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Berryessa Lake and Reports

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Sunday, January 14th, 2001

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    Water Temp: 48-52

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Fished Anglers tournament on Berryessa today. Partner and I caught 9 fish, all keepers. Lost several too. Total weight was 9.78lbs. All of our fish were smallmouth caught wormin magic and robos on steep walls. The fish were all at 15' to 25'. We couldn't buy a reaction or jig bite. The winners said they were fishing deeper 45'.
    City: Petaluma

    Tips: Fish cuts and step walls/bluffs slowly. Dress warm and good luck. The bite was better for us after 10am.

Saturday, January 13th, 2001

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    Water Temp: 50-52

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Fished in a club tourney Saturday after the rains. I was expecting to find some stained water, but found the water to be very clear, especially in the north end and i Putah Creek. Water temp in this area was only 49. My partner managed to catch 1 keeper on a white spinnerbait in the morning. Then went back south to the channel. Caught 2 more on blades, then 3 small bass dragging a grub (ony 1 keeper) We ended with 4 fish for 6 lbs. 1st place was around 11 lbs for 5 fish. Big fish was only 3 lbs.
    City: rohnert park

    Tips: Try drop shotting small baits in 30-40' water. Also try dead sticking football head jigs with hula grubs in around 20-35'. Work the rocky points. South end is 1-2 degrees warmer than the north.

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    Water Temp: 50-52

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Fished in a club tourney Saturday after the rains. I was expecting to find some stained water, but found the water to be very clear, especially in the north end and i Putah Creek. Water temp in this area was only 49. My partner managed to catch 1 keeper on a white spinnerbait in the morning. Then went back south to the channel. Caught 2 more on blades, then 3 small bass dragging a grub (ony 1 keeper) We ended with 4 fish for 6 lbs. 1st place was around 11 lbs for 5 fish. Big fish was only 3 lbs.
    City: rohnert park

    Tips: Try drop shotting small baits in 30-40' water. Also try dead sticking football head jigs with hula grubs in around 20-35'. Work the rocky points. South end is 1-2 degrees warmer than the north.

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    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Redwood Empire Bass club held their First tourny of the year out of Capell Cove. Most everyone caught fish. Most came from deep water on some sort of plastics. Seemed like all techniques worked from Drop shot to Carolina and Texas Rigs. Just had to fish slooow and deeep. Winning weight was five fish for 11.19 lbs by Steve Ameral and Larry Stockman. They also had big fish which was a 3.58 lb Largemouth. If you enjoy Bass Fishing and good people, come join us. The Redwood Empire Bass Club meets the Second Wednesday of the month at the Rohnert Park Community Center on Snyder Lane at 7:00. We Fish once a month at various locations around Northern California. Next month: Clear Lake. Last Years Big limits and Largest Fish came out of Clear Lake in February. So come Join us and have some Fun!
    City: Santa Rosa

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    Water Temp: 52

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: North Bay Bassmen out of Benicia had our first tournament of the year at Berryessa. A beautiful cool day and everyone caught fish and there were several limits. Winning member was Pete Vanley with, now get this, 16.6 lbs with a 11.2# kicker. What a beautiful fish. Pete caught the fish on a twin tail S&P grub fishing steep banks.
    City: Benicia

    Tips: Fish were anywhere between 15 & 25' on steep rocky banks. Most were caught shaking grubs and worms just about any pattern. Couple of anglers did ok drop shoting also.

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    Water Temp: 49 degrees

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: i had a fun day at berryessa. the weather was calm, no rain, very little wind... it was cool though... you could see your breath all day. i caught four - 3 largemouth, 1 smallmouth. they averaged about 2 lbs each. i lost a few keepers because i wasn't paying attention. the smallmouth hit a jerkbait in 4ft of water. the largemouths hit dropshot in 40ft plus. my partner limited out on dropshot. he had a real nice 2 lbs. spotted bass... all the fish were really healthy with good markings. thanks to the guys who believe in catch and release. 4 of our bass had hook holes. we released all of our fish too. we fished around big island jumping from point to point.
    City: Fremont

    Tips: believe in your electronics. fish real slow. worm color didn't seem to matter.

Saturday, December 16th, 2000

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    Water Temp: 53-55

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Partner and I caught 20+ today ranging from 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 lbs, best 5 weighed a little over 10 lbs. All fish were caught on jigs off of steep deep main lake points with "chunk rock". Best jigs today were 1/4 oz yamamoto 208 spider and 1/2 oz duh summer moss with yamamoto 208 twin tail trailers.
    City: Pleasanton

    Tips: Fish the jig very slow, just barely crawl it along.

