Submit
Report

Berryessa Lake and Reports

Limit:
Click for interactive map

Saturday, April 16th, 2005

  • By

    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.

  • By

    Water Temp: 58-60

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Today I took Ken Bull, regional sales manager of Save Phace, makers of the great Fish Hedz, or as I call it, my Blue Bonnet!! What an addition to my boating accessories!! Along with us was his lovely 14 year old daughter Jennifer. The idea was to get Jen into some nice bass and hope dad could keep up. Actually, neither Ken nor I could. After the first hour or so, the score was Ken - 1 small bass, guide - 1 dink, Jennifer - 4 nice bass including 2 smallies at 2 and a little over 2 lbs. Wow!! Dad and I would cast to the bank and retrieve our baits, while Jen would cast to the 15-20 foot level and slowly drag her split-shot rig until she set the hook. She was 4 for 4 - fought these bass like a pro! I had her using a 4 inch Camanche Jack twilight worm (purple/blue). Dad and I did make a move later in our 5 hour trip with me drop-shotting a 2 lb largemouth and Ken getting a spot almost that big. We ended with 16 in the boat and our 5 best were just under 10 lbs. Great weather (for a change), great company, lots of laughs, good father - daughter bonding, and some beautiful bass. Some folks have to live like this, and we did today! And watch out for Jennifer - you better hope she doesn't turn pro. She has the touch!!!
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: Since the trip was going to be shorter, we started about 8 am, trying to stay in the shadows of Markley Cove as long as we could. It worked - for Jennifer at least!! Then we hit the narrows and looked for some early season mudlines. They did help a bit. We found fish on points more, but some walls with indentations did hold some fish. We went into the back of a large cove and did see some bass looking to nest. No beds yet!

Tuesday, April 12th, 2005

  • By

    Water Temp: 58

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: I'll tell you - I'm sick of wind! Another cold, windy day at Berryessa - at least it was dry! I guided a father-son team who had not done much bass fishing. Though conditions wern't very good, they did catch several split-shotting morning dawn, green pumpkin, and purple 4 1/2 worms. I caught some too and together we put 19 in the boat. The quality was better than last weeks rainy day - smallies to 2 1/2 lbs and spots to 2-11. A good limit of a little over 11 pounds was a pleasant surprise. We did land 2 largemouth. We caught our bass in the narrows and Wragg Canyon from 10 to 25 feet and in shadows that we could find. The son was reading a Pepsi can about 15-18 feet deep. Be prepared for clear water in the south end.
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: We could have moved to the main lake, but I felt these folks would have more success in the narrows with a little less wind. Very few bites - just pressure. Hard to believe it is mid April and the water temp hasn't reached 60 degrees in the narrows. It is probably a little warmer up north. Things could be pretty exciting at Berryessa if we ever got about 4 warm days in a row. Hope I'm there!!

Monday, April 11th, 2005

  • By

    Water Temp: 70

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Got out around 8:00am Markley cove great weather.
    Fish some of the narrows got a few little spots dart heading.
    After boat traffic goy big went to the main body picked up some large mouth on top water and some good smallies 2 that were over 3lbs draging a worm. Ended up with 22 fish then the wind kicked in.

    Tips: Berryessa is hot when the wind not blowing.

Sunday, April 10th, 2005

  • By

    Water Temp: 57

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Friday was one of the most miserable fishing days - weather wise - for me in many years. COLD rain and lots of wind, upwards of 40 mph after the front moved through. Believe it or not, there were 1 1/2 to 2 foot swells between Little Portuguese and Big Portuguese canyons - and that is a protected area!!! Luckily, my clients were brave souls and dressed properly. I don't know how many bites we missed, but we did land 30 spots amd smallies up to 2 1/2 lbs - no largemouth. Why didn't we catch bigger ones - I don't know. It was difficult to fish very deep and that might be the reason. I would have liked to throw swimbaits for big bass, but these fellows wanted to learn how to put fish in the boat - and that we did! We did have a solid 11 pound limit. Split-shotting was best in the morning and they did very well drop-shotting in the afternoon. I tried rippin' and crankin' with no results. We just fished Markley Cove and the narrows down to Little Portuguese. Most of our fish were in the 10 to 25 foot range. Our top colors were green pumpkin, early dawn, morning dawn, and purple ghost. The 4 inch Berkley Pulse worm worked great. I also had a 5 hour trip with two college age students on Saturday. They were just learning to bass fish and did pretty well - boating 10 - even with the post-front north wind blowing. They had a ball! The biggest was a near 3 pound spot. Again, split-shotting worked.
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: I wanted to reminded everyone that the water has really cleared up this spring, because most of the heavy storms were earlier in the winter. There is visability in some areas in the narrows of 15 feet! They will be spooky during the spawn and may spawn deeper than normal. I think the crank and spinnerbait bite may be tough until afternoon mudlines form. Fishing will be different than last year at this time. One might want to fish lighter line or flourocarbon during the brightest time of day.

