Pillsbury Lake and Reports

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Tuesday, Mar 19
Hi: 73 ° F
Lo: 41 ° F
Today
Mostly Sunny
Precip: 0%
Tonight
Mostly Clear
Precip: 1%

Monday, June 6th, 2011

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    Water Temp: 61

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: -------> ATTENTION ALL ANGLERS <-------
    I urge you all to come out and support the "SQUAWFISH" Derby @ lake Pillsbury ! It will be held July 9th. (GREAT family fishing outing) Help rid our waterways of this paracste fish ! ------ Did you know that just one Squawfish will eat 16 million salmon fry in one year? So yes, every Squawfish that is removed does ,make a difference !! -- for more information call the Soda Creek Store = (707)743-2148
    City: Ukiah

    Tips: Squawfish are easy to catch.. Pretty-much they will eat anything that moves. Crankbaits, spinnerbaits, swimbaits and top water lures will all work. Go have a great time at the Squawfish Derby July 9th and enjoy the beauty of Lake Pillsbury

Tuesday, May 31st, 2011

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    Water Temp: 58

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: fished lake pillsbury from the 29th thru the 31st. the first night i fished from shore with my gf and caught one 1 pounder on a white rooster tail, and a small sunfish. the next day my buudy showed up with the boat and we went out for a couple hours. the wind dam near pushed us off the water at 130. we were out for about 2 hours, and only graphed about ten fish. we could not find them. the didnt seem to be shallow, or deep. the next day me and the gf went out to the same spot i got the small fish the pouring rain, i got a 3.5-4 pounder on a 3 inch fluke, and that was it. not too productive, we couldnt seem to locate fish. didnt even get to kill any squaw fish
    City: ro po

    Tips: im not really sure, find the fish i guess, then go from there. good luck

Sunday, May 15th, 2011

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    Water Temp: 60

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: - - - 1st of all, In regards to comments made by a local resident about tournament anglers killing fish. -----> Not a true statement ! <------ 99.% of all anglers appreciate our local fisheries (Lake Pillsbury) yup, there might be a fish or two that don't make it, BUT, that is a very small %. Many, MANY tournaments that I have personally fished have had 0 - no fish loss. !! ---------- The bass fishing on Lake Pillsbury is really good right now ! Many large fish are up in the shallows spawning. Check out Oak Flat (tulles), Salt Creek, back into Turtle Cove and the mouth of the river. Slow draggin' plastics works best for me. Rig it w/ a roboworm or senko wacky style on drop shot . The roads are in excellent shape ! Be sure to say hi to Nick @ the Soda Crk. Store. - Thanks Don - remember to keep it reel !
    City: UKIAH

    Tips: Make long casts so you don't spook the bedding fish. Don't move your bait too fast. ENJOY BEAUTIFUL LAKE PILLSBURY.

Wednesday, May 11th, 2011

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    Water Temp: 58

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: The road was better than usual but in a month it will be testing your transom limits as usual. I was able to catch a trout on a Senko but any moving bait I threw only landed squaw fish. The other reports of BASS are encouraging but none for me. I think I'll stick to going over the hill to clearlake. Taking years off my boat and trailer are not worth the potential I hear about from others, sounds like a guide trying to get business. Good luck if you go up! If you do please do us all a favor and kill the squaw fish and leave them for the birds - if you cut them from the top not the bottom they'll float. I'll be there for the squaw fish tourney in the summer to help rid the lake of those invasive predators -thanks for having that Jolene and Soda Creek.
    City: Potter Valley

    Tips: Avoid the squaw fish and get there before the road is trashed.

Saturday, April 16th, 2011

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    Water Temp: 54

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Bite was tough today, overcast then the sun came out around noon, thought it would bring fish to the shallows but couldn't find them. we stuck 5 big squaw fish, ahh, finally went back to pogi piont and stuck a nice 4 lb large mouth on a junebug lizard texas style on edge of weeds. that was it for the day. Water was very cold, had a few good bites on a swimbait but did not hook them. Bite should be better in a few weeks. Water temp got up to 59 degrees at end of day.
    City: Ukiah

    Tips: Go BIG OR GO HOME!

