We made our first quest for big Browns on January 19th Dave and I want to learn the ins-and-outs of New Melones. Big lake and, apparently, a decent populations of Browns. The first rule I have learned is; Big Fish eat the other fish. I believe NM Browns populations are so healthy and big because of the vast Kokanee population of the lake. 10-12" Kokanee fill this lake in summer. What big Brown would not like to feed on those little minnows? So the key to targeting these big fish is big lures.
On our first trip we got Dave his big Brown, right out the gate. 5 lber in the boat within a half hour. Caught on...You guessed it. A BIG lure. An F18 Rapala to be exact. This lure is 7" imitation minnow. Rapalas have been around for ever and have always a go-to lure when chasing trophy Trout. They require a precise presentation to attract the big boys. Dave has fished with Rapalas exclusively, his whole life. He's training me well. We ended up getting a handful of Largemouth Bass that day. They also feed on little fish and go crazy for aggressive moving lures like Rapalas. The first trip was a success for Dave. We got his big fish and now I want one.
The next Saturday, January 27th, Dave could not join so his father Jay joined instead. I prefer Saturdays so I can at least attempt to sleep in one day. Jay spent some time fishing with Brownbaggers back in the 90's and he had some more tricks to teach. Jay spent the day catching most of the fish as he was teaching me these things. He caught 5, I caught 2. I showed him how I downrigger fish and he showed me how to rip for trophy fish.
Speaking of trophy, this was also the first day I tried Trophy Sticks for the first time. These are locally hand-crafted lures. He orders them from overseas but, does his beautiful custom paint himself. Some people mistake his "Hand-Crafted in the USA" for "Made in the USA". Which is not the case and he does not advertise that. I have read lots of hate for this guy because these lures are expensive. Anywhere form $15 - $50 per lure. Is that expensive? Absolutely. That much for something that is just going to break on get lost is a little crazy. Until you see the amazing quality look of these lures and their action, which there is nothing like it. They can be "Tuned" for different action. To be trolled slow or fast, with different action both ways. Then take into account, Rapalas are imported from Finland. Nothing is done to them the USA. TS plug bodies may be imported from Asia but, he puts good old American work into them. I will pay extra for that. I know people don't agree with me on this but, I could care less. I only bought two of them to try. One of which broke on the first few runs. After the trip, I emailed him and said what happened. I had a new lure in my mail box the next day. That made me a repeat customer. I don't see the hate for this company. So far, I have been treated nothing less than great.
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| 6.5" Trophy stick |
Okay, I wondered off on the Trophy Stick rant a bit. Back to the fishing stuff. We had a pretty good day fishing up the arm. Last part of the day I suggested we troll the dam area. This is where my true "Fish Story" starts. Dave and our friend Mike were out with me just before New Years here and Dave hooked a very large fish in the same area. It was worth another shot to try. We got 2 okay Rainbows here and a whopping 4 lb bass. When we were leaving the the last point, I look back and my toplining Trophy Stick rod was doubled over. I yelled to stop the boat cause I was snagged. The rod was bent over so much it had to be snag. I grab the rod, yank it back, and out goes 50' of line...almost instantly. Not a snag. This is my monster Brown. She was definitely huge. After the initial run she stopped and my rod tip stop moving. "Oh Shit", I said. "She got off". Jay asks " Can you feel the pull of the lure?" I could not. "Reel fast, it's running at the boat". Sure enough some fast reeling and I caught up to it. Just then, we see it behind the boat. A MASSIVE tail and dorsal fin sticking out of the water. I couldn't stop shaking. This was one of the most exciting fishing moments in my life. Almost near the boat now, it thrashed a few times so we could see it. Man was it beautiful. The most gorgeous brown and gold colors I have ever seen. I moved to the bow of the boat and just slowly pulled her to make netting easier. Jay reached down with the net, goes to scoop and it only goes half way in the net. It then freaks out, thrashes violently and in the process the lure snagged in the net. The fish made one last splash and off it went. Lots of four-letter words and then dead silence. Horrible, gut-wrenching, dead silence.
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| The bent hooks were the ones stuck in the net. Must have been a heavy fish to bend hook like this. |
Jay was far more bummed than I was. That was great fight and I fought it the whole way. Chances are I would have just taken a picture, got some measurements(this was surely an 10 pound fish and worthy of a wall mount) and would have been released. The fight is whats fun. A fish that big and old doesn't have the best meat. Better to let it out and make more little Browns so we can keep doing this. After repeated apologies and endless discussion about the size of that fish, we called it a day.
I had a great trip with Jay and learned a lot. I even have my first Big Fish story. That was it for this fishing weekend. Or was it? I have a vendetta now against that fish. I made a call to Jay's son, Dave "Are you ready to fish tomorrow? Your Dad lost my 10 pound Brown and I want to go back for more." Of course I knew the answer, Dave is ALWAYS down to fish. Part 2 of this fish story is now a go.
So back at it. 4:45 am on Sunday morning. Tired from 10 hours in the boat and 4+ hours of driving the previous day, I am ready to it all over again. All to catch my first Trophy Brown. We launch and headed straight up the arm towards the river. This is a 25 minutes run by boat. A very cold, 30 mph run. We made it up, lines down and off we troll. We did this all day for not a bite until 130.
It was a full moon the night before. Jay and I did so well because it was over cast and that hides the moons effects on the fish. Dave and I were not so lucky, we had a beautifully clear morning. All day for nada and at about 1:30 pm the downrigger with Trophy Stick pops and there it is, "FISH ON". Not normally so exciting but, on a slow day, those words are glorious. Landed a nice 17' Brown. Good, now the skunk is gone off the boat.
Trolled all are normal spots for nothing. I think we only managed one Largemouth. it was definitely a slow day. It's now 2:30 so we decide to troll out of the canyon and head in. Set my toplined F18 Rapala out. I was getting the downrigger ready when I look over and my topline is bent over and bouncing hard. As loud and angry as possible, I yelled it "FISH ON". It was big. Calmed the nerves and then started fighting. She ran a bunch. So much that I almost ran out of line. I had to thumb my reel, which you never want to do...unless you are going to run out of line. Fearing she would snap line insantly, I did it only for a few seconds and it was enough to make her stop. I started reeling and in she was heading in. Dave brought in all the other lines. We decided that with the big ones, all lines HAVE to be cleared. Sure glad we did. I got her to boat and we caught a glimpse. Yep, she's a big one. When she came boat side, she dove under the boat twice. This is the extact reason we bring in the other lines. The fight would've been short lived had we not. I walked to the bow and Dave slowly brings the net from behind her tail and scoops her up. Goal #4; Acheived. 7 lbs, 14 oz. My monster Brown. Unfortunately, she was fouled hooked and bleeding. She had to come with us and turned out fine on the smoker. Not the best but anything is good from the smoker.
We tried for a while longer with no more bites. It was completely okay cause we were still so pumped about the big fish in the box. That was it. We had a damn exciting weekend at New Melones. Worked the next weekend so I had no more Brownie action until February. That's right, it's February now. I have re-spooled my reel to Jays recommendation. I have my replaced Trophy Sticks and got a bigger one than the previous two. First two were 5.5". The new one is 6.5", closer to the F18 Rapala size. I managed some cool wildlife shots on these trips. I will post them below. I hope everyone enjoyed another ridiculously long blog post. Watch out New Melones, we're coming for ya' again.
Good luck out there,
Cliff
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