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Berryessa Lake and Reports

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Saturday, December 10th, 2005

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    Water Temp: 55

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: We got a late start and were on the lake by 9am. Fished less than five minutes and we had our first three pound largemouth. The fish were just wacking the cranks today. All in all, we caught six largemouth and four smallies three pounds or better and one thirteen inch largemouth.Nothing on plastics today. We fished twelve to eighteen feet and there had to be weeds. The bite died when the whitecaps started.
    City: Santa Rosa

    Tips: Find deep weeds and you've found the fish. We did a lot of pulling weeds off the hooks, but the bass were there and aggressive.

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    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: ROCK BOTTOM JIGS ROCK UP HERE IN THE WINTER..

    Tips: JIGS

Sunday, December 4th, 2005

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    Water Temp: 57

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: threw reaction first thing in the morning caught 4plus lb large mouth then dropped shot 4 and 6 inch worms 40 -60 feet deep caught 10 plus fish on robo worms finished the day with a 10.67lb limit great day on the water see you next tourney 1 15 06 rastrike
    City: el cerrito

    Tips: try large mouth first if not biting go for the spots and smalley good luck

Monday, November 21st, 2005

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    Water Temp: 63-64

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: I had another "crowd" in my new Ranger 520 for a guide trip on Sat - a father, 12 year old son, and 19 year old cousin. I decided to take them during the same time frame as last week - starting at 9:30 and fishing 'til dark. Once out of Markley Cove, I parked the boat and got out the rigs and explained some basics of bass fishing as this was everyone's first bass trip. We started with Camanche Jack's 4 and 6 inch worms - Texas and split-shot rigged. I had the 12 year old up front with me as we started fishing a big shadow area. Was I excited to see that they all could cast like pros. It was amazing. Within the first 15 minutes, the boy puts his first bass in the boat - about 12 inches. Then his second - near 14 inches - and his third - 14 7/8 inches! Wow - a natural! I can hear his thinking - "boy, there's nothing to this bass fishing"!! Of the 17 bass we caught, he caught 9, 8 tournament keepers!!! The 19 year old did ok, landing 4 and loosing a big one. I fished a little and landed 4 also. Dad struggled and didn't land any, but did take a ton of photos! We just fished the narrows since I didn't see a need to go anywhere else. We tried to fish shadows most of the time and I think that was a good decision. I knew there would be some really deep fish, but it is hard to get newcomers to fish 60 feet of water. Luckily, we found plenty of quality bass in the 15 to 35 foot range. I tried rippin' and topwater for fun, but no takers! Our limit was only about 9 1/2 lbs, but these folks are already planning a spring trip - and a night trip - and who knows what else. New converts to this great sport!
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: We saw the houseboat carrying the government folks involved in the Saturday meeting in Winters. They were touring the lake before the meeting and were headed back to Markley Cove. We boated over to the houseboat and waved to everyone, showing them how pleased we were to be fishing such a great lake. Nearly 700 people attended the meeting I heard. People better start paying attention to this situation if we are to continue to enjoy this great sport on this great lake! Back to the fishing, morning dawn and purple ghost worms were the best colors for us in the clear water. Points with sharp edges, as they usually do this time of year, held a lot of the fish we caught. Shadowed walls with brush also held nice bass. Our biggest bass was only about 2 1/4 pounds. The 12 year old did himself proud with a 2 lb 3 oz largemouth. He's hooked on bass fishing for sure!!

Saturday, November 19th, 2005

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    Water Temp: 62-65

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: The Bass Classics of Santa Clara Valley had there tournament here and the bite was tough for most of us. In first place with 11.65 lbs was Scott Chong he was fishing in the narrows and catching spotted bass on a darthead and a oxblood worm. He also had fish deep on a sculpin drop shotting and on 6" dart head worms with an 1/8 oz. head in 40-50 ft on points and deep trees. In second place with 11.20 was J.R. Taylor and in third was Chris Lee who also had them very deep 40-60 ft. of water on darthead worms also and a brn jig with a grub trailer in 45 ft.He also caught some on a crank bait . In fourth place with 10.90 lbs was myself Mike Espinola I caught a 17" smallmouth in the morning 25'deep on the side of a point in the narrows. Then it shut down so I went into Putah creek and cranked a flat with standing trees and weed beds with my crawdad wiggle wart and caught 4 fish fishing the area hard for three hours up shallow in 5-10 ft.
    City: Fremont

    Tips: Crank craw dad cranks this time of year because the bass love um. Fish the narrows on the points in 20-50 ft with darthead worms or grubs to catch fish right now.

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    Water Temp: 62-65

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Lake seemed to be turned over. We fished water w/ surface temps from 62 to 65 depending on the part of the day. Weather was in the low 50's ~ 70's from morning to the afternoon.

