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Berryessa Lake and Reports

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Friday, February 18th, 2005

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    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Lanuched out of Capel Cove and started fishing a little north of rockslide. Started off crankning and did'nt stop all day! First fish was a fat 3.5 smallie wich was followed up by a sold 2 pound spot 10 minutes later! Caught about 6 1-1.5 spots and kept fishing crank (Norman DD22). About and hour before I left hooked into a good fish, jumped about 10 feet from the boat and I FREAKED out! Finallly fought it for about 30 more seconds before baoting a beatiful 7 pound largemouth! My new personal best. If your fishing this lake anytime soon start north of rockslide put trolling motor in and go slow up norther cranking.
    City: Calistoga

    Tips: Crankbait was Norman DD22 (color, white), tried jig with only a couple bites but no hook up. Good luck and have fun.

Sunday, February 13th, 2005

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    Water Temp: 47-50

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Quency and I fished the narrows all morning, we fished points and down the sides into the secoundary points. Finding 20-25 spots, 5 smallies and two largies. Our biggest was 3.5 lbs. our five best was 13.5 lbs. Stay in 10-20 ft around rocks using jigs brown/purple, lizards, worms and brush hogs. fish slow , found no reaction bites. Some long banks with deep dropoffs work. never made it to the main body, next time.
    City: rocklin

    Tips: try using 4 1/2" worms, in any colors. look for rocks

Saturday, February 12th, 2005

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    Water Temp: 51

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Got a late start, but arrived at Putah Creek resort by 08:30. Lots of bass boats there.What a beautiful day, and there weren't any ski boats!
    We caught 3 largemouth,2 spotted, and 19 smallies. The smallies were far bigger than the others. Largest 2 were over four pounds. All of the fish were over 2.5 pounds with the majority around 3 pounds. We caught them on cranks. Chrome/black speedtraps,dc 13 and 16 timber tigers, rebel craws with chart/orange. We kept the boat in 12'-18' of water all day.
    City: Santa Rosa

    Tips: Fishing was really easy today, no challenge for 2 and 3 lb fish. Strikes were fierce, so hang on.
    http://www.sonic.net/sheehy/FishingFolder/Recent_Photos_Folder/RECENT_PHOTOS_PAGE.htm

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    Water Temp: 52.1

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Went to Eastside to joing the hordes of other bassboats. Fished points dropshoting and senko. Caught 4 (1.5-2lbs)immediately. Then nothing for 1 hr. Moved to Wagg canyon and caught 4 more, again, off points. Left at 2pm. Most were spotted bass.

    Tips: Bites were very light, except one that almost rip the pole out of my hand. Unable to set hook.

Friday, February 11th, 2005

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    Water Temp: 53-56

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Nice day on the water with Tom Erickson. Working the narrows for part of the morning on points with rock and some sandy beaches. Got our first limit by 9am with brown/purple jigs, crankin and worms. It was a good bite all over the lake on jigs, also brush hogs. The warmer part of the lake is up North with the bigger smallies and largemouth.
    City: rocklin

    Tips: Watch for the bass to be moving up in the warmer water.

Sunday, February 6th, 2005

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    Water Temp: 54-56

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Got the boat out for the first time since October!! We started late, about 2pm, out of Markely. Fished south arm only. Had four bites and landed 2 fish. 1 1/2lb. smallie and one keeper largemouth. All bites came on plastic in about 20ft. of water. Tried speedtraps and jerkbaits also, no takers. Had to fish super slow to get a bite. Beautiful day, sunny for the most part, and very little wind. Nice to be out on the water for a change....
    City: vacaville

Saturday, February 5th, 2005

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    Water Temp: 50-57

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Water was Stained to Clear. Fished from 9 am to 3 pm. Launched out of Markley Cove with a buddy. All in all we landed 4 spots and a smallie. All fish from 1 lb to 2 lbs. Beautiful day with bass boats on every bank. Our two bigger fish were caught on 1/2 oz. white spinnerbaits. The other three on darterheads with 4 and 6 inch green weenie Magic Worms. Fish were between 15 and 30 feet deep. Had no luck with tubes and crankbait.
    City: Sacramento

    Tips: Work slow, very slow. For us ... the bite from 9 am to noon was best.

