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Sunday, May 20th, 2007

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    Water Temp: 66

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Last weekend (Mother's Day) my son and his wife were at the lake. We found a nice quiet cove and spent the day BBQing and fishing from the shore. My son landed a nice 3.5 pound bass using brass and glass and a senko (he likes the same set-up like his Mom) and I landed a 2.25 pound bass on my favorite crawdad. I had set up a rod with a hotdog for bait and left it on the boat with a bell attached and my wife and daughter-in-law were watching it. After awhile we all forgot about it until we heard the bell ringing and I pulled in a 8lbs+ catfish it was a real fatty. This past weekend we attended the Berryessa For All BBQ at Steele Park and had a great time. I had a table set up with fishing samples from Berkely Baits, Procure Scents, Eagle Claw Hooks, Spro Lures, Mustad, Bang Scent from Hi's Tackle Box in San Francisco, etc. I handed these out to the kids and to any adult who came by. I met up with Rick at the BBQ and asked him if he would like to go fishing later that afternoon and he said sure. Before we left the dock, I showed him a few pointers on how to use the plastics, crankbaits and topwater lures. We headed out to my favroite cove at an area that was only three feet deep and I had him throw the crankbait first with no luck. Then I had him throw a blue and white PopR and after throwing it numerous times he had his first rollover and landed a 2.5 pound bass. He kept throwing the topwater lure and kept catching fish till he caught a large bass that ripped the line and we lost the lure (and the fish). On Sunday I fished from the dock and I taught some kids how to catch carp. Three of the carp landed by the kids were over the 4 pound mark. All in all it was a very nice weekend and the fishing can only get better. 'til next week.........good fishing!!
    www.fishingconnection.net If you have fishing stories you would like to share please email me at bestguide@hotmail.com or call me at 650-583-3333.
    City: NAPA

    Tips: TOP WATER Fishing is HAPPENING

Friday, May 18th, 2007

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    Water Temp: 68.5

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: What a great day on the lake Had blow ups all day through the afternoon took my wife and kids , both my daughters caught fish on plastics it was crazy I fished top water all day and produced some nice fish. Fished my normal spots around markley cove and no fish, couple dinks, went to the narrows fished the rock banks, nope !nada! So I picked up and looked for some new fishing grounds and booom... found some coves that were packed with smallies and large mouth had a good time, 25 plus fish through out the day with a kicker 4.5 lb large mouth cought on bill dance top water lure, all in all, had a good time for my last day on vacation ,
    City: Elmira Ca

    Tips: Most areas have been fished heavy , Dont be afraid to venture out to new areas, some coves dont look so good on the bank, but have lots of stucture under water moss beds trees etc. So even if it dont look good try it anyway. Was trowing top water over areas with underwater points that went out a long ways they were smashing it off shore 25 to 30 feet

Tuesday, May 15th, 2007

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    Water Temp: 66

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: a fishermans dream, blow ups all day never left markleys cove i slaughtered them in the delta sun ,went out to lake and boom bigest was 6 .3 oz on top water . went threw a bag of worms total of 40 fish , at least .. lots of dinks but early am produced some big large mouth on top water Bill Dance Edition. big fish barfed up a dead bird in live well there were feathers all over in my well.. nice !! any how going to delta next to smoke um .tight lines later plastic man
    City: Elmira Ca

    Tips: wind really sucked ........ went really light 4 inch purple plastic wit 1/8 once bullet most caught on top water tough fishing in the wind find cover

Saturday, May 12th, 2007

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    Water Temp: 64

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Saturday was a night mare went out and wind was blowing hard left markleys and went to cappel and caught lots of dinks small mouth 1 lbers on 4 inch purple plastic worm tex stlye was a slaughter but nutin big .
    City: Elmira Ca

    Tips: fish on the weekday if you can to many f%$#@& skiers .

