During the seminar, the pros revealed a variety of effective summer techniques for fishing Kelsey and other lakes, including slow rolling spinnerbaits, flipping and pitching, dragging Senkos and worms, split shotting with lizards, and probably the most exciting technique - tossing Snag Proof Tournament Frogs into heavy weed mats. However, there was one resounding theme that the pros emphasized - use the weeds to your advantage in fishing this peaceful reservoir.

The lake, which has been around for over 70 years, is full of quality bass averaging 2 to 4 pounds that anglers can fish with an array of techniques, making it a good place to test new lures and techniques and to hone up for tournaments.

"Anglers can fish the lake like the Delta or Clear Lake, since the lake is blessed with lots of weedmats, tules, wood and rock structure," said Robin Lowe. "However, you can also fish the lake like you would Don Pedro or New Melones, since you can concentrate on the lake's offshore creek channels. Electronics will help a lot, since they will allow you to see the lake's breaks and channels."

Tim Paes and I started the morning right near the boat ramp. Tim began tossing a white frog, while I fished a bubble Gum Senko on a Loomis rod, courtesy of Charlie Myer, Fish Sniffer staffer. After a couple of casts, I cast into an opening of a weed mat next to a stick up. "I'll bet you I'll hook a fish right there," I stated confidently.

Sure enough, I caught a solid bass that put up a hard surging fight in the heavy weeds before I got it beside the boat. It was a 2-3/4 pound largemouth, typical of those found in the lake but uncommon for summer fishing at other lakes beside Clear Lake. Several casts later, I hooked into another bass on a bubble gum Senko, but it freed itself in the weeds.

Tim got a boil that he missed and proceeded to catch and release a couple of bass in the 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 pound range on frogs, so I decided to switch over to a frog also. "The frog bite should get better later in the morning," he stated.

However, the frog bite tapered off, so I switched back to a senko. Right in a row around some stickups in heavy weeds in a bay, I landed two quality bass in the 3 pound range. However, we didn't get any more bites and decided to join others, including Don Payne, Norval Pimentel and Gene Perry, who were dragging worms and jigs in the offshore weedbeds.

While we were there, Chad Gong of Dos Palos, his dad, Rick Gong, and Norval Pimentel found good action using 4 to 6 inch watermelon red flake Senkos, getting fish up to 4-1/2 pounds. Don and Jeff Lewis caught a lot of bass with Don Payne using 6 inch Power Worms. And Gene Perry and Mark Dunker of Modesto landed over a dozen fish to 5 pounds dragging Senkos.

After a great lunch of Tri-Tip, spaghetti and cherry pie, courtesy of the Kelsey family, we resumed fishing. The bite had slowed down, with no bites for us for 30 minutes, but then Tim managed to take two bass to 4 pounds dragging Brush Hogs, while I hooked one bass on a Senko.

We resumed fishing the mats on the shore line, where he landed two fish and I got my first ever "frog fish," a chunky bucketmouth that erupted out of a heavy weed mat. We caught a total of a dozen fish before I stopped fishing at 4 p.m., as well as losing at least five other fish and missing some bites. Seventeen hookups is a great day on a low elevation reservoir during the middle of the summer.

"This was a slow day for this lake, but we still managed to hook 15 fish," emphasized Gene Perry. "On many trips here, we catch 30 to 50 fish in a day. This is my fun lake to fish between tournaments. Besides bass, this lake has some enormous catfish and bluegill."

For more information, call Kelsey Bass Ranch, (209) 563-1950, www.kelseybassranch.com.

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