New Melones 2/11/06 – Tuttle Town Ramp
DRAW INDIVIDUAL TOURNAMENT
After a 2 week wait, the BassBusters headed to New Melones to fish the 2nd tournament of 2006. We had 10boats for 20 anglers show for the draw individual format. The lake was also hosting the Nor Cal Pro Am that day making the lake a bit more crowded for us. New Melones Lake was holding 1,978,500 acre-feet of water, and was at 82% capacity. The lake level held steady this week, and is at 1,050 ft. above sea level and only 38 ft. from full capacity. Surface water temperatures are approximately 53 degrees. Water is fairly clear to slightly muddy in the creek arms. The weather started off cool at 50 with partly cloudy skies and reached into the 70s throughout the day as the clouds burned off. Winds were minimal at blastoff and remained pretty calm for us this day. Needless to say it was a great day to go fishing (when isn’t it?).
First place went to Spiro Stamos (NB) who dartheaded a blue crawler Roboworm for 8.31 lbs limit. He found his success mainly on 1 spot of the lake with rocks. Last year’s AOY found the fishing to be fairly decent as he and his boater (Ron S) mainly stuck to their spot all day.Second place honors went to Calvin Walls (B). He used a Zoom pumpkin pepper Super Hog on a Carolina rig in 20-25 ft of water to weigh in an 8.14 lbs limit. He fished the area near the 2nd bridge and mentioned also trying the Angel arm without success. Our Third trophy went to Glen Hayashimoto (NB) who employed a new ripbait from River2Sea called a Jerk Shad in their Munky color. Glen’s tactic paid off with 8.04 lbs. He fished with Robert Nelson.Landing in fourth place was Michael Chen (NB) with 7.96 lbs. He found his success primarily with Aarons Magic with red and black flake on a darthead to fill his limit early in up the river arm past the 2nd bridge in 10-20 feet of water. Later in the day he switched to a ½ football jig with a cinnamon black flake hula grub and a ½ and ¾ oz brown/brown and brown/purple jigs trying to upgrade his weight in deeper water. He fished with Michael Clark.In fifth place with 7.66 lbs was Xavier “Sego/Boogie” Segoviano (B) who fished the main lake. He threw brown/brown jigs and dropshotted his fish.Taking sixth place was Rashaun Woods (B) who employed a variety of techniques for 7.17 lbs. He tried throwing a swimbait much of the day without success, but, was able to fill a limit using ripbaits and baby brush hogs at the 1st bridge up the river arm.John Neibel (B) landed in seventh place with a 7.16 lbs limit. He reported fishing in a location near where Ron and Spiro fished and employed a dartheaded oxblood worm that worked for him. Eighth place had Mikey V. (NB) bring 6.43 lbs to the scales. He used a ½ oz darterhead with shad colored plastics worked best for him this day. He fished with Rashaun upriver.Mike Clark (B) finished in ninth place with 6.38 lbs using a dartheaded 6” Aaron’s Magic with red/black flake. Mike found a nice spot up the river arm, during pre-fish, past the 2nd bridge where he found fished stacked in 10-25 feet.In tenth place Ryan Caldwell (B) took 6.29 lbs to weigh-in. He reported ripping Lucky Craft pointers in the ghost minnow color in the main body to catch his limit.Eleventh place found Robert Nelson (B) with 6.20 lbs. Rob told the club he fished a Lucky Craft ripbait in shad color and threw a football jig with 6” oxblood Magic Worm way upriver near the 3rd bridge out. Adam Kern (NB) weighed in 6.02 lbs for twelfth and was unhappy to report the fish stopped biting after 10:30am. Still he had fun fishing with Kyle and used brown/purple jigs and dropshotted oxblood worms in the south on main lake pointsKyle Mulhair (B) finished in thirteenth place with 4.96 lbs. He reported catching his fish on a variety of soft plastics (green weenie, purple, and prism shad) again in the south on points.In fourteenth place was Ron Shikashio (B) with 4.80 lbs and found a mixture of techniques working. He dropshotted, dartheaded, ripped, and jigged his fish.Taking fifteenth place was John Fernandez (NB) weighing in 2 fish for 3.97 lbs. Fortunately for him one of the fish was good for Big Fish honors at 2.76 lbs. He dropshotted and threw a jig during the day. He partnered up with Sego.Tyler Linscott (NB) also brought in 2 fish for 3.93 lbs good for sixteenth place. Like John F, one of his fish weighed in at the 2nd heaviest at 2.67 lbs and good for some cash. He caught his fish early and shallow on a spinnerbait then later found his 2nd in 50 feet of water on a dropshot. He fished on board with Ryan C.Seventeenth place was our perspective member John Wagner (NB) who weighed in 3.88 lbs. When asked how he did it, he replied “I sat in John’s (Neibel) boat”. Never a bad idea when you want to catch fish, in my opinion. He reported using Roboworms and salt/pepper grubs to catch fish at New Melones.In eighteenth place was Joe Alvarez (B) who bagged 3.34 lbs of fish throwing a dropshot setup.Hensen Wong (NB) took nineteenth place with 2.73 lbs. He reported using a darthead tipped with a red crawler Roboworm in 20-30 feet deep water out of Calvin’s backseat.Joe Heylen (NB) finished out the group in twentieth place with 1.43 lbs. He caught his fish on a blade early in the day. He remarked with a smile, “I need to learn how to catch fish again”, describing his day. He partnered with Joe Alvarez.The top 5 were within less than a pound of each other, unlike last month, and made for an anxious weigh in as most of the bags looked similar. Unusual for us, no really big fish (5 lbs+) showed up for our club members especially at a lake like New Melones. Anyhow, I for one found New Melones to be a great place to spend a day on the water. Our next meeting will be March 2nd at IHOP starting at 7:30pm. As a reminder, if you can’t make it and you plan to fish our next tournament, let someone know ahead of time whether you plan to fish. Since it will be a pick team event, make arrangements with another member to ensure you get to fish Pine Flat on March 11th and 12th. Our club has reserved rooms at the Pine Flat Resort so when making reservations remember to mention BassBusters or John Neibel’s name.Until next time, tight lines…"Early to bed, early to rise, fish all day, make up lies." - anonymous
