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Berryessa Lake and Reports

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Wednesday, February 21st, 2007

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    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Fairly new to fishin this lake. What is meant by fishing the narrows? Is that the area by the dam? Markley cove? Thanks.
    City: antelope

Tuesday, February 20th, 2007

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    Water Temp: 54

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Went out yesterday afternoon...got on the water around 1:30. The wind was blowing steady at around 10mph from the west. Tried a few spots on the east side but the wind and fish didn't want to cooperate. Headed back to the west banks and the fish were in a eating mood. Ripped 3-4 bass to 2.5lbs but caught the majority of the bass on jigs from 5-25ft. Some were on points and others in the bays between points. No concentration of fish just one here and one there...the narrows on Sunday was a different story - where I caught 1 I would catch several. In all we caught 15 bass for 3 hours of work...I mean fun. The bite was very aggressive most of the time.
    City: Fairfield

    Tips: Find transtional areas and ledges...fish seem to be scattered on these areas..some shallow, some on the break and some at the bottom of the ledge. Work the area thuroughly.

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    Water Temp: 51-52

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Short day. Fished for about two hours to get out of the house. Caught two Largemouth outside Pope Creek Bridge on a flat. First one was 3 lb. on a rip bait. Got the second one dragging a creature bait in submerged bushes. Water in the main lake south of the big island is still crystal clear.
    City: Fairfield

Monday, February 19th, 2007

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    Water Temp: 51-53 degrees

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Took a client today from Santa Rosa area. He wanted to learn structure and read the graphs. The day was windy and wild on the main lake so we stayed in the narrows, wraggs, Hains, and parts with no names, LOL!!!!. I showed him how to meter shad on structure and how bass relate to both. We used one bait all day, a DM Costom Bait Stand-up head with a Big Mama in Watermelon. We caught about a dozen fish with the best five between 10-11lbs all between 21ft to 28ft. Not one fish below 30ft, although we tried, they just wouldn't go. All the fish we caught were related to deep deep water nearby, at least 60ft. After about 9 hours of fishing and reading the meters, I didn't read but one ball of shad. All the shad on the meters were either horizontal 2ft off the buttom or im mass on the buttom thick but nothin bother'in them. The fish we caught were skinny but nice 2lb or a little better. Out of a dozen 8 were at this size. I'll be up there again this friday, don't expect much difference with the storm com'in in Wednesday and Thursday.
    City: Bethel Island at Russo's

    Tips: Use your meters to fine the shad, thus you will catch fish. Another pattern that I use at this time of year is Transitional points were the mud becomes rock or visa-versa. Good luck

    Rich Thiel
    www.calbassguide.com

Sunday, February 18th, 2007

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    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Launched at markley at around 10:00 (late start) and fished the narrows. Caught 15 total. mainly throwing dartheads with robo's and grubs. 2 crankin fish, 1 nice spot and smallie. Slow day all in all, but beautiful weather! Pleasure boaters are starting to show.
    City: chico

    Tips: Fish SLOW. Main points not in coves.

Saturday, February 17th, 2007

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    Water Temp: 54

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Hit the water around 8:45 with my good friend Steve. Hit a couple of spots kinda of slow but then Steve went bang, bang, bang and had 4 keep smallies and spots split shotting. I finally got going catching most of mine on either jig or darterhead. Steve stayed pretty much with the slitshotting. Beautiful day very little or no wind. Ended up with at least 40 fish most of them keepers but biggest fish were going about 2 to 2.5 pounds.
    City: Lincoln

    Tips: Brown jig drag real slow, green winnie or similar color 4" worm on the splitshot. Drag real slow.

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    Water Temp: 53

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Went north to muddy puta creek. caught fish on hula grubs and crank baits. Best five went about 13lbs. Talked to A guy that had 24lbs on friday and had 18lbs on saturday with swim baits on points. Looks like I need to learn how to fish swim baits.
    City: Sac

    Tips: Fish were from 5 to 35 feet deep.

