Submit
Report

Del Valle Lake and Reports

Limit:
Click for interactive map

Thursday, May 31st, 2012

  • By

    Water Temp: 70 in narrows

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: One bite all day. 4# largemouth on a pencil popper on a main lake point.

    Tips: Get out before the wind starts up. Fought it for 6 hours without a bite.

Friday, May 11th, 2012

  • By

    Water Temp: 70+

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: did ok from shore. rode my bike down to one spot with my dog after work, so fished from 5pm-7pm. got 3 and lost 2 (barbless hook) but the ones i lost were pretty small. big fish was 3 lbs.
    much better than i usually do there. i never catch anything at DV. i just needed to try some new spots!
    City: livermore

    Tips: fish rocky areas close to deep water

Friday, May 4th, 2012

  • By

    Water Temp: 63

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: A tough day, but I was only 5 bass away from a limit. It was cool and windy most of the time and I thought that might help me fool them in the clear shallow water. I was wrong. I saw around 10 bass when the sun was right and the wind calmed. I even had a lot of them admiring my lure but they would quit chasing when they saw me and the boat. One was a 5# smallmouth. The stripers ignored my swimbaits the first 3 hours on the water.

    Tips: The only thing the bass would show interest in was a jerkbait. They ignored tubes, worms and dragged cranks. I wouldn't have known there was any fish in the lake without the jerkbait. A lot of the areas had algae slime coating my lures and that was another reason for the lure choice.

Friday, April 20th, 2012

  • By

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: I saw a lot of green but only caught 3. Biggest only 2# largemouth with a belly full of eggs. Water was very clear. I could see down to 14 feet in some areas and must have seen around 40 or 50 bass in the spawning flats and coves. Some were just cruising but a lot of them showed interest in the lures I tried but most would not commit. The ones that did seemed to be mostly slapping at the baits. Missed a lot of fish. A large striper took my swimbait at 8am. I had a freshly tied knot on my flippin rod spooled with 20# fluorocarbon but the line snapped shortly after the hook set not far from the boat. I'll keep the drag set looser in the future...

    Tips: Fish shallow where you see Christmas trees or other brush. I caught a smallmouth on a Rapala type lure and the 2# largemouth on a brown plastic worm there. Hope it works out better for you.

Tuesday, April 10th, 2012

  • By

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Had a blast. Only caught 4 bass to 3# but saw everbody catching fish. Senko and plastic worms in trees. Caught all in one stand of trees where I have never caught any before (because of the low lake level). A guy out deeper caught a 14# striper and had another blow up on his bait. It started raining a little while after I showed up and they were biting. I spent a majority of my time trying for striper but blanked.

    Tips: Fish trees for largemouth.

Friday, April 6th, 2012

  • By

    Water Temp: ?

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: It got real cold here in livermore last night, at my house it got to 38*, which doesent sound good but it was also a full moon so i thought id give it a shot. banked it around a few coves from 10am-1pm. started w/chartr spinnerbait, dropped it for a red jig n pig, dropped that for wacky rig yamasenko and didnt get bit once. talked to a couple guys in a boat throwin tubes and jerkbaits and they had 3
    City: livermore

    Tips: they are probably in deeper water here

Saturday, March 10th, 2012

  • By

    Water Temp: 52-55

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: On the water for about 8 hrs. Lake is real low, it was full this time last year... we need more rain! Started out throwing swimbaits, cranks, senkos and spinnerbaits around laydowns and flats with no takers. Then picked up a Brn.1/2oz. jig and started working steep rocky banks 5 to 25 ft. My partner and I managed to boat 6 nice fish to 3Lbs. Six smallies and two largemouth. They look like they were ready to spawn, nice healthy fish caught and released. I'm bringing crappie jigs next time, heard they were catching some two pounders.
    City: Fremont

    Tips: Go Fish and post. Thanks

Sunday, January 22nd, 2012

  • By

    Water Temp: 49

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Having never seen the lake, I went to the first bluff rock wall and started tossing a deep crankbait. Two rock walls and two crankbait changes later an 7.90 lb'er was in the well. A little later a 4 lb'er and 2 lb. "rat" Smallie was on board. Missed two other bites....all told...3 fish = 13+ lbs.
    City: Roseville

    Tips: Remain fluid and don't be afraid to try different ideas

Thursday, October 20th, 2011

  • By

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Got 8 bites Thur. and landed 6. Biggest was 4#, then 3# and some littler guys. All except one caught on a number of different colored plastic worms from 3-15 feet deep. Caught one on a deep diving crankbait on a point. Blanked fishing on Fri. for giants with huge baits early. Tried all types of baits later playing catch up but to no takers.

Friday, September 23rd, 2011

  • By

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished Thursday and Friday, getting 3 bites and landing 2 each day on Texas rigged plastic worms. All were shallow in/around weeds. Biggest only 2.5#. Water was much clearer in the normal areas I fish. Tried swimbaits, cranks, senko and dropshot from Swallow Bay to south end.

    Tips: If you can stand it and feel you are where the fish are at, let your bait sit for awhile before moving on. I found one on after picking out a backlash and another after leaving the worm sit an inordinate amount of time.

Sunday, September 18th, 2011

  • By

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished Sunday and Monday experimenting with 8 to 13 inch worms. Got more excited seeing the gals in the shop than the fishing action on the lake. Caught a 3# on an 8 inch worm in 14 feet of water and a 2.5# on the 13 inch worm fishing shallow on Sunday. Missed 3 others. I had a 5 or 6# fish that jumped a couple times and had it next to the boat but it dove into some wood on the bottom. My bait retriever brought up part of the branch...Monday I caught 2 around 2# each in the weeds on the 11 inch worm, one shallow and one at 13 feet. Had a good one on that came off shortly after the hookset.

