100% TOC, Great Show!

[Fishin' Dave]

It was great to see everyone from all over the state at my home lake of New Melones. It was tough for most, but like I told the guys, what can you expect for somewhere you have never spent any time?? The lake can be tough, but as seen today there are some monsters!! We had a 25lb sack come in

Randy Pringle put on a good show and all the WRL guys looked like they had a blast!! Lots of prizes were given out.

For the teams, the Basscat that was given away was SWEET!! Red, white, and blue!

I won't spoil the results, you'll have to wait for Bob. Thanks to everyone for coming up to Angels Camp!!

[Dan Sexton]

Dave,

How long does it take to get the results?

Can you at least tell us how many boats and what weight it took to win without spoiling the thunder? I'm sure Bob won't be too upset with you.

Dan

[Mr Gambler]

sitting here waiting to go to Millerton to meet your uncle I have a bag of caspers for you also unless your uncle uses all of them today Talk to you later.......Mke

[Terry Smith]

I wonder if the FROG bite was on for G-man?

[drrakruz]

There was NO frog bite for G. As a matter of fact, there was NO BITE AT ALL FOR EITHER OF US!!! I'm not sure, but I think NM SUCKS HARD!!!
What do you think G

[JamesH]

We caught a 4 and 6lbr on spooks in practice but couldn't get a topwater fish over 10" during the tournament.

James

[g-man]

the lake killed me! Humble pie served!

[Fishin' Dave]

...alright, over 30lbs won the tournament. Guys who were in first with 17lbs the first day didn't hold on.

[i am ez]

the lake killed me! Humble pie served!

I second that,, we caught 3 small keepers on day 1 then threw back 3 on day 2 and didn't even weigh in.. that place is BRUTAL !! hats off to those that figgured it out--EZ

[Phil Burgess]

the motherload guys are always tought they are like hawks on those lakes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

swooosh its over !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! all i heard is they ran into a good a couple good fish throwing huddelstons

cha powwwwwwwww somthing like 26lbs for the final day!!!!!!!

[nipples]

Fishfan and I finished up in 15th for WRL and it was brutal getting there...

We had horrible practice days on Thursday and Friday and only got one in the boat that was over 13 the entire time. I hooked what looked like a 4lb spot on topwater but lost it at the boat.

We had some numbers figured out by Saturday ( drop shotting) and went through 50 to 100 dinks per day to end up with three keepers (rats) and a 2.22 kicker for day one (4 total) and three 13 inch rats on day two. It's pretty sad when a 2lber is considered a kicker.

The only pattern we were able to figure out was that there wasn't a pattern at all. We caught them at 20 feet for a half hour and then all the fish moved out to 50 for an hour and then up to 34 feet for 40 minutes and so on. It was a tourney where everything came down to being able to find them on the electronics and go for the attack. Once the bite stopped, get on the stick and find the fish and hit them again.

The guys that won lucked out with a swimbait bite on the Shasta Hud ROF-12. I would say they went for a hail mary and reaped the rewards of swinging for the fence... So props to them for risking the goose egg and going for the gusto.

It was absolutly hysterical to watch other guys net 6 inch fish and then measure them on a wil-e-go board. (they should have just hit themselves in the forehead with it... that would make just as much sense). We saw guys hook 11inch bass and call it a TOAD... Occasionally you heard, "OH MY GOD!!! GET THE NET, THIS FEELS LIKE A KEEPER!!!!" lol... And those guys were completly serious about it. Spend 2 days catching bass when 4 to 8 inches is the norm and it is a gift from heaven to have a 13 incher bite and you might do the same.

All said and done, I will not be going back to Melones... I have earned the right to say that I do not like that lake. It's a dirty lake and has far too much dead wood scattered on the banks (there is such a thing as too much wood). I lost about 50 drop shot rigs per day either snagging it or having fish wrap the line in it. Anyone who likes Melones.. more power to ya, it's all yours.. have at it. You can have all those 11 inch toads to yourself... LOL


Good Fishing,


-Paul-

[Fishin' Dave]

What ever. I'm glad you judge a lake in October. Lets say the Delta sucks right now because the bite is tough too

Get real guys. Come back in Feburary when a 3lb average might not get you a check ...and spend some freaking time learning a lake before you condem it.

[g-man]

What ever. I'm glad you judge a lake in October. Lets say the Delta sucks right now because the bite is tough too

Get real guys. Come back in Feburary when a 3lb average might not get you a check ...and spend some freaking time learning a lake before you condem it.

