Submit
Report

Berryessa Lake and Reports

Limit:
Click for interactive map

Monday, January 24th, 2005

  • By

    Water Temp: 52

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished out of markley cove under heavey fog. it 12:30 before it was clear caught 7 fish 4 large and 3 small mouth all on crank bait and spinner baits best 5 was 10.20lb. Fished the points in 25 to 35 feet of water.
    City: yuba city

    Tips: slow all my bites where on lite colers white spinner.

Saturday, January 22nd, 2005

  • By

    Water Temp: 52

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: fished in the cold damp fog almost all day. Seemed 20 degrees colder when the 30 mph wind hit you.Ended up with 9 small spots maybe 7lbs. One hit a jig near wood. The rest were on the 30 to 40 foot area inside coves out of the wind.Split shot worms spanish fly worked.Lots of bass on main lake points but the wind made it impossible to fish from an aluminum lund with high sides.
    City: orangevale

    Tips: jigs one main lake points. 3/4 oz. brown on brown. Fish slow and drag over 40 foot zone.Let them eat it good or yoou'll pull and nothing will be there.

  • By

    Water Temp: 52

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Started fishing at 9:00 am with a friend with jigs,crankbaits, rip baits with no luck. my partner started catching fish on a darterhead worm so I switched over. We ended up with 13 bass total.Best five close to 9 lbs, half of the fish were smallies. Good day for this time of year. Started at Markeley cove, hit 5 spots in the narrows,skiers cove ,farmhouse and Big island.
    City: Granite Bay Ca.

    Tips: darterheads and dropshot

Tuesday, January 18th, 2005

  • By

    Water Temp: N/A

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished off the shore at Smittle Creek in the morning, and then moved to Berryessa Marina in the afternoon. All of the fish were Landed at Berryessa Marina. 2 small keepers along the rip rap using a 4inch cinnamon senko and 4inch arons majic dropshot worm. I dropshotted with a 1/4 oz weight, 1.5-2ft drop leader, 6lb test flourocarbon. Landed one two pound smallmouth using a black/red speck brushhog/texas rigged w/brass&glass along boat docks. 3 fish total, Decent day given the bad/cold weather condition.
    City: Davis

    Tips: Fish super slow, use a scent, ( I used old motor oil)and pause for long periods of time! I noticed that the active fish move into the shallows around noon,and are positioned about 10-15 feet below the surface. The few hours of warmth between 11-1PM was the "key" time frame where all of my fish were caught. Good luck & Good fishing!

Sunday, January 16th, 2005

  • By

    Water Temp: 52

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished berryessa today and me and my partner caught fifteen bass today on night crawers in about four hours. Split shotting in coves in the south part of the lake. We were catching em about fifteen to forty foot of water. Try fishing bait you'll have more fun than using artificials this time of the year. M ake your fishing trip worth wild instead of trying to figure out what to use. Use lures later in the year when the fishing gets easier. Gasoline is expensive these days and driving and towing. Be smart and use real bait. There will be time for artificials later in the year.
    City: napa

    Tips: Fish deep on points and coves about 10 to 40 feet.

  • By

    Water Temp: 55

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished today from 10 to 3 using the previous tips. Fished 30' to 5' on points and rocky areas. Fished slow, drop shotted with brown and purple worms, and black/blue and brown/orange jigs, but no fish. Anyone else do well? What's the secret? Do you let worms and jigs sit for 30 seconds before shaking or moving?
    City: Novato

    Tips: Would like some tips.

Saturday, January 15th, 2005

  • By

    Water Temp: 52-55

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished out of the south end with partner used 3/4 oz. brown jig,mean green leach,and green pumkin 4" dead ringers. 18 fish 1.5 to 3.14 5' to 30' feet of water.When you find one fish there will be more. Change up presentations. Fished from 7:00A.M. to 1:30 P.M.
    City: Sac

    Tips: Cought fish Texas rigged worms and jigs. Drag on bottom from shore out to 30' if you know that you are on fish and are not getting bit use up to 10 second pauses will trigger the fish.

