Doug McArthur is a member of Team Mc Fishing Pro Staff have been fishing all of our Mother Lode lakes and during this past 2 weeks we have noticed a slow down in the amount of fish we are picking up while trolling.

Reports coming from Nate Attaway on New Melones Friday, that after trolling from sunrise to sunset at the usual locations, including the Dam and Spillway up into Horseshoe bend and around Coyote, he only manage to pick up 6 small Bass that hit his Rapala minnows. Nate used everything from flashers and dodgers to running nightcrawler harness rigs and Humdingers and Cripplures from Shasta Tackle without picking up a single Trout. Nate was also fishing Lake Amador recently and noted that the fish he caught were puking up Shad minnows as well as having bellies filled with Shad when they were opened up at the cleaning station.

Pro Staffer Mike Marsh has been finding similar results on New Melones that things slowed down after we started getting the freezing temps in the mornings, compared to just a couple of weeks ago when the bite was much better. Mike was at Lake Tulloch this past weekend and found the lake to still be low from the water draw down. After working the main body of the lake trolling Brass flashers toplining about 130 feet back with worm harnesses. Mike has also found some success trolling the surface using hammered Doctor Spoons from Yellow Bird Products in the Brass and Copper colors on the overcast days.

I was out fishing Camanche this past week and found the bite to be very slow there as well. There were several folks I talked to at the boat launches as well saying they haven't been catching as many since the freezing weather. I expect the slowly warming weather trend will turn the bite around and we will be getting into Kokanee before we know it. During my last couple of trip into New Melones I have even picked up scattered Kokanee on the surface trolling copper spoons as well. Lake Pardee will be opening in a couple of weeks also and we will get you a report from there as soon as we can get out there and do some fishing.

I will be heading out to fish New Melones as this warming trend comes through and we will keep you posted on what we are finding out on the lake, as well as the rest of our local waters. We have plenty of open dates for fishing on the Mother Lode lakes going into the Spring season. Get hooked up with us we will get you hooked up with a great time out on the water!

Until then check out the latest episode of The Informative Fisherman on Toplining for Winter Trout! This episode was also filmed on New Melones.



Doug McArthur
Team Mc Fishing Guide Service
www.team-mc-fishing.com