It was tough!! Every fish that was 10 inches or better got messured it was pretty sad! 6 keepers in 2 days WOW! That lake whooped my butt! I had 24 straight tourneys with a limit get snapped, I was bumbed but took it like a man! We decided to go home instead of stay around cause we were there for three days and I just wanted to go home after the brutal fishing! Funny thing is I heard we won some raffle, and cause we were not there they gave them to someone else! lmao!!!!! This was my second trip up there, and I spent two days pre-fishing and it was the same results for me! Oh well next year, next year! LMAO!!!!!!!!!

[Fishin' Dave]

I feel for those who busted their butt pre-fishing and fishing the tournament and caught squat. All I ask is you don't condem the lake over one tournament at a bad time of year. I was the weigh master for 100% this year. I personally touched EVERY fish that came to the scales. I saw a great fishery and lots of solid fish.

Unfortunatelty for you guys, it was a bad weekend.

For the guys that saayed in Calaveras (Angels Camp) I hope you felt welcome with the great service and hospitality from Glory Hole Sports. They are a class act.

[basstrophy]

New Melonies lake was extremely difficult to find a consitant pattern. Fish were caught drop shotting,spooning,jigs,texas rigged worms and the winners caught their fish on the big fish baits...... huds of course. Most weights were very small and many teams didn't weigh in limits. I saw the winners working their baits in several key areas of the lake on Sunday. They were fishing deep very deep when the mother lode lakes become tough fishing, this can mean the fish are suspened and going though a change in either water conditions or weather being both at this time of the year for Melonies. The key knowing when the lake is changing is when the trout trollers are catching big bass. ( lake turning over )

My fishing partner and I saw the winners working key spots and fishing their baits like no one else was.... I give those two professional fisherman my hats off for finding the key pattern. They had 9 lbs the first day and 25 lbs the second day edging out the first day leaders by 8 lbs after two days.

I did learn many things when fishing in these conditions and the most important is "never give up" just figure them out. My partner and I didn't do very well but what is important was we had a blast! When fishing becomes tough and the fish are not on the bottom all you have to do is fish for suspened fish.... which are the hardest to catch because most people don't fish for them.... or just don't know how....... this said go to melonies, millerton, don pedro mc clure and don't fish the bottom or the shore fish on key spots in the old river channel and find the bait birds that are working the bait and fish by them. Get your boat a hundred yards off shore and work your baits deep Seem crazy? well that's how the winners caught their fish. I seen it with my own eyes.

[g-man]

Dave, I saw that banner with your face on it...cracked me up dude!!!! Nice seeing you down there brother, its been since the teen event see you soon bud!

[basstrophy]

Dave,

How long does it take to get the results?

Can you at least tell us how many boats and what weight it took to win without spoiling the thunder? I'm sure Bob won't be too upset with you.

Dan

Dan the man! 153 boats

<*(((((((><

[nipples]

What ever. I'm glad you judge a lake in October. Lets say the Delta sucks right now because the bite is tough too
Get real guys. Come back in Feburary when a 3lb average might not get you a check ...and spend some freaking time learning a lake before you condem it.

Now don't get all butt hurt because I don't like your lake Dave... It's not a personal attack against you in any way. And thank you for helping out by the way, you and all the staff did an awesome job. And yes, Glory Hole Sports are definately a class act ( I spent over 200.00 there and feel great about giving them my hard earned money, awesome place!!!)

I know Melones has better days, but most other lakes have better days too. I think the biggest turn off about the lake was how dirty it was. I fished Oroville back in the extremely low levels of the late 80's and it it a clean lake. I've seen Shasta extremely low as well and it is a clean lake... Melones was downright filthy, there was a layer of dirt covering the rocks all up and down the banks. Everytime I banged the wood with a lure, a mud clowd errupted. I tried dragging a jig in shallow water and made a mud line down the bank. I can see why guys are big on topwater in a lake like that. So no offense personally, I don't like the lake. And I think I earned the right to say that after fishing it for 5 full days (non consecutive).

Now if you like the lake, then it should good news for you that there are others that plan on staying away. Less pressure you anyone who plans on fishing it in the future. I don't like Mead and Havasu either.. but for different reasons. I feel it is ok for me to express a personal opinion in this great country of ours.

I will say this tho... Fishing that lake did sharpen my skills.. Sloppy fishing was not going to catch anything under those brutally tough conditions. You had to really focus on one of the lighest mush bites I have ever experienced. You had to stay connected with the lure, those that didn't, didn't even catch the dinks and the bigger fish were hitting like little bluegill. I honestly think my next fishing trip is going to be all the better because of the conditioning that Melones just gave me. But I'm still not going back.. LOL

[Brian Linehan]

Can you say...CLEAR LAKE!!