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    Water Temp: 55

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: fish are moving up. caught them on points halfway back and in pockets. 3 limits all under 2 lbs. mixed bag of spots smallies and blacks. afternoon bite best. Bass boats on every point saturday. Seems they left quite a few bass behind them? Graf showed fish in 85 feet but I didn't have the heart to try and catch them because they would die on the way up.my buddy pulled one up from 50 feet and it's eyes and air bladder sticking out of it's mouth looked like some rock fish I've caught in the ocean. Reel them up slow darn it.
    City: orangevale

    Tips: fish slow. fish deep. adjust to conditions.The bucks are moving into the area. females aren't up yet? use smelly jelly on everything.

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    Water Temp: 50 to 55

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Tired of fishing Folsom lake so I have spent the last few Saturdays here.Came late and fished 9:00 to 3:00, launched at Markely. Fished a few spots in the Narrows then around 12:30 went north past Putah creek to fish the little islands.Had three in the Narrows and three up North.All came on drop-shot 4'' purple robo curly tail worms.I certainly tried every thing else with no luck, jigs,senko,cranks,darterhead,and even splitshot.Water temp up North was up to 55 deg.I was amazed the bite was'nt more active.All fish were keepers but nothing over two lbs.
    City: Granite Bay Ca.

    Tips: Two rods going, drop-shot on the deck and what-ever in your hands

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    Water Temp: 50-55

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: started off early, im still trying to learn bass fishing just got into it. Launched from markley fished a cliff face just off the speed markers land a 2 lb smally day went good took to the coves and the points, tryed grubs and spinners but what really took the smallies was purple death 6in from proworms and a puple with chartrues tail 6in from angler tech, me and my partner landed four each with only two not being keepers.
    City: vacaville

    Tips: 5-20 ft of water, i belive the water is to clear for them to be super shallow and keep it slow drag the worm if you have to slowly along your boat or pop it off the bottom, hope the helps .

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    Water Temp: 53 deg-noontime

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished Berryessa today for good ol' Fashioned Skunk!
    Got to the water first light, a large tournament was just firing off. Started off very foggy on the water, 48-Deg. Started to work points , and channel drop offs. Threw the jigs for about the first 2.5hrs. Then went to Dart Heads W/ Grubs. Worked from Shore to about 45' feet of water. Marked some bait but could not really target the bass, or other fish for that matter. Fog lifted and it was awesome, little wind, bright. The Water warmed to 54Deg. Started dragging some plastics, and had one on 1.5lbs broke off at the boat-that draggin' really tears up the line sometimes. So off the water at 2:45 for a big zero. All in all, great trip , the lake was awesome and looking good. Coming up well. Talked to other boaters, the same story, one or two fish. Spring is almost here !

Friday, February 4th, 2005

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    Water Temp: 53-55

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished 3 days this week, caught at least a limit each day with lots of small fish. Brown w/chartrouse tail worms dragged across the bottom, 16 - 20 feet, caught most of the fish. My wife caught several with a crappie jig, including a trout.
    City: Fairfield

    Tips: Smallmouth, Spots, and Largemouth are schooled up together in the coves, fish with the electronics until you find them and then have fun.

Wednesday, February 2nd, 2005

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    Water Temp: 49-52

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Hauled the red Ranger up to Berryessa in the hopes of tangling with a few pre-prespawn bass, and as expected, we didn't leave disappointed. Fishing from first light to 5:00pm with my dad, we managed 17 fish in the boat and several strikes missed as well. We found two basic patterns, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. To our surprise, the morning pattern involved VERY shallow fish, something I was more expecting as the water temp. rose in the warm afternoon sun. After fruitlessly fishing several key primary points in the Narrows, dad hit a chunky 3lb. spot in 5' of water on a channel bank adjacent to a point. Thinking it might be a fluke, we fished another good point, again with no results, and finally hit a fat prespawn smallie on the adjacent bank. Moving further into the creek, we caught another 6 fish and missed a couple more, all coming from water less than 10' deep. After catching a few more fish on the shallow pattern, by 11:00, that bite was done and the afternoon pattern began to take shape. Moving back to many of the same points which had been fruitless in the morning, we began catching fish on the sides of the points (channel breaks) anywhere from 15'-30' deep. We also caught a couple nice fish chasing a HUGE bait ball in the channel of a narrow feeder creek. Of the 17 fish boated, 3 were largemouth, 6 smallmouth and 8 spots. The best 5 probably went 11-12 lbs.
    City: Elk Grove

