Berryessa Lake and Reports

Sunday, March 17th, 2002

• By Rich Thiel's Guiding Service

  Water Temp: 51-55 degrees

  Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

  Report: Guide Trip, took two clients out after a post cold front Saturday. We started out on points first thing in the morning with 4 solid hits>Result 2 fish in the boat (Narrows). Went into Wraggs Canyon for 2hrs with minimal results. Went scouting around look'in for warmer water, it was 51-52 in the narrows most of the mornin and 53-54 at the back end of Wraggs. Went North to Big Island and caught some dinks, left there and went to the East Side North end and picked up a nice 2.8lb largemouth shallow. Missed two more on a ripbait. Worked back down to Markley Canyon. Ended to day with 6 fish. With this Warmer weather comin in this week, I expect the fish to be movin up. First guess would be the smallmouth has they spawn at around 55. Im waiting for the weather and the stability of the water to accur. The weather look's promising. Rich Thiel thielr@earthlink.net
  City: Castro Valley

  Tips: Recommendations: Within the Narrow's system the water clarity is clear. Try rippin on points and across points. If that doesn't work then go to a jig with either purple pork or a roadkill plastic trailer and just work it down the sides of the point (you may have to hope around on points to find a concentration of fish). The fish that are tak'in the jig are quality fish. For the back of cove's (Warmiest water found) throw a spook and hang on. Drop-shotting, carolina rig will always work if you can't move around much just find a major area that you think a transition may occur. Im looking for the East side to turn wide open once the warm weather this week starts to roll in. See ya Saturday the 30th. Rich Thiel

• By Big Daddy

  Water Temp: 49-52'

  Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

  Report: Am I the only one posting reports??????? Why is everyone so secrative? I thought this site was for sharing info???? I know alot of you are fishing tourney's at this lake, but damn, I don't want your fish,,,,just give up patterns etc.... So,,,,,,,,,fished the ABA Sunday,, had pre fished and had alot of quality fish going on rock piles, and in the vineyards. Started on the rock piles,then went to the vineyards without a bite.The weather really affected our bite. Went up the creek around 10 am, finally got on a few fish,missed several,dropshotting,boated four for 6.70.Another donation weekend....We tried fishing from top to about 20'. Talked with a few friends after who said the fish "moved up" around noon. They got limits cranking and ripping. I guess it must have been where you were, because we tried it in the creek w/out success.
  City: San Leandro,Ca

  Tips: I don't know why the fish wouldn't hold onto the bait,,,but we missed at least six fish,,,,even with scent.......

Friday, March 15th, 2002

• By Kentuck

  Water Temp: 54-57

  Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

  Report: Fished Friday March 15 from about 8:30 to dark. Landed 12 bass from 11" to 16". Most of the bigger fish were smallies with one spot about 15". I broke two off and my friend Ron lost a pig that was at least 5 lbs. We were split shotting and carolina riggin' ring worms and zipper worms. Fish appeared to be 5-15 feet deep. All the smallies had bellies that were about to explode.
  City: Concord

Sunday, February 24th, 2002

• By D.J.

  Water Temp: 50-54.1

  Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

  Report: Hit water at 8am, fished only in south arm, had 6 fish total. Also lost two others and a few missed bites. Not bad considering how bite has been.Largest fish almost 3lb. Tons of you guys out there prefishing for next weeks tourney. Haven't seen that many bass boats in awhile. Fished plastics in 10-15ft. of water, several colors got bit. The bite is ready to break loose, spring has sprung, water is begging to warm in most places. Fish slow and enjoy the weather.
  City: vacaville

Friday, February 22nd, 2002

• By Brewmaster

  Water Temp: 53-55

  Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

  Report: Fished on saturday and launched out o Markley cove at about 10:30 a.m. Started ishing along the banks o markley on the right hand side and started catching ish on worms and lizards split shot. Nothing o size so proceeded to ish the backs o cuts thruoghout the narrows and started catching good lagemouth and smallmouth to 2.5 lbs on lizards and morning dawn worms in about 5-20 t o water.Overall about 15 ish and two dinks.
  City: Sacramento

  Tips: Look in the backs o the cuts and coves the largemouth are coming up.

Saturday, February 16th, 2002

• By J. Clark

  Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

  Report: I don't have time for all the specifics they ask for above but I just wanted to give a big thumbs up to Mark's Tails. They made a beliver out of me. HEY MARK I know you check this site once in a while and those ripbait tails you matched up for me helped me to have one of the best fishing days I've had in a long time. I was having what I thought was a good day, some 3 and 4 pounders and a couple of 5's, using LUCKY CRAFT rip baits with the tails you matched up for me, when I decided to put your tails on matching rattle traps. I was dragging along the channels and BAM he hit like I couldn't believe. I landed a 6.5 spotted bass that you wouldn't believe I can't wait to try your tails on Orville tomarrow!!!!!!!!!!!! THANKS MARK

  Tips: I haffta tell ya, these tails make all the difference in the world, check out his website at www.markstails.com he can match any lure you ask him to he is amazing and better yet the results are incredible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sunday, February 10th, 2002

• By Big Daddy

  Water Temp: 50-53'

  Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

  Report: Should have believed the thursday fishing report in my local paper that said the "fish have extreme lock jaw".That wasn't necessarily the case. The fish had disappeared from the 50'to 0' areas. We fished all day in all my favorite areas and only got one 17 1/4 " smallie. We checked points, wood,weeds,deep,shallow,nada.Got the smallie dropshoting in 43'. Couldn't see any fish on the graphs either. Hope these fish move up a little in the near future.
  City: Sabn Leandro

  Tips: I'm confused,,,,,,,they catch loads at Clear Lake this weekend, and we struggle at this lake......

