Kelsey
Bass Ranch
7400 Merced Falls Road
P.O. Box 324
Snelling, CA 95369
Phone (209) 563-6573
Fax (209) 563-6139
KELSEY BASS RANCH FOR THE SERIOUS ANGLER!
A working cattle ranch, located in the Sierra Foothills, Kelsey Bass Ranch is the best way for serious Bass Anglers to "get away from it all." No jet skiers, no water skiers, and no weekend warriors whooping it up. Just great bass fishing and outdoor adventure. Can it get any better than this? You'll find what you're looking for at Kelsey Bass Ranch.
NEW LAKE RECORD!!!!
2/24/03 Jeff Eddings found 15.6 pounder washed up on shore!!! See Reports for more details.
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FISH TALES BY RON WILSON
July 17, 2003... Read Ron's latest article about fishing on the Ranch: Finding the Right Bait...
October 10, 2002...Modesto's Norval Pimentel and I fished the Kelsey Bass Ranch Members Tournament last Saturday. The fishing for us was tough to start with. No worm or senko bites at all.
Norval finally boated our first fish on a rip bait near the dam. I was tossing all kinds of old baits such as ring worms and other stuff that I knew the fish hadn't seen for some time. However, I was having no luck at all.
When I saw a small bass chasing a minnow on top of the water and then a huge bass come up from behind and gulp down the small bass I knew I had to switch to some
type of reaction bait.I tried a Zara Spook, no luck, a rattletrap, nothing. I put on a small Hopkins spoon tossed it out and started slowly reeling it back to the boat and hooked a nice 2 1/2
pounder on the first cast. Norval guided the boat in a large circle out to the middle of the area by the dam were I caught that fish. We fan cast all over and I was soon rewarded with keeper bass number 3 for the livewell.We had 2 decent fish in the livewell, but we knew we needed a fish in the 5 pound class to win first prize for the event, a yearly membership, that was donated by owner Jon Kelsey.
Norval moved down the lake to other areas where he had success in the past, but the fish just would not cooperate for us.
We moved back up to a cove near the dam where I saw a bass bust baitfish. I tossed out the spoon and gave the reel a few cranks and the fish nailed it. I pulled as hard as I could but the fish just dove for the grass.
Norval guided the boat over to the area and there was a thick clump of moss with my line going down right in the middle of it. Norval took off the short handle he had on the
net and attached a long handle making the net a 6 1/2 footer. He put the net down by the moss clump but could not reach bottom to dislodge the fish, so he gave it a sweep upward. I felt my line jerk and then the line went slack and then I saw a tail in the moss as it broke water. I said "There he is Norval" as he came up under the fish, putting him and the moss in the net. However, I was very surprised to find just a 2 3/4 pound bass in the middle of the 10 pounds of moss that was in the net. If that fish had gotten away I would of swore that it was 5 pounds or better!Norval and I caught a few more fish but just couldn't hook the one we were looking for!
At the weigh in Norval found out he had caught the big fish of the day but we couldn't put a solid 3 fish limit together to win the event.
June 27, 2002...I went to Kelsey's Bass Ranch on Saturday to get my black bass fix. Every now and then I have this need to catch a bunch of them.The day started off at 6:30 a.m. at the Dredger Inn in Snelling where several of us met for breakfast. A short drive to Kelsey's and then the pro staff from Boats Unlimited in Riverbank advised club members on what to use and how to catch the bass.
The catch-and-release program there works, but these fish get caught over and over again and I can't help but think that they get educated. It's been my experience there that if I can find a large bait they haven't seen that often, I can usually have a good day catching some real quality fish.
Jon Kelsey gave several of the club members a tour of the ranch so they would know where other walk-in fishing ponds are located. A couple from Sacramento fished one of the ponds that I never even knew about and reported back that they had caught more than 20 black bass in an hour there.
Back at the lake, I invited newlywed Charles Thurber of Modesto to join Norval Pimentel and me for some bass fishing. The fishing was tough as we had not figured out the bite yet. I put a small one in the boat on a watermelon red brush hawg with a real small splitshot.
I finally got Norval to get out of the 10-feet-of-water area and get in tight to the bank. We used weightless brush hawgs to start catching fish. I got to see Norval do his famous reel set on a fish again. The boat was in four feet of water and the fish came back right under the boat and when the line got too tight I watched as the fish just spit the bait. He got tired of Norval trying to take the bait away from him in a tug-of-war. Nice fish in the 6-pound class, maybe bigger. It's hard to weigh the one that got away.Charles caught one in the 4-pound class that made his getting in the boat worthwhile before we were called in to a tri-tip lunch with all the fixings prepared by the Kelsey clan.
After eating too much, it was time to rest under the shade trees for a while. At 3:30 p.m. Tim Paes, Joe Franscella and I went back out fishing on the lake. Tim and I decided to make them eat frogs. The wind was blowing about 20 mph and when we could find a quiet pocket we could get the fish to come up and eat the frogs we were throwing. But the bites were few and far between.Tim had on a pink frog that was outfishing my black one. I thought to myself, "First I get a lesson on pink worms and now I get one on pink frogs." I know I will have a pink one the next time I go out to fish Kelsey's. Tim had a big one grab his frog in a cove around 5 p.m. and the fish did what he wanted with Tim until finally pulling free. The braided line really cut the moss for a while.
By 8 p.m. Joe had frogs and brush hawgs scattered all over the lake -- his 12-pound test line wasn't working.The wind was still blowing hard as the sun started to sink. That hot topwater bite we were waiting for was not looking too promising. At 9 p.m. the sun was down and the wind finally laid down a little. The topwater bite started happening and for the next half hour Tim and I had a ball reeling in fish after fish.Joe finally got one on a frog. Between the excitement and lack of knowledge, he never straighened out the hooks on the frog and his next cast left it in the weeds. The bite died as quickly as it started and by 10 p.m. we were heading home tired and happy. The half-hour bite made our day and was well worth waiting for as the fish were all in the 3-pound class with an occasional bigger one.
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Last updated August 12, 2003