bunch of others from 1/ 2lb to 2 1/2 lbs. We used cranks, blades, senkos, drop shot, etc.
    Sun was up so we fished an island a little south and caught a half dozen dinks. Headed up river past Parrots Ferry Bridge and caught dink after dink. We fished all the way up river to the log jamb and managed a bunch more dinks and a few in the 2 lbs class and a few more that were larger with the biggest weighing a little over 3lbs.
    Got bored and headed into Coyote. Nothing but dinks. It was getting later so we headed back to Angels and caught a few more dinks. There was about an hour more of light so we headed for the Tuttletown ramp. We were going to leave but decided to fish a couple islands around there. The bite picked up considerably. We boated around another 30 fish around those two islands. These fish were healthier up to a little over 2lbs.
    Caught em on the neko rig and after it got dark a white willow leaf spinnerbait was working the best.
    Since the moon is full it made the fishing tough during the day but good in the morning and evening.
    During the day I think we only got bit a couple times deeper then 5 feet. There was nothing biting deeper then that. Shallow fish were biting but they were 10 inchers.
    With this full moon my advice is to show up later in the day and stay til midnight.

Wednesday, March 4th, 2020

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    Water Temp: 58-60

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished from 4:30 - 9 pm. Started out throwing chatterbait, senko, worm, crawfish, and small/medium sized Keitechs with no bites, then first cast with a jerk bait produced about a 1.5, then got 2 more on a crankbait. I stayed after dark a bit to sample the bite. It started out ok (2 fish on jig and worm, nothing on spinnerbait) then the bite shut down. 5 fish total, biggest was a 3.3.

Monday, March 2nd, 2020

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    Water Temp: 55

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: My friends and I at the Wild West (Video) https://youtu.be/rqQ2halzI5E

Thursday, January 2nd, 2020

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    Report: by Pat » Thu Jan 02, 2020 7:59 am

    I was there on the Dec 23rd. Fishing with a buddy and his son we caught all of our fish on Ned rigs in the top 15' . We fished Angels arm and between the bridges, did better between the bridges targeting points. They are starting to bunch up so if you catch one, hang around. Water temp was still mid 50s, I think it will get better as it cools.

Tuesday, December 31st, 2019

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    Report: by Chad Sweitzer » Tue Dec 31, 2019 10:44 am

    There is a swimbait bite, but it’s been slow. Spybaits have been getting solid limits for me, especially when the lake is busy.