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Berryessa Lake and Reports

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Sunday, April 4th, 2004

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    Water Temp: 62

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Got out on the lake around 8:30. Fished the North East shorline in 3 to 7ft of water. Caught 5 Largemouths on a 2" Rapala Shad Rap in Silver Black 1 on a 3" Husky Jerk in same color. Also caught a 4.5 pound cat on the shad rap. Anything shad worked well for me.
    City: Vacaville

Saturday, April 3rd, 2004

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    Water Temp: 58

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: WON Bass held its April tournament on Saturday. There was a total of 36 boats and 34 limits. The bite is on right now, however most of the fish are only 1-2 pounds. The average weight for 5 fish was only about 8lbs. Big fish for the day was a wopping 13.46 lbs. An amazing bass for any lake, especially Berryessa. I'm told it was caught on a 4" worm.
    City: Rohnert Park

    Tips: Try ripping and crank baits early, then switch to plastics. Drop shot produced for us in the afternoon. Work the secondary points and the deeper areas near spawning beds. Colors: Green Pumpkin or watermelon.

Wednesday, March 31st, 2004

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    Water Temp: it was cold to

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: convinced my girlfriend to go fishing with me. got her to agree that this was quality time =)
    ended up renting a little alumminum boat, brought my trolling motor...and was it a nice day. i wanted to try some drop shotting but never did. saw some jumping trout too. i mainly stuck with a jig the whole time. i got the first fish within a few minutes. after that my girlfriend was sold she wanted one too. we got 6 bass...lots of spots and one smallmouth. she got the biggest one. we fished from 9am till 3pm...the bite was fairly good. the water was really calm and the weather was great. got the chance to find some new islands...so untill next time ..........TIGHT LINES and a LOOMIS ROD....
    City: san francisco

    Tips: a LOOMIS ROD is always nice....w/ a matching curado super free....

Tuesday, March 30th, 2004

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    Water Temp: 64-68

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: My report is very similar to Cooch's previous report. Yesterday I guided a mom, dad, and teenage son that flew out from the Chicago area to meet some friends and to fish Berryessa for the first time. I was so pleased that the weather was perfect and the lake never looked better. It is so risky when folks make a long trip - you never know about the weather. Because they could only fish 4 1/2 hours, we just stayed in the narrows. The son hooked his first bass on the third cast split-shotting a junebug Berkley Pulse worm. Good start. He was pretty sleepy the whole trip and mom struggled (I think she was enjoying the scenery too much!), but dad flat got into them. We spent most of the time split-shotting Berkley and Camamche Jack 4 and 6 inch worms and wound up with 19 in our short trip. In Wragg Canyon I must have nailed a big spawner, 'cause I couldn't stop her. Big fish! We all really had a great time. After they left, I took a break and went back out for more heavenly "punishment"! I just goofed around and found fish everywhere. I decided to stay in the narrow and try areas that I havn't fished for awhile. I was just amazed at how many largemouth are still in the narrows. I went thru a period where I caught 5 largies and 2 spots that were all from 1-14 to 2 1/2 pounds. I measured one of the spots for fun and she was just short of 17 inches. I caught my first sight fish of the year - such fun! I broke out the topwater lures for the first time and hooked but lost 4. The first one hit a Chug Bug and appeared to be a largemouth close to 4 pounds. It was a very long cast and that was the problem. I finally landed one on a Sammy. The backs of the coves are now full of fish, but as Cooch said, not many big females yet! I think I ended up with around 44 total for the day and a limit of five a tick over 12 pounds. Fun day!!!
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: Points are still producing fish, but not like before. Look to bass along structure of wall leading to the back of coves - a tree, indentation on the back, etc. Topwater will probably produce bigger fish from now on. Rippin' is still working, but not as well. Green pumpkin, junebug, camo, and purple/brown worms are all working well. Tube baits are excellent this time of year - I just havn't used any. The bass are in the top 15 feet of water, though big fish are still a bit deeper.

Thursday, March 25th, 2004

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    Water Temp: 62-64

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Fished yet another guide trip on this little jewel in the storm yesterday out of Markley Cove. The jig bite first thing in the morining was awesome and held up till the rains started. 1/2 oz Brown purple football head jig with small 101 pork chunks. We caugh all three species up to four pounds being the biggest largmouth of the morning. A bunch of largemouth have move shallow, but are not yet on beds. We did see a number of BIG smallies on beds as well as a few BIG spots up cruising the shalows. We ventured up to the south portion of the main lake when it started to rain at around 11:00. We then commenced to put a clinic on the largemouth with a C-rig'd Zoom Lizard. Wow, cast after cast after cast, they would yank that green pumkin lizard dang near out of our hands. I think most of these were bucks that have began there shallow movement and were just feeding like crazy. Was purty cool,of the 35-50 fish we caught, best 5 went between 14-15 pounds today. Still no big fish, yet I know there in here! So I'm going back to the River for 5 days of guiding! [grins]
    City: Oakley

    Tips: Start looking for the fish to be shallow. Areas with big flats from 3-10' are holding hordes of largemouth. For smallies, look for that yellow pebble rock banks, especially long flat submerged points, there will be 3-6 smallies on every point. The spots just seem scattered everywhere.