Tuesday, January 11th, 2005

  • By

    Water Temp: 52.7-53.6

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished Berryessa with a buddy from my Bass Club (Devil Mountain Bassmasters of Walnut Creek) after a few days of stable clear weather. Managed to find fish right away. The were stacked up at the bottom of a drop and hanging around a couple of submerged bushes. We put about 8-9 fish in the boat with only 2 dinks. The rest were healthy and very strong spots. Decided to look for other places and started hitting small points and the backs of small coves. We picked up several more fish here and there (spots and smallies). They were either on a point in 20-25 feet or in the backs of coves that had deep water close by. Most of our fish came on plastics although we managed to crank a nice fish on a deep diving Poes crankbait. Had 1 hit on a jerkbait but the fish seem lethargic and wanted a slower presentation. Ended the day with over 25 keeper fish, our best 5 was over 10lbs. Great time to be on Berryessa.
    City: Walnut Creek

    Tips: Fish wind blown points in deeper water. Throw plastics in brown or purple. Our fish were in 20-25 feet in the morning and seemed to move up a little as the day progressed. Later in the day fish seemed to be in the 15 ft range. Water is stained but not real bad.

Saturday, January 8th, 2005

  • By

    Water Temp: 52-54

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: launched out of markley's for the first trip of the year at 9am with the parking lot almost full.fished from 9-3 with about 8 bites and boated 5 keepers up to 2#. it was pretty slow, but it was a beautiful winter day which made it enjoyable...graphed alot of bait in the 40 to 75' depths, but caught my fish in 10-30' on plastics. i want to thank r. theil for his report as it gave me a starting point. All of my fish were spots and yes they were very anemic in color.
    City: orinda

    Tips: wish i could help, but i definitely wasn't on them as all i caught were lone rangers...

  • By

    Water Temp: 51 - 54

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: First trip of the year with a friend .We fished from the dam to the south bank of big island.The water clarity was 1 foot at best, the clearest water is Markley area , however my best fish came in the main body, one slightly over 3 lbs and a couple of 2.5. Its all stained but very fishable.
    We ended up with a total of 19 , one l.m.,3 s.m., and 15 spots.Just like the previous post mentioned they were all very white.
    City: Granite Bay

    Tips: Worms and jigs, when you find fish stay on them.

  • By

    Water Temp: 53.0-55.6

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: The water conditions are poor from the narrows up. the clearist water that was found was at markly and down near the dam. All of the fish that were graphed were all from 35ft down,
    City: MArtinez

    Tips: Fish SLOOOOW in clearist was if possible

Thursday, January 6th, 2005

  • By

    Water Temp: 53-55

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: After dodging boulder up 128 from Winters lauched and caught my first keep of 06 in Markley Cove Ripp'in. Markley was a stained Green, went to a jig and put 2 more in on one point. Went point hopp'in for about two hours and but in 14 fish total before I hit the Narrows. The fish were from 15ft to 35ft. What I notice was that there were slightly on the white side, meaning that these fish were all com'in up from the deep. Has the fog lifted on the lake the bite became sluggish or just a tic with noth'in there.

    I went thru the narrow and up to the main lake and the water became dirty milk Chocolate in alot of area including bays. Tried some backends of coves in 25-30ft of water with small takers (Hula Grubs on 1/2oz football head. Not excited yet about that pattern, so I headed back to where I caught some fish and fished non normal-patterns. SO-SO. Quite at Two and sat in the boat and fixed possible rigs. I ended up with 11-12lbs without any mental fatigue. Fish are moving up in 1see's and two's, I didn't find any bonzaza patterns, but a pattern that will hold until probably April. Their will be patterns like ripp'in, dartheads, and split-shott'in in the near future once the lake clears a little. When? Only Mother Nature KNOW's.

    For You fisherman that are fishing this lake in the near future, becareful of floating debrie above the nears from Markley. Theirs some Prop busters float'in.
    City: Where ever the bites at

    Tips: Fish slow for know, especially with either a jig or a hula grub. Once the fog lifts and the sun comes out slow down more. Especially on your favorite point. For you Drop-shott'ers, Roboworm in the Mutilator will get you fish. Has the water clears the Morn'in Dawn or the "Perty Laaady" has some call it will be the ticket.

Tuesday, January 4th, 2005

  • By

    Water Temp: 54-55

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Made it up to the lake yesterday via Suisun Valley road and 121. Still very muddy and lot's of one-way traffic (boat and truck got covered in mud!)...the road has slid out in 3 different places on 121. The road coming from Winters was wide open and mostly clean until you near Markley Cove. Fishing was great..double up on very first cast. Fish seemed to be stacked up once you found them. Try main lake points and do nothing banks. Caught about 25 total with the largest about 3lbs.
    jigs, c-rigs and drop shot all worked.
    City: Fairfield

    Tips: fish lot's of areas and stop and work over an area once you catch one!