Sunday, February 3rd, 2002

• By Michael

  Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

  Report: Fished Sunday from 830am to noon from the banks of the Oaks (?) public park using texas rigged 4" and 6" junebug finesse worms. 1 smallie for 1 1/2lb in the back of cove. Later tried dropshotting, not sure if I was doing it right, and hit another smallmouth for another 1 1/2lb. Surprisingly far back in coves and shallow. Working lure deeper (10-15ft) from the shore produce nothing. I'm fairly new to fishing but am hooked for life. Tried a Kastmaster later and had a 2 lb trout hit around noon. Lost it, no net. 2 fish. Went home to see Rams lose.
  City: Oakland

  Tips: slow seems to be the way to go right now

• By Mike Hitomi

  Water Temp: 54-58

  Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

  Report: Launched out of Cappel at 8:45am. Foggy morning so I fished in and around Cappel cove. Nothing shallow so I went deep. Starting catching 2lb fish in 40-50 feet on a c-rig weenie, brown. Found fish holding to deep water structure, usually small rock piles or ledges. No reaction bite for me. Off the water at 3:30 with 6 keeps for about 12lbs.
  City: Suisun

  Tips: slow slow retrieve and keep an eye for bottom changes or structure.

Friday, January 18th, 2002

• By nickp.

  Water Temp: 48 - 50

  Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

  Report: Fished all day on Friday, Jan. 18. Caught a couple limits. Small fish, nothing larger than 2 lbs. All spotted bass. Fished the narrows, steep banks, caught better fish on Black&Blue jigs in 10 feet or less. All other fish came on a dropshot, powerbait dropshot worms, in purple and shad colors in 20 - 30 feet.

  Tips: The fish that ate the jig wanted it fast and irratic. They hit hard. Dropshot fish wanted it slower, but still hit it good.

Saturday, January 12th, 2002

• By clint burrows

  Water Temp: 52.5

  Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

  Report: fished small club tournament saturday found fish on steep banks in 10-15 feet. caught 10 keepers bigest was 1.6 lbs all came splitshoting 4.5" worms and 3" leech. fish the narrows near Portuguese cove. went up to Putah creek, water very muddy 1' visibity.
  City: sacramento

  Tips: try morning dawn, original, smoke purple flake had to fish slow but they would bite hard

Monday, January 7th, 2002

• By S Thurmon

  Water Temp: 49-52

  Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

  Report: I fished the AC team tourny on Sunday. Our T-day ended up alot like our friday prefish. Not alot of keepers(4-5 each day). We found our fish in 10-20 feet of water on points in the main body(jigs). No reaction bite for us. We tried blades and cranks. I think the guys that did the best found better places to throw their jigs. Where you say? I don't know. It looked like the majority of the fish weighed were smallies. One thing I looked for was bait balls like in the summer but couldn't find any.
  City: Auburn

  Tips: Jigs.10-20'

Saturday, January 5th, 2002

• By Keith

  Water Temp: 51

  Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

  Report: Fished for a few hour's in the morning, it was raining pretty good all morning, but it was pretty warm. Stayed south and fished steeper banks using jigs and drop shot rig-- no fish , but did have some nice thumps, but thye didnt eat it???
  City: Napa

  Tips: Stay deep--30' or deeper, and using typical craw color's,possibly with a little chartreuse tail- and fish SLOW......

Friday, November 23rd, 2001

• By Jody

  Water Temp: 61

  Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

  Report: Out of Capell at safe lite and headed for the narrows. Fished north side above dam. My partner and I got 7 or 8 spots, nothing big but exciting. Moved out to main body got three samllies, largest 2.5#'s, fish was a beauty, shades of yellow and green. On the day we boated 15 fish, only one largemouth. Nothing big but we had lots of action. Berryessa this time of year (when ther is no wind) is just beautiful and most of all no skiers.
  City: Benicia

  Tips: Fish from 8 to 15' shaking S&P worms with chart tail. Good ol'e witches "T" also. Nothing cranking couple blow ups on popper. Most fish on points and rocks, espically in the narrows. Keep shaking, they are there. Dress warm.

