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Saturday, July 26th, 2008

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    Water Temp: 78-85

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Redwood Empire Bass Club held a 2 weigh-in team night tournament at Clearlake July 19 & 20 launching out of Red Bud. We had 12 teams in the event. First place had 39.65lbs, 2nd place 25.74lbs and 3rd was 33.10lbs. A lot of fish were caught but not the quantity of big girls like last year where it took nearly 57lbs to win and over 41lbs for 3rd. Heard the frog bite was working for some as the sun was setting. Most fish were caught on jigs and brush hogs. Big fish was 7.40 and 2nd big fish was 6.99. One half of the first place team was a new members first tournament!
    City: Santa Rosa

    Tips: Tips: The better bite was until sunset, again from 2:30-3:30AM and then at sunrise. The next tournament for the Redwood Empire Bass Club will another 2 weigh-in team at night at Clear Lake August 16th & 17th launching out of Lakeport. The signups will be at the next meeting Wednesday at 7 p.m. on August 13th at the Rohnert Park Community Center at the corner of Rohnert Park Expressway and Snyder Lane. Log onto http://www.rebc.net for more info.

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    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: I.m planning a trip to clear lake in the end of July. Can someone tell me where I can get my boat inspection and how much it costs

    Thanks Bob
    City: washougal wa

Friday, July 25th, 2008

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    Water Temp: 78-85

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: OOPS! - 2nd place for the previous tourney was 35.74lbs, not 25.74lbs
    City: Santa Rosa

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    Water Temp: 79-81

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: A friend of mine and I decided to check on the night bite at Clear Lake and found it to be in good shape. We started about 6:30 pm and fished 'til 2 am. The bite was good at nearly every spot and was best after 11 pm. Finding large bass was a problem however, with our biggest bass at only 4 lbs 6 oz and our 5 best didn't reach 20 lbs - almost!! The amount of 3 to 3 1/2 pounders was amazing - last night was their night! We caught around 60 bass, maybe 70 - great fun!! We fished where the wind would let us - it was a problem but not too bad.
    City: Yuba city

    Tips: The bass do seem to be moving to summer areas - at least in the central and south areas of the lake. I haven't been north lately. We found bass down to nearly 30 feet and ledges were good before dark. For example, the Sea Breeze area has been disappointing compared to last year. Last night (actually this morning!) there were lots of bass there and they were active! Between day and night trips I have noticed that there are very shallow bass and very deep bass which are good quality (again, I'm not talking about the north end). The 2 and 3 pounders seem to be at the typical depths - 10 to 15 feet. I was pleased to land several 3 1/2 pounders on brown/orange Rodstrainer jigs. I think the jig bite is pretty good for summertime. Senkos again were a good bait but they didn't seem to inhale them as in previous trips. At night, the jig and brush hog bite was better than the worm bite for some reason - maybe because bass are keying on craws. We threw topwater and buzz baits around Buckingham - no takers! I hooked a good bass there at dusk on a Rapala DT-16 that I was trying out and it broke at the bill. First time for me - I was not a happy camper! Weird to reel in a plastic lip!!! So, beware!

Friday, July 18th, 2008

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    Water Temp: 74

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Hey frank I went to to the lake a few weeks ago I went down to the nice area and yes the lake was reel low there and lots of weeds so much that had problems with my motor boging down , also had problems launching boat there , so we went out of the oak public launch site and had no problems their didnt get to the konocti side so I can't tell you about that we didn't get on the water till about 10 am we only picked up a few in the 2 to 3 lbs range on plastics drop shotting tons of bait fish I have never seen so many bait fish in my life. in fact when you threw your lure in they would start jumping and it looked like it was raining good luck if you need some body to go with you give me an E-mail good luck , also weeds are not near as bad on oaks south side of lake
    City: Carmichael

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    Water Temp: 77-80

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: After "rescuing" my southern Calif clients last Sunday (thanks for the nice report!), I had a new experience at Clear Lake - a pro fly-fisherman who threw neat looking bass patterns the whole trip. I knew the bite would be tough for him with the weeds and deeper fish. He would have done well 2 months ago! Anyway, he missed a couple and did land one right off the tip of Buckingham Point. I fished Senkos (301,330) trying to find shallow fish for him and caught about 10 - nothing over 3 1/4 lbs.
    City: Yuba city

    Tips: What fish I found were in isolated clumps of weeds about 8 to 12 feet deep. Actually, the best bite was after 11 am. Weird year!

Wednesday, July 16th, 2008

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    Water Temp: I hope warm....

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: I plan on taking my novice fishing partner to Clear Lake and I am going to teach him how to frog fish. Can someone tell me how the frog bite is going and how the weeds are?
    City: Simi Valley

    Tips: I am ready for a good week and giving my fishing partner a good old bass kicking..........