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    Water Temp: 53-55

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Partner and I caught 20+ fish today ranging from 1-1/2 to 2-1/2, best 5 for a little over 10 lbs. All fish were caught on jigs in 35-55 feet of water. We concentrated on steep deep main lake points that had "chunk rock". Best jigs today were 1/4 oz spider in yamamoto 208 and 1/2 oz summer moss will yamamoto 208 twin tail trailer.
    City: Pleasanton

    Tips: Fish the jig very slow. Just crawl it.

Sunday, December 3rd, 2000

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    Water Temp: 53-55

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: caught six fish. 3 small mouth, 3 spots. three fish were about 2 1/2 lbs the other three around 1 to 1 1/2 lbs. All were caught on jigs. Brown and pruple jig with black pork trailer and brown and orange jig with brown pork trailer. The fish were caught around 20 to 40 feet deep. The bite was very light mostly pressure. Had to work the jig very slow. Most fish came from the side of points and steep banks with 50 ft or more very close by.
    City: Newark

Sunday, November 26th, 2000

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    Water Temp: 55-59

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Launched out of Cappel around 9am Sunday. Found schools of bass cruising up and down on straight rocky banks. Most fish were in about 15-20 feet. All fish were caught on 4-6 in weenies (brn/grn). Caught fish almost everytime we saw them in schools on the graph.
    City: Fairfield

    Tips: Bite was very subtle with no indication sometimes other than loading up of the rod. My partner(rookie) had a very hard time hooking up. Had to watch my line very closely.

Monday, November 13th, 2000

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    Water Temp: 57'-59'

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Fished ABA yesterday out of Putah Creek. Very cold at blast off, but sun came out and warmed things up a bit. We started in the Vineyards carolina rigging baby brush hogs, cranking and ripping. We saw 6-8 fish caught near us early, how frustrating.We got our first keeper at 9am. Ended up with 8 keepers for the day, good enough for 9.95 lbs(best five) and 9th place.(72 boats in all).I caught four keepers spitshotting a 4" weenie, my partner got his 4 with the brush hog. I heard that two teams had 17 lbs,+.(what were they doing?)
    City: San Leandro

    Tips: Be persistent, throw what you believe in. Downsize if you must when the cold snap hits.

Sunday, November 12th, 2000

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    Water Temp: 57-58

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: fished a club tourney out of spanish flat saturday .. fished in the narrows.. caught only one keeper..only one limit caught and won tourney at 8 pounds...sunday fished aba of out putah creek . fished up in top of putah creek and caught a limit of five fish drop shotting withes "T" worms for 9.96 lbs. we finished tenth and had third big fish at only 3.27 big fish was 7 + second at 6+ caught all fish between 4 and 12 feet . winner caught fish including bif fish cranking fat free shad second i believe caught all their fish 20-40 ft deep on worms. i might have the methods of first and second backwards but those were to top two methods.. and MAN WAS IT COLD !!!!!!!!!!1
    City: sunnyvale

    Tips: find fish on electronics and stick with drop shotting it seem to be the ticket for us anyway and dress warm!!!!!

Saturday, November 11th, 2000

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    Water Temp: 58

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Fished from 6am until 2pm today outta Markley Cove. Started off near the dam tossing crankbaits/jerkbaits. Had one fish 2lb range follow crank to boat. Otherwise nothing happening. Spent the rest of the day fishing the narrows, with good success.. Boated 15 fish total, largest was a 2.5 spot. Three largemouth and the rest were spots. Fish came from 15 - 35 feet. Caught all fish on shad colored plastics on either dropshot or split shot.

    Tips: Fish steep drop offs..Use light line (6lb) and fish slow.

Wednesday, November 8th, 2000

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    Water Temp: 60

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: I fished with a client yesterday in a very cold wind, oddly enough, coming out of the west. After 3 days of high winds, the bite was tough for numbers of fish, but the quality was excellent. We fished Markley Cove, the narrows, and part of the main lake. The day started poorly for me, as I lost a great smallmouth between 2 1/2 and 3 pounds. on a Rodstrainer jig. We were targeting larger fish with jigs and 6 to 8 inch worms. Our 5 largest bass weighed about 10 1/2 lbs, which I though was good considering the weather. We caught 3 nice spots to 2 1/4, and 2 largemouth about the same size. We caught 3 other tournament keepers, and one dink on a crankbait. We did well on windy points, but it was tough to fish, since the fish were deep midday. We tried all the reaction baits and topwater, but no response from the bass. which was not a surprise.
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: It was proven again to me that jigs and larger worms will produce bigger bass, if folks have the patience to fish them slow when conditions dictate.