Saturday, January 1st, 2005

  • By

    Water Temp: 54-57

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: My friend John and I had a hard time getting to the lake, lots of mudslides on the road. We got there kind of late around 9:30 and the boat was covered with mud from the drive up. Lot's of timber floating by the dock and made getting the boat back on the trailor a little tough. Winds around 30 to 40 mph and heavy rain. Found some fish in the narrows in about 30 feet of water. Three around 1 1/2 pounds, one around 3 pound and one running about 6 pounds. John caught them all on a 3/8 brown/orange jig with a crawdad trailor. Oh I got skunked.
    City: Millbrae

    Tips: Work the jigs slow, find one fish keep fishing you might catch more there. Wait till weather gets better took hours getting all the mud out of the boat.

Thursday, December 23rd, 2004

  • By

    Water Temp: 55

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Went out on the 23rd. It was windy and a little chilly. Fished for 7 friggin hours and didnt even get a bite!!! Next time im trying in the spring when there spawning then ill knock em dead!
    City: san bruno

    Tips: SLOW!!!

  • By

    Water Temp: 53 degrees

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Spent a windy day fishing with local guide Wayne Hinrichs. He put us on fish after struggling for a few hours due the strong north wind, high pressure and near full moon. We finally found the fish in 35-40' of water on breaklines and fishing slow. Some fish caught on jigs and dartheads but most on dropshot with craw colored Roboworms and shad Power worms. Key was fishing slow. Combination of 30-35 smallies, spots and blacks caught - most in the 1.25-1.75 lb range. All in all, a great day on the water with a great friend and guide.
    City: Livermore

    Tips: Slow and deep - smaller fish caught were in the 15-20' range. Better fish wer 35-40' range - find the breaklines. Fish were hugging the bottom as we graphed very few fish (or bait) that we caught.

Sunday, December 19th, 2004

  • By

    Water Temp: 55

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: ON WATER 7 AM,CAUGHT ALL FISH EARLY DRAGGING 4 TO 6 INCH WORMS. ONLY 1 BITE AFTER LUNCH, HE SCARED AND I MISSED JIG BITE.
    OVERALL BEUATIFUL DAY OFF WATER BY 2PM
    City: MOUNTAIN VIEW

    Tips: FISH SLOW AND GET OUT EARLY

Friday, November 26th, 2004

  • By

    Water Temp: in 60's

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Got on the water by 8:00 AM and headed directly to the Southern part of the lake (Skier's Canyon, Haines Cove). Started to drop shot 4 inch plastic worms (watermelon with red flakes) in coves where fish were detected by finder. My son and I caught three bass in the 3 to 4 lb range within several hours and missed several others. Great day to be on the water.
    City: Fairfield

    Tips: Noticed that the bass were striking in mid-depth from 30 to 40 ft of water. I would recommend being patient and fishing slow. I have a tendency to set the hook once I feel the slightest bit of resistance. I probably could have landed two more if I were less aggressive.

Thursday, November 25th, 2004

  • By

    Water Temp: 55

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: On the water around 7:30 and decided to try for trout before looking for some bass. Within 20 minutes I looked into a nice 18" trout while trolling through Capel Cove. I was top lining a pins minnow. Hooked into another about a half hour later but lost it at the boat. By 9:00 I headed towards the narrows looking for bass, and found the bite very tough. I tried an assortment of plastics without any luck. I'll try again next week.
    City: Rohnert Park

    Tips: If your looking for some fun, try trollig for some trout along the surface early. The bass are scattered and deep. Well at least that's what everyone has told me.

Monday, November 22nd, 2004

  • By

    Water Temp: 58-60

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: I went out with a buddy that wanted to learn to bass fish on Berryessa, while this is not my home lake I have done well in the past. We got a late start, wetting the boat at 9:00AM, clear skies, no wind, beautiful day. Decided to try the bank before working deeper. We quickly realized that it was going to be a tough bite. No fish on blades,cranks, tailspinners, or split shot worms. The key turnout to be salt & pepper grubs on a darthead jig. Lots of little fish with a few keeper.
    City: dixon

    Tips: Fish the rip-rap. Swim the grub on the fall, letting it come to rest. Raise your tip and let it fall again. Of course, they will hit it on the drop.