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Berryessa Lake and Reports

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Saturday, January 18th, 2003

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    Water Temp: 51

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: The Redwood Empire Bass Club had their 1st tournament o the year on Saturday. 16 boats total. Top weight was just over 9 lbs or 5 ish using mostly deep diving crankbaits. Biggest ish was only 3 lbs. I inished 5th with 6.83 lbs and 3rd largest at 2.35 lbs. I your wondering what my secret bait or Berryessa is (rom last report), its a tube. I caught 4 o my 6 ish on tubes.
    City: Rohnert Park

    Tips: Use deep diving cranks around rocks in the narrows. Also try tubes and baby brushhogs in watermelon or pumpkin, and salt/pepper grubs. Work plastics very slow.

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    Water Temp: 52

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Let Capell around 8:15am, Fogged in solid until around 9:30......Caught irst ish just outside the ives on a viper ootball head ( brwn/orange w/yamamoto puple trailer), a good 2lb smally, then my 9yr old daughter gets a at 2 3/4 smalley on a Norman Crankbair(char), inally got to run dwn south....The wie gets a spot ( 1 1/2lb) on a Purple Manns Crankbait... That was about it, a ew other strikes-nothing....Reaction bite I eel will work all day...Need a rocky bank , all ish were in less than 10' or water...
    City: Napa

    Tips: Reaction baits and jigs will put ish in the boat...

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    Water Temp: 52

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: started out at around 12:00pm rom Markley cove and made my way over to pope creek and was pitching a VP PRO jig pepper/with gree
    City: Fiairield

Thursday, January 9th, 2003

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    Water Temp: 53 to 55

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: In water at 10:30, still roze on the ride out. Fished main body, scouting some new areas or us. We got 8 total, with two nice smallies, going about 3lbs each. Our total or 5 ish was about nine and a hal, not bad. Dropshot got hal o them, with the other hal coming on a doodle rig. Points were best or us, the ish seem to be moving shallower in the aternoon when the water warms a little. We caught ish rom 10 to 20 t. o water.
    City: Vacaville

    Tips: A ew more degrees and things are going to get real good, we'll see how this weeks storms play out, and i the water temps stay in the mid 50's.....

Friday, January 3rd, 2003

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    Water Temp: Not sure, guess

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Just ished rom the bank. Started @ 3pm. First time my wie came out with me. I was using 6 1/2 medium action spinning gear with a craw pattern Speedtrap. The wie was using 6 medium action spinning gear with a small Castaic swimbait. I landed my irst on the 5th cast, deinately not a keeper, about 10 inches. Wie caught one about 10 minutes later close to the same size. The bite turned o or about an hour or so. I casted into an area where there seemed to be a new allen tree. I say this because I'm very amiliar with this area and have never noticed it beore. I casted to it 3 times with nothing, then decided to change my approach. I had a eeling I was spooking the ish, so this time, I paused and counted to 15 beore I started my retrieve. By the 3rd crank...BAM! A nice healthy chunk just nailed it! It ought one helluva ight, especially or a winter bass. This tipped the scales at 6 lbs 7 oz. Got some nice photos out o it. I know it's no trophy, but it is deinately the biggest one I've caught..rom the bank. Overall, in the last 2 days, in 6 total hours, I've landed 4 ish. 3 o which were deinate tournament keepers!!!
    City: Dixon

    Tips: You would be suprised how succesul you can be without a $30,000 boat. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to have one, but the banks and a 10t jon boat suits me ine. O all the baits used over the last 2 days, cranks and swimbaits with a slow to medium retrieve seem to knock em dead between the hours o 3-6pm, at least where I was at. Can somebody please answer a question or me? Are there any tournaments held where you can compete, even i you only own a small aluminum boat? I'm sure it's not an advantage, so I don't see what the problem would be, as long as you have a livewell. Any ino on this would be greatly appreciated!

