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Monday, September 1st, 2008

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    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: fishing was slow. i got there before the sun was up and stayed till about noon. 3 fish total one 4 pounder and two 2's all on a white spinner with a gold blade fished low and slow in about 5'-12' of water. try the three points withe the third being the most productive for me.
    City: Santa Rosa

Sunday, August 31st, 2008

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    Water Temp: 80-84

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: I went to Clear Lake with a friend last night and found the fishing to be slower, just as I heard. I was in Canada for the last week and saw some of the most beautiful water I've ever seen - in eastern Canada. I was on a train and couldn't get it to stop so I could make a cast!!!! Wow - smallmouth anyone?! Anyway, we fished from 5 pm to around 11:30 pm and caught 5 before dark and 5 after - mostly in the 2 3/4 lb to 3 1/2 lb range. I hooked my second big bass in as many trips about 8 pm in the south end. I was using a wacky #301 5" Senko - hooked her in about 2 feet of water above heavy weeds and fought her for about 3 minutes until the hook pulled out. The jury is still out for me concerning the weedless Gami Senko hooks. I would have assumed I had her hooked well! Big fish!! The Senko bite seemed best in the evening on dock pilings but my friend nailed the biggest on a white buzzbait. The buzz bite was fair, not as good as a few weeks previous. Spooks and Devil's Horses did not work. The jig bite was the best again at night and the Power worm produced a few. We lost several at night for some reason. Night fishing goes through slow periods just as day fishing does and this last week or two must be that period. A 6 or 7 lb catfish ended the evening as it should!!
    City: Yuba city

    Tips: Hard to give too many tips when the bite is slow. Weeds have caused the bass to be scattered quite a bit. Why else would I have hooked that big bass in the middle of nowhere - the weeds were obviously good structure. As I said before, the jig bite is something to be aware of - if you can find a place to fish them!!

Monday, August 25th, 2008

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    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Started out forgot to put the plug in the boat, Got it back on the trailer drained it and plugged it relaunched. Took off went over towards lucerne got no bites wind came up and ran us clear out. Went over to State Park got no bites trolling motor batteries went dead. Decided to call it a day heading to the ramp ran out of gas managed to get into Ferndale resort got a ride from a guy to the truck got back to ferndale VERY steep ramp Wench strap broke while loading the boat.Fixed it and Went home. No Bites No Fish No Gas Busted equiptment , I love Clearlake Think I'll try again Tomorrow
    City: Kelseyville

    Tips: Fill up with gas before you go out and charge your batteries the night before Check your gear from time to time it will wear out and break right when you dont need it to

Saturday, August 23rd, 2008

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    Water Temp: 74-78

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Water is staining up nicely but has not warmed the water up still, fished 1/2 day 8/23 only got 4 fish to 3 lbs and fished around 16 hrs on Sunday 8/24, started at 4:45 in the AM, I saw something and heard something I had never experianced before, when I got to my starting spot it was flat calm like ice but there were so many silver sides about 1-3 inches long moving on top of the water it looked and sounded like it was raining hard!!! but the crazy thing was there were no fish feeding on them, no fish breaking water, I tossed 5 types of top water, Zara, Popper, Sammy, Buz and frog but only one pull down on the frog but did not land it, as far as I could see in Jago bay there were silver sides moving on top, only got 9 fish to 4.5 lbs fishing for Red Bud to Konockti , 3 of the 9 fish were under a pound:( got a couple nice 3 lbers and the one 4.5 but it was tough!! 8/25 only fished 2 hrs with my handicaped buddy, I made him a heavy duty chair with arm rests and a plywood platform that both combined wieghs about 110 lbs but it held his 280 lb body up with no problems:) He could only stay out 2 hrs but he was very happy to be on the water getting some much needed fresh air!, again only fished 2 hrs on Monday 8/25 but not a fish in the boat:( Spoke to a couple of really good sticks, one guy had taken a 3rd place in a TOC recently and he only got 4 fish all day on Sunday, tough bite
    City: San Jose

