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Berryessa Lake and Reports

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Sunday, March 27th, 2011

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    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Brandon,

    Nice job on the tourney...I don't fish this lake too often but plan on fishing there next week and not real familiar with the Vinyards; how deep were you crankin and how deep were the fish? Any particular color work best for you guys? Appreciate any info.
    City: Galt

Saturday, March 26th, 2011

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    Water Temp: 50-53

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: My partner and I fished the Future Pro event today and killed em on crank baits!!!! It took over 22 pounds to win, we ended up in 3rd place with 19.5 pounds. We fished main body stuff mostly in the vineyards area SHALLOW. we caught 18 fish on crank baits and a couple on jigs all fish were over 3 pounds with 2 over 5. Wind blown points were all we fished and worked great for us.
    City: roseville

Sunday, March 13th, 2011

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    Water Temp: 51-55

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished school house with crawdad crank and basstrix drop shot and caught two butter balls on each. Then fished skiers cove and marked fish every were and could not get bit. I tried main lake rocky shores with trees down NOT a BITE. Then I decided to shot over to Markley cove and cruise with the trolling motor on high and look for beds. I was unable to find one. Only fished for 4 hrs before the rain chased me home.
    City: Napa

    Tips: This SUPER MOON on the 19th might start something in the right direction. GOOD FISHIN.

Saturday, March 12th, 2011

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    Water Temp: 52.5-57

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Slow Day. Found fish off main points in about 30 feet of water scatterd throughout water column. Couldn't get bit all day on reaction baits. Threw spinnerbaits, jerk baits, crawdad cranks, etc. Saw school of shad with bigger fish and caught one on a spoon. Tried catching the others with her and no luck. Fished main body of lake. then finaaly at end of day caught 3 fish in same spot. 2 on the crawdad crank that I threw all day, and 1 on a oxblood roboworm dropshotting. The 3 came out of Putah Creek off a submerged rock in 5 feet. Saw ZERO beds in all the coves I went into and no cruisers. Fish on my graph were spread from 6 feet all the way down to 100 feet. Got a ball of shad with some marks on my new Lowrance HDS in 100 feet but wasn't that motivated to fish 100 feet! Plus I couldn't get bit with marks found in 30 feet anyway..
    City: Sacto

    Tips: Hard to pattern fish on only 1 bite. Caught the spoon fish up against a rocky wind blown bank about mid way back into a small cove. Then graphed fish on end of several ponts in 30 feet with no luck.

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    Water Temp: 54 to 58

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: launch fees $15.00 Markley Cove off season
    City: orland

Monday, March 7th, 2011

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    Water Temp: Cold

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Why pay $20 when you can launch for free?
    City: Free Launch

Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011

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    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: I work here in the office at Markley Cove Resort and we have receive numerous calls asking about the launch fee. After being given the correct amount (see Tips), a lot of callers tell us they saw it was $30 on your website & couldn't believe it!! It would be so great if you could update this. Thanks very much and happy fishing!
    City: Winters

    Tips: Markley Cove Resort Launch Fees:
    Off-Peak Season $15
    Peak Season $20

Sunday, February 20th, 2011

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    Water Temp: 50 degree

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Fished in Markley Cove for only about 4 hours catching KY Spots. From 3:00 to 4:30 pm the fish turned on. Largest was 3.5 lbs using a tube bait. The rest of the Spots were caught on Shakey heads and Robo worms in Oxblood color. Fish were schooled up around 20 to 30 feet.
    City: Davis

    Tips: Fish the docks and fish around 30 feet deep.

Saturday, February 12th, 2011

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    Water Temp: 51-53

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: We had a beautiful Spring like day for our fifth Berryessa Pro Team Tournament, the air temperature was 70 degrees and the water temperature was 51-54 degrees. The top teams reported that the fish were chewing pretty good, but for most it was a tough tournament. Thanks to the 21 teams for coming to Markley Cove February 12, 2011; a great turnout again with some solid bags of fish coming to the scales. Blast-Off was great, clear and not too cold. At the weigh-ins it was a warm beautiful afternoon (when you were in the sun). The nice weather made the bite tough for most teams; I guess the fish haven’t moved up in a lot of places yet. The top teams managed to find some nice largemouth that moved up, fishing the points in the main lake from 2’- 20’. The top finishing teams seemed to get a lot of bites, and culled up until they got the right bites! A lot of nice 3# - 4# largemouth with a few nice smallies and spots were brought to the scales. Few fish were caught with reaction baits; most fish came on jigs, and worms with the points in the main body being the most productive. Teams reported fish being caught in 2-25 feet of water as well as 20-40 feet in crawdad colors and shad colors. I want to thank our sponsors: Centennial Batteries, Guns Fishing & Stuff, Alan Fong, Dobyns Rods, Tomat’s Restaurant, Oroville Outdoors, Don Sebastiani Winery, Kazoku Teriyaki & More, Markley Cove, and Winters True Value Hardware for supporting the 2010-2011 Berryessa Pro Team Trail! With a very impressive First Place finish by Father & Son Team Jack & Colton Jeha (Alamo) who came to the scales with a big sack of 18.77#s. Stephen Seals(Windsor) fishing by himself took Second place honors weighing an excellent 16.32# bag. Third Place went to a new Father & Son Team Shane & Tom Peirson(Roseville)weighing a solid 15.22# bag with a 4.82# kicker for the big fish honors. Fourth Place was Art Narverud (Vallejo) and James Kimura(Vallejo)with a 14.91# bag. Fifth Place was Dave Perez (San Jose) and John Trujillo (Milpitas) with a 14.42# bag and last out of the money was Shawn Taylor(El Sobrante)and Ravin Persaud(Oakland) being consistant and weighing a 14.33# bag. Again Thanks to the new teams for joining the Berryessa Pro Team Circuit and to all the other teams that fished another great tournament on Lake Berryessa! See you all at the next tournament on March 27, 2011. Check-in at Markley Cove. Any questions email me at dukekalani@yahoo.com or call me at (530)795-2659. Tournaments Remaining: 3/27/11 (Sixth); 4/17/11 (Seventh & Last) SAVE YOUR RAFFLE TIX!!!!! Gonna have over $200 cash for last tournament.