Friday, February 16th, 2007

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    Water Temp: 53-55

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: I took a client to Berryessa yesterday to show him some new techniques and some new areas to fish. Unfortunately, being a fireman just getting off-duty, a late call made him an hour late so we didn't get started until 10:30 am. We fished Makley for awhile and had a pretty good bite drop-shotting and one on a jig. As we hit the narrows, one wall produced 4 dropshot bass, including his first one ever! I sensed there was an early bite and we missed it. I was expecting the bite to pick up in the afternoon but it clouded up again and fishing was slow. He actually caught the last and only two we caught near the end of the trip. We wound up with 12 bass, including a 2-3 largemouth and two 2 lb spots. All the rest were quality except one dink. Nice limit near 10 lbs.
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: Most bass appear to still be quite deep as we didn't catch anything in water less than 25-30 feet. When the north end gets murky, bass will be more shallow up there. The morning dawn 4" Robo worm was the favored lunch of our bass. Aaron's Magic also worked. Our top bait was the drop-shotted Basstrix chartreuse/blue plastic 3" minnow. I was surprised the bite was as slow as it was considering the water temp is rising nicely. Many bass are still on winter walls and ledges. Horizontal movements for the shallows really havn't started yet - at least in the south end. Look for 57-59 degree water - then things will pop!

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    Water Temp: 54 degrees

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: My partner & I hit the water about 9:30. Fished in Markley cove caught 1 sm bass. Headed for the
    Narrows and fished the coves & points with plastics. We caught 7 or 8 bass, but the bite seemed slow today.
    City: Woodland

    Tips: Caught most dropshotting with a flashtrix shad. Also Morning Dawn worm on a darterhead. Points seemd the best 20 to 40 ft.

Thursday, February 15th, 2007

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    Water Temp: 49-52

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: The water is getting stained up North, but that did not stop Joe Miller and I front find 30 plus bass. Cranking and riping first thing in the morning and changing to JK jigs and dart head for the rest of the day. Use brown/purple was the best colors.
    City: Rocklin

    Tips: fish slow and 25-40 ft

Tuesday, February 6th, 2007

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    Water Temp: 50.7

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: In the water by 8:30. Fished Markley cove for about 45min. - No takers. Headed for the Narrows and fished coves & points. Caught 10 fish all bass. Too many small ones. One L.M. @ 3-lbs.
    Quit 4pm. All fish released.
    City: Woodland

    Tips: Graphed school in 25 ft and shaded. (1pm) Caught 6 or 7 in same hole before bite quit. Darterhd & dropshot Flashtrix. Robo worm red wine color with chartruse tail worked good. Share the wealth and report your experiences!

Monday, February 5th, 2007

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    Water Temp: 49-51

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: 12 total fish today.Only 1 smallie the rest LMB. 1 on a jig in 12',4 on a white jerkbait,the rest dropshotting in 12'-25'.Fished the far norteast corner of the lake.
    City: Dixon

    Tips: Jerkbait was stopped for all bites.

Sunday, February 4th, 2007

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    Water Temp: 50.4

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Started on east side with 2 small LMB in 30' on dartheads. Nothing on dropshot or worms. Moved to the northend and caught 1 about 2.5 lbs on dropshot in 25'. Nothing else so moved to the narrows - wind started up but nothing. Fished in 25-30' all morning dropshotting, worms and dartheads.

    Tips: Careful of the free launch. Saw a white truck with windows smashed in very early in the am.

Saturday, February 3rd, 2007

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    Water Temp: 48

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: I took my 15 yr old daughter out in the cold for a little fishing in the hopes of catching some early trout. We made it across the lake through the fog with my Lowrance 332c to fish a small cove. She we using night crawlers on a split shot and under a bobber, but the trout we not biting. I switched to a shakey head and grub and caught a couple of bass. We cruised up to mid lake still looking for trout, still no takers. I did catch a smallie on a rip bait and another on the grub. By late morning we gave up on the trout and I handed her my drop shot rod with a 6" morning dawn worm and within a couple minutes she was reeling in a nice smallie. We didn't want the crawlers to go to waste so we hooked one on the drop shot and she caught a largemouth, a smallie and spot up to 2 lbs. I also caught a couple more on the grub and shakey head. Total about 10 fish for the day.
    City: Rohnert Park

    Tips: Drop shot off points down to 40 feet. Rip baits around the flats. Don't forget the live bait if you're taking the kids.

