Sonoma Lake and Reports

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Thursday, Mar 28
Hi: 52 ° F
Lo: 43 ° F
Today
Chance Rain
Precip: 36%
Tonight
Rain Likely
Precip: 26%

Thursday, August 18th, 2011

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    Water Temp: 78

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Camped at Skunk Creek in the Cherry Creek arm. Great fishing early in the morning and the hour before dark. Very tough fishing the rest of the day when the sun is high. Caught at least 25 fish. Most were small, but landed several over two pounds with one about 3 1/2 pounds and another about 4 pounds. Although I threw everything including several different colors of Senkos and worms, jigs, spinnerbaits, and flukes, most fish were caught with a KVD Tennessee Shad crankbait fished close to submerged trees. In the late evening I had the best fishing on a Lucky Craft Pointer 78 American Shad fished over submerged weeds. Picked a few fish during the day on a wacky-rigged baby bass Senko.
    City: Santa Rosa

    Tips: The area between Thumb camp and Skunk camp in the Cherry Creek arm has consistently held the most fish over the last couple of months. Another good area with fewer but larger fish is the north side of Yorty Creek near the main lake. You can expect to catch quite a few smallmouth bass using crankbaits in deeper water near the main lake, too.

Monday, August 8th, 2011

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    Water Temp: 82

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Monday 8-8-11, my buddy, his son and I started fishing the main body. But after trying several areas that we knew to hold fish and a couple hours of time, we caught nothing and decided to move to Cherry Creek. We immediately started catching fish on 3- and 4-inch Baby Bass colored Senkos rigged weightless wacky style. My buddy’s son decided to try something different and started to throw a top-water popper. He had immediate success with a 3½ lb large mouth. He stayed with the popper the remainder of the day and to my surprise, caught multiple fish from 3½ lb all the way down to fish not much bigger that the lure. We also tried drop-shotting various colored RoboWorms with very limited success. My buddy, however, did have success drop-shotting a 5-inch Pro Style Senko in Baby Bass color. Most of our fish were caught near trees, on the outer edge of weeds, and over submerged weeds. In total, we caught about 40 fish. Of all of these, there were only about 15 keepers. The main thing is that we had a lot of fun. Hopefully, one boat across from us also had fun. After seeing us with a double header, they yelled to us and wanted to know what we were using. We yelled back and told them. Hopefully they heard us.
    City: Pinole

    Tips: If you like a top water bite, try a popper, stay with it and you may be pleasantly surprised.

Sunday, July 31st, 2011

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    Water Temp: ?

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished Yorty Crk. early and it was a bit cloudy out, but I thought that would help. Caught a nice 2 pounder early and then it was slow until later in the day. Fish seemed to be scattered, once I caught the first fish I thought I could find similar areas and catch fish, but no go. Had to grind it out to catch fish later in the day.
    City: Santa Rosa

    Tips: Be patient and look out for the Summer boaters. No wake zone what does that mean? Duh.

Sunday, July 3rd, 2011

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    Water Temp: 72-74

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Hot and very bright and sunny day. It was more windy than I prefer to fish in my canoe, but the direction of the breeze was suitable to good shoreline drifts in most areas. Caught about a dozen fish. Although most were small, I found a 4 1/2 pound largemouth and a two pound smallmouth. The largemouth were caught on a drop shot with 4" senkos and I caught several smallmouth on a KVD Tennessee Shad crankbait.
    City: Santa Rosa

    Tips: Try new fishing methods. The battery for my trolling motor died, so I was forced to change how I was fishing. I switched to a Texas-rigged senko on a drop-shot and fished the outer edges of weed beds. The bigger largemouth were in 6-10 feet of water. Since it was windy, the shorelines in and near the main lake had muddy water late in the day. Since I was paddling and drifting back to Yorty Creek (fortunately the wind was blowing in a favorable direction), I casted the crankbait and caught quite a few smallmouth. They were suspended in deeper water probably 30-50 feet from shore.