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    Water Temp: 50.2 - 54-6

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: I guided two good fishermen yesterday and we found the bite to be fairly decent in spite of the 30-31 degree morning, and the previous very cold morning. They are preparing for a tournament so, as is my policy, cannot say much on this post. We did fish spots from Markley Cove to well up the main body - and some did produce quality bass. They caught 6 of our 7 bass and lost about as many. I caught one and missed a few too. Their best bass was a 3 lb+ largemouth that was very shallow. I was pleased with the quality that they put together with limit a little over 13 lbs. I thought that was good since we ran around the lake as much as we fished. Beautiful day (after the first 2 hours, brrrrr), green hills, and good loking bass. I always complain about the lack of wind there lately, especially last fall. Well - here it is - the slight breeze yesterday was perfect for fishing!!!!!
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: As many of you know, we keep our head in the meter during the fall looking for bait. In the late winter and spring, we keep out head in the meter looking at the water temp numbers. Those numbers dictate what the bass are going to do this time of year. It's not the number so much as whether the numbers are going up or going down. And - where is the highest number likely to be! Then you need to match the water temp with the present air temps! Solving that puzzle is one of the major keys to success in the spring!!

Saturday, February 5th, 2011

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    Water Temp: 50

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Weather temp was 70 and windy with lots of chop on the water on the main lake. Launched out of Markley Cove around 8:00 and fished until 1:00 pm. Caught three nice fish all around 2.5 lbs on drop shot Robo Worm, Oxblood in 20-25 feet of water on main points. Missed one bite but it felt like a quick tap from a small fish. Lots of boats on the water, seemed like a boat on every point at times.
    City: Elk Grove

    Tips: Watch your graph...every time I saw three or four fish on the graph together is when I got my bite; could never cast back in the same spot and get bit again.

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    Water Temp: 50

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Weather temp was 70 and windy with lots of chop on the water on the main lake. Launched out of Markley Cove around 8:00 and fished until 1:00 pm. Caught three nice fish all around 2.5 lbs on drop shot Robo Worm, Oxblood in 20-25 feet of water on main points. Missed one bite but it felt like a quick tap from a small fish. Lots of boats on the water, seemed like a boat on every point at times.
    City: Elk Grove

    Tips: Watch your graph...every time I saw three or four fish on the graph together is when I got my bite; could never cast back in the same spot and get bit again.

Tuesday, February 1st, 2011

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    Water Temp: 55

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Fished the narrows and got my limit of 5. Largest being 3 pounds, fished deep and shallow and produced the limit.
    City: Sacramento

    Tips: Jig and crankbait

Sunday, January 23rd, 2011

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    Water Temp: 51

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Try this knot. I call it a Collin's knot. For any size line to any size line, but especially good for flourocarbon or mono to braid. For right handed person: Double about 4 to 6 inches of braid in your right hand. In left hand, hold the tag end of the mono or fluro, pointing towards your right hand. Twirl the doubled braid 7 times around the mono or fluro from right to left, starting at a point 3 inches from the tag end. Now, without letting go of the braid, take the tag end of mono/fluro and run it through the little loop formed at the end of the braid while pinching the mono/fluro to form a hard tight 180 degree in the fluro/mono. With the right hand, pull on the braid standing line and tag end simultaneously, while with the left hand, pull the standing fluro/mono against the braid slowly while providing spit or chapstick for lubrication. Maintain the 180 degree bend by pinching the bend point when drawing the knot tight. I have used this knot sucessfully on largemouths to 180 yellowfin tuna without fail. This may seem like and albright knot, but is not. Actually I was trying to tie an albright when a customers salmon got tangled in the prop and I had to cut the line and resplice. I have been using this "wrong albright" for over 20 years, and never broken it on a fish.
    City: Half Moon Bay, CA

    Tips: try this knot.