    Tips: Got the 4.5 lber on the only fish I saw feeding on the silver sides, she had push some bait fish up against a wall and was slurping them up and I tossed my Watermellon Senko up against that wall and she at it!!:)Again I tossed every top water you could think of plus jigs, crank baits but the only thing that really worked was my whimpy drop shot, I got 8 fish on the drop shot but the biggest fish was on the senko. Target weed lines and drop straight down with your Senko or drop shot, do not cast out far or you will be pulling in salad every time you do, the water is nice and stained now so you can drop down right on top of them and not spook them as easy. Got 2 of 8 fish on Margareta Mutalator and 6 on watermellon 5 inch worms. Cruz along the weed line or clump and drop straight down here there and move to next weed line or clump, look for breaks behind the weed lines, for example if the wind or current is blowing from the north, drop your offering to the south end of the weed line or clump and if there is one there it will be waiting in ambush down current or wind from the front of it. All of the fish that I did catch looked healthy, I guess thats a good thing!:)

Thursday, August 21st, 2008

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    Water Temp: 68 +/-

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished 7am to noon in the south out out Red Bud. Only 4 fish between 2 of us. a couple 2-3 lbrs and a 7lbr.
    City: Petaluma

    Tips: 2 senko, 1 crank and the big one on a jig.

Sunday, August 17th, 2008

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    Water Temp: 78.1

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Thank you Old1NCal for making us feel better. We started out on Sunday at sunrise out of Clearlake Oaks and headed to 4 walls only to get one bite and the fish came off near the boat. It was a nice 4 or 5 pound fish! We headed across the lake to get a 2 1/2 pounder and another 3 1/2 pounder with no pattern to be found. Off the lake by noon and it was very frustrating! Only 3 fish all day.
    City: Sacramento

    Tips: Call Lunker Larry..........He will put you on the fish!

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    Water Temp: 80

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Tough day for us, only 4 fish total, started at about 6:00 AM fished till 2:30. All fish caught at different depths on different baits. 1 fish on smoke 4 inch worm Texas Rig with 16th oz weight in about 8 feet of water at about 9:00 AM. 1 fish on Senko in about 12 feet of water at about 10:00 AM. 1 fish on dart head in 25 feet of water at about 1:00 PM. 1 fish on watermelon 4 inch worm in 4 feet of water at about 2:00 PM.

    Caught first 2 in Pirate Cove area, 1 in Narrows 1 at Wind Sock. 4 bite, 4 fish. What happened from last week?
    City: Woodland

    Tips: Could not get a pattern going today.

Thursday, August 14th, 2008

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    Water Temp: 78-83

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: I was happy to be able to take my good friend Willie Page to Clear Lake Monday evening. This was his first trip there since he moved to Mississippi about 5 years ago where he works with the Navigators Christian Ministry. Willie went nuts after dark, catching bass after bass. Welcome home, Willie!! After catching the first 8, I told him that we needed to see a "real" California bass! Soon a big catfish nailed my 10" black Power worm - or so I thought! With 30 lb test Fireline I couldn't stop her - she went into a piling but soon came out. She was going to jump so I thought that would be fine. She did and - whoa - NO whiskers! I never had time to get nervous and he netted her on the first swipe and I didn't have the giant net! I really wish he could have caught her - I even gave him the shadow section of the dock and I cast to the moonlit area. We both wondered what a 9 lb 14 oz bass was doing in 4 feet of clear water in bright moonlight. Feeding for sure - she almost swallowed the giant worm and I set the hook quickly. She had the body of a late November bass - big gut. I told Willie earlier that the bite is always on by 11 pm - she hit at 11:02 pm!!!! Willie wound up with 11 bass to 4 lb 3 oz and I finished with 2 - only had 5 bites the whole trip. I was glad Willie saw a monster bass so he would move back to California! 22 3/4 lb limits are hard to come by in 'ol Miss! We'll see! Tues night I guided a nice fellow from Marysville who wanted to learn about night fishing Clear Lake. He was a good fisherman but lost the first 3 he hooked (about 7pm) including a good one. That seemed to be the story of the bite Tues evening - bass that didn't want to commit to eating the bait. We landed 14 bass but really missed or lost a bunch. Shadows were again where we found most of our fish. Since I was teaching him about night structure, we covered a lot of water south of the narrows. He caught 9 of our 14 and the biggest which was only 4 lbs. He was sold on the jig bite and he was right - that was the best bait by far! We used three color combo with black/blue being the best. Most of our bass were caught from 7 to 20 feet - on rock! No topwater/buzzbait fish at all.
    City: Yuba city

