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Sunday, July 19th, 2009

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    Water Temp: warm

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: In the several years I've been fishing for bass, I can say I've learned alot and that these fish are not as easy to catch as I once thought. Many times slow fishing with plastics is the key, yet it gives me A.D.D. This last weekend was what I think fishing for bass is all about. TOP WATER ACTION. Started out at redbud and found fish along weed beds, mostly. On occation, bass would come up to hit the surface. After many past trips fishing with my fly rod and much dissiapointment, I decided to give it another try. Great Idea! I had so much fun out there watching bass explode on my frog patterns. Missed a bunch, but that didn't bother me a bit. My brother fished senko's and learned a few things himself. In 8 hours a fishing, 16 or so fish, all under 3 pounds.
    City: Fort Bragg

    Tips: It seems that many fish are hangn out along outside of weed beds. Just put something on and see if it works. The fish are hungy. Caught fish on Norman CB, Watermelon Candy Senko, Brush Hogs, Frogs.

Saturday, July 18th, 2009

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    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Couldn't wait to get there, then saw the water in the lower lake. Wow it looked like pea soup.
    And since I don't have a boat I was confined to fishing from a dock. My main comment is does anyone know how to clean all that green crap from my reel? Did manage to catch 6 nice bass one about 4+ lbs mostly on pumpkin senkos the large one was on a flippin hog.

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    Water Temp: 77-82

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Long day yesterday (until 5 am this morning)! Towed my Ranger home from Donner Lake yesterday, took out trout stuff (had to do something on mini-vacation!), put bass stuff back in boat, then towed to Konocti Resort, guided from 7 pm to 2 am, towed home, in bed by 5 am today. I met a former client (his 16 yr old son had caught a 9 lber at Clear Lake on a previous trip) and his wife to provide her first bass trip!! He hoped to get her "hooked"! No pressure on me of course. I got him fishing with a robo worm and then showed her how to cast and work a brush hog. As I was working the bait on our first cast out to 20 feet - felt a hit and gave her the rod. She set it again (not a pretty sight!) but managed to land a 2 3/4 lb bass. I made the second cast, pointing out the basics of casting and then gave her the rod to retrieve the hog. As the bait got to deep water, I though I saw the rod tip jerk - AT THE moment she set the hook!!! I couldn't believe my eyes - she had one - her FIRST cast ever working a bass bait! I netted her 3 lb 2 oz bass in a state of shock! Any thought of being tired was gone for the rest of the night. Who said guiding isn't fun - most of the time!!!! Was she done? Yes, after she landed the biggest of the trip - a little over 3 1/2 lbs - in the dead time, a little after dark. You should have seen her cast after an hour or so - very nice! Her husband was catching a few (and losing a few!). He got his groove on and caught a few more for his total of 8 bass. I fished the D&M swim jig - only about 2 hrs of the trip, landing the token catfish (a first for that bait) and the smallest bass at 2 lbs. I did get one more on a brush hog. They caught 11 of our 13 bass and I think she will be back! Is there a tournament in their future? As in previous trips, most of their better bass - several in the 3 lb plus range - were caught in 15 to 25 feet of water. There were some shallow ones however, after dark. The jig bite has been good this year, but we didn't use any last night.
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: We didn't stray too far from the resort - Konocti Bay to the narrows, and caught a few at Sea Breeze. I have read the forum comments about the lack of numbers and size of the bass at Clear Lake this year, and I agree. While I have observed these ups and downs for 30+ years, I am amazed at the total lack of baitfish this year. I wonder why the jig bite is good? I do know that Terry Knight knows what he is talking about. He feels the pulse of bass fishing at Clear Lake and keeps up to date!! I love discussing the "the state of the lake" with him - several time every year! Many good anglers try to keep him informed of our successes and failures. If you get a bit discouraged about the bite at Clear Lake, just go to Oroville or Berryessa during the summer and see what you catch. Then go to Clear lake and catch a few 2 1/2 to 4 pounders. You will be fine!!!

