OFF THE HOOK: New Melones hosts trophy browns, abundant rainbows

New Melones Lake, nestled in the Mother Lode foothills on the Stanislaus River in Angels Camp, is one of the most productive trout and salmon fisheries in the state of California. It features both elusive trophy brown trout and smaller but more numerous rainbow trout and kokanee salmon.

The trophy fish opportunities available at the reservoir were once again demonstrated on Dec. 30, 2011, when Michael Oliveira caught a new lake record brown trout weighing 13 pounds, 4 ounces while bass fishing by the dam.

"He threw a small shad-patterned crankbait into a swirl he saw in the shallows, and caught the big hen in three feet of water," said Melanie Lewis at Glory Hole Sports. "She was 26 and a half inches long and had a 20 and a half-inch girth."

If you compare those measurements to those of the previous record brown of 13 pounds, 1 ounce caught by Jim Harlan of Angels Camp on Feb. 11, 2010, you will get an idea of just how fat Olivera's fish was.

Harlan's fish measured 31 1⁄2-inches long and 18 1⁄2-inches in girth. Unlike Oliveira, Harlan was targeting trophy trout while trolling a broken-back firetiger Rapala.

The browns found in New Melones are a mixture of wild browns that spawn in the Stanislaus River, Department of Fish and Game catchable plants and fish from the Kokanee Power pen-rearing project. The DFG has historically stocked from 28,000 to 33,000 catchable browns annually in the reservoir.

Kokanee Power and the New Melones Lake Marina have operated a pen-rearing program of brown and rainbow trout to boost the numbers of trophy trout in the lake since 2003.

"The pen rearing program has been a huge success in increasing the trophy trout fishery at New Melones," said Gary Coe, president of Kokanee Power. "We have raised browns four out of the eight past years. During those four years, we raised 700 to 1,000 browns along with 700 to 1,000 rainbows. We have put an estimated 3,500 pen-raised browns into the lake since 2003."

The last year the browns were raised in the hatchery was 2009. The lack of browns in the program the last two years was the result of repairs made on the Hetch Hetchy pipeline that forced the Moccasin Creek Fish Hatchery to close during the summer.

The trout are put in the two floating pens in November and released in April or May, according to Coe. The fish average around 1 to 1 1⁄2 pounds each and weigh up to 3 pounds. The two pens in operation currently hold 2,000 rainbows.

"Although we don't know if the two record browns were from the pen-rearing program, we do know the program has definitely had a positive effect on the fishery," emphasized Coe. "The brown trout fishery has blossomed and is getting better every year."

Catching browns is always a challenge, since they are the wariest of all trout and char. Although the current record was taken by a bass fisherman and quality browns are often caught by bank anglers fishing nightcrawlers and lures from the bank in the winter, your best bet for targeting browns is to troll minnow imitation lures from late fall to early spring.

"You want to fish around structure early and late in the day during low light periods - and get away from boat traffic," Coe advised. "Fishing is best in the main body near the dam and spillway and also on the Stanislaus above Parrots Ferry."

James Pagani of Sparklefish Lures bags quality browns at New Melones with his Sparklefish and Goldeneye lures.

"I caught my biggest brown at the lake, an 8 1⁄4-pounder, while trolling a blue dot Sparklefish off the rockwall past the Tuttletown Boat ramp eight years ago," Pagani said.

However, the most abundant fish in the catches of Pagani and other anglers are rainbows. Pagani had a great trip to New Melones in September 2011 that yielded a limit of holdover rainbows ranging from 18 to 22 inches.

Hoping to see similar action, Pagani and I made a trip to New Melones on Sunday, Feb. 12. After launching out of Tuttletown, I hooked and lost a big rainbow right away while trolling a Sparklefish with three colors of leadcore in a cove near Tuttletown.

Unfortunately, the fish were few and far between on the graph and the ones we saw weren't biting. Nonetheless, we hooked five rainbows and landed three in the 1 1⁄2- to 2-pound range before we got off the water at 1:30 p.m.

After Pagani left, I went bank fishing with Thomas Buoyant lures off the point near the boat ramp. I quickly filled my limit and saw others catch lots of planter rainbows while fishing spinners, spoons, Power Bait and crawlers.

For more information about fishing at New Melones, contact Glory Hole Sports at 2892 Highway 49, Angels Camp, CA. 95222, (209) 736-4333, www.gloryholesports.com, ghs@goldrush.com .