  • By

    Water Temp: 64

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Saturday was a night mare went out and wind was blowing hard left markleys and went to cappel and caught lots of dinks small mouth 1 lbers on 4 inch purple plastic worm tex stlye was a slaughter but nutin big .
    City: Elmira Ca

    Tips: fish on the weekday if you can to many f%$#@& skiers .

Sunday, May 6th, 2007

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    Water Temp: 65

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: I arrived at the lake late Friday afternoon. The lake looked like a mirror. I headed to my favorite cove and decided I would only use a chugger for top water and a River2Sea crawdad for the bottom. My second cast with the chugger was hit by a smallmouth bass a little over two pounds. I love to fish top water and I have been waiting for them to hit and it finally happened. With over eighty fish caught on top water with the average fish weighing in at two ounces (smaller then the chugger!!!!!). They were so cute and adorable and really hungry. I changed over to the crawdad using Procure scented gel (crawdad flavor). I landed an eight pound female with a huge belly and let her go immediately so she could go back to her nest. About an hour later I landed a 3.5 to 4 pound bass. I was so pleased that I did well and I hoped the weekend would continue this way. Saturday everything changed. The wind picked up (approx. 30 miles an hour) so forget about trying to fish in the main body of the lake. Even staying in some coves was next to impossible. It looked like everyone was gathering in Capell Cove because it was a little more sheltered. Needless to say fishing was not the greatest. Lucky for me I had a great Friday evening and night to fish. I am hoping next weekend will be calmer and that the top bite will still be on. 'til next week...............................good fishing!!!!!!
    www.fishingconnection.net If you have any fishing stories you would like to share please email me at bestguide@hotmail.com or call me at 650-583-3333.
    City: NAPA

    Tips: let your kids be taught how to fish may 19 at steel park resort,many free gifts for the under 18

Tuesday, May 1st, 2007

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    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Sorry, nothing above 1.5 lbs and only a couple small hits on topwater, (spooks, buzz baits)

  • By

    Water Temp: 68

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished on Monday till about 1:00. Caught about 25 in the Putah Creek arm. Bad thing was, they were all pretty small with nothing above 2.5 lbs. It was a good mix of LG, SM, and spotts. Fished mostly rock walls. Caught them from 5 to 20 feet or so. Caught a lot on drop shop with robo worms, blue, purple, red and brown seemed to all work. Also caught some on dark senkos casted into the trees.

Monday, April 30th, 2007

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    Water Temp: 66.7 -- 68

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Subject : FISHING WITH SID #1

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    Attachment : nader.jpg (0.03 MB), MVC-005S.JPG (0.07 MB), MVC-010S.JPG (0.07 MB)

    I got to the lake on Friday afternoon and it felt like the middle of summer. I headed out by myself and started fishing the wall on the left side going towards Capell Cove. In about thirty-five feet of water I cast towards the shore line which was loaded with fallen trees and picked up some nice largemouth bass. I was using my favorite River2Sea crawdad with Procure crawdad gel. On Saturday I set out early and went into my favorite cove. The fish seemed like they were on the bite no matter where you fished. Later in the morning I picked my wife up and we decided to try our luck near the Ranch house. Boat traffic was pretty heavy in that area which produced alot of waves and made it a bit difficult for us to fish the way we like too. I managed to get a few bites and landed two nice size bass but my wife had no luck. After a while she decided to go in. I dropped her off and went back to my favorite cove near Steele Park and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening there. It was a three quarter moon and a very pleasant evening. It seemed like the bass were going for anything I was throwing. Sunday morning I went out with Jason and Nader to teach them how to catch bass with light tackle. My first stop was Spanish Flats where I showed the boys what a fourteen pound bass looked like. Our second stop was the three points by the BOR. I set their rods up with brass and glass one rod had a senko and the other a floating worm. I taught them how to feel the bottom and Jason got a hit and landed a nice spotted bass. We fished a few different spots in that area and both boys were doing well. At one point we changed to weightless senkos and fished a shallow rocky area and the bass were just hitting one after another. The following pictures show what a great day it was also a picture of Nader holding his 10+pound bass. 'til next week................good fishing!!!!! www.fishingconnection.net If you have any stories to share please email me at bestguide@hotmail.com or call me at 650-593-3333.
    City: Napa

    Tips: At key places ,lots of fish structure structure structure ETC.