Monday, July 13th, 2009

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    Water Temp: 73-75

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: A rare Sunday night trip for me with two good bass fisherman! They came self-contained which made it easier for me to deal with the nasty wind. We were limited as to where we could effectively night fish. The warming trend certainly didn't start last night - it was 51 degrees when we quit at 3 am. The wind quit at 2 am - how thoughtful of it!!! As I expected, the evening bite was slow but did get much better for numbers after midnight, total about 16 to 17 bass - and one catfish! Only better for numbers - the size was not good - don't even think we broke 3 lbs. One of the guys did break off a good fish near Anderson Island. We fished anywhere we could get out of the wind on the west side of the lake. I not sure what all baits they used but I know their Senkos, jigs, small plastics, brush hogs, and D&M swim jigs did work. Worms wern't effective. Most bass were deeper - 12 to 20 feet.
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: Another frustrating night - lots of bites from fish that didn't care. I really think the early morning bite is better now that the full moon period is over. When the last quarter moon came up last night - the bite came up too! We did find that sparse deep weeds did hold fish, especially near rock. Yes, the weeds are now growing out of rocks!! While they were getting into medium depth bass, I did try some deep water fishing - no success.

Saturday, July 11th, 2009

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    Water Temp: 75-78

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: First lets start with water clarity I put 0-2 foot but it depends on where you were, at Red Bud launch ramp there is no visibility !! There is 2-3 inches of what my 5 year old son called turtle poop:) but if you go accross the lake you will find 2-4 foot of visibitily and than got down 100 yards and you are back to 6 inches of visibility !
    OK now the report, after my starter went out at the launch ramp with my boat & trailer in the turtle poop a nice guy pulled my out and I got someone to put a new starter in for $50.00 and I was back on the water, only 2 hrs lost !! but it all paid off when I hooked a 7.5 lb on my 2nd cast with my bluegill swim bait, OK its only a 4 incher but its still a swim bait :) After Javier & Tony in there nice Skeeter took the photo for me (posted in photo's) I went right back to where I got it and tossed the bluegill swimbait out again on the 2nd cast again wham!!! I hooked a fish that was even bigger than the 7.5, this fish pulled drag on my 8 foot powel rod that I had the drag tightened down almost as far as I could, this fish hit in 5 feet of water and went straight down to 20 feet and again pull drag for about 5-10 yards, the 7.5 lb fish did not pull drag so this was much bigger, "it" never came up and like a dork I started playing it, I have only been doing the swimbait thing for a little while and I know you are not supposed to play a fish with a 8 foot rod and 20 lb big game line, you are supposed to just hall him in, do not play him and I let the fish have a little slack and it came un buttoned, because this fish never came up I will say it was a 15 lb catfish, this makes me feel better :)Saturday was 13 total fish to 7.5 lbs (landed), 9 on swim bait, 2 fish on creature bait medium size watermellon candy (bubba shotting) and 2 fish on new worm Javier kicked down on a shakie head (can't say color, Promised Javier)
    On Sunday only fished 6 hrs but got 6 fish, 4 on the bluegill and 2 on drop shot but my son and I swam quite a bit, it was hot!
    City: San Jose

    Tips: #1 go to carwash that was accross the steet from Red Bud launch ramp to get turtle poop off boat and trailer $3.00
    #2 Slow roll the bluegill swimbait like a spinnerbait and hang on ! or any large crank bait will work in a dark color (very stained water)

    #3 Use your plastics but go dark.

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    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: fished all night near wheeler bite was slow til about 330am. with only a few fish til then. tied on a brown and purple jig tossed it out then bam it was on. caught about 15 to 3lbs and decide to give it a break to reload with fish, so we moved 20 feet to some tullies put on the cut tail senko wacky and pegged with a nail.it just keep going more fish about every 3rd cast or so.had about 25 fish before my non boater caught one about 7am. he got three total til he finally said i quit at 730 am. so i moved back to point for last 15 mins and culled 2 more there. wish i couldve stayed but had to weigh in. most fish hit the jig so soft if you didnt pay close attention you lost. hard to do in heavy wind.
    City: plumaslake

    Tips: dont be afraid of the algea. when we could see what we were fishing in we were surprised. it was straight pea soup, no bs. didnt seem to bother fish only bothered me all my line is green now. good luck. and hang on to your wallet i found one full of $ and cards.sent it to him though. got my own money.