Sunday, June 26th, 2011

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    Water Temp: 72-74

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Launched from Yorty Creek around 10:00am and headed straight to the Cherry Creek arm. Very bright, sunny day. Caught ten bass and two sunfish on 4" Yamasenkos fished either wacky or drop shot. Most were small but a few were nice fish up to 3 1/2 pounds. Caught a few fish on the north side of Yorty Creek near main lake on my way back to the launch ramp. Chatted with a few other fisherman who had good luck with crankbaits.
    City: Santa Rosa

    Tips: The fish were in relatively shallow water along slow-sloping shorelines; not necessarily near weed beds. The larger fish were up tight to submerged trees close to shore. If you're not catching anything, CHANGE COLOR OR SIZE! I didn't catch a single fish until I switched to a 4" Yamasenko 9S-10-SPECIAL (you can buy them at Outdoor Pro Shop). Once I switched color, I caught a fish on the first cast and caught fish steadily the rest of the day.

Sunday, June 19th, 2011

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    Water Temp: 68-72

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Went fishing with my wife & boy's for Father's Day, it was hot with wind in the morning. Fished the south end in the morning catchng only a few fish and with it being Fathers Day... I caught the first fish. Then we went north and my boy's preceeded to show me how it's done, with my older son getting 6 fish and my younger one getting 4 fish (a 6lb & a 3lb'r) All fish were caught on Drop Shot, bait had to be right up next to the structure, green weenie & oxblood roboworms. the big fish were caught in the back of the coves in Cherry Creek, looking like they were getting ready to spawn. It was a great Fathers Day to have my boy's whip my butt.
    City: Pacifica

    Tips: Tried all kinds of baits, Swim, Jig, Senko (Wacky & Texas), Spinner Bait, tubes & Drop Shot. Backs of coves that didn't have water coming ing in. If you see fry & Sun fish then the big are there.

Saturday, June 18th, 2011

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    Water Temp: 75

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Saturday 6-18-11, about 8:30 AM my buddy and I started fishing towards the back of Cherry Creek. I started with top water lures while my buddy was drop-shotting various colored RoboWorms and we both had no success. I then started to throw a weightless, 4-inch Baby bass colored, Senko wacky style and started to catch fish. My target was the outer edge of the reddish-brown submerged weeds. These long weeds grow out to about 8 ft. of water. With a pair of polarized sunglasses you can see the weed line as lighter colored water. While the sun was high over head, most of our fish were caught along this weed line. As the sun moved lower in the sky, the fish moved to shallower water along the inside of this weed line near the reeds growing in the shallower water. During the day, we continued to try drop-shotting various colored RoboWorms and Senkos with no success. The fish only wanted the 4-inch Baby Bass colored Senko. Even the 5-inch Baby Bass Senko didn’t work. My buddy started clipping an inch off the longer Senko to get them to work. By the end of this hot day, we ended with 25 fish. Most of the fish weighed between 1 and 2½ lbs. A couple of dinks were also caught. Eight fish were also lost. We would get a nice bite and set the hook and immediately lose the fish or lose it part way back to the boat. In most cases, our Senko was gone. We were probably setting the hook too soon.
    City: Pinole

    Tips: With a wacky style rigged Senko, perhaps you need to wait a second or two longer before setting the hook to allow the fish to suck the bait all the way in.

Tuesday, June 7th, 2011

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    Water Temp: 70 plus

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Arrived at the lake at 7am.Fished down the north bank to the big island with no results.No surface action no spinnerbait no reaction bite.Pulled in to the first cove on the right throwing grnpurple flake 5 inch dinger and the bite was on.First fish came off a tree on the right,Second fish a big mama close to 9 on the bare bank about 50 yards from where i caught the first fish.Seven quality fish came out of that one cove.Fished around the big island and caught a couple more nice fish in the trees that blew down during the winter storms.Went to the south bank straight across from the big island and fished back towards the ramp.The fish were in the bottoms of the indents in the banks in about 10 feet of water.Best day this year. Go get em.............
    City: Santa Rosa

    Tips: Yorty Creek is a wormers place.Very little rock for crankers but as the water warms Poppers,buzzers and big spooks will take some big fish.

Thursday, June 2nd, 2011

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    Water Temp: 61-63

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished yorty creek area. Jigs,brushogs and lipless crankbaits. Saw several fish still guarding beds but most fish in 5-10 feet around wood.
    City: Novato

    Tips: Try everything.