    Tips: Measure your worms. I measure them as I imagine they would look while being worked. Some brands are around 1.5 inches shorter or longer than they advertise this way and it shows when you have 2 side by side.

Wednesday, September 7th, 2011

  • By

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: On the water at 7am and weighing in an 11.2 pounder and a 4.5 by 8am before releasing. Missed another large bass I thought I stuck well but it came unbuttoned after a short fight. Went back out after the picture and caught another 13 fish by 11:30am, although nothing went over 3 pounds. Missed more bass than I caught.

    Tips: It was extremely hot and calm, a combination I have found that works for me on this lake. Don't be scared to throw a weird color or a bait you would not normally use. I took a chance and combined the two in one lure and got rewarded with my 2nd 10+ pounder, both out of this lake. Use heavy line. The big gal got me in some wood a couple times during the fight and I had to ease off a little to unsnag her. I never would have landed her in the area I was fishing with light line.

Wednesday, August 24th, 2011

  • By

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Caught 5 bass and a crappie. The crappie and a little bass hit a crank within the first few casts. The others were cauht pitching baits to shore related cover. Missed one good one by snapping off a worm and 8# line on my spinning reel and another large one when my BPS baitcaster failed during a hookset.

    Tips: Was on the water by 7am and done catching by 10am when the nasty wind started, so go before you get blown off the water. I used see and catch them deep in the summer but have been very unsuccessful here for years now, so now I mostly fish shallow stuff so I at least catch some.

Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011

  • By

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: On the water by 8am. Caught 3 bass, biggest went around 3 lbs. on a senko in the calm near tules before the white caps hit at 9am. Fought the grueling wind to catch a little one on a worm and another that fought like a 10 pounder on a spinnerbait (and yes, I have caught 10 pounders out of here). Covered a lot of water with the spinnerbait to catch only one. Had 3 or 4 pecks on the worm that I missed.

    Tips: Get out before the wind picks up. Never caught any on a crankbait fishing deeper.

Tuesday, July 19th, 2011

  • By

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Spent only a few hours fishing (2 P.M. - 5 P.M.) from my float tube around the channel near the south swim beach. Caught 3 small largemouth from the shade pockets with a Texas-rigged red Roboworm. Lost another bass before I left. Had to take it slow, and set hook whenever I felt a snag, for there was little difference between the fish's bites and the snags as I was being blown around in my tube.
    City: Livermore

Wednesday, July 13th, 2011

  • By

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Got 6 bass in hurricane type continual breeze (oops, first fish was a 2 lb. crappie on a shad crank). Bass went to 4 lbs. Boat inspection ranger said I caught more fish than anyone he'd talked to all day.

    Extreme heat and wind on latter days: Got skunked fishing plastic worms on 7/1. Got 3 to 4 lbs. on 7/3 on 3 different types of baits, biggest on senko. Landed 5 on reaction bait 7/5 thru or around weeds but all under 3 lbs., although caught 2 HUGE crappies on a crank.

    Tips: All bass somewhat out of the wind near tules with a senko, 5/O hook and 20# blue/fluorescent line. Only ever missed 1 bass that I hooked on this set up wherever I've fished that I remember.

    Fish baits that cover water when they are not biting other presentations. Didn't fish this pattern much because of the huge effort involved, though.

    Don't fish plastic worms. I spent the majority of time each day but the last trying to force feed them this because I like to fish this way if I can and there are weeds.

Monday, June 20th, 2011

  • By

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Still Rainbow Trout to be caught by the dam. Not to mention fish were hitting the surface all day, but took none of my topwater lures. We ended up catching 3 Rainbows even though it was 95 degrees out. Not too big but they put up a respectable fight. Boat next to us caught 7 just that evening. Tried for some bass too, and came up with nothing.

    Tips: Power Worms/egg combo dipped in scent was the key. Eager to see how we do with Catfish later this week, people next to us also caught a pretty huge catfish

Friday, May 20th, 2011

  • By

    Water Temp: 60 morning - 66

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Its been a while since the last report. The lake is full again and looking great.We caught a lot of fish yesterday but nothing big, 2lb. average.They still seem to be in a spawn mode, weird spring and changing water levels has seem to prolong the spawn. Tried jigs on steep banks, spinnerbaits with no takers the first hour,then went flippin' the tules with creature baits... Hogs etc. About 15 fish for the day. Primetime if you like to flip.Stayed mainly in the south end. Goodluck!
    City: Fremont

    Tips: Cover water and flip deep into the tules,let the bait sit for a few seconds,lift and watch your line as it moves. 17lb. florocarbon and 1/4oz. blk.tungsten pegged. Have Fun!

Monday, March 28th, 2011

  • By

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Mr. Kalihi Boy, thank you for responding and suggestions. I was thinking I should try berryessa first for crappie before I try del valle. I had pretty good luck there in the past. I'm a little surprized that the guy was using a drop shot rig with a mini jig. I guess thats one way to keep your jig at the depth that you want to fish, even for crappie. I wonder if the southshore is muddy from all that rain we had last week. Its probably very muddy and would be bad for trout fishing back there in the south shore. Its usually pretty good for trout, but it has to be fairly clear.
    City: samn mateo

  • By

    Water Temp: cold

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: water is muddy... ya wanna catch fish...go deep.. way to much run off.. who care's about the crappie or bass right now...it's not the time.. troll for the big trout. 9 lbr's are there,, the rainbows will hit. IF you use the right bait.. I say , troll six feet down... on idle...
    City: san jose,

    Tips: there are so many fish in this lake ,, yu have to "think" what do you want to catch.. figure it out.