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    Water Temp: 48

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Well it didn't start out like I planned...Launched out of Markley Cove at 8:00 was planning to head to Putah Creek to start fishing, about the time I got to Pope Creek started to have motor problems. Not sure if I got bad fuel or something else is going on; engine started to sputter then had no power and finally couldn't keep it running. After almost two hours limped back to Markley Cove via the trolling motor. Hope everybody else had a better day; I must say it was a nice day even though I didn't get to fish.
    City: Elk Grove

Sunday, January 16th, 2011

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    Water Temp: 52-56

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: It was a beautiful winter day to have the fourth Berryessa Pro Team Tournament, also a tough tournament for most teams. Thanks to the 21 teams for coming to Markley Cove January 16, 2011; a great turnout with some big fish coming to the scales. Like the third tournament, there was a little fog, but safe to navigate in on pad. Again we had beautiful weather, a little foggy to start, and a warm afternoon for the weigh-in. The nice weather made the bite tough for most teams; a lot of teams had 6-8 bites all day! Even the top finishing teams had few bites, but they were the right bites! Fish were caught with reaction baits, jigs, and worms; with the points in the main body being the most productive. Teams reported fish being caught in 5-25 feet of water. I want to thank our sponsors: Centennial Batteries, Guns Fishing & Stuff, Alan Fong, Dobyns Rods, Tomat

    Tips: Main lake points, 2-60, look for the bait

Friday, December 31st, 2010

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    Water Temp: 52

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Launched out of Markley Cove around 7:30 am temp was about 30 degrees. Started fishing in Haines Cove and caught a 2.5 lb within the first 45 minutes, had three other bites but lost them, for some reason just couldn't keep them hooked. Fished the narrows without any bites then moved to Skiers canyon and caught a nice fish on the flat right at the entrance but he snapped my off at the boat, if I had to guess maybe a 3.5 lb. Moved to the ranch house and fished the flats and caught two small fish, then moved to Pope Canyon and fished at the bridge with no luck, moved out to School House Isl. and caught one small one. All in all tough day bites were scattered like the fish and I seemed to lose more than I caught, not sure why I couldn't keep them hooked? My fishing partner caught two small fish one on a square bill crankbait in about 10 feet of water and the other on a texas rigged magic worm (morning dawn). Talked with a couple of boats who all said bite was tough and between the 3 other boats they had four fish, guess we got lucky. To fishing45, again thank you for the tips and we probably passed on the lake I was in a Ranger Z520 Black/Silver but I got off the lake around 1:30 pm. Happy New Year to you all and to Fishin45 hope to run into some time on the lake, take care and its nice to see you enjoy fishing with your son and its great you get to spend time together, nothing beats thats!
    City: West Sacramento

    Tips: Caught my biggest fish on a sweet beaver (Oxblood) in small laydown, caught two on drop shot and one on a jig. Fish SLOW and methodical I caught most of my fish after about 3 or 4 casts to the same location from different angles. Take your time and really work an area before you move on, patience is a virtue...fish SLOW!

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    Water Temp: 53

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: well my fishing buddy and my 10yr old son, and i hit the water yesterday around 8 to find stained water and quite a chill in the air.

    to my surprise we were one of about 15 other boats launching at capell, glad to see that there are lots of other crazy fisherman out there....:)


    we fished all over the lake today. we started in the old spanish flat area and picked up a couple fish right away, and from there on out it was work.

    we ended the day with 5 in the boat (1) jig fish (2) rip bait fish and the others on a drop shot.

    we had several lost fish today, 2 lost on the ripbait and 1 that broke my son off at the boat (easy 4+ spot).

    after the first 2 of the morning the day was slow till the wind came up, after the wind started blowing we found the fish on top of submurged island tops as shallow as 5 to 6 feet and they were interested in the ripbait mostly . we did get a dropshot fish off the tops as well but for some reason i lost several with the rip bait on jumps from the fish. booooooo on my part.

    also my 10 yr old son didnt complain once about the hi of 40 degrees yesterday, boy did that make me proud he also didnt want to leave after that big fish he lost. it is very satisfying when your kid looks at you with frozen snot on his face, red cheeks and begs not to leave and wanting to know when we can come back to catch steve ( dont ask me why but he likes to name his fish he catches)the one that got away. sorry we missed you bass man, hope you did well, keep your eyes peeled for me im in a maroon,red,and black r71 ranger, so say hi if you see me around.
    City: san lorenzo

    Tips: keep your head up this time of year the fish are not jumping in the boat, and patience will give you a better chance of a limit. green pumpkin robo worms claimed the most fish, but the ripbait with long pauses had the bigger fish biting. hi spots and long points seemed to be the only bites and the river looked like the contents of my coffee cup.

    good luck all and have a great 2011

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    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: I have only fished this lake once some 6 years ago; li am ooking to go out this Friday and was wondering if anyone had any tips on locations and what baits seem to be working this time of year?

    Thank you in advance for any advice...Have a Happy New Year!!!
    City: West Sacramento

Thursday, December 30th, 2010

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    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Fishin45, THANK YOU for you insight and information, I appreciate you sharing that information and I do have the bait colors you suggested. Good luck to you on Friday and maybe we can compare fish at the ramp.
    City: West Sacramento