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Tuesday, May 8th, 2012

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    Water Temp: 65-67

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Sorry - but here is another report!! Mike Sperbeck has been working hard and needed a fishing break and asked me to go with him Monday afternoon and night. Still recovering from the last 4 days there, I agreed to be his net man!! And I was a good net man - helping him have a terrific night with several 4's, a 5-2, 6-1, 7-6 and an 8-1 - In THAT order!! And his eight wasn't spawned out like my 8-3 was last week. My biggest was only 5 1/4, but that's ok. We landed around 25 bass while we each lost a big one. Our limit, (Mike-4, me-1) was 31 1/4 lbs. Bass up to the 5 pounders were caught in the afternoon/evening. Fishing was dead for about 2 hours after dark, then turned on with all the big fish.
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: We looked for weed-free hard bottoms to work our jigs, Berkley Havoc baits, and brush hogs. Senkos were "on" again this trip before dark. The two 5 pounders were on Senkos. I threw the D&M swim jig a fair amount after dark - but no takers. Most bass were 5 to 10 feet and close to the bank. We fished all over the ClearLake arm.

Saturday, May 5th, 2012

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    Water Temp: 63-65

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: I am a tired but happy guide!! I just finished guiding Joe Scalzo and his son Eric Cavanagh - both from Arizona. We did 2 night trips and 2 day trips - Wed thru Sat. The night trips were amazing and the day trips good - in spite of some heavy wind. I fished one night with both of them and one with Eric. In a nutshell, Wed night produced 24 bass up to 8 lbs 3 oz and a limit over 28 lbs. The next night gave us 30 bass with a limit slightly over 24 lbs, but nothing over 5 1/4 lbs. The day trips were shorter with a lot of sight fishing. Fri at the north end in rough seas, Eric caught 4 up to 4 3/4 lbs (lost a nice frog fish!) and today father and son caught 10 up to 4 lbs in the Oaks arm. I had fun today just watching and teaching. Eric ran the Minn Kota 101 most of the 4 days. Most of our night fishing was all of Konocti Bay and day fishing up north and in the Oaks arm. The night bite was good most of the time but the big bass were caught around midnight to 1 am. Overall, the water is quite clear all over the lake.
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: Some of my new favorite baits are the Berkely Havoc series. The 8-3 and a 6 were caught on a green pumpkin Havoc "Craw Fatty." Father/son were mostly using brush hogs until Eric fell in love with the "Fatty"! His 4 3/4 pounder up north Friday afternoon was caught deep in tulles on the Fatty. They mostly were drop-shotting their baits and that proved to be very effective. Senkos and worms didn't work real well for us these days. Ah! Tomorrow - sleep!!!!

Thursday, April 26th, 2012

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    Water Temp: 59-61

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Mike Sperbeck and I made a quick trip yesterday afternoon - fishing about 4 hours before dark. We fished north - mostly around tulle berms with no results. We switched to docks north of Lakeport and caught 8. My 2 biggest and his biggest must have been born "triplets" as they all weighted 4 1/2 lbs!! Our 5 best were only 19 lbs, but not bad for a short trip. Again, both my "mini-hogs" were caught on the Yamamoto 5" Flapppin' Hog - color #954. Mike caught his on a brush hog. Wind was ok but we got quite wet!!
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: I figured the wind might be a problem for the first day of the FLW and sounds like it was. Another post-front. Our bass were very shallow - from 4 to 8 feet. No bite - just pressure. Wood pilings again were better than metal ones.

Friday, April 20th, 2012

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    Water Temp: 60+

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Tons of fish cruising and on bed. Caught many in the 3lbs. range sight fishing, but couldn't get any big ones to go. Caught a few off of rocky tule pionts with a watermellon red flake senko whacky rigged. Also drop shotting a 4" brown and purple worm.
    City: Sunnyvale

    Tips: Stick to sight fishing NW To SW the farther south you go the greener to water becomes.