Monday, October 21st, 2002

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    Water Temp: 66

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: What a difference a day (or night) makes!!! I guided a father-son team that I had previously taken this spring for some great Oroville trips. Unfortunately, a strong delta wind made our Thursday trip pretty miserable at night - cool and windy. We started about 5:30 PM out of Markley and caught 3 before dark. I did catch one nice spot, about 2 1/2 pounds on topwater and the son caught 2 smallies - one about 2 1/4 on Magic worms. The topwater bite that I wanted so badly for them to experience didn't happen. Luckly - we were going to fish Friday too!!!! After dark, for the second trip in a row, the bite was dead at night. All the fish are suspended in the bait. In desperation, I tried one of my Amador tricks on a point in the narrows. I threw a one ounce Cordell Spot to the point - ripped it once and stuck an 18 1/2 inch spotted bass - a little over 2 1/2 pounds. Imagine that - on the first cast and first rip!!! Would it happen again? Not a chance. No quanity on this trip but great quality. I told them I thought the weather and the fishing would be better on Friday (I really did believe it!) and I was right on both fronts. We started about 4:30 PM and threw Chug Bug topwater lures in shadows. We caught a few. What happened the next hour was a dream come true. We found a cove behind Goat Island that was full of shad - herding in by largemouth!! My clients were so excited that they missed several good fish, but we did land many good quality largemouth from 1 3/4 to 3 1/4 pounds - with a 2 pound 6 ounce smallmouth thrown in for good measure. We wound up with 9 or 10 in the boat averaging a little over 2 1/2 pounds. The lake was calm, the sunset was beautiful, and no bass boats in sight. It just doesn't get any better. We even caught a few at night, with the son again taking big fish honors. I had him fishing my Berryessa special - a 7" black Berkley Power Worm. We were throwing to the shore in whatever shadows we could find - and that's where the fish were. About midnight, just before we quit, I saw his line move to the right in the black light and the fight was on! She was skinny, but a largemouth at 4 pounds 5 ounces is good anytime at Berryessa. Our five fish limit was an ounce or two over 12 1/2 pounds. Love those two day adventures - one of them has to pay off!!
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: Timing is everything as I just told you, but the topwater bite is on - if you can find the bait and feeding bass. The lake should turn over soon. I was excited to see so many quality largemouth in one place. Most of the bigger bass were over a hump in the cove that was about 17 feet deep, with deep water nearby. That is exciting stuff!! These larger bass would hit when the Chug Bug was at rest. It was sort-of: blurp-blurp-blurp - pause - WHAM!! They didn't blow up on the bugs much, just sucked them under. We didn't try other areas - we hit the pot of gold and we wern't leavin'!! I finally got my first night jig fish - a terrific hit - but the only jig bite! The jig bite will get better as the water cools (I hope)!

Sunday, October 13th, 2002

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    Water Temp: 68

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: I left Markley Cove with three clients Friday afternoon about 6 PM. For the next hour and a half before dark we found fishing to be good, landing 8 tournament keepers and one dink. One of the clients had a nice 2 lb 11 oz largemouth on a - what else - 6" morning dawn Magic worm. I tried topwater for awhile and it was good - I wish we could have all done it - but no treble hooks in my boat with four people!! The jig bite didn't happen. I was a little optimistic about the night bite because the weather had rebounded some from the previous day's dive - almost 30 degrees! We started at night by big island and did get three bites right away with one in the boat. And that is where this report ends - no more fish!!!!! This was the slowest night in my guiding career at Berryessa - amazing. We got seven more bites, I think, with one of the clients loosing a nice fish. The meter showed suspended fish all over the lake with very few on the bottom. They definately are mixing it up with the shad and probably feeding a lot during the day - maybe the previous day 'cause it was cloudy. That's the best guide excuse I can come up with! My clients fished very well - it wasn't their fault. Sometimes the fish win - but not by this much!!
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: The worm bite is still excellent if one uses translucent colors that imitate bait. Split-shot or Texas rig seems to work equally well. The topwater bite is on if you can find the right area (bait) and the weather is stable. I love the Chug Bug!

Thursday, October 10th, 2002

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    Water Temp: ???

