New Melones Anglers Report

5/7/2019

by Gene Hildebrand, Glory Hole Sports

New Melones Reservoir's current lake level is 1046.40 and 41.60 ft. from full, down from the high level of 1057.05 on March 9. Water levels have begun to reverse the downward trend and have been slowly rising the last week from snow melt that should top off the lake at a comfortable elevation of 1058.00 before water releases exceed incoming water.  Water temperatures are 69-71d. and clear.  The Tuttletown upper ramp is operational as well as the Glory Hole Point side of the lake which has the high ramp working. Angels Cove ramp is also in use.

TROUT 

Ron Linn of Sonora landed a limit of Rainbow Trout off the bank up river off the bank using worms, his largest bow was 3 lb. 11oz.

KOKANEE

Right after our last fish report Kokanee on New Melones kicked off with several limits coming in to Glory Hole Sports. Gary Burns of Take it to the Limit guide service has been anticipating this years bite for some time now, and it is now upon us with some nice and fat Koks in the 1.5-2 lb. range and up to 16" in length. Gary says these are really nice Koks so far this year and expects them to get even better. Jay Winchester of Lockeford was off the water and cleaning fish by 10:30, landing a limit of Kokanee up to 1.4 lbs. Jay was trolling a Apex lure down 40 ft. and was using a green dodger.  Best bite time was 9:00am

BASS

Bass bite remains good using finesse presentations, rip baits chatterbaits, and spinnerbaits. This time of year the spinnerbait has to be in your arsenal as it’s an awesome spectacle to see a bass hit a spinner skipping across the water. The spinner is emulating baitfish in the water weather wounded or otherwise the bass will be on it.

CATFISH

Catfish are getting very active on the lake using cut baits.

Glenn "BIG CAT DADDY" Mitchell and Edward Winters were fishing Melones 5/6 and brought home a chest full of Catfish weighing up to 8.9 lbs.

When your nickname has Big Cat in it, don't expect to get an exact location on where they caught the fish but I was informed it was "here and there" if that helps.

CRAPPIE

There has been lots of reports that the Crappie bite on Melones is hot, with nice bag limits using minnows mostly, and crappie jigs

NEW MELONES GUIDE REPORT

Take it to the Limit is back on the water this year with one of the finest starts of Kokanee fishing I can remember.
We put our first limits in the boat April 22 and  it hasn't stopped.
The koks are really fat and healthy and we are putting koks in the boat up to 16"with most going 13" to 15", not too bad!
This last week we put Limits in the boat and we went out on 5 trips.
The hardest part of it all is finding the right depth. When the water was flowing out of the dam we were putting koks in the boat down to 52', now they have slowed down the flow and the lake is coming up again with the cold water from the snow melt and last week we were putting koks in the boat from 30' down to 46' with the surface temperature at 70.
Hoochies  and Assassin spinners pink and green and watermelon A Pex did the trick this week.
The bite really gets hot for a while then slows down to well it's time to eat lunch and the put your sandwich down because there back. Put your time on the water to get you limits!
See Ya On The Water

Take it to the Limit Guide Service
Gary Burns
209-559-3349