Friday, July 10th, 2009

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    Water Temp: 77-80

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: well another clear lake trip has concluded,after spending an entire week staying in the keys parking our boat at our back door fishing anytime we wanted ,back to reality.we fished the entire week setting out to explore new areas,lake was as in other posts like pea soup, weeds ect. but for me the real deal is the windy afternoons that lake can get down right nasty in no time.caught several nice fish 1 large cat,but friday was unreal started early was catching fish on senkos and lipless cranks purple,red wind started comming up so we headed to one of our favorite spot near rattle snake island got up close to the tullies in what i called 6 inches of pea soup could hardly get any through the stuff my buddy johnny threw out his brush hog,bam 10pound 10 oz. beauty never would have thought any fish could live in that muck just goes to show you.of coarse john is still as high as a kite and we will never stop hearing about that fish but he has good reason to be.for the week we caught maybe 100 fish 1 to 10 pounds,1- 8 pound cat,can never get enough of clear lake you people that fish here often are very lucky,
    City: salinas

    Tips: we fished senko,brush hogs,cranks,morning bit was best for us although toad was caught 11am,fished a couple of late evening just a couple fish,early morning was the ticket for me keep up all the great posts they realy do help us part time fishermen

Saturday, July 4th, 2009

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    Water Temp: 76-82

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished from July 4th to the 10th. We were on the water by 7am till dark everyday.. We caught 130 bass in 7 days from 2 to 5 lbs. We fished from the State park to Long Tule point and caught some nice ones on spooks and spinnerbaits in the weed beds there. There were actually some fish on beds back behind the weed beds in a 25 yard stretch were the water was a little clearer. One evening we hammered the fish on a drop shot on Anderson island with three doubles. Watermelon candy trick worms were the ticket. Checked back again and never found them again. We also caught lots of fish around the RedBud area on Bill Norman cranks in Clear lake craw and Chili bowl color. And had a good spinnerbait bite going around the Island at Cash Creek. From about 5-dark we actually had a really good frog bite going in shallow tules between docks around Konocti Bay, Harbor & Spa.
    City: Winston

    Tips: Spook & Spinnerbait the weed beds around bait in the county park area. Throw Crankbaits around Rattle snake island & Rock piles from Konocti to Red Bud. Drop shot in 25-35 feet way out in front of docks. Frog in the evenings in shallow tules.

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    Water Temp: 76-79

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: I guided a skilled angler and great guy Thursday night - trying to beat the crowd! We started a little after 7 pm out of the Oaks. Water was a little cleaner and fishing was a little better! The day bite might still be better but the night is starting to produce some quality. We still had to dodge boat traffic in the evening as we fished Senkos and topwater. The first Senko bass was almost 4 1/2 lbs (#301) - good start. Topwater was nada! We fished most of the evening in Horseshoe Bay, trying to stay out of the wind. He caught his first of several there. Henderson was fair at night - though we missed several. Biggest there was a little over 3 1/2 lbs. Worked our way back to the narrows and fished a favorite area near Anderson Island. His first or second cast there produced a nice fat bass at 4 1/2 lbs+, using a brush hog. We worked our way back to the ramp, catching a few more. We were limited in the areas we could fish because of big swells. I showed him a subtle rock pile that was hard to pinpoint in the dark of the moon. He made several casts without a bite. Sometimes these small piles are hard to find. I started casting to try to find the high spot for him - first cast a 5+ found my Kreature bait. Frustrating when that is the only active fish there! I showed him some lay of the land around Rattlesnake Island and as I was putting stuff away he got a big bite - about 10 lbs of whiskers!! Besides the cat, we had 12 in the boat - 5 biggest a hair over 20 lbs! Better quality fish!
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: All I can say for sure is that most of the nice bass are hangin' alone. There are some nice bass to catch, but one here and one there. They are not limited yet to depth - we caught fish from 5 to 20 feet. Actually, the bigger fish were less than 10 feet. Other than the nice Senko fish, most were near deep water breaks - if that helps. At least for my trips, the topwater bite has been slow as has the frog bite. I have heard that from most anglers.