Monday, July 14th, 2008

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    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Three of us from Ventura County and Fresno fished the weekend and Monday this week. We are the ones from Southern Calif that LH saved and took us out on Sunday. We fished on Saturday at Rattlesnake and Shag Rock. We found a steady bite during the day with several fish up to 4 lbs. Saturday afternoon we applied first aid to my trolling motor with hose clamps (the plastic housing broke apart) and were able to fish in the evening when one of us was on fire with the green watermelon fluke and caught at least 7 fish and one at 7-4. We fished the banks that ran south from Shag rock to the concrete wall. For Sunday see LH report. Monday we fished 1/2 day and started on the south end. It was slow until about 10 am when we found an area east of shag rock and caught several fish on kreature baits, flukes, and senkos. One went 6-6 on the kreature bait. We finished the day at Rattlesnake island and found some small school feeding on shad. We caught a few drop shoting a small oxblood robo work and a small rip bait. The birds were also feeding on the shad. It was the first sign of schooling shad we had seen all weekend. I want to say thank you to Bob at Limit Out for taking my many calls trying to help me with my trolling motor, and to Larry for salvaging saving our Sunday. The hose clamps worked great and kept it together for the remainder of the trip.
    City: Thousand Oaks

    Tips: Be prepared to adjust and find a pattern that's working. Our So Cal lakes have even clearer water which helped us adjust at Clearlake. Two years ago it didn't matter what I used - I caught fish using just about everything. It looked like things were starting to change for the better on Monday - signs of shad and a heavy algae bloom. Clearlake is a great lake.

Sunday, July 13th, 2008

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    Water Temp: 81 to 82

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: went out of the oaks area on sunday got on the water at 5 am. started fishing rattlesnake Island on top water with no luck accept a 2 lbs crappie on a pop R. SO Ithen Started throwing a X rap and picked up 4 small mouth 2 to 3 lbs we contiuned around because we only had our trolling motor since my outboard in the shop my brother put on a Xrap in a hitch color and hooked up with we thought was a hog and faught it for at least 5 min. on light tackle but when we boated it . turned out to be a 8 lbs catfish,then I started throwing a yamamoto hula grub on a dropshot and picked up 10 more in the 3 to 4 lbs range I went threw all of that color and started with a senko in the same color with the same results we ended up with a total of 35 bass and 5 catfish that thought they were bass maybe they just like that smellyjelly sent
    City: carmichael

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    Water Temp: 83-85

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: A former client and 2 others towed their boat up from southern Cal but had problems with it. I don't normally guide on Sunday but made an exception for them after their distress call. We had a great time with a variety of techniques. One had his first frog blowups but missed them. They used Senkos (301,330,921), drop-shot, crankbaits, Texas rigged Robo worms (oxblood), jigs, flukes, and probably some others baits! I was handing out baits all day, har! The best bite was 9:30am to 12:30pm Everyone did well as we landed 23 bass to 4 3/4 lbs with a limit over 20 lbs. Lost one big one. The two biggest were the most shallow - about 2 or 3 feet in rock - hitting Senkos. The guys had good fishing skills but needed to learn how to fish different baits and different types of structure. I think we accomplished a lot! We fished all three parts of the lake with success at several spots, but the bite really died about 1pm.
    City: Yuba city

    Tips: As was mentioned in a previous post, weeds are difficult and are quite deep now in some spots (15+ feet). I will be interested to see if the lake ever gets some color this year. Again, no sign of small bass. We targeted tulles and weeds next to rock. We got a few dock fish but not as many as I thought we would. Lots of bass are hanging out at the edge of the weedlines - about 15-20 feet deep. If you can get a Senko down to them, they will take it during a feeding period. We used a lot of Smelly Jelly (crawfish) today because the bite was so dead early in the morning. We just stuck with it.

Saturday, July 12th, 2008

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    Water Temp: 78

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Temperatures finally started cool off to the low 90

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

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    Water Temp: 78-82

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Continued from last report, I forgot something:)There was an English family camping next to us, a 20 year old kid just getting into bass fishing float tubed all the way around M & M pennisula thats about a mile in a float tube, he did not get one fish, I asked him if he wanted to go with myself and my buddy for a few hrs he said SURE!!!
    The first thing I told him was just switch the color of the worm he was using to my fav worm and he did, on his first cast he hooks up but she comes off, on his second cast he catches the biggest bass he has ever caught, a solid 5 lber!!!
    He and I could not believe it, the cool thing was there was a huge crappie tail sticking out of its Gullet!!! that was way cool for all of us also.
    He wound up catching 5 fish to 5 lbs and I got 3 fish to 3 lbs in about 3 hrs, yes the rookie out fished me but thats happened more than once to me:)
    City: San Jose

    Tips: Color makes a dif, expecially with the clear water we are dealing with right now.

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    Water Temp: Hot

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: First time I have fished here since 1989.Only really got to fish one morning and I started out on the South end of Soda Bay.This was the only area I could identify from my last trip.I fished the rocky area with one lone pump house right next to the water.Not one bite but alot of boat's were hiting that area.I just went north along the Lake and cought one about 2-lb on a Pop-R.So I continued to use it and the third Dock in I cought a 5-lb fish.Not another look at that lure.So I switched to a Baby Brush Hog and fished around that Island where they have some sort of Sulfer Hot Spring with a Warning sign and cought Two fish there one 7-lb.What a Lake compared to what I fish.
    City: Salinas

    Tips: None I just fished.