Sunday, April 29th, 2007

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    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Hey guys & gals. After really reading what I wrote, I realized this is a family site & that even though my 4 letter words were funked,(#$@!), they were still readable. Sorry 'bout that. I'll keep it clean in the future. P.S. That 20' ZXSKEETER w/ a 200 yamaha VMAX I might of suggested was mine.....NOT! that's my girlfriend of 5 years' boat. lol

    Tips: marry the first girl you love, trust, and oh ya...has a bass boat. :)

  • By

    Water Temp: 64-66

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Just read Matt's previous report - don't know if I am always "dialed in" - but we were on Friday! Nice people and nice fishing!! We caught some above average size bass and topwater is happin'! This young couple (married 8 months) is into bass fishing!! He had the GPS going and she wrote everything down on a ledger including every bass we caught - all 22 of them! Our weight was fine - about 14 1/4 lbs for the five best. A 3-6 spot was the biggest, caught by hubby on a 4" morning dawn Robo worm. I had them using Storm Chug Bugs in the early morning - fishing shadows as long as we could. I really don't know why but I gave her the frog colored bug with a red bottom. They loved it!! A 2-13 largemouth blew up on it about 15 feet away from the boat - scared us to death - but she didn't panic and landed it! The bone color with an orange bottom worked too. About 10 am some quality bass went on a feed and we landed several in the 2 1/2 to 3 lb range - amazing! We found these quality bass on flats with deep water nearby. A morning dawn Robo worm was on the menu for the day - providing action most of the day with just a few dead spots. Smallies were back on Friday - we caught a lot of them. After I said my goodby's to my clients, I went back out, found some shade and took a nap. Started evening fishing with the chug bugs and caught 6, but nothing over 2 1/4 lbs. I did a bit of night fishing but found it to be slow. I only caught 3 around Big Island, using black Power worms.
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: It seems we are in the spawn and post-spawn periods and the bite is a little unpredictable. This is a good time to try topwater - even during the day. Much of the downed timber is out of the water but there is enough in the water to make topwater a good bet - just fish the very end of the trees. Senkos are very good this time of year - darker colors early and late, and lighter colors mid-day. #240 is very good in the summer!

  • By

    Water Temp: 63-65

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: fished all day at the south end sunday catching lots of spots, some S.M. & only 3-4 L.M. Most fish were taken on crankbaits w/ a few on shaky heads. It didn't seem to matter what color. Even thew some in colors I never tried before. Seemed anything gaudy & bright worked. (orange,yellow bellies) Most smacked 'em on the mud line in about 5-8' in or over the emerging grass beds. Downside.... the best fish went for only about 1 & 3/4 lbs. I still had a great time out w/ girl by my side. She landed the biggest fish @ around 4-5 lbs. on trout smimbait, earlier in the day we saw a 5-7 pounder follow the same bait right up to the boat. Man that's a rush. CRAZY STORY TIME!!!! AS usual, saw turkeys on the hillsides while fishing a cove. BOOOM!, turkeys flushing everywhere. F!#@in' poachers i tell my girl. Threw in into high gear around the corner to find a 17-19 year old in camo walkin towards his boat. Tried to call authorities,but no reception. Motored in the cove & got close enough to spit on him w/out getting off the boat. After drillin' him, he finally admitted to me, it wasn't him, but his friend, who was still hiding up in the woods, who shot a turkey. He said it was legal & BLM. I said bull#*@$. I told him when i was scouting for quail, the only huntable land was in the far N.W. area. EVerything else was private or federal land. He was scared & nervous & apologized profusely for putting us & the community in danger & not knowing the law. Before leaving I yelled up the hill that "your friend;s a little chickens## for not coming down" & took off for pleasure cove marina (3 min. away) to call the authorities. Tell ya the truth, I was close to letting them go w/ just a verbal lickin', but then thought no way! I HATE poachers! They'll just do it again. Anyway, figuring i had a 200 horse skeeter compared to their 15 horse i thought i could report it & get back to find them escaping out to the main lake somewhere. No such luck. They were gone. And even after telling the police damn near exactly where we were & what kind of boat we were in (middle of lake where pleasure cove dumps you into the main lake where you can go east to the dam, three way split) and them telling me they had 2 police boats in the area they could send, no one came. Waste of a couple of hours & my f#@*ing tax dollars. Sorry, no happy endings here. Guess guys poaching game w/ hand cannons 50 yards from shore around occupied coves isn't priority.I apologize for ranting...guess I just needed to get it out. 23 fish for the boat w a mixed bag of spots s.m. & l.m. all c/r. I'm kinda new on the lake, can anybody give me a tip on finding the big ens'? All i could guess was deeper. I fished to 12' w/ cranks & 20' w/ shaky heads.