    Tips: Patterns were a bit backward for this time of year - shallow early, deeper in the afternoon - especially with the warm weather we're currently enjoying. Look for fish "highways" immediately adjacent to deep water transition areas. Best banks had softball-sized chunk rock and laydown trees recently eroded into the water. Caught 1 spooning, 1 splitshotting, 2 dropshotting, 2 on a jig, and the rest dartheading. Threw 4" and 6" Violet Shad Ultimate Bass Baits worms, Aaron's Magic and Hologram Shad Roboworm. Jig was 1/4 oz. Brown/Orange frog's hair w/ Spring Break Smallie Beaver trailer. One last note of interest - caught a beautiful 18" smallie which was already spawned out. Looks like an early year!

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    Water Temp: 52

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: I fished with a 10 year old birthday boy today, along with his 12 year old brother and ? old dad!! This kid is growing up right - this is what he wanted for his birthday - a trip to Berryessa (in the winter?)! He is already a veteran of a Clear Lake night trip last summer with dad and me. The bites were fair today - somewhere around 25, but we could only put 11 in the boat - 5 biggest about 9 1/4 lbs. Had not dad broken off a good fish just before dark in Markley Cove, we might have had a good limit. Birthday boy did land 3 bass - thank goodness. We had a pretty stiff north wind most of the day which caused difficult fishing for the boys. The older brother lost a good spot right at the boat which was a real shame. We split-shotted various colors of Camanche Jack worms and Berkley Pulse Worms. Green pumpkin was working well, as was morning dawn/chartreuse tail. We landed several jig fish, using brown/orange and black/purple/blue. The latter worked well just before dark - that is what dad got broken off with! I cranked one, and drop-shotted one. The fish were not as aggressive as last Thursday. I don't know if fishing pressure had anything to do with that. I heard about last weekend and today saw more mid-week bass boats than I have ever seen in the past 20 years. We caught mostly largemouth and spots, with 2 smallies. Biggest was a 2-10 largemouth that dad caught.
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: We fished Wragg Canyon the most, along with other spots in the narrows. Never made it to the main lake. We fished over several schools of bass, but tough to get them to bite. We found most afternoon bass in shade pockets on steep banks. I sort of thought they would be in the sun, but not today. A couple of our lost fish were in the brush, but the birthday boy did a good job of yanking one out of a bush! Unlike last week, most of our bites were shallow fish. We tried some deep fishing but couldn't get bit. I think the problem was the wind - the lake didn't warm any on the surface and therefore not too much in the way of shallow movement. When all else fails - the kids always love the boat ride!!

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    Water Temp: 52

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: I fished with a 10 year old birthday boy today, along with his 12 year old brother and ? old dad!! This kid is growing up right - this is what he wanted for his birthday - a trip to Berryessa (in the winter?)! He is already a veteran of a Clear Lake night trip last summer with dad and me. The bites were fair today - somewhere around 25, but we could only put 11 in the boat - 5 biggest about 9 1/4 lbs. Had not dad broken off a good fish just before dark in Markley Cove, we might have had a good limit. Birthday boy did land 3 bass - thank goodness. We had a pretty stiff north wind most of the day which caused difficult fishing for the boys. The older brother lost a good spot right at the boat which was a real shame. We split-shotted various colors of Camanche Jack worms and Berkley Pulse Worms. Green pumpkin was working well, as was morning dawn/chartreuse tail. We landed several jig fish, using brown/orange and black/purple/blue. The latter worked well just before dark - that is what dad got broken off with! I cranked one, and drop-shotted one. The fish were not as aggressive as last Thursday. I don't know if fishing pressure had anything to do with that. I heard about last weekend and today saw more mid-week bass boats than I have ever seen in the past 20 years. We caught mostly largemouth and spots, with 2 smallies. Biggest was a 2-10 largemouth that dad caught.
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: We fished Wragg Canyon the most, along with other spots in the narrows. Never made it to the main lake. We fished over several schools of bass, but tough to get them to bite. We found most afternoon bass in shade pockets on steep banks. I sort of thought they would be in the sun, but not today. A couple of our lost fish were in the brush, but the birthday boy did a good job of yanking one out of a bush! Unlike last week, most of our bites were shallow fish. We tried some deep fishing but couldn't get bit. I think the problem was the wind - the lake didn't warm any on the surface and therefore not too much in the way of shallow movement. When all else fails - the kids always love the boat ride!!