Friday, December 17th, 2010

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    Water Temp: 46 - 50

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished along dam. Picked up fish on graph. No takers though. Moved on to points on south facing side. Found water a bit warmer, caught two, boom,boom. that was it. Slow draggin' a watermelon-candy lizard. It sure is B E A U T I F U L UP ON THE MOUNTAIN! We are blessed to live where we do !
    City: UKIAH

    Tips: Take the road up real slow. If you do, you'll be alright. Make a day of it. DRESS FOR THE WEATHER. It's cold this time of the year. The bite was very soft, stay in contact with your lure. WATCH FOR THE BALD EAGLES! GOOD LUCK !

Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010

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    Water Temp: 65

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Took a 30mile rough-ass drive from Upper Lake to Pillsbury.Lake is full and looks perfect for largemouth(willows in water, shallow coves, rocks and stumps.About 15 mins. into it, stuck a 4lb'er with a Sweet Beaver. It's partner followed it to boat. We figured it was on, but it turned out to be the only bass bite rest of day!There is low pressure coming in right now, so we're hoping that's what put the fish off.Saw no trout, bait fish, or surface action. Since this is 1st time to Pillsbury in many years, not exactly sure what to think about the poor fishing. Hopefully the fish population is there, it may still be too early.
    City: Hidden Valley Lake

    Tips: Be sure to have your quagga mussel sticker and go in from Potter Valley side, the road is much better.
    Oh ya, the friggin squaw fish love senkos!

Thursday, December 17th, 2009

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    Water Temp: 46 - 50

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished along dam. Picked up fish on graph. No takers though. Moved on to points on south facing side. Found water a bit warmer, caught two, boom,boom. that was it. Slow draggin' a watermelon-candy lizard. It's sure is B E A U T I F U L UP ON THE MOUNTAIN! We are blessed to live where we do !
    City: UKIAH

    Tips: Take the road up real slow. If you do, you'll be alright. Make a day of it. DRESS FOR THE WEATHER. It's cold this time of the year. The bite was very soft, stay in contact with your lure. WATCH FOR THE BALD EAGLES! GOOD LUCK !

Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008

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    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: sounds like its ready!!!!!!!!hahahahaha Too much pressure, thats a good one!

Friday, April 18th, 2008

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    Water Temp: 58

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Too much pressure on this lake an too many people keeping the fish has completely turned this lake off. Unfortunate, but now not worth the drive up there. Clear Lake much better trip.
    City: santa rosa

Tuesday, April 24th, 2007

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    Water Temp: ???????????????

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: ..
    City: ?????????????????

    Tips: Swimbaits, rippin, jigs, creature baits and senkos. If you make it in the next couple weeks sight fishing will be awesome. If you can sneak on'em throw ANYTHING wieghtless in the vicinity and they'll suck it in. Have fun, hold on to that swimbait rod tight and catch and release!

Friday, April 20th, 2007

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    Water Temp: mid 50's

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: I made it.
    City: ?????????????????????????????

    Tips: Worth every mile of the drive!

Thursday, April 12th, 2007

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    Water Temp: ???????????????

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Anyone been up there this year?
    City: ????????????????

Saturday, October 1st, 2005

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    Water Temp: warm

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Green waters. Fish on sunny day with broken back rappala or spinners. Slow day. 25" Sac. Pike, 12" bass, small blue gill.
    City: Santa Rosa

    Tips: I was told worms were getting bites. As well as trolling now. The fish seem to be in the fingers past the damn. Otherwise, scattered.

Friday, May 6th, 2005

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    Water Temp: 52

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: I went over the hill today to see what was happening. The water was colder than I expected. The lake is very full. I was glad I had my 4X4 due to poor condition of the road. The fish were scattered, suspended and very much in the pre-spawn mode. I caught 15 fish the biggest was three pounds the only problem it was a squaw fish.
    The senko bite was not happening. Threw cranks for a few. The others came on a dropshot. I caught one on a Texas rig worm.
    City: Potter Valley

    Tips: Bring a sharp knife and a club to fight off the squaw fish. I was greeted by a young fish and game officer, very friendly but I got the vibe he is trying to make a name for himself. I was glad I had all the proper documentation, ie registration/ license ect..

