Northern California anglers regard the fall turn over as one of the top times to pursue trout and salmon at New Melones and other Mother Lode lakes. The annual turn over is in progress at New Melones Lake and boaters and shore anglers are experiencing great fishing for rainbow trout, as evidenced by a trip that I made with James Pagani of Sparklefish Lures on Friday, November 5.

The "turn over " takes place when the surface water temperature becomes the same as that found in deeper water after cold weather cools off the lake's surface water. The loss of the "thermocline," where the salmon and trout hold during the summer and fall, results in the fish scattering throughout the water column and moving into the coves to feed on bait fish.

Bank fishing becomes just as good, if not better at times, than fishing from a boat after the turn over occurs. "Trout fishing is generally at its best from mid November through February, after the turnover occurs," observed Melanie Lewis at Glory Hole Sports.

Although the turnover usually takes place around Thanksgiving, this season the fish have been hitting in the top 15 feet of water since late October, according to James Pagani co-owner of the Sparklefish Lure Company "I'm just hammering the trout at New Melones, " said Pagani before our trip.

"I caught limits of both trout and black bass on one trip two weeks ago. The only downside is that most of the fish are planters, with some larger holdovers mixed in."

In spite of the low condition of the lake, 128 feet from full, anglers will find no problem launching a boat. Pagani launched at the low water ramp at Tuttletown Recreation Area.

When I arrived at the ramp at 9:30 a.m., Pagani had already caught 7 trout in the Tuttletown Cove at 9 a.m. "I kept three holdovers and released the rest," said Pagani.

I joined him in the boat and we sped past the dam to a cove where Pagani had caught limits of trout and bass on a previous trip. When we stopped at the "honey hole," we put out Goldeneyes on leadcore line at 4 to 4-1/2 colors. We fished just two rods to avoid tangles.

We got bit within minutes after putting our lines in. I reeled in my first fish of the day, an 11 inch planter rainbow. Within the exception of a one hour lull in the action, we experienced hot action in every cove that we fished over the next several hours. "You got to release five smaller fish for every good fish that you keep," said Pagani.

We also caught lots of trout on a top line with a Sparklefish, with no weight. We boated fat holdovers in the 13 to 14 inch class, along with lots of smaller fish. The trout action was as good as it gets at New Melones, numbers-wise. We had three double hook-ups and had lots of "hit and misses." By 2 p.m. we had eight decent trout in the box and decided to fill out our limits by trying to catch a big brown by the dam.

We fished four rods, two rods with Sparklefish on the downriggers at 40 feet, and the other two rods with Goldeneyes on leadcore line. We never caught a fish on the downrigger rods, but we continued hooking fish on the lead core line.

We put our final two rainbows in the box at 2:45 p.m. and called it a day. Although we lost count of the exact number of fish that we hooked, we easily released over 20 fish, in addition to the 10 that we kept.

The weather was beautiful, with sunny skies and temperatures in the sixties, a welcome relief after a week of cold weather and rain. Strangely enough, the lake was virtually deserted. We saw two other trollers, two bass boats and one lone bank fishermen at the Tuttletown Ramp.

Meanwhile, Melanie Lewis of Glory Hole Sports and other locals are hoping that some of the 2 to 5 pound rainbows and browns that New Melones is know for will start showing soon this fall. For some reason, the big holdovers have been few and far between over the past two winters. The DFG plants the reservoir with approximately 28,000 pounds of catchable rainbows and 28,000 subcatchable browns each year.

The biggest rainbow weighed in the shop in recent years went 7 pounds, but a 10 pounder was reported before Lewis purchased the business. Shirley Vollmer set the official lake brown trout record of 12.7 pounds while trolling frozen shad up the Stanislaus River in March of 2000.

While the rainbow trout are abundant and willing to bite, the German browns are tough to catch. Anglers fishing for other species catch a good number of browns every year. For example, Alex Niapas was throwing a shad-pattern crankbait in two feet of the water near the dam when he hooked a 6.1 pound brown.

Pagani has caught browns to 8 pounds while trolling Sparklefish in the backs of coves during the winter and spring around brush and stick-ups. Like largemouth bass, German browns are a fish that likes to wait in ambush for their prey to go by; that's why browns are so often caught in structure nearly identical to bass habitat.