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Windy as hell. We didn't get our lines wet until around 3pm or so. We were fishing based on our moon calendar. We were actually fishing Putah Creek, about 3 miles east of Winters, a secret spot of ours on a friend's private property. This creek holds far more largemouth than people might think, and we're talking lunkers. What was beautiful about today was that you could plainly see the fish. We saw 6 holding in one area, with one I'd say creeping around the 7 pound mark easily. We tried drop-shotting for a while with no success. We had about 8 inches between the weight and the soft plastic. We used black Renegade paddletails. The fish would inspect, just about take it, but bail out at the last minute. There was an area of cover about 20 yards downstream that I knew was holding fish, but the area was not accessable due to large amounts of poison oak which is easy to idenify this time of year with an almost flouresent pink color. I tried my best to cast in this area from where I was at with a buzzbait, mainly to locate the fish. It wasn't until my 8th cast I brought in about a 3 lber! We continued to cast in this area with topwaters and caught 7 bass within about 2 hours, definately enough to keep things interesting.
    City: Dixon

    Tips: Putah creek is a great place for bass if you just want to go out for a couple hours and you don't feel like taking the boat out. Just keep a good eye out for the dreaded poison oak, and wear plenty of "Off!" for the ticks. Also, most of the creek is on private propery, so make sure you're not trespassing!

Tuesday, September 24th, 2002

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    Water Temp: Mid 70's

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: I was at the Redwood Empire tournament, too, fishing the back of the boat of the winner. Fish can be caught all day dropshotting main points with steep rocky drop-offs in 10 to 25 feet of water. The magic color of the magic worm was Bubble Gum (never say pink--scares the fish away). The guy who won, Bill Sackett, put on a clinic for me all day, reeling in fish after fish--over 20 (25?)through the day. Only 5 keepers,but hey, that's all he needed. Great day, really. I learned a ton. I went out in my own boat at the end of the day to the same spots we fished during the tournament and boated 7 more in an hour and a quarter of fishing--four keepers. It can be done.
    City: Santa Rosa

    Tips: The fish are always biting on something somewhere. Follow the baitfish on main points.

Saturday, September 21st, 2002

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    Water Temp: 72

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Fished the Redwood Empire Bass Club Saturday and everyone found the conditions tough. Hot summer day with very little wind and on a full moon. Water temp was up in the last couple of days due to the weather. Most fish were caught early with various baits. I landed one on a hula grub then another on a rip bait. 2 fish for 2.5 lbs. There was only 1, 5 fish limit drop shotting in 15'-25'. 2 fish was the average for 24 anglers. First place was just over 7 lbs for 5 fish and big fish was 3.5 lbs. There is a lot of bait in the water and the fish caught were very healthy and fat.
    City: Rohnert Park

    Tips: Get on the water early and throw crank baits or rip baits, then go deep (20'-25'). Green Pumpkin/blk flake was the best worm/grub color. Drop shot 2-3' off bottom using small shad type baits.

Thursday, September 19th, 2002

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    Water Temp: 70

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: A client and I attempted to beat the predicted north wind on Wednesday, but we only managed about an hour wind-free. Since we launched at Markley Cove, we we forced to stay in the narrows and that was NO picnic! I have seen worse wind but this day it was especially annoying! Could not get away from it. We were throwing Chug Bugs in the morning but it was slow. We did have one bunch of bass come to the surface chasing shad and I nailed one about 2 1/2 pounds. However the school disappeared immediately. We then targeted weed beds at the back of coves in the narrows and got lucky. The client had a good bass on which I figured out after two minutes or so, and I soon netted a fat 3 lb 3 oz largemouth. Great September fish! The rest of the day we fought the wind, catching a few more small largemouth in the back of coves. We could not get the fish on points or walls to bite, and if they did, we probably wouldn't have known it anyway! I was teaching him how to bass fish and that nice largemouth got him off to a good start, in spite of the wind!
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: The morning dawn and shad colored (#63) Magic worms worked better than anything else. The big one hit morning dawn 6" worm on a split-shot rig. I though they would hit a white spinnerbait with the wind, but no takers. My X-15 showed nearly all fish suspended from 10 to 30 feet with few fish on the bottom. It was simply too windy to report any patterns. We just got lucky on a quality bass. He played it very well. Of course the guide knew the spot, Har!

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    Water Temp: 70

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: On the water at 6:15am and ran to the north end. Fished points on main lake and landed 1 smallie by 7:00 and a reaction bait. No top water action. Slow day. Spent most of the time searching areas for upcoming club tourny. Wind pick up from the north around 9:30 on the main lake and saw 1'-2' waves. The waves made it hard to stay on the main lake but died done after 12:00. Ended the day with another smallie about 14" on a jig.
    City: Rohnert Park

    Tips: Find the depth the fish are holding. Air temp reached the mid-90's.