Saturday, April 23rd, 2005

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    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: fish crazy is right. I live there and have watched the tournaments kill the lake. go to Oak flat during the weekends in May and see how many dead fish are weighed in during the "tournaments". wasteful

Saturday, July 12th, 2003

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    Water Temp: 75

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Went over July 4th weekend. First time on Pillsbury in 8 years, and irst time with a "real" boat. Logging road is generally OK, but has rough stretches... took 45 minutes to go 9 miles, but I'm careul. Only caught 13 bass over almost two days, plus several squaws and 5 rainbows in the back o one creek arm. I avoided ishing between 11:00 and 3:00 both days. During high sun periods, bass were hitting either tubes or grubs on a split-shot rig in 2-10 eet o water. Backs o creeks held smaller ish, rocky shorelines larger. They didn't seem particularly attracted to wood versus rock. I didn't spend any time in the North-end shallows, since all the people were around there. My best ish were two over 4 lbs, and one 5 lbs 10 oz. From 1 hour prior to sunset to dark (and in early morning) I had better success on black, double-willow spinnerbaits... nothing ancy, just bass pro cheapies. Would have been an even better trip, were it not or the jet-skiers and waterskiers. Why do they all love AC-DC at high volume???? Pillsbury is much more popular than I remember, but I only saw three or our other bass boats. Catch and release, and tight lines!
    City: Cupertino

    Tips: Daytime: grubs/tubes in dark, natural colors on split-shot rigs. Texas-rigging was noticeably less eective. Try shades o brown to imitate the color o Squawish. Evening: dark spinnerbaits, ished shallow.

Saturday, June 1st, 2002

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    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: irst o the logging road isn't bad when i went. i was camped at uller grove, NW end o lake, and went casting or bass in the evening using a crank and caught a big rainbow. the ish were eeding very agressively in the evening cruising the shoreline. i ended up walking/casting to the most NW corner o the lake and then went bobber ishing with worms. ish were hitting let and right. a riend was ishing o the bottom and doing just as good. in about 2 hours i caught 6 ish. two nice rainbows, 15"+, two smaller ones 10"+, and a squawish. next night was just as good. during the day on sat i caught one good rainbow with bobber/worm. basically ishing is great in evening along NW shore. large trout were even hitting a rat-l-trap, go igure.
    City: san rancisco

    Tips: ish rom shore using #10 bait hook with split shot 1.5' above hook and bobber 1.5' above split shot. make sure no part o hook is showing or they won't even pay attention. i you get a bite check the hook to make sure its not showing. they are also hitting on small cranks and even rat-l-traps. spoons in the 1" to 2" range in trout patterns also produced. ish a ew hours beore sundown to sundown.

Sunday, April 7th, 2002

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    Water Temp: 60

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Tried Fishing or BASS again to no avail. The wind was terrible and there are a ton o squaw ish in this lake, every time you thought you got qa good ish it turned out to be an ugly garbage ish. Looks like they have taken all o the so called bass away with them. Worse yet I think the logging road was hit by enemy ire, I put 1,000 miles on my boat and trailer in 16 miles. We did catch a couple blue gills on night crallers but overall the trip was a bust. I think I'll try clearlake or Sonoma ater I tighten all o the bolts on my trailer and reconnect the trolling motor.
    City: Potter Valley

    Tips: I you like squaw ish this is your lake.

Tuesday, April 2nd, 2002

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    Water Temp: ?

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Here's a report rom a riend o mine that ished Pillsbury rom shore or about 1 1/2 hours on Tuesday, 4/2/02:In any case, I rigged some rods with crawlers or the kids - not much action so the kids decided to paddle instead (the water was a bit too cold or ull-on swimming.) We were ishing rom the shore, o course. The wind had picked up so I put a larger sinker on a rod rigged with a crawler and cast a bit deeper. I let it sit or a while until I got a good bite - result was landing a nice 2 pound largemouth bass. (I weigh and measure every decent ish I catch on a little scale and tape measure I carry in my tackle box)Well, now I knew that not only were the bass biting but I was in a good spot (at least there was one ish there) - so I shited to my avorite lures - sot plastics. Then the action started!Within the next hour and a hal I landed another ive (5!) bass, every single one o them over three and a hal pounds! My best was a little over ive pounds, 23 inches in length. By ar the best ishing day I have ever had - and ishing had not been my main objective!I experimented with many o the sot plastics in my tackle box - seems like they were biting on almost anything I put on. Everything was Carolina-rigged - 3/4 ounce - I was casting into the wind so I needed something really heavy. Very rocky bottom - so distinguishing between bites and hook-ups was a little tricky. I got the astest bites (and a couple o misses) rom a salt impregnated pumpkin color twin-tail craw impersonator and a red and black 'Bass Assassin' Shad impersonator. I also caught ish on a 7" Power Worm and a Power Craw - both pumpkin colored.
    City: Santa Rosa