Friday, July 3rd, 2009

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    Water Temp: 78

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Launched out of county park at daybreak and went right over to Long Tule Point. Partner threw buzzbait & spook while I threw a popper. No takers on buzz or spook but I had 5 blowups on the popper in the hour that I fished it before the sun got kinda high and topwater bite diminished. 2.5er landed, but missed what looked close to 5---whole body came up but missed popper by a good half foot and couldn't coax 'em back. Fun little popper bite there though. Then fished various areas from State Park to Henderson. Pretty tough bite from 7:30 to 1:00. At 1, we hit Henderson for a second time and buddy got 2 decent fish (bigger 3.2), 1 on drop shot, the other on a jig. I had a couple bites at H too, but didn't get em. We had to leave at 2 so perhaps the jig/dropshot/shaky head bite was starting to pick up (all Henderson fish came in about 20 feet). Kinda hot day but not unbearable.
    City: San Rafael

    Tips: Try poppers at first light (mine's a Heddon Pop N Image junior). No hits on baby bass color so switched to white/purple shad and that's what all bites/fish came on while the topwater bite lasted. Find points like Henderson where there's deeper water and throw a jig/dropshot.

Wednesday, July 1st, 2009

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    Water Temp: warm

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished the south end for eight hours this afternoon. Had at least fifty fish stop my crank-bait.Boated around thirty or so bucket mouth and a bunch of crappi.My arm is num!Big bass was around 4,lost a few giants.
    City: lower lake

    Tips: crank rock-piles and outside weedlines,run bigger and sharper hooks on your cranks

Monday, June 29th, 2009

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    Water Temp: 72

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Launched out of Lakeport on Sat. started to throw frogs with no takers. Switched to a watermelon candy fluke(weight less) with a 3/0 ewg hook, and just started to kill em. In the 5 hours I threw it, I lost count after 40 fish. Mostly 3lbers, but got two 5's and a 6.5.A great day on the lake.
    City: Carson City

    Tips: Throw around weed lines or holes in the weeds. Let it sink between jerks, that is when it seems they wanted it most. Watch your line in between jerks, cause most of mine i didd'nt feel the strike.

Sunday, June 28th, 2009

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    Water Temp: 77.8

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Took a friend out for his first bass fishing trip and hooked up pretty good. He caught the big one of the day at 5+ and I lost the big one of the day, 8+ at the boat. Jigs and Beavers were the ticket for us under docks.
    City: Sacramento

    Tips: SLOW

Saturday, June 27th, 2009

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    Water Temp: 76-80

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: How could back-to back Friday nights be so different? Last week - howling, dangerous cold winds, but a pretty good bite. Last night - flat, hot, smelly, and a slow bite. That's why I smile when clients ask me how the weather is going to be when they book a trip. I took a local for a half-night trip, showing him some good areas in the south end. Pretty good fisherman with a previous 11 lb CL bass to his credit! There were some willing bass, but the bite was slow as the evening bite often is during hot weather. He lost his first bass - on a buzzbait - and all the others he hooked. They looked good in the black light when they jumped and spit the hook! I think his hookset was ok - they just wouldn't stay on. This was his first time with a black light and he liked it! I tried several different surface and sub-surface baits but they were hard to work in the weeds and algae. However, the Blade Runner weedless Paddle Head worked very well with the Basstrix swimbait. It came thru the weeds just fine. The Piranha swim jig got lots of hits but most just wouldn't stay on. Very frustrating - hit after hit but they would not inhale. My client learned to work one pretty well and had a hit or two. I'm assuming the bite would have gotten better as morning approached. That is usually the pattern after hot, windless evenings.
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: I just had my 520 waxed and it seemed to help. I cleaned it pretty well after we pulled out with some stuff I bought from Bob Higgins and I washed it again when got home (3am!). She looked ok today. Boy, did that junk bring back memories of the late 80's!