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    Water Temp: 64-67

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Invasion of the largemouth!! That is the story of a rapidly clearing Berryessa. The water is clear enough now to see a few fish moving around, although we did not see any big bass up yet. A regular client and I caught nearly 60 bass yesterday - non-stop action. We fished near the Ranch House, and from Spanish Flat to Pope Creek. While many of those fish were small largemouth, our tournament keepers (above 13") went something like this: 32 largemouth, 10 smallmouth, and only 2 spots. Our best five were all largies from 2-1 to 2-10, close to 12 pounds. As I mentioned, lots of largemouth from 6 to 10 inches - great to see! The crankbait bite slowed for us - we caught only three. One great thing happened - I threw a rip bait in the back of a cove. Before I could twitch it - off it went - I set and a 2 1/2 lb largemouth came a foot out of the water. Ah, winter is over!! We settled on split-shotting and dragging 4 to 6 inch worms and lizards. Senkos worked too. I used Berkley, Yamamoto, and Camanche Jack worms in several colors. My client brought some Zoom cotton candy lizards and that was the hot bait for about a half hour. Eventually he wanted to use some of my Berkely pulse worms - they were red hot. Don't forget camo color - it works! I threw swimbaits for awhile and even some topwater in the morning. No takers. We found that we had to wait a second or two to get a good hookset. If we set too quickly, we missed a lot of them. That is certainly true of Berryessa when night fishing! It was a much more beautiful day than we anticipated. Great fishing and great weather don't often go together! We both enjoyed the solitude - only saw 6 or 7 boats of any kind all day. I love it!!
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: We found fish on points, but the majority have started to move to the back of coves or to secondary points. We caught fish from 5 to 20 feet of water. Many points at Berryessa have flats before they drop to deep water. Those are the best staging areas for big bass. I think there will be a good movement of bigger fish during the next full moon. A return to winter (it is pouring rain as I write this) could change this however.

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2004

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    Water Temp: 62 to 69

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished 6:15 until 2:15. Hit Wragg Canyon first and pulled 5 out in the first hour, all good keepers, 1.5 to 2.5 range. Fished skiers canyon for 7 more, 1.0 to 2.8. Headed up north to Putah Creek for the last hour of fishing and pulled 2 more, a dink and a solid 3.10 largie. Had a nice fish come unbuttoned at the boat, 4.5 to 5lbs+ just did'nt get a good stick in her, she jumped and flashed her fat white belly at me and spit my spinnerbait out. 14 fish total, 13.60 limit.
    City: Davis

    Tips: Spinnerbait, drop shot and swim bait.

Sunday, March 21st, 2004

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    Water Temp: 62-65

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Caught 16 fish total. 14 keepers to 2.5lbs, with two dinks thrown in. Mostly smallmouths, mostly males, making beds. 3-8ft depth, all came on dart heads, with 4in plastics.
    City: Vallejo

    Tips: Go fishing, it's fun!

Saturday, March 20th, 2004

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    Water Temp: 57

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Got into water at 8am, which is pretty late. But manage to bag 8 keepers when all said and done. Mostly hitting in back of coves on plastic worms 5-6". Lots of small ones that were thrown back but good fighting. Biggest was 3lbs+ and avg. 2lbs.
    City: Alameda

    Tips: Plastic seem to work for us, but once in awhile, we throw in spinners, minnows, etc. when it gets slow. Happy fishing!!! Fishing is always happy.

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    Water Temp: 62

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Took my Dad out on Saturday. He loves to fish, but doesn't get to very often any more. We hit some coves and points in the Narrows and got several cranking bomber A's in crawdad color. Nothing much after the sun hit the water. Went to dragging and drop shotting. Picked up several more up to 2.5lbs (spot). Sure liked the look on my Dad's face with his 2lb smallmouth. Didn't have much luck in back of coves. Most fish were inside the primary point. Did well drop shotting dark worms w/red flake in them against the bank with a mud line after the boaters showed up.
    City: Sunnyvale

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    Water Temp: 65

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished Fri. & Sat.. Caught fish in the Narrows, the big island and the east side flats. Mostly spots and smallies to 3 lbs.. Caught a few on crawdad cranks and wht/chart. spinnerbait. Most fish came split shotting 4" worms.
    City: Delhi

    Tips: Most fish caught in very back end of coves or in 8' of water on the flats. worms had to have a chartruese tip for more hook ups. Best colors were grn. weenie, blue ghost, and salt & pepper. Talk to some other bassers who caught good fish ripping and throwing flukes.