Kokanee salmon fishing at New Melones is excellent during the spring and summer, but tough during the fall and winter. After being introduced into the lake by the DFG in 1997, the kokanee are thriving far beyond anyone's expectations, according to Lewis.

"Kokanee action is great in the spring and summer, with limits of 2 to 3 pounders being common," said Lewis. "Members of Project Kokanee and Kokanee Power expect Melones to become a premier kokanee lake - and are predicting record size fish in the years to come."

Besides being a quality trout and salmon fishery, New Melones has a good population of spotted, largemouth and smallmouth bass. The fishery has been supplemented with plants of 4,000 to 8,000 Florida-strain largemouths by the Calaveras Bass Anglers over the past four years. During the late fall and winter, spooning with a variety of lures or drop shotting with plastics can be very productive, especially for the spotted bass.

The official lake largemouth record is a 12.98 pound beauty that Brian Rath caught on a rainbow trout spinnerbait while fishing a bass tournament in 2000. Kyle Rasmussen set the spotted bass record of 7.63 pounds while fishing a 7 inch Aaron's Magic Shakin' worm 20 feet deep near Mormon Creek in May 2002.

Located in Calaveras County in Angels Camp at an elevation of 1088 feet, New Melones was formed with the completion of a 625 foot high dam by the Bureau of Reclamation in 1979. The lake has 12,500 surface acres and 100 miles of shoreline when full.

For more information about fishing and facilities, call Glory Hole Sports, call (209) 736-4333, Fax (209) 736-0802, or visit them on the web at www.gloryholesports.com. For information on Sparklefish Lures, call (209) 586-3261 or get on the web at www.sparklefish.com.

New Melones Lake Facts

• Location: Angels Camp, home of the Jumping Frog Jubilee, in Calaveras County.
• Size: New Melones features 12,500 surface acres of water and 100 miles of shoreline when full. The elevation is 1088 feet when full.
• Fishing Season: Fishing is open year round for all species.
• Day Use: No fee required for either day use or boat launching.
• Boat launching facilities: The Angels Cove Boat Ramp is out of the water. The second ramp at Glory Hole Boat Ramp is being used right now, and will continue to be unless water levels reach 940'. Then the third ramp will be used- it will be usable until the water level reaches 899 feet. The fourth ramp will be operable from 899-860 feet. There is another ramp below it that volunteers built during the drought. At Tuttletown Boat Ramp, anglers are using the lowest ramp. It will be usable until the water level reaches 900'. The unimproved launching area at old Highway 49 at the Visitors' Center will be operable until the water level reaches 760'.
• Marina facilities: New Melones Lake Marina is a full service facility. For more information, call 209-736-0802.
• Camping: Six campgrounds, Acorn, Fiddleneck, Oak Knoll, Manzanita, Chamise and Lupine, are available in the Tuttletown Recreation Area. Two campgrounds, Ironhorse and Big Oak, are located in the Glory Hole Recreation Area. The camping fee is $16.00 for the standard sites and $6.00 per night for the walk-in sites. For New Melones camping reservations, contact: (877) 444-6777 or www.reserveusa.com- You must ask for the campsite you want to stay at, instead of New Melones Lake. For instance, ask for Glory Hole Recreation Area, Tuttletown Recreation Area, Big Oak or Ironhorse.
• Visitors Center: The New Melones Visitor Center, located at park headquarters off Highway 49 near the bridge, has some interesting geological, wildlife and historical displays. The center has some great free Thursday evening lectures at 7 p.m. For information on the informative lectures, call (209) 536-9094 extension 22, or visit Glory Hole Sports to see the schedule of lectures.
• Fishing guides: Bruce Hamby, Sierra Sportfishing, 209-599-2023; Danny Lane, Fish'n Dan's Guide Service, 209-586-2383, Monty Smith, Gold Country Sportfishing, 209-848-2746; Bob Monsen, Bob Monsen's Bass Fishing Guide Service, 209-728-2534. For a complete list of guides, call Glory Hole Sports, (209) 736-4333.
• Fishing Information: Glory Hole Sports, 2892 Highway 49, Angels Camp, CA. 9522, phone 209-736-4333, fax 209-736-0802, mailing address PO Box 1195, email ghs@goldrush.com, website at www.gloryholesports.com