Angling Report - Lake McClure - 04/21-23/21
My first foray in California in quite a few years. My wife and I were traveling down to California to visit family. We wanted to camp, hike and I wanted to do a little fishing along the way. Plans were foiled by campground closures but we found that the campground at Lake McClure was open so we drove 16 hours to camp for a few nights and to fish. I had never been to this lake so I had no idea what to expect. The water levels were down 120'! This may have actually played to my advantage. In total I only put in 10 hours or so of fishing over the three days as our main objective was to just hang out, relax etc. My what I think is a slipped disc didn't help matters.
Day 1 I started out fishing Cotton arm around 1pm which I actually thought was Temperance but was not. We started in the back 1/3 but not all the way back. I started out throwing bottom contact baits aka green pumpkin tube and a 5//8 finesse jig. Both got short strikes. I noticed a lot of fish suspending in the water column so I started to parallelling the bank and working a keitech 3.8 on a basstrix underspin head. I got bite right away and continued to throw this in rainbow shad and bluegill flash. After a while I dyed the tail chartreuse. On the 360 I could see rockpiles etc so I decided to throw a 3.5 swing impact in bluegill flash with the tail dyed on a dropshot setup with a 12" leader and 1/8oz weight. I would let it swim down on a tight line and I was getting bit repeatedly with the largest being about a 2.5lb largemouth. Yes this trip was a dinkfest. Anyways, I kept parallelling the bank and I kept getting bit. Almost every other cast or so I was getting a 1-2lb spot. Sometimes smaller. It was fun and I did not care. We worked our way out and into another cove off this arm There I caught less but there were a few biggs that followed or short striked and I saw a couple mondos cruising. They were gone the next day.
Day 2 I ran to the far back of Cotton arm around 5:30AM The shad were spawning (so were the carp) and the bite was on fire. I mean I was lighting them up on a 4" bone spook. Nothing big but it was tons of fun. I caught I don't even know how many. This got me thinking maybe the arm I found the biggs in would produce. So I quickly ran over to check the back of that cove only to find that they were gone and the shad were not there and so neither were the bass. Back to Cotton I went this time working the north bank. I got bit all over on the 3.8 Keitech and dropshot combo. There was a bit of wind so I picked up the glide bait and got a lot of follows. Not takers. As I got further out of the arm and the steep banks flattened out there were some shallow coves with magnum largies up dirt shallow. Yeah, I spooked them off.... I did catch a few largies though.
Day 3 I ran way up the Merced river at 5:30AM to where it was about 1' deep and the current was raging. Trolling motor on 10. I would have gone further but was worried about hitting a rock and getting stranded up the river. I proceeded to throw a double buzzbait in the 54 degree water. I was like man this is dumb but I kept doing it because a local guide told me to. I got lit up on the buzzbait in the cuts/current breaks. No biggs. It was fun and rather unbelievable. I think the little pockets were just slightly warmer than the river water flowing past. After this I thought to go fish the Horseshoe bend area which probably had spawners based on the reports of some biggs being caught. Most of the main lake however was post spawn. I decided to stop on a few random clay banks and there were guys fishing them everywhere. I didnt get bit and worked my way back towards some coves with non clay banks near Barret cove. I was catching largies on the 3.8 about 2/3 of the way out of the cove or 1/3 back in depending on how you want to look at it. After this I headed back to Cotton to eak out a few more bites. But the fish were gone and while I got a couple the fish had moved. The weather this day was overcast and 10 degrees cooler.
- Tow Vehicle: Ford F-150 FX4
- Boat: BassCat Pantera Classic
- Motor: Mercury ProXs 200hp
- Trolling Motor: MinnKota Ultrex 80lb.
- Electronics: Humminbird Helix 12" x 2, Humminbird Mega 360, Hydrowave
- Rods: Quantum Smoke, (discontinued)
- Reels:Quantum Smoke , (discontinued)
- Line: Cortland Master Braid - Moss Green – Cortland Line North America w/fluoro leader
- Lures used: Keitech 3.8 on Basstrix unerspin, 3.5 Swing Impact on dropshot, 1/8oz weight.
- Pressure: no clue
- Moon Phase: Waxing Gibbous
- Weather: Sunny first 2 days. cloudy day 3
- Air Temp: 70-low 80's
- Water Temp: 64-70 day 1-2, 54-56 (up river)-68 day 3
- Water Clarity: 6"-3'
- Water level: 120' below full
- Areas targeted: Backs of coves that had little bushes/grasses growing, up/river, random banks. Cotton arm, Merced river