Thursday, June 25th, 2009

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    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Did well on good numbers of 2.5 to 3 pounders. Had one six pounder. Shade and end of docks seemed to be the ticket. The south end and Rattlesnake are hammered with algae. We launched at the Oaks ramp, when we left at 2:30 I was afraid the motor was going to clog with the stuff.
    Mid lake and North the water is good. If you can find lanes and points in the weeds 8'to 10 ft that will work. Hard to find that , there is way more grass than I have ever seen here.
    City: Granite Bay a.

    Tips: Wacky senkos seemed best ,early morning 1 frog and 1 rico. about 20 on shakey head and senkos

Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009

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    Water Temp: 78

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: great day boat caught 35

    drop shots with babybrush hog with red/purple

    went with richard pounds for half day and later went on our own boat

    Tips: go work at nice and lakeport along the weeds and up along docks

Saturday, June 20th, 2009

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    Water Temp: 75

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Started about 3pm after the Semi pro Tourny.. Cant believe on 17lb to win.. Lake was real windy, Found some calm water by Cache creek Caught 8 in 2 hours. 3 to 5LB I wish I signed up for that tourny I would have won it..
    City: Citrus Heights

    Tips: Caught all bass on Persuader tandem willow White on White Spinnerbait, Fish were all around weeds. About 3 feet of water..

Friday, June 19th, 2009

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    Water Temp: Can't remember

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished Cache creek 6/18 for about 4hrs and nada, fished deeper water outside of Red Bud arm with my Brother, Sister-In-Law and my self, we got 9 fish to 4 lbs on 6/19, we did not start fishing until about 9:30 so we missed the morning bite and left by 6:00 so we missed the evening bite, the wind picked up and my 7 year old daughter gets very scared when we go over those big rollers, my 5 year old son loves it, he thinks its a roller coaster ride :) anyway had to get off the water before my daughter had a heart attach and tells Mom on me :)We got fish on drop shot Margareta Mutalator, Watermellon Senko's, and I got one on a bluegill swim bait on my new Powell 8 ft rod, I was happy to get one on the rod to see how it would feel, the fish was only 2.5 lbs but it felt pretty good even for a 2.5 fish :)Like others have stated, lots of algee in the Red Bud arm, my power trim went out on the 175 Merc so my Brother and I had to get in the water at Red Bud and pick up the motor manually, we than had to go to the car wash and do the Tommy Boy wash off of our selves and my Ranger, it was gross !! Went to a small lake that I will not say because it has tons of bluegill, my Daughter and Son had a ball catching one after the other, it was the best Fathersday I ever had watching that :)
    City: San Jose

    Tips: Don't worry about the algee, just stay off the Red Bud east side of the lake, the wind blows all the algee to the east side of the lake but the west side is fine, drop in and drive to the other side. Now a fishing tip, I got my smallest fish of 5 on the bluegill swim bait, I got my biggest fish of 4 lbs on a 4 inch worm, so go figure !!!
    Actually the answer is dead stick what ever you toss.

Thursday, June 18th, 2009

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    Water Temp: 73

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Took a trip out yesterday. They were prefishing for a tourny coming up. We worked the north end concentrating on outside weed beds. He landed 8 nice fish up to 3.50 pounds and I landed one 8.50 pound fish and 3 others up to 3 pounds.
    City: Sacramento

Wednesday, June 17th, 2009

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    Water Temp: 70 to 72

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: so gave it a try on wed morning got on the H20 at 5:30 am out of the Oaks area fished rattlesnake Island with no bites I usually pick up a few their like previous report bad algea bloom on the H2o thick as pea soup with the peas in it some areas . made a short move and picked up a 3 lb lg mouth on dropshot and a scrappy 2 lb smallmouth on rattle trap only 5 fish for the day on margarita mutilator senkos and the 1 on rattle trap then the wind picked up at 9:30 am and blew us off the lake in my small boat
    City: Carmichael

    Tips: find some clear H20