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Wednesday, January 4th, 2012

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    Water Temp: 47_DEG.

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Got the boat inspected in lakeport and hit the water after getting 2 dozen minnows. Tried artificial till about noon then BAM Switched to a jumbo minnow 8_LBR Then came a 5,6,3,4.5 Just kept on rolling!! Fishing was HOT! Totals for the day was 20+ fish nothing under 3_LBS and our best 5 going 22+. Going back out on the 10th on Jan, Cant wait!!
    City: Travis AFB

    Tips: 15-20 foot of water, 10LB test and a 1/0 drop shot hook. Have fun!!

Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012

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    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: The bass here in Trinity County are in hibernation. Can't find one for the life of me. Looking to travel to Clear lake on the weekend of 1/14. Any info as to where to launch, what section of the lake to fish, hotel, campground, etc. Lookin to cure the winter blues!
    City: Weaverville

Saturday, December 31st, 2011

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    Water Temp: 47-49

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Well fishing with Jumbo Minnows is a winter fun way of catching a boat full of Large Mounth Bass. We had a day that was just the best ever. Stoped at Limited Out Bait and Tackle and Bob loaded up a bucket of Jumbo Minnows (four dozen per boat). It was a cold morning so we started out about 8:30 and came in at 2:30. A 1/0 bait hook a very small split shot and 10 lb test line on a spinner rod and reel. Stay around rocks and in 10-20 ft. of water. We cought alot of 3 and 4's, but a few 6, 7, 8 plus and a 12.39 by Bonner Veasman of Lincoln. Stop and see Bob and get your minnows now before the bite is gone.
    City: Rocklin

Wednesday, December 28th, 2011

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    Water Temp: 47-50

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: I guided a father and his 2 sons from 3:30 to 11:30 pm yesterday - their first trip to Clear Lake and their first night fishing experience. It was sort of a bittersweet experience since the older son hooked - and lost 4 big bass. He will learn that one sets the hook differently at Clear Lake (night) than one does at Oroville. I had guided them at Oroville about a month ago. Two of his bass even made it to the boat but still came off. Dad did ok, landing 2 nice bass and ending the evening with another - a 4 pounder. I fished some - trying to get the D&M piranha swim jig working so I could let them try it. Nothing - until 11 pm. Fishing one of the ledges in Jago Bay, I was stunned when a big fish nailed it in shallow water and boiled like she was 15 lbs! She wasn't - only 8 lbs 2 oz. Yeah - what a disappointment, har! So, only 4 bass in the boat for 17 something pounds.
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: Once again, the cloud cover I had hoped for rolled in about the time we left. That would have helped the bite. In spite of some light wind, a very pleasant evening. Maybe the first late December night I only had to wear my Ranger Jacket - no snowsuit!! They had their Ranger jackets on too. Clients probably thought winter night fishing was a pretty confortable event!! Maybe I will have to take them on a REAL winter night! The bass seemed to be getting ready for winter and schooling up. We only found willing bass in a few spots. Action was much slowed than my previous 7 trips. Most biters were still in the top 15-20 feet. Deep bass were just not active for us. When we started, we saw a bass landed on an Alabama Rig. Wow, what will bass fishing look like in 25 years???

Friday, December 16th, 2011

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    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Sorry I messed up - Brent Ehrler is his real name!!!
    City: Yuba City

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    Water Temp: 49

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: My buddy Mike and I did another short night trip last night - long drive for 4 hrs of fishing. It was time well spent as we landed 8 with our 5 best a shade over 20 lbs - but the biggest only 5 1/4 lbs. I lost 2 big 'uns, but that's life. It was the first truly cold night - cold and damp! Jigs, Brush hogs and Power worms were to best baits. We stayed in the south end - to cold to travel far. Could not get the bigger, deep bass to bite much and the 2 bigs I lost came off half-way in, probably meaning they didn't suck the bait in much. Bites were 12 to 20 feet deep.
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: I was able to meet and chat with Brett Ehlers at the ramp as we were launching. Very nice gentleman!! He seemed interested in the night fishing at Clear Lake but I'm sure he will stick to his "day" job!!!

Thursday, December 8th, 2011

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    Water Temp: 50

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Mike Sperbeck and I decided to see if the night bite was holding up and found that it was - sort of! Not as good as the last trip and nights much colder now. Brrr!! As in a previous trip - lots of bites from bass that just didn't want to hold on. We put in about 4 1/2 hrs, from 6 to 10:30 pm and landed around 20 with a few dinks showing up again. We did have a nice limit of 24+ pounds - biggest only 6 lbs. Several 4's and 5's. Not a monster to be lost this trip!! A few were quite shallow, but most on breaklines at 1o to 20 foot depth.
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: Typical bulky baits worked - new Yamamoto 5" Flappin' Hogs, brush hogs, and D&M Piranha swim jigs. No hits this trip on worms. Best bite was early before the moon got too high. Spotty after that! We fished mostly in the south end.