Wednesday, April 6th, 2005

  • By

    Water Temp: 59.5 @Markley C

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: launched at Markley Cove 11am dead flat calm and pushing 70 degrees. Ran up to my favorite spot at northeast corner of lake, just about submerged bush or tree have a 1-2 lb bass hiding in it . White 1/4 oz spinnerbait (twin willow chrome)took most of the fish. Hooked and landed 8 on a black buzzbait. Pattern was so predictable I knew which side of the bush they would hit on and when they would nail the spinnerbait. Landed 25 bass to 3 lbs between 11:30 and 4pm. Then the wind picked up. I bailed out.
    City: Fairfield

Friday, April 1st, 2005

  • By

    Water Temp: 58-60

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: I had two guide trips - Wed and Thurs - with totally different weather patterns. Wed was post-front with a chilly north wind. I figured it would be a little slow and it was, but the quality was good. What surprised me was that 6 of our 15 bass were largemouth. We caught several quality smallies up to 2 1/2 pounds, and the rest were spots. No reaction bite, but split-shotting worked well. Berkley Pulse worms were the ticket - green pumpkin and junebug. Luckily, we got an earlier start Thursday because the lake went dead calm, and with the clear water this spring, fishing can be tough mid-day. My client and I got into s great school of 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 lb spots about 7 am - landing around 10 in a 50 foot section of bank. That was fun. Again, all split-shotting. Since the bass were at 15 to 20 feet, they wouldn't hit reaction baits, but we wern't complainin'!! We fished from Markley to Rancho Montecello - mostly on points and where we could find shade. It was much warmer - so we should have caught a lot of largemouth - right?! Yea, exactly 1!! My client drop-shotted it in about 20 feet of water - about 2 1/4 lbs. We wound up with 25 bass - mostly spots, but should have had about 35 or more. My client, who is a pretty good fisherman, was enjoying the sun too much. He missed fish after fish, but just smiled and said what a relaxing time he was having - and he was!! Too relaxed to set the hook, har! We stopped at a point I like in Markley Cove to give him one more shot at a good fish - and he got it! A 2 3/4 pound spot - again, in about 20 feet of clear water. A breeze had come up and I think that helped. Split and drop-shotting both worked well, as did the previously mentioned worms and the Camanche Jack early dawn worm.
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: It certainly is interesting to fish the lake several days (or nights) in a row, and see how the bite changes from day to day. Largemouth are on the bite one day, the next one, spots are tearing up your baits. I went to Pardee on Friday (see report) and only caught largemouth - in the river arm - go figure!! Fish will take their time to move shallow again because of the cold nights and lack of really warm days like we saw in mid-March. This should be an extended pre-spawn, which is fun for the fishermen!! Good luck!

  • By

    Water Temp: 57-58

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: The bite was very hot on Friday. I went out from 7 am to 11:30 with my brother before we had to get into the office. The fish were hitting cranks, rips, darterhead worms and drop shots. I think it was just one of those days you could catch them on anything. We had 18 fish and packed it in. Largest was probably only about 2.25 to 2.5 lbs. But it sure was fun. We stayed in the narrows after we launched from Markley Cove. Didn't have to run much at all. Caught them on all banks we tried. Steep with rock was more productive that wood for us. Fish were in 15 feet or less of water.
    City: Sacramento

    Tips: Avoid the weekends on this lake if we have more nice weather. The first hint of sun brings out all of the morons.

Thursday, March 31st, 2005

  • By

    Water Temp: 51 degrees 8 fe

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: The bite hasnt slowed down! The bite has gotten better! Went to Berryessa yesterday and managed 11 bass and 4 bluegill. HUGE bluegill and bass. Biggest bluegill was exactly 1 pound and biggest bass was 3 1/2 pounds. Fished Spanish Flat Resort and caught tons. All of my bass were over 2 pounds. Just look in the shallows and see all the bass swimming around. The bass fishing was awesome!
    City: San Bruno

    Tips: Put alot of action to your bait. The bass are picky move your bait constantly.

