Dangling Participles and I decided to abandon the delta in favor of taking my skunk to Melones. We arrived at 8:30 AM to cloud cover, no wind, and 50 degree temps. Waxing crescent moon, low moving in, what’s not to like. It was a bit of shock too see the lake level despite the constant barrage of doomsday drought reporting.
Compare to this pic from the same vantage point 1-18-12
The launch was at the very end of Glory hole off the gravel. Not too bad with some 20 or so boats launching that day. We ran first to Carson and found a ton of feeding birds.
We trolled out of there and headed for the 49er bridge.
The pic above tells lies
Pull back a bit and there is still a llot water in this lake.
We tried Coyote and found a lot of bait but not much to show for it. We continued up river towards Parrots Ferry. No fish busting on top at all but the meter was lit up at 60 feet.
Upon reaching Parrots Ferry we were turned away by mud, debris and boulders in the water. Lowest I have seen in in 35 years.
Lots of mining ruins to explore.
We worked Mormon and all the way south. The Dam was bouyed off.
We ended up in Angles Creek arm which looked very fishy. One of our few fish for the day fell for a silver blue Kastmaster.
Clearly the lake has not turned over. Here are a couple of parting shots from the parking lot on the way out












Hope the lake turns soon. Thanks for sharing. The old 49 bridge isn’t out of the water I assume. That last happened in 1993 I think it was. Would have to drop another 60 or so feet.