    Bite was slow ... I prefished the two weeks leading to the tournament. Tried to find a shallow bite, but could not reliably do so. Did find some deep fish 40-60' of water, so that was my safety valve.

    The night leading to the morning of the tournament was cold. Probably in the upper 30's. This was likely the 3rd straight night that the temps reached into the 30's ... given that, I thought that may have kicked the bass into high gear and turn on the bite. So the I tried to fish in the top 20' of water the first couple of hours. Although I had not prefished the Skiers Cove area, I decided to start there an crank this shallow point w/ a weedy cove in the back. Within the first hour, I had one missed bite on a crank bait and landed two shaker fish. That gave me some hope and I continued to fish that aread and proceeded to land one 13" class fish on the crankbait.

    When it reached past 8AM and we only had that one fish in the boat, I then decided to run south in the narrows and fish the one deep spot that I had prefish and had caught some nice fish. Upon arrival, I immediately caught a nice 15+" spot in 45' of water on my darthead w/ a 4.5" oxblood worm. Proceeding down that bank, I switched between a jig and the darthead. Catching two or three more fish in the 15-16" class on a brown jig tipped w/ a watermellon/red grub.

    For the balance of the day, we fished that general area and I caught one more fish in the 16" class on a darthead. Then another 15"er on a crank bait.
    City: San Jose

    Tips: Fish deep and slow ... drop-shot, jigs, splitshot, etc all should work. Make sure you are in contact w/the bottom and shake the bait and pause ... repeat.

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    Water Temp: 61

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Have been on the lake the past 3 weekends, and it is SLOWLY changing. I have fished all over and yesterday decided to start at the dam. We had a limit of solid keepers in about 2 hours, that probably went 9.5lbs. Typical bag for this pond during the transistion period these fish are trying to get adjusted to. We caught fish on 5 different baits and the mojority of the bites were just pressure. We need cold nights and rain, and then this place will be ON!.
    City: Napa

    Tips: Stick with natural colors and cover water, once you catch a couple of fish from one spot. Leave and come back about 30 minutes later and you can catch them again.

Friday, November 18th, 2005

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    Water Temp: 61 degrees

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: I went out with my friend Terry on Friday we started at eight o'clock on the main lake at the entrance to Putah Creek fishing points with drop offs we caught 16 fish total in the 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 pound range. We caught mostly largemouths but did catch a few smallmouths once we moved into putah creek. All of our fish were caught in 8 to 20 feet of water. The large mouths were caught on a peehead with a 6" fat morning dawn robo worm. The smallmouths were caught on a peehead & drop shot 6" fat new ayu robo worm. No dinks nice day on the water. We left at 3 o'clock.
    City: Sonoma

    Tips: There are fish shallow you just have move around and find them.

Sunday, November 13th, 2005

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    Water Temp: 62-63

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: I took a father and 14 year old son to Berryessa Sat to show them around and teach some techniques of the lake. It was their first trip to the lake. Too bad the bass wern't willing to help the teaching process! I was there last Friday in horrible post-front conditions and at least small bass were busting bait all over the lake. We only saw one small school of bass chase any bait all day Sat. No surface activity at all. There was even some cloud cover mid-day but it didn't help the fishing. I noticed that the boy was having bites on his rod but not connecting, so I asked him to use one of my Loomis 782's and that changed his life! His first fish on my rod took nearly 3 minutes to see and I finally netted a 3 lb smallie. Wow! And then a 2 1/2 lb largemouth - and then another - same size! I had a 2 1/4 spotted bass and within an hour we put together a limit near 11 1/2 lbs. We only caught a few others - very slow for numbers. Dad, for some reason, had one of those days and missed every bite he had. I thought the last hour of light would be great - it wasn't!! It was like they were on a one hour feed. The trip was worth seeing that smallmouth!
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: As with many nor Cal lakes, Berryessa needs some nasty weather - bad!! The bass are used to a good cold front to kick them in the rear and get them feeding. Hasn't happened this year - yet. No cold nights yet. As the previous post mentioned, we found the willing bass below 35 feet. All of our bass were caught split-shotting in the narrows and around Big Island. Sharp drop-offs were a key - they are hanging out near very deep water - especially if the sun is bright. Clay-small rock areas are good. A purple Camanche Jack 6" worm was the top producer. I spooned a lot - no bites. No jig bite either. I guess bass fishermen better wake up and see what "our" government folks want to do with this great lake in a few years. I don't think any of them bass fish by the way. Hmmmmm - I wonder if I can drag a worm from a sailboat? Yea, the wind will never blow then!!!!!