  • By

    Water Temp: 57-62

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: What happened??? I have done fair to well out there the last three weeks. It slowed down during the rains, but no fewer than 8 total until today. The weather 'seemed' perfect and the water was warming. We threw everything we had at them, and only managed one 2# LM on a purple TR worm.

    We tried brush hogs, tubes, and a variety of worm colors....jerk baits, spinnerbaits, black/blue jibs, brown/orange jigs....no luck. We had 2 or 3 takes on the worms, and that's it. Very, very frustrating. We talked to a few boats that were doing about the same. A couple of guys hooked up on a few trolling caroline rigged worms.

    I'm at a loss....we saw one fish on a bed, but nothing else. No followers, nothing. I don't think the spawn has really started, but I don't get much credit for my thoughts anyway!! Maybe it was an afternoon bite? We quit at 1 PM...
    City: Vacaville

    Tips: Don't fish anywhere near me....I'm bad luck.

Wednesday, March 30th, 2005

  • By

    Water Temp: 58-60

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Got a late start, didn't hit the water till 10. Launched at markley cove, the parking lot was pretty full for a thurs. Caught 10 fish, all were caught split-shotting. Only caught 5 fish at 5 oclock. In the next hour caught the next five. I started using a smoke colored senko at that time. Biggest fish was close to 4, had i right at 3. Lost one on a bush, and had one fish jump and throw the hook. I was fishing parallel to the bank in about 10-15 feet of water. That last hour made my day.
    City: sacramento

    Tips: Fish real slow, the bite was so light. You almost had to anticipate or sense it.

Saturday, March 26th, 2005

  • By

    Water Temp: 55-60

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Couldn't believe today..It was Awsome!!. Took two clients out today, out of Markley Cove. Started on points in main bay of the dam. Bite was slow compared to previous guide trips. So I went North to an area that I had written about. They were their big time. Set the boat down over 14ft of water and was going to Tx Rig and slit-shot them. One client set the hook on a smallie at 10ft and that told me something. I picked up a Rip Bait (Rapala's New XRAP) in Chartruas/Red Head, first cast 2lb Smallie over willows, third cast, another one. Handed the rod to a client, and setup two more rods. I kept the boat in 6-8.5ft of water and Ripped 12 fish in a 200yd stretch. Came back thru the second time and ripped 5 more. Caught 3 more by drop'in a senko hooked Wacky Rigged using a Doc Waton's weedless 1/0 Drop-shot hook. For the Fish that didn't want a Ripbait, this is the way to go. The biggiest of the Smallies with about 25% Largemouth out of 20 caught this way. Had 5 smallies that diffently went from 2lbs to 2 3/4lbs, probably 11 1/4 to 1/2lbs for best 5.

    Tried a long canyon within the narrows and we caught spots to 2lbs by Dropshot'in Morning Dawns and Tx rigged S-20 spade tails. Quit fishin at 5:30. I stopped fishing for 2hr's and just controlled the boat. Clients caught 30+ fish themselve's, one client was a total beginner.

    Rich Thiel
    (925)292-5024
    City: Livermore

    Tips: If your fishing the northend in the next week, look for willows in 6-9ft of water and rip a Chartruas XRAP (NEW on the Market) or a Luckycraft Clown Pattern SP100. Smallmouth love that color pattern. If nothing else try the wacky rig (explained above) and you should have a blast doing this.

Friday, March 25th, 2005

  • By

    Water Temp: 55-60

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Got on the lake at about 7:50am and went back to the big flat on the north lake. caght a lot of dinks, and one 1.3. Lots of carp swirrling the top. went to the east side and found very clear water with vegetation. The bass were in about 14 ft and we could see them. Caught 1 smallies and two lrgmths. Ran into a bee hive but luckily no stings. Fished pope and caught a couple but the water got muddier the farther back u went. We got 38 fish out of 4 guys,1 of them 11 yrs old who caught 12 fish which beat everyone we talked to. Never got so many smallies in 1 day.
    City: Pacifica,CA

    Tips: Dropshot with robo worms, no reaction fish but got a swirl on topwater.