Tuesday, September 3rd, 2002

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    Water Temp: 77.6

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Took my daughter to Berryessa Sunday night. On the water by 8PM and went to narrows. Very calm and very warm. Metered lots of fish and bait but no bite!!! 12:50 AM, first and only bite and caught a 1.6 spot on by 7" Berkeley Power Wrom. No hits on cranks or blades. My daughter never got bit. I have never seen a night fishing trip this bad!!!!! Hay Larry, what gives?? Topped off the night with a parking ticket at Capell Creek for $55.00. Not very well posted!!!
    City: davis

    Tips: Get out of the truck and read the very small print as you enter the gate.

Friday, August 30th, 2002

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    Water Temp: 74

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: I took one of my favorite long time clients to Berryessa Thursday for a "learn the lake better" trip. He has a tournament coming up so, as is my policy, I will keep my report kind of general. I really didn't know what to expect since the day bite has been tough and the air temp had dropped some 35 degrees Wed night! We started out of Markley Cove about 6:30 AM and found a stiff delta breeze and lots of fog. We tried topwater but quickly decided that wasn't the way to go. I threw a Rodstrainer jig and Mr. Client was split-shotting. He had the right idea as he soon caught a small bass and then a beauty - a 2 1/2 lb spot. I was happy - pressure was off!! I was especially pleased when I pointed out that area held good fish - and he caught one! We left the narrows and spent the rest of the trip in the main lake - all over. We did see a lot of suspended fish that would not bite. I cranked for them, but to no avail. We did find some schools of bait, and as a result, some bass. A very strange thing happened about 10:30 AM - the delta breeze just shut off and it really warmed up. The lake went dead calm which I thought would kill the fishing. Not so. The fish turned on for about an hour and we got some quality bass - he had smallies a little under and a little over 2 pounds. I borrowed one of his baits and split-shot it myself and nailed a 2 lb 14 oz smallmouth - at 12 noon. Go figure!! What a terrific battle on light line and a 782 G. Lommis! We could have caught more, but decided not to hit those areas any more and try other spots. We caught fish from 15 to 30 feet. I think we wound up with 8 or 9 tournament keepers and a few undersize - some of the small ones were largemouth - a good thing!
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: Sorry I couldn't give more info, but we did see a definate bait-bass relationship. Some of the normally good areas didn't have any bait nearby - and no bass. This time of year at Berryessa, you have to keep your face in your meter, and know how to interpret what you see. It really is fun - my favorite time of year is coming up!!

Saturday, August 24th, 2002

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    Water Temp: 73.2 - 76.5

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: WOW, what a tough day!!!! I do not Harpoon fish as the poster below so I do not have as an exicting report. Firgured i could get away from the skiing maddnes in the Narrows at Berryessa versus my usual Folsom/Orovile Haunts NOT!! Baby Spook and a Pearl white fluke for an hour produced three followers no takers. Darthead salt and pepper Grub one smallmouth for my friend and I had three strkes your out!!!! Left at Noon tough tough morning
    City: Sacramento

    Tips: Lots of Bait and marked arcs in 40 - 55 ft But I could not get them to go.

Tuesday, August 13th, 2002

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    Water Temp: 76

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: I usually harpoon fish in the Pacific Islands...that's where I'm from. But I decided to take up bass fishing. I did quite well. I went out at 5am or so. Left at around noon. I got about 3 tournament keepers on a finesse worm(black and chartruese). When I switched to a Bomber, I got a few under a pound. I ended the day sipping my favorite beverage, pineapple juice...I love bass fishing!
    City: Dixon

    Tips: This is definately a plastic worm lake... Somoans do it better!

