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Berryessa Lake and Reports

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Saturday, June 25th, 2005

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    Water Temp: 68-74

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: started @6am on the east side looking for topwater which resulted in zero ...went to big island, but expierenced the same...it was overcast with a cool breeze, but i can't use that as an excuse..finally went behing big island and in some sheltered water found some fish (trout & bass) surface feeding and caught a few...also caught some 25-30' on plastics...sun finally came out and went back out to main body and caught scattered fish on windy points....ended up with about 15 fish of which 3 were trout on plastics, jerkbaits and cranks...
    City: orinda

    Tips: really couldn't figure out consistent pattern...made a lot of casts, caught fish in calm water and windy water, but not consisently...most frustrating was no topwater...this was my second early a.m. effort for topwater with poor results...if anyone has any suggestions, i'd appreciate it...good fishn....

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    Water Temp: 78

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Went up to pootah creek just past the bridge. Caught two 2+lb bass on a 5inch carolina rigged green red flake lizard and a dink on a baby bass lipless crank.

    Tips: Carolina rigged lizards and drop shoting seem to produce in 20+ ft water. stick to greens purple and browns. KEEP POSTING GUYS! best of luck

Thursday, June 16th, 2005

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    Water Temp: 70's

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: On the water by 6:30, Cloudy skies, great day for topwater. First cast produced a quality 2lb spot on a spook, caught 6 more with the biggest going 5.8 lb. 2 dartheading, 4 spooking, 1 swimbait. Had to go by 9:00 :(
    City: Davis

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    Water Temp: 71-73

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Received a 24hr notice for a Guide Trip from two gentlemen from UC Davis. Met up with them Thursday at Markley Cove. We departed for the Northend of the lake at around 6:30AM in the morning under fair but cloudy skies. The wind was coming out of the West at 15-20miles an hour. No fun for the Northend. They caught a couple mixed bag of Largemouth and smallmouth. In all because of the wind I couldn't stay up there and started to come down the west side of the main lake. By 10AM it started to rain. Where we prepared NO. I found a bay out of the wind that had Spots stacked up on Large boulders down to 25ft. We drop-shotted them with Robo 5 1/2in Mutilators, some were caught on the Green Shiner. I went over to an area that had a smerged Island that had a Break from 6 to 18ft with the wind blow'in directly into it. They caught quite a few smallmouth that went around or over 2lbs with a largemouth that out weighted the smallmouth, around 2 3/4lbs. All this fish also were caught drop-shottin or draggin (Swimmin) down the break, great technique. From there we worked the narrows with no results to speak about. From their I took them to two main points in the area of the dam and above. On one of them the Spots were there in Quality. Being today (Thursday), barometer was dropp'in the fish were finicky and was a very light bite. At first the clients were missing hits and by the end of the day (5:30PM) they had the sluggish weight down pat. Between both of them, they had caught and released 25 fish. Not a bad day considering the weather. 80 percent of the fish came by drop-shottin from 4-30ft of water depending on the structure and conditions inwhich we precude them.
    Best color in the Robo family was the Mutilator in 5 1/2 and 6in model. Good luck to all until the next report.

    Rich Thiel
    ((925)292-5024
    City: Livermore

    Tips: The Smallmouth and Largemouth on the Northend of the lake can be caught in the Shallows early in the morning and then moving out to deeper water once the sun (If it does) comes out. For the middle of the main lake there down from 15-25 or deeper in average conditions. For the southend of the lake (Dam Area) 15ft and down. If in this area you hit better fish I would go too far expecting to find same quality. The fish are in their summer pattern, Main points near deep water.

Saturday, June 4th, 2005

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    Water Temp: 74

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Went with wife on first ever trip to Berryessa on Saturday. Weather was calm and warm. Launched at Capel around 7:30 and ran over to a cove on the south east side and saw lots of fish on the depth finder. We caught about 18-20 fish in this one cove, mostly smallies. Best three smallies were 1.8-2.0-2.3 lb's. Caught 3 more in another samll cove on the way back to the launch when the wind picked up. As Rich said in the preveous report, all of our fish were caught drop-shotting with Robo's. Folkstead Special, Prism Shad, Arrons Magic, Baby Bluegill, etc. Those two lb. smallmouth are a heck-of-alot of fun! Great looking lake, and a Great day on the water!
    City: Santa Rosa

    Tips: All the fish in the cove we were at, were right in the middle of the cove in about 22- 25 ft. of water.