Tuesday, November 29th, 2011

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    Water Temp: 52

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: There is a jig & Reaction Innovation Doublewide Beaver bite of rocky structure in 15 - 20' of water. Also slow rolling 5" swimbaits on a Spintrix head produced some fish. Was fishing the south; Jago to Konocti. The bite wasn't hot but we picked up 8 - 10 a day going 2 - 5.9 lbs with a few dinks thrown in.
    City: Kelseyville

    Tips: Slow presentation & the bite is very subtle! That rock you thought you ticked might be a bite!

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    Water Temp: 52-53

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Mike Sperbeck must love his new Ranger 520! He called and said "we're going to Clear Lake again." So I said - "whatever!!" Like it was a hard decision!!! Anyway, we started fishing just before dark on one of our favorite rockpiles and he put his energy to good use - sticking a 7 lb 9 oz bass and a 7-3 (first two of the trip) as darkness fell. He was using brush hogs. Mike did have the good vibes about going since the weather was fantastic for late Nov and the bass were pretty big! In fact, when we left after the 6 hr trip, we had boated a 35 lb limit and 18 bass total. Again - no more dinks - only one 2 lber and 2 around 3 /12 - everything else 4 1/2 up. Mike did let me catch the biggest, 7 lbs 14 oz, but I only caught 7 of the 18. I caught the big girl on my D&M Piranha swim jig in about 30 feet of water. Most fish wern't that deep - average about 12 to 25 feet. I must say this was not a red hot bite. After dark it was one here - one there - working hard with different baits on different structure. Compared to my last guide trip, at least last night they would eat the bait rather than play with it! The final blessing - no fog during the trip!
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: We used a variety of baits, mostly bulky plastics. The exception was my 5 1/2 lber that I caught using the same red shad 10" Power worm that my client used to fool his 8-2 on my previous trip. Brush hogs, the new Yamamoto 5" Flappin Hogs, jigs, and Piranha swim jigs were our most effective baits. Mike is even leaning how to use the swim jig - it takes talent at night, har!!! Everywhere we fished had deep water access and some type of rock structure.

Saturday, November 26th, 2011

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    Water Temp: 50-55

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: We started fishing at 9am and caught our first bass at about 10:30. My dad was using minnows and cranks while I was fishing rip baits and a 7'' swimbait most the time. We caught a total of 15 bass! The fishing is slow, so fish your baits SLOW! I've seen people go and chuck rattle traps all day and catch dinks. I caught a 5+, 4+, and two chunky 3's on the jerk. Nothing on the swimmer. Smaller bass came on the drop shots. My dad nailed a 6, 5, and a few 3's on minnows. We left the lake at dark. What a fun day! Our combined limit was around 25lbs.

    Tips: Fish shallow. Fish slow. Don't give up on the lures you're confident will work.

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    Water Temp: Don'tknow yet

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Manny, isn't that fish a dink? LOL Congrats on a great fish. Heading up to Clear Lake today for a 2 day fishing trip. Will post if we do any good.
    City: Visalia

Saturday, November 19th, 2011

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    Water Temp: 51-56

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: The Basin Bassmasters had their TOC out of Clear Lake Oaks. What a cold morning but very light winds. The winners Joe Miller and Bonner Veasman came in with 25.90 using jigs, crank baits and drop shot. Second place Lou and Tom Erickson bag was 23.50 lbs and Ron Robinson and John Cooper came in with a bag of 21.60 lbs. Most of the fish were cought early near Redbud aera, some went north and used swim baits.
    City: Rocklin

Thursday, November 17th, 2011

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    Water Temp: 56

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Just got back from Clear Lake a little bit ago. Mike Sperbeck and I tried to make a go of it before the cold front moved in but only got 3 hours of safe boating. It got nasty out there! We fished from 4:30 to 7:30 pm - boating 7 nice ones up to 6 lbs 2 oz - best five around 20 1/2 lbs. Caught several dinks. I got the 6 on a Piranha swim jig, but lost 2 more good ones on that bait. Brush hogs worked but jigs did not! Some bass were very shallow - probably because of the heavy wind.
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: Not much help here. Bite was fair before and just after dark, but died as the cold wind increased. The 6 pounder was at least 20 feet deep. Most, as I said, were 10 feet or less - all on or near rock.