[Fishin' Dave]

No, I am not hurt you don't like my lake. I do not like it when guys go somewhere once at a bad time of year and label it as poor. Late summer/early fall can be brutal on any lake. I've taken home checks at Shasta for 2 fish this time of year.

As far as the "dirty" part goes, WTF is that? You must have fished the mud in Angels Creek. Look, the lake stayed at the same level for the past 4 years. We are just now getting this "new" bank which can be muddy.

No, it is not okay for you to express your opinion in this country. Actually it is not okay to express your opinion and expect not to hear the other side of the story.

So in closing, you can have your opinion just don't make it so exhagerated that it skewes virgins to the lake from coming

PS, your name is suspect

[Johnny C]

some bass guys are cry babbies. The lake was at its worst. Me and Joe weighed two fish Saturday. I caught a four on Sunday and we weighed something just under nine pounds from our home lake that is full of bass. What gets me is all you guys that know so much about fishing have not made mention of the reasons why it was tough!!!

Fish were caught from the top to eighty feet. I could watch bait running from the surface to 130 feet..Hmmm the lake is turning..The quality fish are in open water and well fed and not biting..Come in January when you can't get a bite in the Delta and 15 a day at Melones won't get you a check. Or check the NorCal TOC results from November last year. Yes the lake sucked this weekend but Aaron and Greg proved the fish are there fishing the same points that you and I just left. Just as Alex and Tom did on Saturday. Just tip your hat to them and try to improve your fishing skills.

On a positive note Carol Martens ( yes Aarons Martens' mom ) fished the lake today. The lake was brutal. She read the problems with the lake in two hours and couldn't say enough on how much she loved the lake. If you just want easy fishing just fish Clear Lake all summer and quit tournaments. No one was more disappointed with the bite than the local guys..Ask Bub Tosh or Kyle Rasmussen who love Melones. Also today all the top trout
guides took out the outdoor writers and not one trout was caught!!! Why? The same reason as the bass are not biting..Is Melones not a good trout lake too?? Give me a break. The negative guys on this site are killing it...Please go away..Sorry for my attitude tonight..Johnny C

[mac (Doyle McEwen)]

Johnny, I didn't get to talk to much at the RALLY, but I have been an admirer from afar as the saying goes, for a number of years..I think this tourney showed just how tough a lake could be..It always has amazed me how people think that if everyone brings in a 40 pound sack that makes the place an excellent fishery..It might make it an excellent tournament fishery, but if you really stopped and thought about it, you just might see if everyone did the same, it might as well be a planted lake..Hey guys, sometimes fishing is tough, even on the best of fisheries..Stuff happens, and when it does the person/team that adapts will almost always come out on top..

mac

[tunaman]

(Just for those of you who don't get over there...)

We were shocked that there weren't more local teams up there... sure was glad Gary and Mark made it so we had at least one familiar face! We missed Brian and CJ - sorry you weren't able to represent your Regions, but it's understood. Also sorry Kyle wasn't able to receive his accolades for multi-regional AOY - as Bob said, that was a heck of an accomplishment.

Bob and staff did a great job of running the event, and Glory Hole Sports was an excellent host - Dan and Melanie (hope I got that right?) are transplants from Menifee many years ago and are just real down-to-earth folks. They have a great business there, with a very well-stocked fishing department. Very nice of them to open real early and provide free coffee!

We didn't have a chance to pre-fish, so we were completely blind on New Melones. I had a map and some research to start on, but the lake level is probably 60' low and a front moved through on Friday, leaving us with post-frontal bluebird skies for the tournament. The lake doesn't look like the lakes down here... it's a large lake, with lots of rock and timber. It very much reminds me of Oroville, which I fished once a couple of years ago.

Fishing was tough, although there were plenty of dinks and shorts to catch. I had a couple of keepers come unbuttoned on the dropshot the first day, and my partner caught a nice 2 1/2 pounder along with a regulation keeper, and that was it for day one. Day two started off promising, as I got slammed on my first cast with the spook, but it turned out to be a 4# trout. I caught a total of three keepers, but the last was so close to the line we decided to release it rather than risk weighing a short.

We threw topwater (a lot!), buzzbaits, swimbaits, jigs, ice jigs, texas rigs, blades, tubes, jerkbaits, darn near the kitchen sink, but just couldn't get anything solid going (for the right size anyway). I identified three patterns - holes and gaps in bigger rocks up tight, ice jigs under and through the pockets of shad in the backs of the cuts, and suspended in the larger trees in 15' - 45'. All in all, it was brutal as evidenced by the weights and numbers the majority were posting.