Thursday, June 2nd, 2005

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    Water Temp: 70+

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Today, I had a party of two. Launch at Markley Cove at 7:30 and went north for a topwater bite first thing in the morning. Went clear up too the Northend and fished the willows. First cast a 2lb smallmouth. Tninking to myself "man this is going to be a blast". Well guess what??? The fish were there but they all just short hit the TW with no hookups. Changed to cranks and started right away connecting to smallmouth in the 1lb in a half range. Man can they fight. After the sun rose some I start in another bay flippin worms "Robo" 6in FAT in "Mutilator lll" One of the clients connected with a 3lb that didn't look has if she had spawned, Caught her in 3ft of water. Released her right away. By Noon we caught among us around 15 fish from 3ft of water to 12ft moving off shore dropshotting Roboworm's in 5 1/2inch Arron Majic's. From there I went to the very northend of the lake on the westside and fished a point and caught a couple of more. The client wanted to catch some bigger largemouth. I thought, hmmmm 2PM so I headed for the Dam and fished the far wall. There's some long points that drop off into the main. We tried Dropshottin from 10ft to 40 using a 3/8 dropshot weight. Connected on many 2+ spots around 25-30ft. Caught 1 fish at 45ft but lost it half way up that bent the rod some. Tried Markley Cove some with zip results. After running around the lake, one thing I did notice was the difference in location of fish including the specie of bass. The north, all Smallmouth and largemouth 50-50. Down near the dam area all Spots, no Largemouth nor Smallmouth. A Solid 30 fish day with room for more if you just wanted to catch fish.

    Have a good weekend
    Rich Thiel's Guiding Service
    (925)292-5024
    City: Livermore

    Tips: Dropshot in 15-30ft of water off of points to main water or go North in the moring looking for topwater, Then switch to flipping in shady pockets. At Noon move out to deeping water and dropshot in Roboworm's 6inch FATS or 5 1/2 Prism curly tails. Any Purple or Green will work.

Friday, May 27th, 2005

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    Water Temp: 68-72

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: went up just before the mad-dog weekend and the fishn was very good..20-30 fish, nothing big, but plenty of fiesty 1-2# fish with the smallies being very acrobatic. caught fish with different ways although topwater was the least productive.i caught fish splitshotting at 20' in rocky areas and caught fish on senkos and rattletraps in the shallow flats on the east and westside...fished a couple of island tops when the wind was up and they were productive also..anyway i hope this info helps a little bit.
    City: orinda

    Tips: i'm not sure how long the fish will stay shallow before the summer heat puts them down, but its pretty good now. some of the areas i fished didn't hold fish, but if active fish are around it shouldn't take long for you to find them....

Wednesday, May 25th, 2005

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    Water Temp: 74-77

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: I had a wonderful day on the water. I started fishing at 2 PM. It was sunny, warm, and calm! I saw three Osprey and three baby deer. To top things off, I caught fish too. The fish were feeding at 3 PM and the frenzy lasted about 1/2 hour with just about a fish every other cast. Things slowed down a little bit and picked up again once the sun started going down. I played around with cranks and topwater, but dropshotting 4" Roboworms was my main stay. I caught a nice mix of spots and smallies.
    City: Sacramento

    Tips: I did the best on rocky points dropshotting 5 - 15 deep.

Saturday, May 21st, 2005

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    Water Temp: 65

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Launched from Capell Cove at 6:15AM. No problem finding a parking spot. Got back at 2:00 what a madhouse. Anyway, water is very clear until the wind and boat traffic stirs it up. I did well with Carolina rigs in Putah Creek. Caught 5 fish to 2 lbs on motor oil roboworms. Then went further north and entered a cove. In 12-15' of water I caught 6 more fish, 1 smallie the rest LMs. No size, all in the 1-2lb range. Fun day at the lake 'cept for all the boat traffic. Looks like the summer has started.
    City: Woodland

Friday, May 20th, 2005

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    Water Temp: 64 to 65

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: On the water by 7:00, headed for the main lake. Dart headed & drop shotted MF Worms 13 fish, mixed bag of smallies, spots and large mouth. Hit the secret spot at noon and pulled a nice 8lb 2oz largemouth. Had a good 5 fish limit of about 18 lbs.
    City: Davis