Wednesday, April 11th, 2012

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    Water Temp: 51-58

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Fished 4/11-4/15 rained on and off the first few days. Fished a G-Trout swimbait and A-rigs most of the time. Fish are loaded in front of some sloughs and areas with decent depth near spawning grounds. Caught an average of 20 bass 2-8lbs with most in the 3-5lb range between 2 people. Prespawn fish with no marking just really fat and healthy. The last day of fishing there was no rain or clouds or wind and the fish only bit for a little until the sun came out. Decent flip bite in the back of sloughs for smaller males and an occasional 4lber. Even caught a fish on a frog! Til next time.

    Tips: Fish G-Trouts for big bites, low and slow retieve seemed to work the best. fish the A-rig for numbers. Not liking the A-rig, fish get pretty caught up. Flipped jigs and beavers in black/blue or brown.

Tuesday, April 10th, 2012

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    Water Temp: 53-55

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Not many reports posted lately. Sorry - it's me again. I had a great time guiding a fellow from Seattle yesterday late afternoon up until 11 pm. He had never been to Clear Lake and had only caught bass up to 3 1/2 lbs (Washington smallies). We took care of that real quick as I netted his first bass a half hour later - part the the Clear Lake welcoming committee - a nice 4 lb 10 oz largemouth. Talk about a happy camper!! I thought this was the beginning of a fish-filled trip, but the bite turned out to be slow. Later he caught his first night bass - right at 5 lbs and I caught 2 around 4 1/2. A 4 fish limit (called a "tough" limit) around 19 lbs. We lost 3 more. Not sure why it was so slow, but that's fishin'!! He is coming back in November!
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: My client was a pretty skilled angler so I let him fish a jig in the rocks. The Blade Runner jig w/Yamamoto grub produced his first bass. His "5" was on a brush hog - which he had never used before. I was using the 5" Yamamoto Flappin' hog - a great bait! We were fishing in the south end on rock structure, docks, and tulle berms which are now in deeper water. The lake looks great now!!

Monday, April 9th, 2012

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    Water Temp: 53-56

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Went up to the lake monday, got on the water around 1pm fished till around 7pm. Fished around State park nothing, then moved south to the keys. Caught 14 bass biggest went around 6lbs. Tuesday fished from sun up till dark. Started out fishin the docks around Lakeport no action, wind picked up from the south so I worked my way down more south, county park area picked up 2 bass both in the 3lb range, then went in State park picked up another two in the 3lb range. Went back to the keys and got another 12 ranging from 2lbs-7lbs. headed back to the casino and swited to crappie fishin for an hour and picked up 6 14"-16"

    Tips: All the fish came out of water in the 3-5 foot range. some of the bass in the keys were on beds. Caught the bigger bass on Maverick's swimbaits in the hitch color, the rest of the bass bit anything with greenpumkin most were caught on senko's 6" and the crappie bit the yellow/white mini jigs. Too windy to fish my favite spots but still had fun in the keys, worked the swimbaits slow and senko's had to watch the line very soft bite's most fish just picked up the senko and slowly swam to the boat. Hope my next trip does not rain, uot fishin in the rain for 12 hours sucks lol, good luck to all tightlines