    Tips: The clear water is really an issue this year during moonlit nights and bass are probably more wary. I think they are harder to locate as they have tons of weeds to hide in and don't need to use the typical shady area to hide and feed. If one can find a solid weed EDGE, that is now structure. I feel right at home now as the carp have recovered from their spawn and are rolling themselves silly in the moonlight. If the shad are scarce, the Mississippi Silversides are not - they have reappeared - by the millions?! To bad they don't get as big as shad. With the absence of shad, I would assume crawfish would be on the menu, so dust off those jigs!

Sunday, August 10th, 2008

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    Water Temp: 73

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: On the dock and ready to go at 6am Scott, Ed, and their sons Patrick and Sam packed into my boat and headed from Konocti Harbor to Anderson Island. The first hour of the day provided steady action. We caught around 10 fish on dropshots and spinnerbaits. As the sun got a little higher the bite slowed a bit, but we still managed to pick up a fish here and there. Fishing any outside weed lines in about 12 feet of water that were near rock piles seemed to be the most productive pattern that I could find. After meeting up with a friend at noon so that we could split up into 3 people per boat, we spent the rest of the day fishing around the narrows. The wind kicked up a bit and we caught a few more fish on blades and shad colored crankbaits. The total count for the day was around 25 fish with the biggest going only 3.5 pounds. On Sunday we fished from Pirates Cove to Red Bud Park. Throwing frogs and poppers in the morning, we had a few blow up

    Tips: <a href="http://www.russnyders.com/">Rus Snyders Guide Service</a>

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    Water Temp: 73

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: The report posted below was meant for Lake Anderson on August 11. My mistake
    City: San Bruno

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    Water Temp: 73

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: After spending a little while going through the muscle inspection, we finally got on the water at around 8:30. Starting just south of the boat ramp, we caught several small fish on jigs and drop shots, nothing over 14

    Tips: <a href="http://www.russnyders.com/">Rus Snyders Guide Service</a>

Friday, August 8th, 2008

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    Water Temp: 78

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished friday afternoon and sat. morning. Did not do well. Friday managed a 5-12 and a 3-10 in the first few hours, but then the wind came up and couldn't fish where I hoped to. Sat. the wind was up from the get go and restricted where I could fish with my tin boat. I know the fish can be really stupid during the summer, but I think I was the only stupid one.
    I still like fishing there as its so different than most places.
    City: orinda

    Tips: Didn't get many bites, but where I did, it made sense,(humps and ledges) except there were only 1 or 2 bites in areas I normally do well. Fished the rattlesnake arm and the south end. Many banks had mucho weeds,grass or slime.

Thursday, August 7th, 2008

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    Water Temp: 77*

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Fished Thurs PM at dusk. Great Spook bite around Rattlesnake and Indian Gardens. Used large profile/super spooks in dark colors for 7 fish in 1st hour before dark, plus a few misses. Topwater Bite died after that. Switched to black/blue jigs with blk/bl hula trailers for 5 more till about 8:30, biggest 3lbs +-.
    City: Clear Lake Park

    Tips: Long pauses on the retrieve with spooks.

Sunday, August 3rd, 2008

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    Water Temp: 73-80

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: TOUGH!!! Fished the north. threw big baits and top water for 3.5 hours and Nothin!!!! then got two 2.5lbrs on jigs and one a crankbait. fished til 2pm. went home a little dissapointed. LOTS of weeds makes for a dirty boat and trolling motor snags.
    City: Lakeport

    Tips: stay south. Last week I fished south and did considerably better.

Friday, August 1st, 2008

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    Water Temp: 70+

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Fished 3 days a few hrs a day. Caught fish up to 8 lbs on Frogs, Rico's, Gunfish, Crankbaits and Jigs. Most fish were cookie cutter 2-3 lbers but had a blast. caught 25 fish first day, over 12 the second and about 8 on 3rd day. First night there I stuck the 8 lber on Tweetie with in the fist 10 min and my 6 year old and 4 year old boys were freaking out.
    City: Windsor

    Tips: Throw the tackle box at them!