    Tips: work mud lines of often overlooked muddied traffic areas if bite slows in coves. fish grassbeds for lots of small ones.(quantity over quality?)lol .

  • By

    Water Temp: 61

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Sorry guys, my posting should have read April 29th, and not April 9th.
    City: San Ramon

Friday, April 27th, 2007

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    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Chris, thanks for the resonse.. there were carp in the area.. very large carp. but the water was very clear and I was able to also make out bass. many of them on beds. anyway i was able to get bites with a weighted senko fished off the bottom (should have stuck with this as it was producing) .. a couple of the fish surface pretty close to my boat and they were bass. not real large... i threw the weightless senko at them and they would move towards it but would not strike it.
    City: Vacaville

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    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: fished from 9am-1pm on the north end of the lake. 10 decent sized fish (best abt 3 lbs), mix of spots, lm and 1 sm bass. caught most on senko's. also tried new swim senko got a few tail bites but no takers. as the day warmed up I could see many bass surfacing to feed on something. there did not appear to be any baitfish. so all I can guess is that there must have been some kind of a insect hatch. any one else observe this? I could not get these fish to bite anything. not even a weightless senko.
    City: Vacaville

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    Water Temp: 60/65

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Ran up to Putah Creek for a change. Love the area. My buddy Mike Dean and I caught 40 decent fish. Tubes in shad patterns worked best. I like to check the teeth of my fish to see how sharp the teeth are. Today they were like razors. So the shad bite was on. We tried to make the shakey worm work like it did on clear lake but the tubes kicked butt. We caught a real mixed bag of smallies (bless there hearts) spots and blacks. Largest fish was a nice smallie 2.5 lbs. Best 5 were 10+. Played tag with an 18 wheeler going to lake and had to wait for CHP to make report or we could have tried top water baits. My triton fender looks like a shark tried to eat it. What a bad driver. But it's all good. Bella Vista is 8 and 0 in softball Capital league and life is good.Take your camera to the lake and catch the eagles and deer.
    City: orangevale

    Tips: Some fish wanted bait dead still some ate it reeling it in? Fish 5 to 15 feet.

Wednesday, April 25th, 2007

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    Water Temp: 61-64

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: I thought I was at Clear Lake today! The wind blew from the north this morning and then rather strongly from the south in the afternoon as clouds moved in. The cool down didn't help the bite as my client and I only caught 14 and missed several. We fished the narrows and Skiers Cove. We caught a few on topwater this morning which was fun. The fish got bigger about noon with another spot a little under 3 lbs being the biggest. We caught other nice spots between 2 and 2 1/2 lbs also. Things really changed in two days. The smallies were very active in preceeding trips - today, only one! Only 2 or 3 largemouth also, the rest - all spots. Thankfully the spots bite when the weather acts up!
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: We caught bass from 5 feet deep to 20+ feet - really no pattern. Our quality spots were all found on off-shore structure. Smaller bass were on the bank. The small brush hog in watermelon and green pumpkin again was the top attracter. The Chug Bug and the Sammey produced our topwater action, though most of the bass we caught and missed were smaller. Tough day to figure out the bite. I thought the cloud cover would turn them on - it didn't!