Friday, April 6th, 2012

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    Water Temp: 49 - 55

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Thursday 4/5/12 & Friday 4/6/12.
    Lunker Larry, because you mentioned there aren’t many reports, I decided to write this report even though my fishing buddy and I had a real tough half fishing day Thursday and a full day Friday. Perhaps there are few reports because of the tough fishing. We launched out of Lakeport and first headed south and got blown away by high winds and waves, also no fish. It was a struggle to get back to the north end to some protected cuts/channels where we finally caught 3 fish, a 4 lb 4oz, 3:8 and 3:3. This was only after being told by a friendly fisherman and his buddy that they were having some luck drop-shotting a morning dawn colored worm. Over night the air temperature dropped to freezing. In the morning, we had to chip the ice off the seats in the boat. The water temperature had also dropped overnight from 55° to 49°. There was very little wind Friday and the day turned out to be beautiful once it warmed up a little. Again we went South with no luck and then headed North up to Rodman Slough. The water in Rodman was cold and chocolate colored, again, no fish. We then worked our way back toward Lakeport and ended with 4 fish all between 2 and 3 lbs again on morning dawn colored worms. Both days we fished from 12 ft of water in to shallow water. All fish were caught between 8 ft and 5 ft at the openings of cuts/channels. Over the two days we also tried many other techniques including the A-rig with no success. However, I did have a couple hits on the A-rig but no hookups.
    City: Pinole

    Tips: The fish have not yet moved in. But if we get some nice warm days, the fish will start moving in and the bite should really pick up.

Wednesday, April 4th, 2012

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    Water Temp: 49-51

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Took my boy's to the lake for our annual Spring Break Trip, fished Tuesday & Wednesday. Tues. was gray sky's and cold, started out at Rodman's slough, too muddy moved north towards Nice and caught a 3.5lb with a Chrt/Wht spinner bait in the clumps of tules on a tule point. Moved to lakeport and started fishing the docks, Sean picked up a 3lb'r on the spinnerbait, then he switched to a Jerkbait and nailed 2 more fish, a 3 & a 4lb'r. Went in due to rain and wind, went out Weds early to sunny skies but it was tough with the COLD wind blowing, picked up 1 more on the spinnerbait, lost a couple went in because of the wind. Still a good trip.
    City: Pacifica

    Tips: water's still cold & dirty, but we found fish shallow (3')

Friday, March 30th, 2012

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    Water Temp: 50-51

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: I'm sorry that there aren't more reports lately - good or bad. I don't understand why. Anyway, Mike Sperbeck and I hit the lake with good intentions in spite of the latest weather patterns. We started out of the Oaks about 4 pm and worked several areas on the east shore. The Senko bite was good for him while I couldn't manage a bite before dark. He had me 8 to 0! I hoped to change that after dark and I did - sort of, 6 to 1 after dark!!! We wound up having a nice trip with five of our bass from 5 lbs 2 oz to 5 lbs 13 oz. We caught 15 bass total for an approx 26 1/2 lb best five limit. Other than one 2 lber, the rest were 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 lbs. We could not break 6 lbs! Our night baits were on the new Berkley Havoc "Pit Boss" (Skeet Reese design) and brush hogs. Our day fish were 10 to 15 feet and night fish were 10 to 25 feet. The night bites ranged from absolute nothing bites to major slams (for 50 degree water!) The bass were in fantastic shape and the females were getting "their bellies on"!
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: The lake is rising nicely and still pretty clear down south. Some algae is already forming. The is a little debris floating around, but not much.

Thursday, March 8th, 2012

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    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Fished from my kickboat around the Buckingham area, water is ultra clear and fish are staging under deeper docks and others are wanting to spawn, saw fish from 3-10 ft of water, no hookups, but fish looked healthy and big! I would say I saw 12-15 fish that weighed 2-8 pounds. I think its going to be a decent year for fishing! Weeds will be thick this summer though so bring your frogs and your punchin' gear!
    City: Kelseyville

Sunday, March 4th, 2012

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    Water Temp: ??

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Headed up to Clear Lake with my float tube for the first time on Sunday with a friend. We put in at the Rodman Bridge thanks to a tip from Tackle-It. We fished outward toward the mouth of the creek and I watched a guy in a boat catch 3 bass on the A-Rig so I decided to give mine a try. It's a little hard from the tube, but after a couple adjustments I landed my first a-rig bass, a nice 5+. A few casts later a second 5+. Continued with the rig for a while moving around, but no luck. Switched to a texas rig and later caught another close to 4 lbs. Mean while my friend lands one on a worm. We pulled out around 11 and headed over to Aurora. Fished the outside of the poles and had 3 bites, landing 1 around 3 lbs. The bite really slowed after noon.
    City: Rohnert Park

    Tips: Fish the outside of creeks with the A-rig. Slow steady retreive was the key. Water was really clear at Aurora and a little staned at Rodman. Water is still cold so I'm guessing the fish are still a little sluggish so fish slow. Air temp in the morning was below 40 with the afternoon temp over 70.