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    Water Temp: 47-50

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: On the water at first light but fog kept me from moving for about and hour. Fished the shorline out of Markley no bites. headed out towards main body fished 3 points picked up to smallies and 1 black to 2 pounds. Headed out to main body points draggin jig and drop shot. over the next 6 hours proceed to boat around 12-15 with a mix bag of blacks and smallies. Went back into the Markley arm worked steeps with chunk rock throwing a darter using a 4" Ivino worm picked up another 15 or so over the next couple of hours. Soft bite had to let them carry it for a bit before sitting the hook. Jig hits were soldid but drop shot and darter were very soft. All in all around 25-30 fish nothing over 2.5. but all but where keepers except for 2. Only 2 spots caught all day.
    City: Lincoln

    Tips: Work slow very slow feel for the load but don't set right away wait for the fish to carry it a bit keep the load feeling and then set the hook. You will still miss some but it worked for me. If I caught ever tick I had I would have caught around 50 or so.

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    Water Temp: 48.5

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Started north end east bank for nothing. Went to the bridge at the start of Putah creek nothing again. Saw two other boats dropshotting there also with nothing. Headed up Putah and started working the rock banks with a jerkbait got one smallmouth just legal. Switched to a 7 inch brown and green Yamamoto thin tail worm and started a slow pick. Ended up with 8 smallmouth and 4 largemouth. All legal fish last fish a largemouth that went almost 5#s. Bite was very light, almost could not feel anything. Just that slight feel of live weight and set the hook. Cold,36 degrees in the am and only 55 in the pm. Water temp never went over 49 degrees.
    City: brisbane ca

    Tips: Work the steep banks slow with brown or green shakin worms or texas rigged . later in the day look for them right up at the waters edge on steep banks. Work real slow.

Thursday, February 1st, 2007

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    Water Temp: 49-51

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: On the lake at 930am. 11 fish with the largest at 2.75 lbs. 8 dropshotted at 16' to 25'. 1 swim senko on top of a point,13'. Caught 2 on a white x-rap jerkbait.Used warmouth and aaron's magic in 4"and 6". Launched at Cappell and never got past the Big Island.
    City: Dixon

    Tips: All our dropshot worms were within 6" of the weight.

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    Water Temp: 50.0

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Family day today so we started out at 11:30am. We ended the day at 4:45pm with abotu 12 fish from 11" to 2.5 lbs most on drop shot and a few on shacky head worm. Brown and green worms worked best for us today. Tried the back of cove in the narrows and got good action. Good luck out there.
    City: San Bruno

Wednesday, January 31st, 2007

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    Water Temp: 50

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Launched @ Markley 10am. Started dropshoting pts. @ the last "No wake sign". 2 bass 1sm & 1
    2.5 lbs. Headed for the straights & 5 more. All 2 lbs or slightly better. Quit around 4pm.
    City: Woodland

    Tips: All but 1 fish caught dropshoting using Flashtrix in Morning Dawn. Worked sides of pts & kept moving. 1 on darterhd & worm in 5'.

    Brand New Lowrance 334 very cool!

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    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Redwood Empire Bass Club next tournament is February 24th out of Capell Cove.We welcome new members both boaters and non boaters to fish with us. Our next meeeting is Tuesday February 13th at 7p.m. at the Rohnert Park Community Center on the corner of Rohnert Park Expressway and Snyder Lane. Our guest speaker will be Rich Thiel a well known Lake Berryessa guide who will be sharing his winning fishing techniques with us. For more info log onto rebc.net or call me at 707-758-5762.
    City: Santa Rosa