Modesto-area fishing report for week of March 11-17
Valley
Delta Mendota Canal and Sloughs
The water releases out of San Luis Reservoir are pushing the bait fish down the aqueduct in the northern section of the aqueduct between Kettleman City and Los Banos, and a few fishermen are starting to throw ripbaits or topwater lures around the moving water near the headgates.
In the southern section of the aqueduct in Kern County, Pete Cormier of Bob’s Bait in Bakersfield said, “Striped bass fishing continues to be excellent with flukes, tubes, blood worms, sand worms, jumbo or large minnows, anchovies, or sardines. The water in the aqueduct is very clear, and fishermen are reporting seeing the fish swimming around due to the water clarity.” Catfish are found on anchovies, sardines, mackerel or Sonny’s Dip Baits.
Call: Valley Rod and Gun in Clovis 292-3474; Bob’s Bait Bucket 661-833-8657
Lake Don Pedro
The bass bite has been tough for most, but the team of Alex Niapas and Jason Remmers took first place in Saturday’s 11-boat American Bass Association tournament with a weight of 19.95 pounds in 20 to 30 feet on California Reservoir jigs or Brush Hogs. The bass are scattered, but once you find them, they are in schools. The bass are looking to spawn and moving into the shallows. Good things are expected within the next few weeks. The lake is loaded with trout from the overflow of the Moccasin Hatchery, and the trout trolling bite should also break out once the water temperature stabilizes. The lake dropped slightly to 80%.
Call: Monte Smith 209-581-4734; Kyle Wise – Head Hunter Guide Service 209-531-3966; Ryan Cook – Ryan Cook’s Fishing 691-7008
McClure Reservoir
Ryan Cook of Ryan Cook’s Fishing said, “I had an epic day on Monday with Rob and Katie Strickland of Merced, and we put together a 22-pound limit including largemouth bass at 7.13 and 4.76 pounds on finesse techniques in the creek channels towards staging areas. This was the largest limit I have put together on this lake in over nine months.” Bass tournament limits continue to increase with the team of Cook and Eric Sousa coming in second in Saturday’s Cen Cal Elite Bass Tournaments event with 13.53 pounds. Dead Stick plastics on a Neko Rig along with G-Money jigs with a bulky trailer on a 3/4-ounce jig head are working. The bass are scattered, but they are grouped up into tight schools once you find them. Bigger plastics, jigs, or tubes are best in any coves or cuts, even in the main lake. There is still a bite as deep as 50 feet, but there are bass wanting to spawn now. Trout trollers are working depths from 25 to 35 feet with silver/blue, gold or white Kastmasters along with nightcrawlers behind a Ford Fender flasher. Crappie are making an appearance in the river arm around submerged trees and vertical rock.
Steve Marquette of the Lake McClure Recreation Company said, “I had a few fishing reports from the shore near the marina with watermelon worms or nightcrawlers, and a few anglers were at the Barrett’s Cove South Ramp with catfish stink bait for the whiskerfish.”
Justin Yori of the Angler’s Edge in Snelling said, “We have been selling loads of crawdads and large to medium minnows for bass fishermen heading to McClure.” The Angler’s Edge is the former A-1 Bait, and they are carrying live minnows and crawdads along with full fishing supplies. They are open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. seven days per week. The lake dropped slightly to 61%.
Call: Ryan Cook – Ryan Cook’s Fishing 691-7008
McSwain Reservoir
Justin Yori of the Angler’s Edge in Snelling said, “We haven’t heard much from McSwain with the lack of trout plants since December.” An occasional holdover is taken on silver/blue Kastmasters, trout dough bait or nightcrawlers from the bank locations of the Handicapped Docks, the Brush Pile or the peninsula near the Marina.
Call: McSwain Marina 209-378-2534
New Melones Reservoir/Tulloch
New Melones was brutal during the Wild West Bass Trails Pro/Am during the final weekend of February, and the struggle was reflected in the far lower than normal weights. Bass fishing requires quite a bit of work for success, and the best fishing is occurring on the bottom from 5 to 45 feet.
John Liechty of Xperience Bass Fishing Guide Service said, “It’s been a struggle, and you have to work hard as the conditions haven’t changed for a while. Our best action has been surprisingly enough with small plastics on a drop-shot over bluff walls, 45-degree banks, and in creek channels. The drop-shot is out fishing everything right now, and I think it is because the bass have seen so many jigs and shaky head over the past year. The drop-shot with a 3-inch plastic on 6-pound test seems to be able to trick the bass and entice a strike. We have been consistently finding bass in the 2.5- to 3-pound range, and I put in a 14-pound limit this past week which would have been a solid weight during last week’s tournament. Instead of 30 to 50 fish days, we are working hard for 20 to 30 fish days. The water temperature is 59 degrees, and the bass should be up, but they are still holding in deeper water. The creek channels are starting to get stained from the dropping water levels, and a mud line is forming.”