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    Water Temp: 48-53

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Went to CL Sunday with my brother to see if the writer from the Lake County Record Bee was right about the fish actively moving up. Based on our day it looks like they have backed off if they were indeed up. Launched in Redbud and hit a few known spots on the way out. hit a few shorelines with good dropoffs and a couple other areas that produce in the spring, nothing there and the water was in the high 40's with alot of ugly alge.

    Headed north, stopped at the State park and tried the Alabama rig the guy at Hi's sold me. I'd seen the video and read enough to know if was more than just a gimmic. The thing must be legit based on the recent success. So I kind of committed myself to try and throw it as much as I could (probably threw it 3/4 of the time). Nothing at State Park and we headed north west - hit the flat there. We saw probably 20 boats fishing all day and with exception of the Minnow thrower I think at least one person in each boat was throwing one of these tuna rigs with the umbrella. I still got alot to learn about but for now I caught zero and didn't see anyone catch one either. Did see 3 fish hooked all three from the nice plumbers fishing jumbos. Casting the umbrella can be a challenge and let me save you $25+, make sure your snap is strong enough to handle the tackle. With braid we all get those out of nowhere backlashes mid cast that will take the rod out of your hand if you're not holding on. Well I got one and the 65# braid and my knot held but the rig fluttered away.....what the ?. reeled in the line and found the snap bent and disconnected. Actually made me laugh when it happened, my fault, should have upgraded that with everything else in the system and didn't. Bro tried t-rig, jerk baits, swimbaits, drop shot, senko, as did I for about 1/3 of my time but in the end a beautiful day with no fish to show for it . . . I guess others are catching fish out there sure would love to hear from them unless everyone got skunked like we did and don't want to report.
    City: Pacifica

    Tips: Even getting skunked on a beautiful day on the lake is better than most other things you could be doing. We tried the Alabama rig in 3 feet, 8 feet, 10 feet and even 15 feet and had no luck but I am sure it will bring in hundreds of fish this year on CL. One word of warning, Hi's helped me rig the Alabama and he cut off two of the hooks..... apparently in CA you can not exceed 3 hooks - the others are glued on so if the fish hits you don't lose it. Not sure what the game warden will be doing this year with that little twist but I would not have known.

Wednesday, February 15th, 2012

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    Water Temp: 46-50

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Launched at lakeport with 30 minnows and good hopes. We drove to all the local holes and didn't pick up anything. The last hole we caught 4 nice fish within 20 min, three solid 4ers and one 5. Slow day but great being out on the water
    City: Santa Rosa

Friday, February 3rd, 2012

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    Water Temp: 48

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Go spoil yourself go get minnows and hit the lake. All fish caught in 15-25 feet water. Did get a few a mission fish. The 3 days we were there we got 20+ fish each biggest 9lb smallest 3lb a day no cats

    Tips: Dress warm and go have fun

Thursday, February 2nd, 2012

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    Water Temp: 50

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Fished after work for a few hours.feeling super confidant In swimbate bite the past few days i pulled up on my favorite meat locker! Stuck a 6 lbr on the first cast and limited in fifteen minutes( around 18 lbs) headed over to the reef area and stuck 3 more before dark
    Including a nother sixer! Ended up with around 23#. These fish are defently getting fired up!
    City: lower lake

    Tips: Find water that dosent get pounded.swims and lvs low and slow.have fun!!!