Thursday, April 19th, 2007

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    Water Temp: 61-63

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: After a slow trip on Friday and the present cold front - didn't know what to expect today! I think the second day of a cold front is a bite killer - but this was the THIRD day and guess what - they bit!!! A father son team and I landed 29 bass up to near 3 lbs and our limit was in the 14 lb range. We caught bass in the narrows on nearly everything we threw except rips, cranks, and topwater. The biggest bass was a largie an ounce or two under 3 lbs which hit a Rodstrainer jig. Senkos in my favorite colors - 221 and 222 were a bit hit with all species of bass. Dad caught his first few Senko bass ever. Six misses and then he scored!!! He also did what he did on the last trip - caught some real nice post-spawn smallies. We found most of our bass on steep walls with irregular features - a dent or slight point. Senkos worked well in brush - though much of it is out of the water. Robo worms in the 6 and 7 inch size produced over half of our bass. MMIII and salt river craw were the best colors today - probably because of a mostly cloudy day.
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: When the weather warms, maybe the topwater action will pick up. Water is still in the low 60's - amazing for late April. Small rock produced better that large rock. Remember to move around - some places did not produce any bass for us. I was proud of the son part of the team - he did well too - he did learn to worm fish better today I think! Nice Day!! PS - the bite is still very soft - just pressure. We did get a few bites but I expect more nice bites when the water finally warms.

Sunday, April 15th, 2007

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    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Took two novice fisherman out on a howling day (white caps)to try for some bass. Went into some coves and caught some spots on dropshots in 15'. When it calmed (meaning very small white caps)tried the east side but no takers. Went to big island with just about everyone else and caught somemore spots dropshotting. Finally, went up to the narrows and fished the day in calmer water. No big fish, a few in the 2lbs. No smallies. Caught only a dozen or so and lost a few more.
    City: south San Francisco

    Tips: Used dropshot with 3" worms. Bite very light. Caught a few on senkos when the wind calmed. Watermelon with red. Fish holding tight to cover. Stayed in 30' Afternoon bite much better with senkos and dartheads.

  • By

    Water Temp: 61-64

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: I had the priviledge of guiding a police officer from the bay area on Thursday and 2 San Fran. firefighters on Friday. Great guys - who deserved better fishing than they got! Thursday the wind only gusted to 35 MPH so we stuck in the narrows and actually caught 14 bass - the five biggest at 11 1/2 lbs - including some nice largemouth. This was his first bass trip and he caught 6 or 7 in the horrible cold wind. Friday was a mystery - the weather straightened out though it didn't warm up much and the the bite didn't either. I thought the bass would recover more but they didn't and the bite was tough. My clients were good fishermen too. We only caught 12 and the biggest came to the back seater - a 2 1/4 lb smallie - spawned out! There was an amazing amount of boats on the water Friday and they did create a mudline which did bring in some shallow bass.
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: Again, 6" Robo worms produced most of our bass - MMIII being the best color again. Splitshotting and Texas rigged seemed to have equal results. Friday morning one of the guys threw topwater and did get a little action. He had two small blowups and one pretty good one, but they wern't aggressive enough to connect. Topwater should take off with the next warming trend. The big bass on Thurs - a 3 lb spotted bass, hit a crankbait on the windy side of a wall. We should have followed that pattern more! Senkos worked both days for a few bass (#221 and 222). That pattern will develop in the next few weeks - just throw one off a point in about 20-25 feet of water and be patient! The females will suspend off the points and are suckers for a slow falling Senko. Number 240 starts working well for this technique. I agree with the previous poster - the bite should improve again as the weather settles down. As I am typing this, the post-front north wind is howling again here in Yuba City. Remember, bass like long streaks of steady weather and stable or warming water temps!