  • By

    Water Temp: 53-60

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: It was stained back in coves and clear out on points. Fished from 7 AM to 4 PM and caught 11. About 2/3 of them were Smallies. My largest 5 were just under 10 lbs. No biggin's. All fish were caught on soft plastics. The most effective was the drop-shot. No rip, blade, or jig fish. I probably spent too much time looking for reaction fish, but I'm just tired of the slow plastics right now ... winter is supposed to be over. The fish were scattered from 5 to 20 feet deep. Most of them were on the sides of points. I stayed in the Narrows all day. Never made it to the main lake. Water was cold in the AM and then wormed to 60. I did not see any smallies on beds ... but I didn't look to hard either. I expected more aggressive fish today but they were still pretty shy.
    City: Sacramento

    Tips: If we get a couple of days of stable weather the should be shallow and aggressive. For now, it is tough to beat the drop-shot.

Thursday, March 24th, 2005

  • By

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Fished 7:30-4:30 in the narrows, three people, 78 fish, mostly spots, several right at 2lbs but most were small 12-14". All caught on 4" weenie worms.
    City: Dixon

Sunday, March 20th, 2005

  • By

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: There was rain on and off all day, and the fishing was on and off all day, but overall it was a great day. 2 of us brought in 12 keeper sized fish, lost a few and caught a few small ones. Most fish came out of 12-16 feet of water, but some came shallower, even right off the bank. Jigs were working best. Contact with the bottom was key and the bite was usually pretty subtle. They weren't too picky about color. We had the best luck in coves and off the shoulders/points on either side of the coves. We fished mostly in the norther part of the lake towards Putah creek. The water gets pretty dark as you get closer to the creek so we backed out of that. My favorite banks weren't producing much.

    Tips: Throw a jig up and shore and work it down to 15 or 20 feet of water. Keep contact with the bottom and set the hook on anything that feels funny since the bites are subtle.

Saturday, March 19th, 2005

  • By

    Water Temp: 56-59

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Another wet day of fishing. Few boats and most of them were from Loomis Basin Bassmasters. Like Captmike said, most of the bass were small but got them all day in that 20 mph winds. Adam was my partner, he's a good fisherman. We both started out using a reaction bait in the narrows on points and coves to stay out of the winds. Got bits with a blade but most of our fish came on 4 " green pumkin lizarrrrd, morning dawn leach, mojo or split shot in 5 to 20 ft. We found cover at the boat slips in Markeley cove and found some nice keepers. Remember when time gets tough slow down and go small. The rocks had most of the fish but also found them around trees and bushes.
    City: rocklin

    Tips: When the water temp drops the bigger fish move out, fish slow .

  • By

    Water Temp: 56

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Fished Loomis Basin Club tournament. Caught about 4 limits of small keepers. Final 5 were cloned 1.80 pounders. Mixed bag during day with final 5 being all spots. Split shot bubble gum 4inch worm 15 feet. Tiny zoom lizards good also, Wood near by helped. Lost a couple of dandys in thick cover on 8 lb test? Partner dropped nice 3lb smallie right at boat? Had the fish on to win but wasn't in the cards. Winning team had 9.50 lbs or something close. They went up to vinyard. Big fish was 3lbs something. Wind and rain hampered finess bite. Caught over 30 fish on day so
    dexter and I had a great time all day. Lake is full with lots of trees in the water. Look for old trees in water newer ones don't hold fish as well? Neat to have thumbs all chewed up again.
    City: Orangevale

    Tips: Lots of fish everywhere. Lizards and 4 inch bubble gum worms split shot on 6 or 8 lb test. Stay in 15 to 20 feet until you come to tree in water then cast up to bank and bring down lenght of tree. Smelly jelly helps.

Thursday, March 17th, 2005

  • By

    Water Temp: 59-62

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished putah creek area from 8.00-5.00 caught 10 smallies from 1 to 3 pounds,on dropshot,most using a white tube bait.also caught 4 lgm and 3 spots on same baits.caught 1 nice crappie on a rip bait.no takers on reaction baits.
    City: newark ca.

    Tips: Fish are pretty much mixed up from 5 to 25 feet,lgm,spots,and smallies together.Try soft plastics in white or crawdad colors.dropshot and small jigs seem to produce the best at this time.

Tuesday, March 15th, 2005

  • By

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Fished the narrows in the morning. The two of us caught 50+ fish, mostly spots up to 16", a few smallies, and half a dozen largemouth to 2.5 lbs. Caught 'em on everything, mainly dart heading plastics. Headed out to the main lake near the big island around 11:00am. Caught one LMB about 2.5 lbs crankin' and that was it. Wasted about 3 hours looking for fish in the main lake before heading back toward the dam to stroke the spots.
    City: Dixon

    Tips: Throw a 4" straight tailed weenie worm. Spots don't care too much. They're just hungry. Fish were in the pockets.