Lake Camanche
By Chris Cantwell
Lake Camanche Recreation
Great action on trout, with green and/or yellow Nitro Crave and Power Bait, continues near the dam and spillway. Anchor over 50 to 60 feet of water and get the bait down to at least 33 feet. Overnighters will have even greater success as the moon reaches full.
Trollers have been reporting moderate success from Bamert (Big Hat) Island to the dam. Depths range from 42 to 55 feet. The R-Lure, in white, purple scale and any of the yellows, are the best choices.
Cold water released from Pardee Lake has drawn some trout upriver, where both troll-ing and bait drifting can be ef-fective. Work just off the bot-tom from above the bridge to Arkansas Bend. Salmon eggs and nightcrawlers can be good baits, although Nitro Crave is the best.
Trout planting will resume once the surface temperatures of the lake and the pond drop to 70 degrees and stay there for a few days.
Danny Cunningham landed a 9.2-pound rainbow Friday near the dam using Powerbait.
The full moon will encourage the bass to eat all night long, and not in the early mornings. Work the middle of day with Camanche Jack’s leaches in purples and browns on rocky points and drop-offs from 15 to 25 feet deep.
As the sun sets, some fish will come shallow in the Lancha Plana area islands, where they are fools for small jigs and worms tossed into the shore and retrieved slowly. Be ready for the attack!
Now is the best time of year for catching whiskerfish after dark. Find colored water in North Shore’s day-use peninsula and toss mackerel or other smelly fish into 5 to 10 feet of water. Be patient in setting the hook when you get bit.
There are lots of panfish in shady shallows. Red worms are the better bait, but it is a lot of fun to cast and retrieve Roostertails around the brush and stick-ups.
The top 26 feet of the water at the dam is 77 degrees F. At 29 feet deep, the thermocline starts, but one has to get down to 46 feet to find 64-degree waters. Upriver at the CAMA buoy, the surface temp is still 81 degrees, but the 64-degree water is down just 30 feet.
New Melones Lake
By Melanie Lewis
Glory Hole Sports
Trout fishing is slow, which is normal this time of year. Bank anglers should fish the creeks, as the trout in the lake are too deep to catch from the bank. We have heard a few re-ports of bank anglers well up Camp Nine Road, but be sure to watch for, and obey, signs posting “barbless hooks and lures only.”
The partially submerged is-lands off Glory Hole Point are excellent places to try night fishing under a submersible light. They hold lots of shad this time of year. To try trolling, fish 60 to 80 feet deep in the main lake with shad-patterned lures such as a blue-and-silver Excel or Kastmaster, or a cop-car Needlefish. Look for schools of shad on a fish finder – they look like big black clouds floating in the lake – and fish near the schools.
Kokanee fishing is slow too. They are developing hooked jaws, beginning to turn pink and losing their scales. Some anglers are fishing for kokanee up river and in the major creek arms. Others are still having luck fishing deep in the main lake. Try rainbow trout-colored Hootchies, pink or silver Apex and pink Uncle Larry’s spin-ners. Danny Layne, of Fish ‘n Dan’s Guide Service, recom-mends adding corn soaked in shrimp-flavored Pro-Cure. Crawdads eat the kokanees’ eggs. Adding a little Bang crawdad scent to the Pro-Cure makes the kokanee very aggres-sive during the spawning sea-son.
As the kokanee get further into their spawning cycle, they become more aggressive, so using larger lures sometimes works well. Bottom-bouncing, allowing the down-rigger weight to hit the bottom and hop along, has been working well.
Bass fishing has been fair to slow, with lots of 11- to 12-inch fish, but fewer keepers, being caught. Fish the main lake points, especially where there are mud lines. Night fishing with blue- or black-colored jigs, baby or tiny Brush Hogs, or spinnerbaits in the same colors, will catch fish. Top-water bite is fair during morning and evening hours. During the day, try jigs, or split-shotted or drop-shotted tiny, green pumpkin Brush Hogs, or Jeff’s Arkie grubs.
Randy and Glenn Piersan, of Oakdale, won Glory Hole Sports’ second annual “Just for Fun Evening Bass Tournament and Barbecue.” Their five-fish limit weighed 11.35 pounds, including the big fish of the event, a 2.72-pounder. They won just over $1,000. The tour-nament raised $300 for the Florida-strain bass plant at Me-lones.
The catfish bite is slowing, but anglers can still pick up a few, especially at night.
The perch bite continues.
Lake Pardee
By Fred Dorman
Lake Pardee Marina
Now is the best kokanee fishing I have seen in the 12 years the wife and I have been fishing and staying at Lake Pardee.
There have been bigger fish over the years, but I have never seen as many limits taken con-sistently from one location for such a sustained period of time. All the action is still at the red marker buoy near Deer Island. Lots of kokanee are stacked up between 80 and 130 feet down. Quick limits, many in less than two hours, have been the rule here, with lots of fish around 15 inches weighing in at or about 2 pounds. Use scent-soaked corn on Uncle Larry’s red or pink firetigers, or pink Apexes, and Sep’s No. 2 watermelon dodgers at a slow troll. Even Rod Browning’s boat got three limits Saturday. Amazing! Unheard of!
This won’t last forever, so get up here before the bite is over. Some males are beginning to exhibit some hooked-jaw and humped-back characteristics, so in a week or two the flesh won’t be firm or all that tasty.
Those I have spoken with la-ment that the trout catch has slowed down. Some have been successful lately working the dam, the Narrows and the mouth of the river at 30 to 50 feet. Others have switched to bait fishing from their boats in front of the dam and the south end until trolling improves.
Stony Creek Landing, Rain-bow Point and the Woodpile have been the best places for shore anglers lately. Power Bait, chartreuse-with-sparkles Power Eggs or nightcrawlers on a sliding sinker set up, cast at least 30 feet out, are still the winning combos. Early bite is still the best.
As of Sept. 6, the Department of Fish and Game, Lake Pardee Inc. have planted a total of 48,000 pounds of trout.
Cat fishing is still good at the south end near Rattlesnake Cove and the backside of Deer Island. Stinky chicken liver is still the cats’ favorite.
The lake’s surface tempera-ture again measured 76 degrees, with a 73-degree reading at the 20-foot mark. Visibility is good to 20 feet in the recreation area.
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