Sunday, January 30th, 2005

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    Water Temp: 50 to 52

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: We got there at 9:30 by 10:00 we had three fish in the boat. Are bigest went about two pounds. At noon went over to spanish flat didn't get one bite. We fished some trees and got nothing. At about 5:30 we got three more fish. They were all small. Caught them all on dropshoting. In all we got 5 to 6 pounds.
    City: Lincoln, CA

    Tips: fish in about from 30 to 40 feet. fish steep walls

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    Water Temp: 51

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: went out today and did pretty good for my first time out this year.Broke in my first fish. Me and my buddy got 7 on jigs and drop shot in about 20-30 ft. Best five went 9 lbs.
    City: sacramento

    Tips: green weenie robo worms and black and red flake jigs.

Friday, January 28th, 2005

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    Water Temp: 51/52

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished Sacramento Bass Wranglers club team tournament. Did not do so well, but 1st place was 20lbs+ for 5 fish. 15.86lb TOAD was there kicker. Ive seen big fish, but nothing like this. Imagine yourself being able to almost fit both of your closed fist inside of the mouth of this MONSTER!!!!!!!!! Enough Said!
    City: Roseville

    Tips: As far as I know , it was caught on a jig. Hopefully pictures to come.

Thursday, January 27th, 2005

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    Water Temp: 51-52

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: I made a short scouting trip to beautiful Berryessa today, fishing and looking around for about 5 1/2 hours. I enjoyed talking to Rich and his clients before they left today. I wish I could have stayed longer as the bass were biting good when I had to leave. Darn!! My music life required me to run a rehearsal in the evening. I did a lot of metering and mostly tried to make the jig bite happen. The quality was good and my three biggest were smallies - that is alway fun! They ran 2-8, 2-9, and 2-13. Took my own picture for the first time with my new digital Canon. Fish Chris has nothing on me now (except an 18-4)!! My four or five spots were all in the 2 pound range. No largemouth today for me. I jigged fish from 10 to 40 feet. My line actually jumped when the smallie at 40 feet hit - cool!!!! I did some rippin' and cranking in the morning with no takers. Had I stayed longer, I would have done that in the afternoon again when the wind came up, but I was having too much fun with the brown/orange 3/8 oz Rodstrainer jig. My five best were about 11 lb 10 oz. I fished the narrows and main body about equal time. I didn't run too far because of my limited time.
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: All the smallmouth were on steep breaklines 22 to 40 feet. I was surprised that I only caught spots in the shallows, and not many of them. Unlike Rich's report, my five biggest fish were not near bait, but on rock with steep drops. I saw a few baits balls, but not many. The east shore was dead for me - the rain and clouds after lots of sunny days might have backed them off. I hopped my jig more than I usually do and they seemed to like that. The jig bites were pretty solid. I missed several in very windy areas in the early afternoon, but I was really just trying to locate bass. I should have switched to a 1/2 oz jig. Cloud formations were really fantastic - I had a great time! Only had to wait on myself, har!!!

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    Water Temp: 49-51 degrees

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: With a Full Moon in the last couple of day, I didn't expect to much. Was I surprised. Took a couple out that were getting ready for some upcoming tournaments. With this in mind, I taught them pattern fishing in the narrow's and the main lake area. The Northern area of the main lake I found it OFF (Way less than normal) Scratch that pattern.

    Went back to what I was doing in the morning and continued to boat fish in boat or at least get slammed. It was important to read and understand the Depthfinder's in which I explained. Depth (Column of water) and shad balls were the key to catching quality bass. Out of the column and you didn't get touched. Too really enforce the catch ratio, boat positioning was a contributor also (Column search).

    For the fish we found we didn't exhaust in catching them all or hinder. Best 5 went 12-13lb's. Best came on Jig's

    Rich Thiel

    P.S. In February look for a Westernbass Internet TV show and within I will explain the upcoming pattern's too catching bass on Berryessa this spring.
    City: Livermore

    Tips: Watch in Depth (Column) where your catching fish and thing one step above your norm and you will see the Quality (Weight) rise.