Friday, May 13th, 2011

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    Water Temp: 65 plus

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: On the lake at 6amm very still and flat glass.Tried top water with zero blowups.Caught fish all day long on Dingers with anise smelum.In the weeds with texas rig and outside with the wacky.I just went down the bank in about 10 feet of water and could see the fish cruising the banks.Lots of small males in the one to two pound class.Bigest close to three....
    City: Santa Rosa

    Tips: No reaction bite on this bluebird day.The rain is coming again this weekend maybe some females will move up since the 17th is a full moon..................

Friday, May 6th, 2011

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    Water Temp: 60 PLUS

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: On the lake at 6am calm and clear with slight breeze.Started down the north bank watchig lots of big fish feeding on open water.Tried a spook for a few cast but no takers. Tried a spinnerbait no takers tried a jerkbait nothing.Moved down the bank casting a dinger with garlic .Caught 3 fish in 3 hours. The wind came up around 9am and switched back to a chartruese and white spinnerbait and nailed 5 nice fish in a half an hour.Total 8 for the day.
    City: SANTA ROSA

    Tips: Wind has been blowing me off the lake since we have been getting warmer weather but spinnerbaits and jerkbaits work good in the wind.........

Friday, April 29th, 2011

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    Water Temp: 60plus

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: WINDY and cold this morning..On the lake at 6am.Thought I would get something on a jerkbait or a chatterbait today but no takers.Really hard to fish the dingers today. I could not get a good hookset.Had about 6 takers but only landed 2.one green and the other brown.
    City: Santa Rosa

    Tips: Just fish ............

Thursday, April 28th, 2011

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    Water Temp: 58 - 61

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: been doing a lot of practice casting around warm springs this week. once the fish start biting again i should be dialed in.
    City: santa rosa

    Tips: get there before the wind does.

Friday, April 22nd, 2011

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    Water Temp: 60plus

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Good day on Yorty.Caught lots of fish. No smallies this week.Tried spinnerbaits.propbaits.shad raps.with no takers...Yum Dingers and garlic did the trick........bare banks and on stumps.
    City: Santa Rosa

    Tips: Presure bite and watch your line.

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    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: On vacation in Windsor and haven't fished here in 20 years. I didn't get there till 12:30 and to my suprise, I caught 4 fish in an hour off the bank near the boat launch. 2 smallies were 3 lbs. and two smaller ones. I splitshot night crawlers and tried plastic worms. This is a great smallmouth lake and I cant wait to fish here in a boat.

    Tips: Walking the bank was very dangerous. I would fish this lake by boat. $3.00 to launch a boat here(that's great).

Thursday, April 21st, 2011

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    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Went out to yorty today with my dad to test out are new kyaks and do some fishin. We started on the side across from the beach wher i hooked a nice 2 lb small mouth on a texas senco ,and then we headed to the back of the yorty inlet about an hour later I hooked a 6 lb 4oz LM on a 1/2 oz bass colored painted blade spinnerbait . I caught one more LM that went 2 1/2 lbs on texas ending the day with three fish and fightin the wind back to the launch.
    City: Healdsburg

    Tips: The fish are there but your line has to be in the water to catch a fish keep castin give em every thing you got.

Sunday, April 17th, 2011

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    Water Temp: 63

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: went out at 5:30 and fished the dam and caught 10 small mouth. drove into yordy creek and cought 13 small mouth and a couple large mouth. had a 23 limit in and 1.5 hours.
    City: rosa

    Tips: use a see through blue and a see through orange

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    Water Temp: 59

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Took my son to yorty creek around 10am. We caught 3 fish in about 2 hours yet saw around 10 others caught. Being it was the weekend it was pretty packed out there, biggest fish we caught went about 4lbs.
    City: Geyserville

Saturday, April 16th, 2011

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    Water Temp: 57-60

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Fishing was tough today. I had one bass while drop shotting in coves with floating wood. A couple more using a crawdad crank bait on rocky banks next to wood but not in or on top of it. I did not see any beded fish.
    City: Napa

    Tips: The water level seems to have drop a good 3 feet in a week, although there is water flowing in. The h2o temp needs to rise. I was at Berryessa two weeks ago and the h20 temp 59-62 and Conn Dam last week with h20 61-63. Those fish are scouting out beds and cruising the shallows.

Friday, April 15th, 2011

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    Water Temp: 58

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Tuff bite on Friday.No rain or wind dead calm.Two green and one brown .Five inch dingers and one on a seven inch dinger.Presure bite.Feel weight and set the hook.
    City: Santa Rosa

    Tips: Good luck...................