Tulloch Lake in winter

I have some time off during the holidays, and am thinking of checking out this lake.  I've read that rainbow trout and crappie can be fun this time of year there.

I see there is a marina on the south shore.  Are there any other good places to launch ?  The Copperopolis Bridge / O'Byrne's Ferry Rd area came up in some search results as being interesting.

BTW Got out to Los Banos Creek Reservoir yesterday -- had never been, had a good time paddling around, and caught (but lost) a fish near the dam, trout I'd guess.

Drive a half hour further to Melones.

Thanks for the idea !

Any other comments on Tulloch? I was just thinking about this one too...

Don Pedro is good too.

I caught my first fish in a place that is now under new melones at the parrots ferry. Tulloch has some good fishing and frogging from what I remember, but that was late 70s early 80s when I was knee high to a channel cat.

Most if the lake is land locked
The marina is likely your best bet lunching from the bridge look difficult at best
The fishing well I have a saying about that
Your worst day fishing is someone else's best day fishing
It's a good lake if going up my way Hogan has its benefits
 As dose pardee or salt springs there also new melons
But it's so big you will wind up working the near by coves or fingers which can be very productive by I really don't think your going to the south  better bass water  and lets not forget don Pedro we have to many to name love living up here
 

I know this is late, I am a new member.  However, I grew up fishing these lakes.  They are all excellent year round.  Focus on the deeper main portions of the lake in winter because the fish will go deep during cold spells.  It is best to fish mild days and troll flashers or Rapalas near points and drop offs. 
Sometimes, it is very hard to locate the fish without covering a lot of ground and using electronics. If you want to target trout during the summer, you will need lead line or dipsey divers.
For crappie any structure 15-30 feet should usually do it. The banks drop off pretty steep in most of the foothills lakes.


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As far as launching, you will pretty limited as far as access goes. There are a couple service roads here and there, but most of them were closed off for some reason when department of forestry and interior expanded under Clinton and have never reopened.


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  No help with the fishing, but Tulloch was my fathers fav water sking lake to hit on weekends, (Later 60's -mid 70's) before all the houses started popping up on the lake.  We were there pretty much every weekend it seemed during the summer.  40+ years since I've been back now.

Just got back from a weekend at New Melones.  I'd planned to go this winter, but we all know how that went.  Wow, what an experience -- gigantic lake, and lots of cool places to explore.  More motor boats, jet skis, etc. than I would have liked, but I guess that's what to expect in the foothills this time of year.

I probably should get a fish finder at some point.  I mostly explored the Angel and Mormon Creek arms, which were interesting.  Saw some large carp and a school of sunfish with perhaps some small bass mixed in.  Quite by accident, too -- I pulled up to a quiet wind-sheltered spot to take a leak (maybe should start using a pee bottle ) and then noticed the fish there in the shallows !  Not a total surprise, there were some logs and submerged bushes in the area.

Still working on fine-tuning my yak fishing gear .. what works in high sierra lakes or ranch ponds does not necessarily work in these big reservoirs I suppose.  I prefer fly fishing, and have been tying 1/64 oz jigs in olive and shad gray (the olive ones work well in ranch ponds like Henry Coe).  I suppose the challenge is getting the flies down deep enough.  I did bring an ultralight spinning rod and a small selection of trout lures, plus some small jigs and so on. 

It was great paddling around and exploring though.  I'll probably check it out again when it starts to get chilly in the autumn.