Saturday, November 12th, 2005

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    Water Temp: 61

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Took the boat up for probably the last trip of the year. Launched out of Markley around 9:30. Imediately put two fish in the boat from a small cove. Then headed over to Putah Creek. Found a couple more spots in another cove there. Finally finished up at the bridge pylons. Landed 3 fish there from 75' of water. All fish were caught drop-shotting, light colored RoboWorms. Ended up with 13 fish between myself and my wife. Very little boat traffic.
    City: Woodland

    Tips: No fish shallow, none on cranks, jigs, tubes, or darter heads. 35-45' seemed to be the magic depth.

Thursday, November 3rd, 2005

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    Water Temp: 57

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Yesterday was a totally unexpected "good day" at Berryessa. After the dark, rainy day Thursday, I figured the bass fed heavily and would shut off Friday, since it was a post-front bluebird day with some north wind forcast. Not a cloud in sight!! My clients were great folks and had good fishing skills so we decided to make the best of it! We started in shadows - thinking they would hold more fish. We soon discovered that it didn't matter - sun-shade-whatever - even though the water was still clear. Someone forget to tell them that dinner was over and we caught bass all day long on several types of structure - onshore and offshore. We stayed in the narrows all day but I can't say more than that since they have an upcoming tournament or two. We wound up with 28 tournament keepers and 6 shorts - with the biggest a 2 3/4 lb largemouth that the backseater caught. He had a period in the afternoon that he was catching 'em one after another! We caught a mixture of all three species, but a surprising about of good largemouth - considering the cold front. Those gave us a good five fish weight of near 12 lbs. The drive home is so easy after a trip like that!
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: The water temp has dropped quickly - about 5 or so degrees on the surface. That should improve the fishing everywhere! Because of the type of trip we did, we didn't target trophies though I threw a trout bait some. Don't forget to look for quick deep-water access. Shallow flats and gentle sloping shorelines are usually devoid of bass this time of year. We caught bass 10 yards offshore and up to 200 yards offshore. Keep movin'!!

Wednesday, October 26th, 2005

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    Water Temp: ?

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Anyone know what the water levels are on the lake right now? High, Low? Are they draining it?

    Thanks!
    City: Gilroy

Sunday, October 23rd, 2005

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    Water Temp: 67

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Subject : Fishing with Sid

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    Fishing at Lake Berryessa was grrrrreat this past weekend!!! The weather was perfect, the water was calm and clear and the fish were co-operating. My wife and I went to the vineyards on Friday and wormed for bass in shallow water we had a very successful time. Saturday we decided to troll for awhile towards the ranch house. We hit two large salmon and a couple of trout on the surface then my wife landed a 6+ lb bass. (see photos) Saturday evening I took out Kevin and Steve to show them how to catch bass trolling. In twenty minutes they caught four bass so we headed back in before it got to dark. Sunday morning I met them and we went out for an early bite. Once again trolling was successful. Fish are breaking all over the lake. Sunday early afternoon I took my wife out and we caught a few bass and salmon then my wife got a huge hit and landed what we first thought was a catfish but turned out to be a monster squawfish also known as sacramento pike. This weighed in at 12 lbs and she used 6 lb P-line and it gave her quite a fight. At least there is one less squawfish in the lake now. Whenever you catch a squawfish you should destroy it and leave it on shore for the birds or take it home just never put it back in the water because it is a predator and feeds on the other fish. All in all this was a perfect fishing weekend.............'til next week........good fishing!!!! www.fishingconnection.net
    If you want to email me with any fishing stories.... bestguide@hotmail.com or call me at 650-583-3333
    City: Napa

    Tips: Lake Berryessa is a 365 day Lake all you need is where and what to use.

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    Water Temp: 66 - 67 F

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Fished Berryessa on Sunday afternoon. No action for 1st 2 hours. Finally found shallower area with weeds & caught 8 fish on reaction baits. But, they were all small. Caught bluegill on darterhead. Saw fish busting shad but no action or spook or ripbait. Talked to some guys who said they caught a lot of fish in early AM on soft plastics on main lake points.

    Tips: For fun fishing, go someplace else. This lake is tough in the fall!

Friday, October 21st, 2005

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    Water Temp: 68 degrees

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Air temp at launch was 48 degrees, no wind and blue bird skys. Headed South and starting fishing main body points with cranks, stickbaits, spinnerbaits,sweet beavers,and senko's all with no fish. Got one fish to follow my crank but no hook ups. Started drop shotting and landed 15 fish but only one of them over two lbs. I was told that this lake will turn on soon. This was my first trip to Berryessa out of Sacmento and it took over 2 hours to reach it. Any advice on short cut would be greatlt appreciated.
    City: El Dorado hills

    Tips: Find bait and drop shot into it..........