Saturday, May 14th, 2005

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    Water Temp: 60 degrees 8 fe

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Camped with my uncle at Putah Creek May 13th and 14th and the first thing we got there i spotted a HUGE bass in the shallows. After about 45 minutes of trying for i gave up, it wouldnt bite at all. But my uncle didnt give up on the fish and he finally got it to bite! It was a 8 pound bass!!! The thing was huge! After that we went down to cappel cove and fished and i got a nice 3 pound largemouth. We were jigging in the trees and i hooked into something big but my line snapped!! It happened about 4 times! After awhile my uncle gets a big hit and a fight began and it was a 6 1/2 pound catfish!! It must have been a catfish that was snapping my line. Other then that we caught some decent fish and seen some HUGE smallmouth swimming by the boat. The fishing was good for about every species because we also caught crappie, bluegill, and trout.
    City: San Bruno

    Tips: Work for the big females in the shallows, dont give up and u will get it, just try to piss the big ones off.

Saturday, May 7th, 2005

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    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Went up to the lake to fish the 100% Future Pro. Being how I had never even been to the lake I called Rich Thiel know that he did guide trips there. He completely knew what was going on and we were on fish within minutes of getting there. If you want a top notch guide he is the man. We ended up a 1/4 of a pound out of the money. Not to bad for never being there. Everyone said the bite was tough but not for us we caught fish everywhere we went. The fish seemed to be a little deeper (10 to 25 feet). We caught them on top water, Jigs, Dropshot, and carolina rig lizards. Caught my biggest spot to date a nice 3# fish. Wow those fish can fight!!
    City: Livermore

    Tips: Call Rich he is a great guy!!

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    Water Temp: 62-64

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: I guided another 3-way spring trip Friday at Berryessa - teaching bass fishing, avoiding thunderstorms, and trying to stay out of the wind!! A father-son team and me were pretty successful at all three, catching 31 bass, just missing a thunderstorm, and managed to avoid some of the wind. We started about 7:15 am out of Markley Cove and just fished from there to Wragg Canyon. Didn't want to waste their time fighting wind in the main body. We used split-shot rigs most of the day, using brush hogs (watermelon/red flake), and Camanche Jack worms and creatures. Also, Berkley Power worms and Pulse Worms. The bite was really good between 9 and 12 noon when the shoreline took on a little color from the wind. The best bite was for spots - some in the 2 to 2 1/2 lb range. The son got the biggest bass of the day - a smallie at 2 lb 11 oz - nice looking fish! We did catch a couple under 12 inches - they are starting to show up now. We saw a few beds, but really didn't spend time looking for them. We caught very few in the backs of coves, maybe because of the clear water. They may be spawning more near main lake points this year. We caught a lot of bass on walls with small chunck rock - spots are spawning there. Our 5 best were only a little over 11 pounds - pretty good fishing for a post-front day!
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: I was surprised at how spooky the bass were - very few actual bites. When I said the bite was good, I guess I meant the bass were holding the worms good! You would drag the worm and it would just stop - with no motion. It took dad awhile to get the hang of no-bite fishing, but he did and finished strong! I did catch one on a Stacie rip bait. I thought when the sky clouded up in the afternoon - the rip bite would start - it didn't! The fishing actually slowed as it got darker. We still caught fish as deep as 20-25 feet, though the average was 10 to 15 feet. There are lot of fish in the submerged wood, but they are buried deep and it is hard to get the quality bass out. Senkos did not work well for us that day.

Saturday, April 30th, 2005

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    Water Temp: 63

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Took a friend out to learn dropshotting and senko fishing. Had great day but no size. I also fished the eastern shores in the morning but only caught small SMB on drop shot. Moved into some coves and caught plenty of spots. Late morning, moved into Wagg and caught more spots on inside of coves and smallies on points. Mostly dropshot, didn't matter what color, hitting on both robo and kutails. In afternoon, plenty of water skiers in wagg.
    City: SoSF

    Tips: Most of the fish on dropshot were on light color kunami Kutails, a few on dark robo, and one on swimbait. Fish holding shallow.