Friday, November 11th, 2011

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    Water Temp: 57-60

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: I was part of one of the most amazing changes in bass activity I have see in awhile! Mike Sperbeck and I fished the lake together in his new Ranger 520 and found the bite to be off the charts!! We started about 4:30 pm (now - an hour before dark!) and ran into a big school of bass, up to 5 1/2 lbs. After a small after-dark lull, bite resumed with bigger fish including my 7 pounder and his 6 lb 13 oz bass. Naturally I lost the monster (10 lb range - saw her), snapped my 14 lb test. 30 lb Fireline on a big spinning reel from now on! We fished from Indian Island to Frazier Point and boated 32 from 2 to 7 lbs (5 best a shade over 30 lbs) and only 5 dinks. We fished until 11 pm. Last night I guided 3 clients - starting at the same place Mike and I started - couldn't BUY a bite!!! I could not believe it! Finally they started catching some small ones with bigger ones soon to follow. One of the fellows (the back seater - of course!) biggest 3 weighed almost 15 lbs! I fished a little, trying to figure out something that would work and did stick a 6 1/4 on a brush hog. We had 6 or 7 good bass with a best limit of over 24 lbs. I thought we would have a lot of cloud cover but it didn't happen. Bright moon both nights. First night had a breeze - second night - flat! I'm sure that made it tougher. A nice ending to the trip - I showed them 'No-name reef' and told them they were on the 4000th boat to fish that spot in the last 2 months! Guess what! The guy in the back landed his biggest bass of the trip - 5 1/4 lbs - in bright moonlight and 10 feet of water. Weird!! Great way to end the trip - about 15 or 16 bass total with lots of missed bites. They had a good time and hopefully learned a lot!
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: Obviously, the fish are still moving a lot. What's good today (or tonight!) might not be tomorrow!! I tried jigs on the first evening and caught a few. First night there were many shallow fish - next night - none shallower than 10 feet. I also fished the 10" Berkley power worm Wed night and found it to work well. Last night they didn't want it. The guys brought a lot of their own baits so I didn't see everything they were using. They will have more success when they work on that hookset. Fun night!!

Sunday, October 23rd, 2011

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    Water Temp: 68 - 70

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Went out with my buddy Tiger Sunday to try and find some fish. Had not fished the north end in a couple years so we tried that area. Started at State park with reaction baits, top water, senko, no luck. Tiger did get a dink off the rocks on a dropshot. Headed south a little then we hit some docks for a while with no luck. Then we tried some submerged rock piles that have produced in the past and struck out on those. We tried a few spots south and got a couple off Docks near the old barge. Then headed north to Rodman to try there. No luck but did see a couple fish caught by another boat. The tried points and docks along the east shore. Picked up a few (shade and tulies were key). Overall beautiful day at the lake but only 9 fish up to 2.5lbs. Not what you really look for out of clearlake. Water was very thick almost everywhere, the kind where it gets all over your rod and reel and but there were fish under there (small ones anyway).
    City: Pacifica

    Tips: I'm glad we tried the north, saw lots of places I would want to hit in the spring if I came back then but I suspect the fish were deeper than we fished.

Tuesday, October 18th, 2011

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    Water Temp: 65

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Fish for the past two days. Caught lot of fish. Both days had about 20lb+ bag. All fish caught deep on soft plastics. We caught nothing in the shallow, guess the cold night push the fish down deeper.
    City: Napa

    Tips: Fish slow and watch your line.

Tuesday, October 11th, 2011

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    Water Temp: 65

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Had 2 great days of fishing on clear lake. We fished 8 hrs each day. Caught over 100 between the 2 of us but many small undersized fish until we figured out a solid pattern that got the big ones to go. Monday was 22 lbs and Tuesday was 26lbs. Biggest was a 7 then a 6 and 5s many big 4lbrs and a ton of 3s . There is shad all over the lake and the bass are really starting to load up on them . We are ready for the big tourney this weekend . It's going to take more than you think to take it because this pattern is rock solid
    City: lakeport

Saturday, October 8th, 2011

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    Water Temp: 72

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Pretty tough bite as the preceding posts have reported. We fished Saturday morning out of Red Bud, as we wanted to avoid the tourney blast off. A good number of boats running down south though as we headed up to the Konocti Resort area. To our first area by about 7:15am, we picked up two good fish on buzzbaits in the first hour, and lost another. I say "good fish" because, despite them only being 3+ each, which is cookie cutter size for this lake for a good part of the year, we spent the rest of the day plucking 8" fish out of the lake. No more fish by 10:00am, so we headed farther south and drop-shotted docks and other structure the rest of the day. Couldn't find any big fish, but lots of dinks (and I mean dinks). Beautiful day on the lake, at least.
    City: Windsor

    Tips: I am interested to see the results of the Triton tourney to see if anyone really got into them this weekend.

Friday, October 7th, 2011

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    Water Temp: 72--74

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: I went with a gentleman Wed to help him pre-fish for an upcoming tourney. I couldn't imagine any worse post-front conditions, especially after some 6 weeks of steady, nice weather. Cold, wind, and some rain. We fished nearly the whole lake, checking out different areas. Talked to a few guys that have been struggling since the cold front came in. We did ok with the best five around 14 lbs. No real big fish - no surprise. Great to see so many small bass - about time!!
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: All fish were caught on plastic stuff except for one good bass that he lost on a swimbait. Can't say any more. Save a few bass for the guides, har!!!

Sunday, October 2nd, 2011

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    Water Temp: 74 -76

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: There has been a ton huge bass fishing tournaments on the lake the past month. (The WRL had about 150 teams last weekend) Lots of fishing pressure. Here is something I noticed time and time again. I would come to a spot/area that was holding bass, see them on the electronics, throw a marker bouy, and the bass were gone. They are very spooky. So, I would face the shore, turn 180 degrees and then slowly fish my way out from the shore. Being careful not to run the boat into them. The bass were more tight lipped after 10:00am.
    City: UKIAH

    Tips: If all else fails,,,,,,, DROPSHOT


    thanks , Don 4reelfishin.com