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    Water Temp: unknown

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Had a great time fishing the Future Pro Tournament with 140 other boats. Winning weight was 15+ lbs. and several 6+ lbs fish for big fish. We caught fish on dropshot, spinnerbaits, jerk baits and 4" swimbaits to take 20th place. Learned a lot and had a great partner.
    City: San Bruno

    Tips: Fished were biting well in the morning but slowed down when sun hit the water. Fish are all over up against the banks in cove and some points. Good luck

Friday, March 19th, 2004

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    Water Temp: 60 to 62

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished 6:30 to 9:30 this morning before work, caught 9 on a spinnerbait that has been working really well for me at Berryessa lately. 3.5 & 2.75 largie and the rest smallies, 2.25,2.0,2.0 were the best Five. Good morning bite today, great way to start the day.
    City: Davis

    Tips: Hit em early!

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    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished from 7 to 10 AM. Took 5 on shallow running crankbait (shad) and 4 on watermelon brushogs. Nothing on spinnerbaits. Crankbait fish came from rock banks early morning and the brushog fished came from laydowns. All fish were small bucks about 3/4 to 1 1/2 pounds, all fish would have weighed. Good luck to all at the future pro tourney tomorrow.
    City: Suisun City

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    Water Temp: 59-62

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished 7-12 today at the rockslide at the entrance to the narrows. First two casts, two bites but no fish. Boated 2 dinks on plastic and one on a rattletrap. Got ready to go and the big motor would not crank over. Dan O'Sullivan, owner of Lim-it Lures, stopped to help. When the jumpstart did not work he towed me all the way to Cappell. Thanks again, Dan. A great lure and a really nice fisherman. I wish your company much success in the future.
    City: Woodland

    Tips: Check the meter on your batteries before you launch. Save yourself the aggravation.

Wednesday, March 17th, 2004

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    Water Temp: 58-65

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Took two gentlemen out from Stockton Fire Deptment on a all day Guide trip.

    Started at 7AM and headed to the Northend of the lake (no wind, not good)picked up one smallmouth on a ripbait and missed about 4-5 bites on plastic.

    Left there and headed back south and proceed to but fish in the boat with ripbaits and Jig's, brown with a Twin tail 180 GYB Grub. The fish were on main points with some fish halfway back into the cove's.

    Finished the day at 5PM with 20-25 fish caught. Bigger fish between the smallmouth and the spots were the smallmouth.

    Rich Thiel's GS
    City: Livermore

    Tips: Fish 0 to 25ft with either a ripbait or a jig. Enjoy your day on the water.

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    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Caught some really nice fish to 4 pounds 30 feet deep on the break, off of main points. The bigger large mouth are down deep still.
    City: sac

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    Water Temp: 54-59

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Returned to the lake yesterday with a young client that has been struggling with the Berryessa bass. I think he caught only 1 last Sat. Well, our trip changed all that in spite of having to deal with two days of north wind. It slowed the bite some, cooled of the east shore by a few degrees, and murked up the water again. We had a great pattern yesterday - I took him to some good areas and he caught all the fish!! Works for this guide!! His first was a 2 3/4 lb smallie near Big Island. He also had 2-4 and 2-2 smallies and a 2-1 largemouth to go with the big one. He is now 12 times better than last Sat - catching 12. I caught a grand total of 3 - including our only short. Right after he caught the big smallie, my Strike Pro crankbait was hammered by a big fish - felt like a smallie or spot. I fought it for a few seconds before it spit the bait. That was a bad start for me. I just couldn't get them in the boat yesterday. He used a Norman deep little N for his fish - it was a hot crankbait! I caught 2 largemouth on the big rainbow trout Strike Pro ripbait. We found the early bite to be good until the north wind came up. After 11 am the bite was sporatic. We did have a lot of hits near the boat - we even had a double crankbait hookup in Rancho Montecello. I had expected with the wind pattern to catch numbers rather than size, but it was the opposite. Even with losing my big fish, we wound up with a limit near 11 pounds. My new confident client caught all the big 'uns!
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: The wind definately changed the bite some. The fish seemed less aggressive. We did some Carolina dragging and that only produced one keeper spot. The fish are still staging, but don't seem to have moved any further towards the shallows yet. Most of our fish were caught on points and flats near deep water.

Tuesday, March 16th, 2004

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    Water Temp: 58 to 63

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Threw the first cast at 10 and caught fish til 6:30 on the last cast. Caught 10 smallies and 1 largie. 4 drop shottin and 7 on blades. Bite was consistent all day long. Best five went for 12 lbs. I love smallies, such a good fight! Took my girlfriend and one of my buddies out on wednesday and both of them caught there first bass ever. My girl caught 2 and buddy caught 3 nice spots and lost one near the boat. (ROOKIE) I caught 3 and missed 4 bites, off day, in 3 hours we boated 9 fish and had a great St. Patties Day.
    City: Davis

    Tips: Drop shottin, crankbaits and blades, tight lines!

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    Water Temp: 58-64

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Sorry can't give out to much info, have the Future Pro tourney on Saturday. All I can say is that the bite is on. Caught 29 bass. Spots, smallies, largies, fish were there and biting. One good smallie on blades 3.2 rest on plastics. Going to be a fun tourney. I think everyone will catch fish. Best five was just over 11, but not enought to win. Need to find the bigger fish. Going to lake again on thursday. Good Luck on Saturday.
    City: Citrus Heights

    Tips: Have fun and don't run out of the hot color of plastics that are working.....