Monday, October 17th, 2005

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    Water Temp: 68

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: The water temperature has dropped to 68 degrees. Balls of bait are all over the lake and the fish are gorging on them. I watched some bass, about twenty of them, herd the bait into a ball team work style and then proceed to devour them. Fishing was good this past weekend except for Sunday because of high winds and rough water. As we trolled for bass we caught some trout on the surface. Friday was an excellent day we hit fish all day long everywhere we ventured to. The boat traffic has settled down to a minimum and the lake belongs to the fisherman again. 'til next week...................good fishing!!!!! www.fishingconnection.net
    If you have any fishing stories that you would like to share, please email me at bestguide@hotmail.com or call Sid at 650-583-3333 From : Sidney Silberberg <bestguide@hotmail.com>
    Sent : Monday, October 17, 2005 5:04 PM
    To : bestguide@hotmail.com
    Subject : Fishing with sid

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    Subject : Fishing with Sid

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    The water temperature has dropped to 68 degrees. Balls of bait are all over the lake and the fish are gorging on them. I watched some bass, about twenty of them, herd the bait into a ball team work style and then proceed to devour them. Fishing was good this past weekend except for Sunday because of high winds and rough water. As we trolled for bass we caught some trout on the surface. Friday was an excellent day we hit fish all day long everywhere we ventured to. The boat traffic has settled down to a minimum and the lake belongs to the fisherman again. 'til next week...................good fishing!!!!! www.fishingconnection.net
    If you have any fishing stories that you would like to share, please email me at bestguide@hotmail.com or call Sid at 650-583-3333


    >>
    >>A husband and wife go to a counselor after 15 years of marriage. The
    >>counselor asks them what the problem is and the wife goes into a tirade
    >>listing every problem, they have ever had in the 15 years they've been
    >>married. She goes on and on and on. Finally, the counselor gets up, goes
    >>around the desk, embraces the woman and kisses her passionately. The
    >>woman
    >>shuts up and sits quietly in a daze. The counselor turns to the husband
    >>and says "That is what your wife needs at least three times a week. Can
    >>you
    >>do that?" The husband thinks for a moment and replies, "Well, I can get
    >>her here Monday and Wednesday, but Friday, I fish.
    >>
    City: Napa

    Tips: Watch the birds and follow the bait

Sunday, October 16th, 2005

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    Water Temp: 68

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Sunday was bad. Windy morning. Although, it was the only time we caught anything. Very early-10 minutes after sunrise. Trolling for trout caught 2 bass 1-10" the other 12" both about 1lb. Let'em go. About noon caught a trout using a broken back rappala. Was out for another 4 hours with out a nibble, bite, nuthin. Other fishers near bye experienced the same luck.
    City: Santa Rosa

    Tips: I was told to get "early, early, early" was a big thing as well as troll by the damn. - Both seemed to work. Next time I'll be there earlier.

Saturday, October 15th, 2005

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    Water Temp: 69

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: SLOW SLOW AND SLOW RIPPPED 4 TUBED 2 NOTHING ON CRANK BAIT . WISH I HAD MORE
    City: mountain view

    Tips: IT IS GOING TO BE GOOD HANG IN THERE

Thursday, October 13th, 2005

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    Water Temp: 67-69

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Went fishn thurs with my buddy "mouth." Fished from 9-5:30 and caught about 30 fish with half of them less than 12". Our largest was just under 2#. Fished the main body around big island and across on the east side.Most of the fish were in the 20-30ft depths and were the result of dropshottn. Caught 4 fish on cranks, but that was it for reaction...Graphed alot of fish, but it was really hard to catch more than a couple without them moving or developing lock jaw...A beautiful day to be outout.
    City: orinda

    Tips: the east side had zero bait activity. Across the lake had big balls of bait anywhere from the top to 35.' Caught fish on east and west side, with the west side producing slightly larger fish. One last hint, when you catch one, take your time before boating your fish, otherwise it will be barfing up shad all over your boat...keep it in the water and it will form a mini chum line.

Monday, October 10th, 2005

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    Water Temp: 71

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Subject : Fishing with Sid

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    The past few days have been very productive. On Thursday and Friday I went fishing with Jesse O. Thursday the water was like glass not a ripple in sight except for the fish boiling in the narrows. Jesse caught a 3+ lbs salmon and some nice bass trolling. Saturday I went out with Juan Z. It was a colder day and the water had changed considerably. The bass went deeper but he still managed to catch a couple of nice fish. Early Sunday my wife, me and Steve E. headed out for the vineyards where I had seen a large amount of bass swimming in one to two feet of water on Thursday. Steve was very successful drop shoting. My wife used brass and glass with a senco and I used a weightless senco and all of us were catching fish. When the wind came up we started to troll in about 25 feet of water through large balls of bait from the vineyards to the ranch house with huge success. We only stopped when we saw the fish boiling over the bait and threw crank baits into the boils with good results. The water temperature started out at 69 degrees and in some areas went up to 71 degrees. All in all it was a great few days of fishing and should only continue to get better and better.............'til next week good fishing!!!!!!!! www.fishingconnection.net 650-583-3333
    City: Napa