Gene Hildebrand of Glory Hole Sports in Angels Camp said, “ With the water temps hitting 60 degrees, the bass are in spawn mode, on beds, and many being caught have that soft belly indicating they have already spawned out and occasionally seeing a bloody tail on female and males both due to fanning and females just dragging their tails on rocks with the heavy bellies. With a steady increase in the bass bite, anglers are getting bit on different presentations and you should be ready to change it up. In the mud line along the shore from the boat traffic, chatterbaist or spinner baits are best while in windy conditions with some chop on the water, topwater lures, swimbaits or glidebaits are best. The most successful presentation during the Wild West Bass Trail was soft plastics such as Robo Worms, Yamamoto Senko’s, Baby Brush Hogs and grubs on shaky heads, jigs and drop-shot along with success using underspins and a 2.5-inch Keitech trailer.”
The Angels Cove launch ramp is closed, and the fish cleaning station remains closed at Angels Cove with water line breaks interfering with operations.
The lake dropped to 79%.
Call: Glory Hole Sports 209-736-4333; Monte Smith 209-581-4734; John Liechty Xperience Fishing Guide Service 209-743-9932
San Luis Reservoir and O’Neill Forebay
Mickey Clements of Coyote Bait and Tackle in Morgan Hill said, “The bass are under the surface in the coves as the ripbait bite has been strong with Lucky Craft Pointer 128s or Duo Realis 120s in American Shad or Ghost Minnow. The topwater bite has been slow, but boaters are moving into the various coves while bank anglers are focusing on the back of Dinosaur Cove. We have been selling a number of jumbo minnows, and we recommend that they fly-line the live bait with a split-shot or two to get down to the bass. Trollers are working mid-level with plugs such as the Pointer 128s.”
Jake Figgs of Valley Rod and Gun in Clovis confirmed the ripbait bite at the main lake, saying, “We have been selling a lot of Duo Realis 120s, and anything with chartreuse such as the Sexy Shad are working.”
Roger George of Roger’s Guide Service said, “The overall bite is still moderate to slow at best for trollers in the big lake. In the last month, the water has fallen 13 feet, down to a 1,391,000-acre feet volume, but recently its rate of fall has slowed. Anglers are telling me that they are getting a few school fish on minnow-type lures in shad colors for a few fish working the Portuguese Cove and Quien Sabe point areas at 50 to 70 feet. Minnow and bait anglers have done the best targeting the 60-foot range on points. The recent storm front and wind changed things, too.”
The lake held at 68%.
George said that due to a conflict, he will reschedule his Downrigging 101 class that was set for March 12 at the Visalia Sportsman’s Warehouse.
Call: Coyote Bait and Tackle 408-463-0711, Roger George, 905-2954, rogergeorgeguideservice.com
Delta/Stockton
The striped bass that flooded into the Sacramento-Delta last week have scattered this week as the linesides are rapidly on the move up going into the upper Sacramento River above the Delta. The stretch of the Sacramento River between Rio Vista and Collinsville remains the best location in the Delta for striped bass, but they are “here one day and gone the next.” Sturgeon fishing has been mostly down, but the diamondbacks decided to bite over the weekend, and the action improved considerably in lower Suisun Bay.
The New Jen Bass Tournaments event out of Russo’s Marina on Bethel Island produced some impressive limits on Saturday with the first place team of Josh and Maxwell Kaneko taking first with a five-fish limit at 31.32 pounds including a big fish at 7.54.
James Netzel of Tight Lines Guide Service is working out of Korth’s Pirates Lair on the confluence of the Mokelumne and San Joaquin Rivers for the striped bass run, and he said, “I have been out exploring, but there aren’t enough fish in the system for me to take out clients. I won’t go out until the stripers are here in numbers, and I think another week will make a difference.” Netzel will be presenting a seminar on the species that he is currently targeting every Wednesday at 6:00 p.m. at the Bass Pro Shops in Rocklin. He has his next seminar at Bass Pro Shop in Rocklin at 11:00 a.m. on Sunday, March 14th before heading to his 1:00 p.m. seminar at the Sacramento Boat and Off-Road Show.
Dave Houston of Livermore has been trolling in the San Joaquin and Sacramento River systems on a regular basis, and he was out this week and said, “Well as fast as those stripers came in, they are gone. Friday the guys had a great day, Saturday was slow, and Tuesday was almost at a crawl. We felt very lucky to get the four keepers to 25 inches. We found nothing on the Sacramento so we fished the San Joaquin and found 7 fish between Santa Clara Shoals and Frank’s Tract. We rotated lures, but no color got more than one fish.”
H and R Bait in Stockton reported bluegill action has been solid in the southern sloughs around Stockton and Tracy with wax worms or jumbo red worms in the clear water. Fresh shad is still a few months away, but most bait shops have plenty of frozen shad.
Call: Randy Pringle (209) 543-6260; Captain Steve Mitchell – Hook’d Up Sport Fishing – (707) 655-6736; J.D. Richey – Richey’s Sport Fishing – (916) 952-1554; Vince Borges – Vince Borges Outdoors (209) 918-0828
To see the full report, go to www.fresnobee.com.
This story was originally published March 10, 2020 at 2:07 PM with the headline "Modesto-area fishing report for week of March 11-17."