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    Water Temp: 82

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: This the first time I've seen the lake this clear. Now the Hydrila is dieing off and leaving a dead long weed all over the lake. Six of us got in the water @ 4pm and fished until midnight. The wind was 10-15 mph for a short time so we found a cove to hide in. The frogs were working, buzz baits, Jack's Jigs and Texas rig a senko worm. Most of the bass were in 2-3 lb range. Did find some bass chasing bait into dark.
    City: Rocklin

    Tips: fish slow and look for rocks

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    Water Temp: 76-79

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Same place - same frog! 07:30
    4-12 in the boat this time. Numerous misses also. They're baaaack!
    City: Clearlake

Friday, July 11th, 2008

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    Water Temp: 80

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: The combination of temperatures over 100 and all the smoke in the air made for a muggy day. We started the day off fishing rock piles around the narrows. Using jigs and dropshots we caught a dozen fish to 3.5 pounds. After that we moved up north and fished offshore weed beds in between the state park and Lakeport. The key was to find weed beds that were a little more isolated with pockets of open water right next to them. Sometimes this meant fishing 200 yards offshore. Throwing 6 inch swimbaits and senkos we caught another 8 fish, but nothing still over 3.5 pounds. Towards the end of the day we made a move up shallow and threw frogs and buzzbaits. Still only smaller fish.
    City: San Bruno

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

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    Water Temp: 77-80

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: fished a two day this weekend.. saturday 2-8pm and sunday 6-12pm . friday prefishing everything worked.. saturday was tougher at the end of the day i went to six pound line and a small worm to fill out limit.. sunday started out ok with senkos working then bite stopped for me. my partner was again using six pound line and the small worm and catching fish so here i go .. about 8:30 am i stick a MONSTER .. partner and i saw it jump twice and then it made a run from about 40 feet behind the boat to 40 feet in front of boat in what seemed like two seconds.. and then BYE BYE.. i said it had to be 10 but partner said he fishes a lot of tourneys and he thought it was at least 12 !! i think 6 lb line might have gotten the bite but was useless against that fish .
    City: sunnyvale

    Tips: when bite stalls go small.. BUT i think at clear lake or delta i'm going to at least 8.. maybe ten.. that for me was the biggest i've ever had on even at el salto .. and it was in a tournament..

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    Water Temp: 76-80

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Put in at first light in Lucern and fished the north end for a good part of the morning with very little action, back seater landed two on senkos. No top water action at all. Moved around all morning looking for some good areas to fish without so many weeds. By 1 pm I was still fish less and we moved by shag rock and they began biting. Fished that area for a while and headed for some docks with fish on almost every dock. We found some good shorline with overhanging trees and caught more. Nothing bigger than 3 all day but a good day none the less. We finished with over 25 for the day mostly on senkos and dropshot.
    City: Grass Valley

    Tips: Get on the lake and go with what you know, I have never fished the heavy mat and weeds like what we found in our normal spots. Once we figured it out we turned a bad day into a good one.

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    Water Temp: 79-82

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Fished this past wed, thur, fri in the middle portion of the lake. I did not do as well as expected. The water is too clear (hardly any algae)and had too many weeds. The worse kind of weeds I have seen on any lake. The are long and stringy. Some are as deep as 15 feet! Not even a texas rig worm can get through them without grabbin weeds every time. What a bummer. The clear water and weeds threw me off. A lot of my normal spots were all jacked up. Anyway, we made the best of it and were able to catch fish. I saw some fish caught. Most people said they were catching them too, but it was not great fishing by any means.

    I did see some shad 1/2" - 1".
    City: Elk Grove

    Tips: Crawfish patterns worked better than worms....Good luck lets hope shad and algae are just getting a slow start...

Wednesday, July 9th, 2008

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    Water Temp: 80-85

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: A friend of mine asked me to help him pre-fish for a tournament - and of course I did! We started about 4 pm out of the Oaks and quit about 1 am. Fishing was great with very few slow periods. We caught 60 bass at least and he got a pretty good one at 6 lbs 2 oz. We caught mostly 2 to 3 pounders like everyone else, but several in the 3 1/2 to 4 1/4 range. Our 5 best - about 22 lbs. Bass depths ranged from surface (frog bite) to about 20+ feet. We fished all three areas of the lake. The smoke cleared enough that we could see Lakeport at midnight from the narrows. Hot, hot, hot during the afternoon - be careful!!
    City: Yuba city

    Tips: I can't say anything about our baits and locations. As I do for all my clients and friends - if they are fishing an up-coming tourney - mums the word! Last night was one of the only nights I can remember where the bite was really good but the carp were silent. Didn't hear any roll - probably because of their post-spawn. I still think the bass overall look a little thin - hope the shad make a comeback! Water is the clearest I have ever seen in July - at least yesterday. A little floating algae but not much.