Sunday, November 5th, 2000

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    Water Temp: 62-67

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished Anglers world team tourney out of Putah creek marina. My partner and I finished 4th with 10.68lbs. 1st was 11.6lbs, 2nd 10.8lbs, 3rd 10.7lbs. We caught all our keeper fish on topwater in open water. Spotted lot's of suspended fish in open water so we patiently waited for the fish to break and made long casts to catch them. Most action came later in the day about 1 hour prior to weight in. Caught some smaller fish on 4-6in wennies on almost every point we fished. In all we caught 20-25 fish. Lot's of fun.
    City: Suisun

Saturday, November 4th, 2000

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    Water Temp: 63-62

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Great weather today. Fished 4 hours in the narrows. Caught 10 bass from 12" to 2 lbs. splitshotting 4-6" magicworms (#62 best), most in 15-20 ft. off points (best 5 maybe 8.5 lbs). One 2 lb. smallmouth in a cove and one 2 lb. largemouth in shallow (5 ft.)water off rocky point. Nothing on crank or spinner.
    City: Vacaville

    Tips: Temp. dropping every week. Be patient/slow with the light gear/worms and the fish will bite. No consistant pattern yet but you can run into some fish almost anywhere.

Sunday, October 29th, 2000

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    Water Temp: 58-62

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Launched from Cappel Cove at 6am. Fished rocky banks and creeks with little success. Worked topwater and rip baits early. Got 3-4 blow ups and a lot of little fish hitting the rip bait, no keepers! Switched to 4in worms later and caught one keeper smallie in 20ft off a rock point. Caught a lot of trout on crank baits ranging 1-3lbs, nice if I were in a trout derby. Reeled in a $20 king to boot. Not very happy with our trip seeing that we were targeting old bucket mouth.
    City: Fairfield

    Tips: don't ask me....

Saturday, October 21st, 2000

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    Water Temp: 67

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: I had the ultimate challange today, fishing a husband, wife, and their 11 year old son in winds approaching 35 mph. Wow!! Before the winds started, we tried topwater with the Yamamoto sugoi splash. I taught the young man how to make it spit during a previous trip to Clear lake. He is good!! He caught a small spot, missed a big fish, and then landed a 13" TROUT! This action was just out of Markley Cove. By this time the wind was serious, and we had to find cover. We found it (sort of) in little and big Portuguese Canyon, and one or two other coves. The key was finding some kind of creek channel with a little rock - we did!! The young man got his first worm fish - actually five of them - 2 keepers. Dad got a nice 2-2 largemouth, lost a nice one on a jig, and landed another keeper and a 12 incher. They wound up with 8 bass and a trout. We used 4 different color Magic worms - texas rigged. All the worm fish were shallow, from 5 to 15 feet. We used the meter to find bait and some of the bass we caught. I saw lots of deep fish that I wanted to fish for, but with the wind and 3 clients, that was impossible. The wind was as bad as I have ever seen it at Berryessa. When we got back to Markley Cove at 3 pm, there was only one bass rig left. I was very pleased with the trip - lots of action, counting the ones we missed too.
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: The worm bite is good for small to medium size fish. Rock and weed seem to be holding a lot of fish. Topwater is still working - I think we would have caught more, but the wind killed it.

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    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: City: SAN FRANCISCO

Tuesday, October 10th, 2000

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    Water Temp: 70-71

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Fished about 6 hours in and out of rain, landed 9 bass to 3 lbs. (mixed) and 3 trout. Splitshotting #1 and #62 Magic worms (6" & 4") in 15-25 ft. Nothing else drew a bite. Trout caught on top casting or trolling silver/blue Kastmaster (1/2 oz.) in and around surface action (lost 4 others trying to land them without a net). Rain and clouds seemed to keep the trout chasing shad on the surface throughout the day but the heavy rain finally drove us off the lake.
    City: Vacaville

    Tips: Bass and trout throwing up shad when caught. Slow presentation for bass when wind died but they perfered more movement while fishing windblown points.