New Melones 12/28/12

Took the boat back to Melones in search of these beautiful hold overs I keep hearing about, but have yet to see myself. Brought my dad out and met our friend Harry(Some of you may know him as H-man from other boards). Harry, forgive me for not remembering the name, recently has come down with a serious condition and was at a point where he could no longer walk for a few months. The condition I have been told is not cureable, but somewhat treatable. He has reached a point though where he can get on his feet and can move around a bit, so its great to be able to see him back on the water again. I got him on the boat with

me and the plan was for my dad to follow us on the pontoon. At the ramp though he found out he had the wrong pump so he stayed at the ramp shore bound while Harry and I took off around the lake. I probably could fit 3 people in the boat, but it would be super cramped and uncomfortable.

Harry and I started off trolling towards coyote creek. I was planning on trying to hit the area's Garrett and I found fish last time I was here. Near the mouth I marked a lot of fish and Harry popped one trolling a powerworm. We cut the trolling motor and tried drifting over them. Harry nailed one more drifting a powerworm and another on a black wooly bugger. Not a hot and heavy bite, but definatly worth making a drift for. Tried one more drift for nothing so back to the troll. After 15 more minutes of trolling we didn't get a hit and I saw nothing on the FF, so we made a quick run back into the arm where I found fish previously and found 2 other boats fighting fish and sure enough Harry hooked another one about a minute or so into the troll.

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.

After that like always Harry puts on a show nailing fish after fish like he always does.

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.

We were both trolling the same exact bait. Same color and everything. The only difference Harry told me he had was a slightly bigger split shot and his hook was a size 14 fly hook. He said he liked them because they came out of the fish easier, they are perfectly straight so there are no imperfections in the worm, and they don't weigh the worm down as much so they sink slower.

And it was defiantly working for him.

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.

Before I knew it he had 8 fish and counting to my fat skunk.

Not after too long We reached the back of the arm where the creek comes in. We had a few chasers on flies and jigs here, but we couldn't get anything to really commit. We got real close to the creek though and Harry tells me he saw a school of bigger fish passing us. He was in the water and couldn't reel up in time. I was able to get my jig right in front of em though and finally slammed my first fish of the day.

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.

I have to say defiantly worth the wait.

3 or 4 cast later I slammed another beautiful New Melones hold over Rainbow.

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 720x960.

Definatly my PB out of Melones.

We worked the area hard and managed to get a few more smaller fish and farm a couple as well.

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.

The fish learned pretty quick though to avoid the boat and that what we were offering them wasn't what they wanted.

Trolled back out after a good hour or more of working the creek and Harry went right back to slamming the planter on the powerworm. I did manage to finally stick one on my powerworm and missed a few hits. Around 1430 we decided to call it a day from there. Plenty of more fish to be caught, but they planters weren't nearly as exciting as the bigger hold over fish.

Great day on the water today. Was great to see Harry back on the water again. I used to watch this man walk miles up and down the shores of Amador and the American river. He was even a float tubing fool! I really hope he will get back to that state again, but unfortunatly its pretty doubtful. I was very happy to see him having a blast out on the water today and very glad he can still enjoy the outdoors.

Till Next Time Guys
Mark