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    Water Temp: 61-64

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: I did a tournament prep trip Sat. for two enthusiastic bass guys who really had a good day. One of the fellows put together his own 11 1/2 lb limit together on baits that he likes. His missed a great fish right out of the gate on topwater that we would have talked about all day! Too bad! We fished the narrows and some on the main body. Boat traffic wasn't bad for a weekend and we could fish pretty much where we wanted. We caught 26 bass total and they caught most of them. I finally added a good smallie for our total weight that went over 12 lbs for 5. Biggest bass was about 2 3/4 lbs. As it clouded up in the afternoon, I fished them on one last eastside point and we each caught a smallie of 2 1/2, 2-2, and 1 3/4. I was doing so poorly I tried a blue ghost worm for the first time in a year and landed the 2-2. At least I went home with my head slightly high!! Seriously, they really had a good day and that is what make the drive home pleasant!! Those are the days I love my job!!!
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: Since they have an upcoming tournament, I can't say much about techniques. I did feel a change in the lake and the mood of the bass. We are moving into a post-spawn period, and that brings out a lot of small bass that we don't see in Feb and Mar. So, you get a mixed bag. As was mentioned in a previous report, topwater will work better every day if the weather stabilizes, and other techniques will work also. I will mention some of those in a future report.

Friday, April 29th, 2005

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    Water Temp: 59-65

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Had a productive day with a new to bassin' friend Terry.We caught smallies and largemouths to 2.5lbs.Ended with 16 fish, best 5 were 12.5#.Caught em on jerkbaits,rattletraps and senkos(green pumpkin) Fished the northeast shore most of the day.
    City: Dixon

    Tips: Had about a 5#er bust me off,Check your knots after each fish.

Saturday, April 23rd, 2005

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    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Fished in the north part of the lake towards Putah creek. Fishing was slow first thing in the morning but picked up later and was pretty steady until we left. Hooked about 10 bass, inluding a few that I lost. Some were pretty small but a few nice ones came through including a big one that got away. Some fish were in around 15 feet of water off the bottom, but most bites came not too far from the bank. Bites were more aggressive than they were the last time I was out in March. I only had one molasses bite. The rest were pretty obvious. Jigs and drop-shotting were most effective. Most of the action was in and around coves, but rocky banks produced a few too. A couple crappies came out of the brush on my tube jig as a bonus for the grill. To top the day off I did a little trolling in the main lake which produced a small trout for the grill. A 1/8 ounce kastmaster did the trick for the trout. It was a great day on the lake!

Thursday, April 21st, 2005

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    Water Temp: 59-64

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Did a single guide trip today. Fishing mostly in the southend of the lake (Dam), Narrows and front section of Wraggs. Northend of lake was off, no fish to be caught nor seen.

    Caught them down south ripp'in Luckycraft 78's and drop-shottin roboworms (Purple Ghost & A/Magic's)also shakin in 20-25ft of water off of points to main water. Ripped fish, all smallmouth on shale points or flats just inside of points. No largemouth where caught to speak of. For the coves I checked (about 10) I didn't see any fish that would of went over 1 1/2lb. The fish that we did catch were all post spawners. Also, noticed that there were no topwater action such has trout chas'in shad to the top. This should start the minute the water stables out. I would bet there is going to be a second spawn this year if the weather ever stables out or watertemp.
    City: Livermore

    Tips: Concentrate on points or main banks to major depths. Worms, Greens, shad patterns work. Downsize on Ripbaits to either LC 78's or TD Minnows. Depths 14-30ft should get you plenty of fish. Look for a topwater bite comin soon to your neighborhood LOL!!!!

Tuesday, April 19th, 2005

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    Water Temp: ?

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Great smallie bite until about noon using rattle traps in the heavy wind. Was lucky to nab two nice large mouths, one on a senko the other on a rip bait. Senko fish @ 5lbs, rip fish @ 3lbs All fish caught in the south end of the lake.
    City: Napa

Saturday, April 16th, 2005

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    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Fished fairfield suisun bass reapers open tourney this weekend. went out on friday and found fish on points and flats. sat. mostly mainlake points around downed trees look for beds in trees.weighed 7fish caught 12 8 plb. total bag with2 lb big fish. good weekend overall.
    City: San Jose

    Tips: use small 1/4 oz darter head with 6 inch worm shake away and feel for pressure then set the hook.