Our club may be fishing New Melones in mid November if our original lake, Berryessa, is not open due to all the recent fires. Looking for advise on Fall baits and colors. Any help would be appreciated!

 

Joe

Nearly everywhere. In the west is about what to do, chase the Shad schools 20'-35' or jig fish the points and rock piles. Jig fish are bigger but harder to catch. Shad school bass are easy using structure spools. 

Tom

A lot will depend on the weather between now and then. Water temps are still in the low 70's and bait (shad) is all over but pretty deep. Jerkbaits, cranks, and jigs could be good in a few weeks, but there's a pretty good chance you'll need to throw finesse techniques along the lines of neds, drop shot, shakeyhead, neko, etc. Natural colors are a safe bet (e.g., green pumpkin, watermelon, smoke, etc) and that time of year they could be up shallow or down 30-40 ft... lots of trial and error in November to get things dialed in.

I didn't go last year during this time but the year before I was up there around that time.  We located fish in about 30 ft of water on either flats or off some of the larger points.  Drop shotting was the bait of choice and it was a pretty consistent bite on the spots with a few largies thrown in.  I think out best 5 was maybe 12 lbs, so we definitely didn't find anything huge.  

First off thanks for the response!

Berryessa has opened, I hope for good, and we will have our club tourney there as originally scheduled. Hopefully the fall will be in full swing, temps have been much lower overnight the last week or so.

I plan on taking 6 combos. The first 5 I’ve pretty much decided on: drop shot, shaky, swing head, chatterbait  and jerk bait. Should the last one be a spinnerbait or underspin, pretty much similar baits. Am I in the ball park here?

 

Thanks....Joe

21 hours ago, 5/0 said:

First off thanks for the response!

Berryessa has opened, I hope for good, and we will have our club tourney there as originally scheduled. Hopefully the fall will be in full swing, temps have been much lower overnight the last week or so.

I plan on taking 6 combos. The first 5 I’ve pretty much decided on: drop shot, shaky, swing head, chatterbait  and jerk bait. Should the last one be a spinnerbait or underspin, pretty much similar baits. Am I in the ball park here?

 

Thanks....Joe

I think you’ve got a solid lineup @5/0, maybe consider a shad patterned lipless or square bill crankbait. Angler West has done a couple of TV shows up at Berry about bass fishing this time of year. Good luck on your tourney.

 

* I saw on another thread @NorcalBassin was doing a little spooning for some nice, quality fish, just another technique to consider...

On 10/30/2020 at 3:24 PM, 5/0 said:

First off thanks for the response!

Berryessa has opened, I hope for good, and we will have our club tourney there as originally scheduled. Hopefully the fall will be in full swing, temps have been much lower overnight the last week or so.

I plan on taking 6 combos. The first 5 I’ve pretty much decided on: drop shot, shaky, swing head, chatterbait  and jerk bait. Should the last one be a spinnerbait or underspin, pretty much similar baits. Am I in the ball park here?

 

Thanks....Joe

Maybe add an A-rig?