Saturday, November 3rd, 2001

• By Big Daddy

  Water Temp: 64

  Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

  Report: Arrived at lake while still dark, anticipating a great bite. Started off day fishing a rock pile near Spanish Flat. No luck....same all over the mid and north end of the lake. Only boated one 1.7 smallie all day on a worm. Tried shallow and deep,,,saw fish cruising shallow, and deep on my graphs. they seemed to have lock jaw today. I wonder if the full moon had any effect on the bite???????
  City: San Leandro,Ca

  Tips: I don't know,,,low self esteem at the moment!!!!!!

Saturday, October 20th, 2001

• By hockeybum66

  Water Temp: 63-67

  Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

  Report: My wife and I got on the lake around 10:00am. Fished accross the lake from spanish flats marina. We got on fish around 11:45 working the main lake humps from 35ft to 18 ft dragging a 4" morning dawn magic worm on a mojo rig. We caught 10 fish from 11:45 till 3:45 when we had to have the rental boat back. We caught the last 2 at 3:40. This was our first time fishing berryessa so we did not know where to go plus having a rental boat limited us to how much water we could cover. The fish we caught were a mix of smallies, largies and spots. the size was ranging from a pound and a half to 3 pounds. My wife did have one major rod bending hit that about took the rod out of her hand and I had a largemouth that I lost 10 feet from the boat that was going over 3lbs. Over all, a great day with my wife with some fun fishing.
  City: San Jose

  Tips: work the humps on either side of the coves and look for fish in the 15-30 foot range with the magic number being 26 feet. Small worms drifted across the hump on a light carolina or mojo did the trick. nothing on live bait, one bite trolling a chartruse tail dancer.

Tuesday, October 16th, 2001

• By Rather B. Fishing

  Water Temp: ?

  Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

  Report: Went fishing last Thursday 10/11 during the day, and Saturday night 10/13. Thursday was a decent day. It was a little slow, but consistant, a couple fish each hour. I managed 18 fish, all but 4 were good fish. Nothing huge, but my best five going around 10.8 pounds. The fish are nice and fat right now. Fish that would have only been a pound, pound and a half a few months ago are solid 2's. I tried everything, and with the exception of 3 early on spooks, the only thing I caught fish on was dropshotting 4" worms. Color didn't seem to be an issue, I caught on 3 completely different colors (all that I tried). I personally found two distinct levels of activity, 40-45ft and 80-85ft. All my dropshot fish came at one of these two levels. Caught a good mix, 6 largemouth, 5 smallmouth, 7 spots. Saturday night was not as productive, only managed 8 fish. I caught them all dragging 7" black power worms from shore out to about 20ft. Maybe I should have tried deeper, I have a bad habit of automatically casting to shore at night, even when I am on them deep during the day. I think even at night, you shouldn't be afraid to try going deep as well. I had kind of a rough summer at berryessa, I think it is definately starting to pick up.
  City: Fremont/Dixon

  Tips: Use your graph and look for the baitfish, even if you don't mark fish with them, take note at their depth and consentrate on that level. Like I said I noticed two distinct levels of baitfish activity, if I was off by 5ft. I would not get a bite. I really had to zone in on those two depths.

Monday, October 15th, 2001

• By R. Duzac

  Water Temp: 68-71

  Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

  Report: BassBusters was out at Berryessa this weekend and it was tough. It was about 90+ outside and the water was still up to 70 degrees. It was a small tournout for us only 5 boats (the smallest I've seen in 5 years). The winning weight I don't even remember but it was one with 4 fish and the big fish was around 2.5 lbs. As the report before this says they can be caught on Cranks, or you can go deep with Drop Shot or Split shot rig. Still alot of bait for the fish to pig out on so deciding whether to eat your fake stuff or the real stuff is not a tough decision for the fish. Sometimes during the day your electronics screen would just go black with the shad & fry in the water. Trout fisherman we talked to also said it was tough for them as well.
  City: San Jose

  Tips: The bass are there and although I'm to a regular to this lake I've heard that they will turn on in the fall and you can pick up some good limits. Only advice I could give you is wait until that time comes.

Saturday, October 13th, 2001

• By Ed

  Water Temp: 70

  Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

  Report: We fished a small 1 day club tournament. No limits were caught. The first and second place got four each for about five pounds. Most people were drop shotting and the winner went down 50 feet to get his fish. The second place guy got his fish early ripping a Husky Jerk or a Shad Rap. The wind was kicked up so picking up worm bites was tough. The best seemed to be on the steep eastern shore banks around the narrows.
  City: Belmont

  Tips: Things should pick up there in a month or so when the water temp drops.

Sunday, October 7th, 2001

• By Randy Decker

  Water Temp: 72

  Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

  Report: 5 keepers over the weekend for under 6lbs. Club TOC event. One on a crank early Sat off the big island, one on a popper same location Sun am. Three on drop-shot 40 feet in Putah plus dinks. Winner was Jim Scarbury and his partner Don Stanely with over 17lbs. They were on largemouth on main lake weeds beds. Jim is this clubs angler of the year and a top local stick in other circuits in the region. Second place had over 12lbs all on soft plastics on rock points.
  City: EL Dorado Hills

  Tips: Water temperature is still warm and largemouth can be targeted shallow on the right cover. On steep walls and points use your electronics to find baitfish.