It was fun participating in the event, and we're glad we opted to go. My hat's off to the teams that performed well, especially the second and first place teams... the second-place team weighed in 17.73# on day one, when most were struggling to weigh in a small limit and there were many two-fish two-pound totals. Then the eventual winners swung for the fences on the second day and reaped the rewards, as they pulled out a ~25# bag to earn the boat... awesome performance.

All in all, I like New Melones regardless that it fished very tough... there are many stories, and pictures at Glory Hole Sports, to back up the fact that it is a very good fishery with some real hogs to be caught... I'd love to fish it when it is "on".

Hopefully we'll have better representation next year... I'm looking forward to trying to qualify and do it again, as 100% Bass is a superb tournament organization and Brian and CJ are excellent directors for our two Southern California regions.

Roger

[StogieMan]

Yeah it was tough but that was the point right I always thought the challange for the tournament org was to find a venue that would be as neutral as possible, that way more people would have a shot. Seems logical to me. We fished the WRL side.
Like many others I did not get a chance to pre-fish, in fact you will recall my previous post, "to go or not to go" to the TOC. What I did not mention in that post was I would be on a 2 week road trip prior to the event, I landed in Oakland from Chicago at 3.00 am on Friday the 5th. My wife had my gear packed (bless her) and my partner and I hit the lake that day around 8.00 am. We had a tough bite that day for sure and I felt pretty good considering.

Saturday was a different deal all together, I woke up with a headache and generaly felt crappy all over. We fished our hearts out and got a small limit, mostly due to my partners effort's, what a stud! Anyway seeing as how I felt so shity we passed on the dinner and went back to our room, we stayed in Sonora. The next day as we were tied up to a slip in the marina waiting for safe light and I asked a fellow 2 slips over if they went to the dinner, yes he said, and I asked who was leading, he tells me some guy with 17 pounds, OUCH, I say we weighed just under 9. That's not bad he tells me since second over all has around 10 and I start to think maybe we are near the top in our division, turns out we are leading, imagine that

Well it goes downhill from here, we blast to our first spot, it held big fish in practice and was up past the second bridge if that makes sense. We get a couple of taps but no takers, no problem, our limit water is next and so we blast off for that spot. At about the first bridge my partner slows the boat down, not sure why since this is no where near our area, I look at him and he has a panic look on his face, we had blown the outboard. Talk about bad luck So we fished our way back toward the ramp, took all day on the trolling motor, never really got to fish where we wanted and we did not have the ability to run points, obviously. We weighed 3 small fish, finished in 7th and can only dream about what might have been. I enjoyed the lake and the challange it gave us, the Glory Hole was freindly and the 100% gang were on their game as ususal. Well there's always next year!

[Johnny C]

Sorry to hear about the boat StogieMan. mine grenaded at the Parrots Ferry bridge in May..It is a sick feeling.

[StogieMan]

Until you hear the sound for yourself it's hard to describe.
The good news is I just got off the phone with my partner and she is scheduled for a tear down tomorrow. I have a feeling we won't go through the old "are we going to use my boat or your boat" dance anymore. WoHoo, my boat from now on baby

[Vince Borges]

Hey Roger, There is more than one way to represent and i think you and your partner did a great job of showing what a truely great personality and class act fisherman you are. After 4 days of terrible fishing for us i didnt have a very big smile on my face but every time i saw you guys your were laughing and having a good time. To me thats what makes this sport so good. And to Dave dont take the critics so hard. Hell, all the way home i was saying the same thing, ( I'll never put my boat on that lake again) LOL. I, like Johney, went for broke on the second day and threw nothing but swimbaits and top water. The funny thing is I started with the $100.00 swimbaits. and worked my way down to the .25*, 6" paddletail on a 1/2 oz jig head to finaly get a 4+ pound fish and missed a couple more. You never know. And to Tom S & Alex My heart broke for you guys, But we all know that on the motherload lakes ( espeacely with the envention of swimbaits) you can never fish conservativly or count other people out. Oh Yeah and Roger I hope to get a call when those tuna are running And i almost forgot to Korney, Always a class act org, they did an outstanding job as always.

Tight lines!
Vince Borges

[tunaman]

Vince,

Sorry - I wanted to also make mention of the new friends we made but was pressed for time this morning. It was certainly great getting to hang with you guys, and you certainly made us feel welcome. We really appreciated it! It's great being able to associate with classy nutcases such as yourselves, and hope some day perhaps we can return the favor!

I look forward to the next opportunity I have to come up and visit.

Roger

[Dan Sexton]

Thanks for the response. Guess I'll do my weekend fishing somewhere other than Melones. Good job and nice finish Aaron Cole and Partner (don't know his name do to result spoiling rule).