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    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Started off at sunrise at jago Bay. No action on topwater frogs or spooks. Started throwing a wacky 4" Senko and caught a few small ones. Then surprisingly caught a 5.12 on it. Caught a few more on a sweet beaver bait. The action really slowed after about 10am. Had a few good slams on a Huddleston but couldn't hook any. Fished mainly north end. Best 5 maybe 18#'s.
    City: Y.C.

Monday, July 28th, 2008

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    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: slowest day i have ever had on the water, launched by 8 and off by 3 (i know i fished the heat of the day) but thought i could at least get a few got 3 the first half hour on senkos the rest of the day was dead
    City: DIAMOND SPRINGS

Sunday, July 27th, 2008

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    Water Temp: 75-80

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Dad and I went on our annual summertime 2-day trip to CL in celebration of his birthday, and we had a great time as usual. On Saturday, our high hopes for a killer frog/Spook bite failed to materialize, so we meandered down to the narrows to check out some good ledges and breaks I like to fish. Good idea! We found the fish hungry for Hula Grubs fished on a 3/8oz. football head and a DD22 in the black spatterback pattern. Depth was the key all weekend for us. Most fish were caught between 15' and 35' of water. Big fish on Saturday was just a shade under 8 (7-13), with another pushing 6, another over 5 and numerous 3-4 lb. fish. All but one of the best fish came on the Hula Grub (wacky Senko for that one). Best 5 would have been over 25#... great day! Sunday was just as fun, but without the same quality. We stayed south all day and caught all but 2 of our fish on the Hula Grub, and again the deep water bite prevailed. Our best 5 on Sunday were probably in the 16-17# range. What a great way to spend a weekend with your dad, and what an incredible lake!
    City: Elk Grove

    Tips: Get off the bank! Find those deep ledges and breaks and work them thoroughly with your best deep structure baits. As stated, the 3/8 oz. Hula Grub was great for us, primarily the cinnamon/purple flake and watermelon/black flake patterns. We also caught fish on a wacky Senko, DD22, dropshot Roboworm and an LV500 rattlebait. Good luck!

Saturday, July 26th, 2008

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    Water Temp: 80

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: The Basin Bassmasters out of Loomis did their two back to back tournaments on Friday night and Saturday morning. The first weigh in big bag was over 21 lbs. The second weigh in was almost the same. Most of the anglers got there fish on jigs in black/blue, crankin, large brush hogs in June Bug, pop r's and frogs.
    City: Rocklin

    Tips: Look for deep water next to the banks was the big clue for that night.

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    Water Temp: 75-78

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: We started nice and early excited about some top water bites. A typical day at Clear Lake as we got on the water it was 20plus mph winds and the lake was swelling like the San francisco bay. We staeyd in the south and fished pockets just off the main lake protected from the wind. We threw several top water baits and only had 2 hit the frog. I switched to a fluke and missed one and caught 2 quickly on a windy point. We moved to the next pocket sure we would locate a top water bite and nada they just werent interested for us today. We moved to the nearest windy point and missed 2 and caught 2 deep on jigs. I was missing alot of fish on the brush hawg as they would just kinda swim with it and never gulp it down as many times they took half the hawg or jigs tails with them. We started to move around a bit more but the wind was nasty and the lake was rough we kept cathing 1-2 fish in a area and missing some short biters as well. We did catch a few crank bait fish as well in a shad color. Fish seemed to be on points and or ledges and were all under 3lbs the frog bite never happend on this day. We did catch a fair number of fish but it was slow over all and no big fish at all. We spoke toseveral other boats and none of them caught even 1 quality fish on this day.
    I would say these fish are feeding at night now and your window for better fish will happen at night.
    City: elk grove

    Tips: Just go have fun dont expect a big one right now just because its clear lake. Fish deep for bites with jigs and smaller plastics. Points and edges of weed flats as well as ledges. Crank if you need to get bit!