Afternoon Adventure To Lake McClure Produces Big Numbers Of Quality Bass

Angelo Alorro, of Bait Barn, and I fished Lake McClure recently and had a very successful day. I met Angelo at the Bait Barn located in Waterford and we launched the Bait Barn boat at Lake McClure in the early afternoon.

When we arrived at the boat ramp, I was pleasantly surprised that Alex Maxwell was there in his boat to follow Angelo and I around and take photos of us fishing and of course to catch a few fish as well.
Angelo is very familiar with the lake, since he has fished it many times, so we started fishing in some familiar spots that had previously produced for him. I started off my day drop shotting with a 4 inch plastic worm made by Trophy Baits teamed with a Salamander Sinker.
Part of my goal with this fishing trip, was to test out the prototype of the new drop shot sinker, made by Salamander Sinkers, to see how well it would produce.
Since this was the first time I had used this particular Salamander Sinker, I wanted to see if it would work as it is supposed to. If you’re not familiar with it, the Salamander Sinker is used in a way so that the bait stays in the strike zone by eliminating some of the snags you would normally get using a standard drop shot weight, especially in the rocky areas.
After previously spending time with Johnny Stone, the owner of Salamander Sinkers, he explained to me that, unlike some other sinkers, the natural tendency of this drop shot sinker is to slide and glide over rocks rather than become embedded or lodged in the rocks.
Knowing this information, I took it upon myself to cast my line into areas that I knew I would more than likely get snagged. However, the drop shot rig worked just as good, if not better, than Johnny had informed me it would.
Don’t get me wrong; at times it felt as though the sinker had become hung up or lodged in the rocks. But it didn’t take much tugging to get it loose again proving to me that the Salamander Sinker Drop Shot gets the job done.
It wasn’t long into the trip when I hooked and landed my first fish. It was a nice 3 pound largemouth bass that was holding off a shallow water point near a flat that dropped off into deeper water. The combination of a Salamander Sinker teamed with the Trophy Baits worm continued to prove itself as we moved into a cove where I caught several spotted bass.
After Angelo and I had caught several fish using various soft plastic baits and a slow presentation, Angelo decided to try a top water bait called a Rover for no takers.
Our next move was to the north side of the lake where Angelo spotted a good looking cove. This particular cove had dirty water and the wind was picking up and blowing into it.
Angelo immediately went to a scrounger with a fluke body attached to it. This seemed to be what the fish wanted to eat because he caught several fish in a short period of time while working the cove and outside the cove that went into the main body of the lake.
I decided to switch up to a crankbait in a crawdad pattern and hooked what we think was a nice salmon. We weren’t sure because we only got a quick look at it as the fish jumped and spit the hook. As the saying goes, I had “the one that got away”.
After a while, we moved to several different coves and the scrounger continued to be productive for Angelo, in a few different areas of the lake.
As the day went on, we decided to make a short run and head into an area that had we’d heard had been pretty good. We started off fishing a point and then moved back into a cove with some laydown trees.

During this stretch, around 3 or 4 o’clock in the afternoon, Angelo began throwing the top water Rover again. The winds started picking up a bit in this section of the lake but that didn’t scare us off. Angelo seemed to be pretty confident that the Rover would soon produce in the shady area we were fishing.
The first blow up came quickly and Angelo continued to catch fish one after the other on his Rover.. After seeing Angelo’s success, I had to try the same bait he was using which was a good idea as it produced several fish for me as well.
Due to some prior commitments, Angelo had to return to the Bait Barn by 7 p.m. that night. Overall, it was a fantastic and very memorable experience fishing with Angelo. I learned a lot about fishing over the 6 or so hours Angelo and I spent on the boat. We shared several stories and a lot of laughs and caught quite a few fish. I’m looking forward to having an opportunity to fish with Angelo again soon.
If you would like to learn more about the Bait Barn and see the products they offer, visit them at www.baitbarn.net or stop by his store which is located at: 12505 Yosemite Blvd. in Waterford CA. They can also be reached at (209) 874-3011.
To learn more about the Salamander Sinkers, please visit their website at www.salamandersinkers.com. If you would like to learn more about the baits that Trophy Baits offers, please visit them at www.trophybaits.com