Wednesday, July 24th, 2002

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    Water Temp: 74

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: I thought I would post this short report for those of you that might have been jazzed by my previous two reports! Last night it was back to reality! A really nice father-son team (I think a birthday trip!) fished Berryessa for the first time, and while we had a great time, the fishing was very slow at night. How did those bass know that yesterday was the coolest day in July? This trip was just like a similiar trip I had last year at Berryessa in August during a cold front. The fishing was great before dark (the warmest time of day), and then dead after dark. Yesterday, as I made the first cast with a Berkley Pulse Worm around 7 PM, showing them how to work it, a bass picked it up. I assumed it was a small bass but I got the net anyway as I handed the rod to the birthday boy. Lo and behold, it was a 3 pound largemouth - not a typical Berryessa start!! We did quite well before dark - too well with over 20 bites and 10 in the boat. I thought about that other trip a got a little worried because I knew it was going to be a cool night which usually slows down the fishing. And the water temp dropped 4 degrees in three days. Sure enough, we all worked very hard for only 4 bass after dark. We had a fair amount of bites, but mostly tail biters. The son did hook a nice bass between 2 and 3 pounds in the narrows at the end of the trip, but lost it at the boat. That would have been a nice ending. So, 14 bass total, with the biggest being a 3 lb largemouth and a 2 1/4 spotted bass.
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: We saw a lot of fish on the meter both shallow and deep, but most of them would not bite! The bass that we did catch were much deeper than last week. I have always found the very hot nights at Berryessa to be much better than the cool ones. Believe it or not, the black/chartreuse Power worm got the most bites even though the fish were not aggressive. The big fish lost at the end was on a junebug Dead Ringer worm. Most of the fish before dark were caught on 6" morning dawn Magic worms and 4" Berkley Pulse worms.

Sunday, July 21st, 2002

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    Water Temp: 77

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Well, I guess no one fished Berryessa this week, so I will post another fun report. Last May I guided a father and 12 year old son in the rain, so we didn't go far. Saturday evening I had them again and the 14 year old brother too. This time we took a major ride in my Ranger 520 and judging from the look on the boys faces, the trip was already a success!! We started fishing the main body with Magic worms and landed 2 and the younger boy broke one off. We again had a delta breeze which limited some of our fishing areas. I did find some ledges to fish and dad was soon into a good fish with the same 7 inch black Power worm we used last week. It was 10:40 PM. After about 3 minutes I knew he was into a REALLY good fish as we could hear it jump about 20 feet from the boat. He was using a 743 G. Loomis spinning rod with 12# test. Everything was working fine - the client was relaxed and in control and I was a nervous wreck!!! The fish simply would not come to the boat. About 4 or so minutes later he led the fish to the net - I started to breathe again - and we got our first look at this pig. He says 6 1/2 and I giggle!! One scale sez 8-8 and the other sez 8-10, so we go with 8-9. I believe that is the longest fight a fish has every given one of my clients in 2 decades. I have always said that largemouth have a bad rap about their fight compared to smallies and spots, but you take a female largemouth after she recovers from the spawn when she is lean and mean and you will see what a largemouth can do - especially in 77 degree water! Soon the older boy who really hasn't fished for bass much lost another good fish. After we caught a few more spots and smallies from 13 to 15 inches, the older brother tried to horse in a good bass, well over three pounds but he lost it too. I know he was frustrated, but soon hooked a nice 2 pound smallie and landed it. He felt much better! I think we wound up with 12 fish, many lost, including a few good ones. But this father-sons team had an evening that memories are made of. They really loved night fishing with the black light and that makes me happy.
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: The fish were about 10 feet deeper on average than last week, partly because of a brighter moon. We tried black/chartreuse worms, but the bass would only bite the tail. Solid black seemed to be the answer. Zipper worms worked well too. We didn't try jigs or, obviously, cranks because of so many in the boat. I didn't think the fish were nearly as aggressive as last week - lots of short strikes too.

Saturday, July 13th, 2002

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    Water Temp: n/a

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: ::Chuck Wood, Did you get my email regarding panfish for your kids? ....lee s.
    City: Petaluma

    Tips: n/a

Sunday, July 7th, 2002

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    Water Temp: 74-77

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Fished from 8am till noon on 4th of July sunday. Launched out of Markely, fished two spots in south end, nuttin'. Moved up to big island area, nuttin'. Moved to flats, one dink on a crankbait. Phooey on the fish, we went and ate lunch and went swimmin' for a while, man it was hot, pushing 100.
    City: Vacaville

    Tips: We drug both split shot and dart heads, with several colors, never got a bite. Only hits came on the crank bait, I think I'll stick to night fishing till the boat traffic chills out.....