Friday, January 13th, 2012

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    Water Temp: 47-49

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Well, the water (and pm air) temps have dropped at Clear Lake - and it seems, so has the bite. Mike Sperbeck and I gave it about 4 hrs to prove Clear Lake was worthy of our time - and it barely passed, har!! We only landed 4 - the biggest at 4 3/4 lbs on a Blade Runner jig just before dark. My favorite brown/orange jig with #180 Yamamoto grub did the trick - again! After dark - 3 more in the 3 lb range and 2 lost in the 5 lb range - one right at the boat! We were at McDonalds by 10 pm for some HOT coffee and a general thaw out!! Short trip, but at least a little action. We fished the west and east shore of the south end.
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: The lake is still in great shape level-wise in spite of no rain. We may finally get some next week. if you are fishing artificials in water that will range from 44 to 48 degrees, slow WAY down. Deadsticking works well too, except in heavy rock. That's called - expensive!!!!

Sunday, January 8th, 2012

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    Water Temp: 45 - 47

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Steve and I took a ride to Clearlake to see if the water had warmed up.....it had not. day started bad with mechanical difficulties so we fished rattlesnake for a while saw a few boats that looked to be minnow fishing, tried banks and offshore. Steve got a 2.5 on a dropshot around 10:20 and then we headed up to try some rockpiles, no takers, hit a few spots in the redbud arm and honeymoon cove docks no takers, mostly fishing 10-20 feet. Dropshot, t-rig, cranks, jerkbait, spook, swimbait, all with the same result...no takers. Still fun to be out there but too early for active fish. Good Luck.
    City: Pacifica

    Tips: Talked to a couple guys who said they had no fish but they saw fish all over, really saw fish, they had a underwater camera and found alot of fish and dropped spoons, dropshot etc. to them and would not bite, They also said their buddy sent a photo of a double on the new Alabama rig. Guessing that phenom will be all over the lake this spring after the TV coverage it got this year. Hit the lake with your umbrella rig???

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    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Glad someone is reading the reports! It was pointed out to me that I should have reported the Yamamoto Flappin Hog I was using was not 924. So, I was only off by 30 - Should have said #954. Sorry! The previous guy reported a 22 lb limit also, so that makes day and night fishing about even??
    City: Yuba City

Saturday, January 7th, 2012

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    Water Temp: 48-50

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: I fished yesterday from 4:30 to 11 pm with Jason Kincannon, launching at the Oaks. The time around sunset was nice but a north breeze came up and air temp dropped a bunch - 28 to 30 degrees when we left! Pretty miserable. The bite was fair for shallow bass. The 7 that we landed were from 5 to 15 feet though we lost a few deeper fish. They ranged from 3 1/2 to 5 1/4 lbs - best 5 at 22+ lbs. I didn't expect much better with the weather conditions. I was using the new Yamamoto 5" Flappin hog (#924) while Jason used swimbaits, swim jigs, and brush hogs. He caught the 2 over 5 lbs. No complaints though - the fall nights have been nice over all and the fishing way better than last year. We may need to have an official rain dance pretty soon however!!
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: If you don't do the minnow thing, I feel it is always good to fish a bait that has a lot of "bulk" during the cold water months. That includes jigs, brush and Power hog baits, Yamamoto Kreature and Flappin Hog baits, or whatever your favorite is. One can drop-shot or Texas rig those baits. I love the D&M Piranha swim jigs as some of you know. A look-alike bait Jason used last night produced a few and I lost a good fish using the D&M. Obviously, rip baits and rattle-trap type baits will work - depending on conditions. Lastly, if you can time your winter tripsloel to any lake - try to fish during incoming cloudy weather - something we haven't seen for 2 months! Any type of milder weather does seem to help the winter bite at Clear Lake more than deep reservoir lakes like Oroville, Shasta, and the like. Thank goodness those lakes have spotted bass that don't care what the weather is!!! Good luck this winter!