Date : 08/20/21
Location : New Melones
Launch: Tuttletown
Air temperature: 56-87
Water temperature: 75-77
Water Clarity: 2-6 feet
Wind direction/speed: Northeast 5-10 mph
Seasonal fish pattern: summer transition
Moon phase: waxing gibbous
On 08/20/21 my father and I decided to go bass fishing at New Melones Reservoir. New Melones’ water level is super low, however the tuttletown boat ramp is still open. Immediately after launching we headed south and started graphing main lake points in 30-40 feet of water. We were unable to locate any bait balls after several attempts, so we ran up to the bridge to graph points in that area.
The fishing started out pretty slow with only a few small keepers on a variety of top water baits. My father had similar results dragging a drop shot in 30’ of water. Approximately two hours went by, and the wind began to blow out of the North/east. We then headed into creek channel towards the upper end of the lake. I’m that area we located flooded timber in 20-30 feet of water.
I caught a couple fish up shallow which were the largemouth variety, and my father caught a couple spots in the flooded timber. Bait began flickering around the boat, so I proceeded to throw medium sized swim baits on an under spin. We boated several 2-3 pound largemouth, and our largest fish was just over 4 pounds. Overall it was a fun day with my father, out on a lake where my father originally took me over 30 years ago.
