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Wednesday, December 20th, 2006

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    Water Temp: 49-50

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: I tried my third night trip with incoming clouds and this time they stayed - giving a warmer blanket of air over the lake. I started an hour before dark as I always do and the quality was good. I decided to rip in the Oaks arm and was rewarded with a 3 1/4 and a 3-10 using an Aurora Black Staycee. A brown/orange Rodstrainer jig produced a 4-10 in the narrows and just at dark I nailed a 6-1 on a purple Power jig. Wow - 4 bites in an hour for nearly 18 lbs! After dinner the bite was fair, but not up to my expectations. I caught my 7 night bass on Power hogs with some Smelly Jelly. Hey - two scents can be good at night!! Most of the bass were 2 1/2 to 3 3/4 lbs with one at 4-13. My trip limit was close to 23 lbs - but not up to Clear Lake winter standards. I felt the two VERY cold previous nights might have hurt the bite some.
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: I think the highlight of the evening was a 5 to 6 inch bass eating a full size Power Hog. How do they do that at night?!! In spite of the water temp that has finally dropped - a month late - small bass are still trying to take these big baits. This shows how late the winter bite is - you usually never see these bass at night after November. The 6 pounder was the deepest caught bass - about 20 feet. Besides the rip fish, most were in 10 to 15 feet. The 4-13 night fish was very shallow on a rock wall - she was the exception. I wish I could talk about monsters, but there wern't any. As for you carp theory lovers - I fished Shag Rock around midnight with carp rolling (I assume they were carp - they have a different sound in the winter) - I didn't get a bite! Catfish anyone?

Monday, December 18th, 2006

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    Water Temp: 54-56

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished Monday 12/18 and boy was it cold, started at 7:30 am and it was around 30 deg, the top of my Ranger was frozen. Fished the south branch of the lake and had to go through 40 fish to get 5 keepers, 2 that went 2.5lb and 3 that went 1.5lb and a ton of 10-12 inchers. Oops I forgot a about a 1/2 lb bluegill and a 1.5 lb crappie that I got on the drop shot.
    City: San Jose

    Tips: I tried crainken for about 20 minutes and no takers so just went to the drop shot 4 inch ropo's and started getting hits left and right but just babies. Find the bait and find the fish, look for bait close to the bank, the bait I found out in open water did not have fish willing to bite but the bait I found close to the bank were more than willing to bite just no size. I think if you toss jigs you will catch bigger fish right now but I don't have the patience for 1 fish every 1 or 2 hrs. One more thing, seeing all of these little fish tells me 2 things, #1 what a great spawn we had this year and I can't wait unitl next year! God Bless and Merry Christmas!

Friday, December 8th, 2006

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    Water Temp: 52-53

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: I made another short night trip to Clear Lake Wed evening with slow results again. The cloud cover was there for a few hours but out came the full moon and away went the bass. I fished a few areas around the south end and caught 7 or 8. While I couldn't break 4 lbs, most of them were 3 to 3 3/4 lbs, all caught on Power and brush hogs. At least I didn't loose a big one this trip 'cause I didn't hook one!! My best 5 were still close to 17 lbs. Slow night though! Fished about 4 1/2 hours.
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: Four to five hours is all I need to figure if the night bite is a go! Most of the time I can instinctively tell after a few hours if it is going to happen. I was kinda fooled - conditions seemed good and some bass were biting while carp were rolling - until the clouds parted. I am pretty much convinced now - when the carp quit being active, the bass will "rest in peace"! And finally, the stupid night fisherman will go home to bed where he belongs!!!! Timing, timing - it will happen sometime!

Saturday, December 2nd, 2006

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    Water Temp: 51

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: cold morning but beautiful day with lots of sunshine and just a breeze. fished for about 3 hours for Crappie catching 34-50. My partner had the touch easily out fishing 4-1 biggest 2.10 I blieve but numerous 1.5 - 2 lbs fish. the rest of the afternoon was for Bass. Fish a few spots that did not produce but finally found a streach that produce about 34-40 fish up to 3.2 pounds. Jigs and drop shot was the tickets. My partner was catching all of his bigger fish on drop shot where most of my larger fish were of the jig. most fish caught between 3 and 20 feet.
    City: Roseville

    Tips: Drag the drop shot and slow drag the jig.

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    Water Temp: 53

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: My friend Adam and I got on a very slow jig bite on Sat. Very few dinks. Most of the fish were around the three pound range, some to 3.5 lb. Adam caught a very nice 8.9lb. Our best five went for about 22 lbs. I tried jerk baits and rattle baits, nothing. I caught one about 2 lbs on a slit shot worm. They wanted the jig.
    City: Redwood Valley

    Tips: Dead stick

Sunday, November 26th, 2006

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    Water Temp: 55-56

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: This report is posted only to let readers know that "hunchs" doesn't always work out! I had kept my eye on the incoming storm and as the clouds rolled in to Yuba City, I was off to Clear Lake Saturday evening with me, myself, and I - to see if the warmer night after two cold ones would turn on the bite like it did Tues. Well, my hunch died when I arrived and saw stars and felt a rare cold Nov north wind. I hid in Jago bay and actually caught a few and did my normal "lose a big one trick"! Using brush and Power hogs, I boated 5 bass for close to 15 lbs - one being a 4 pounder. It took me two hours to get my first bass and three more hours to get the last four. It was 33 degrees when I left and Redbud was almost fogged in (the wind had let up some). The stars were still out - that was one tardy storm!!
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: One sure way to tell that the big bass have backed off is to get a lot of dink bites - but not in late November!! I got some great bites - maybe the bluegills are still awake!! It's amazing to fish a rockpile with big bass roaming around - and biting - and come back a few nights later - nothing but dinks! 4 of the 5 bass I caught were on docks in Jago - approx 10 to 12 feet deep. Also, running across Jago with my X-26 on (dim light setting - for DIM driver!), I could not read below 3 to 5 feet in several long stretches because of the thick shad schools that bunch up at night. I guess the wind moved them close to the surface - didn't see any on the bottom. No bass on the bottom either, hmmmmmmmmmmm!!

Saturday, November 25th, 2006

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    Water Temp: 53-56

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished Saturday with brother in law (basically very green to Bass fishing), launched in Lakeport at 8 am....Cold....Started at the wall at the entrance to Lafferty dropshotting 6" maverick worms ...caught 3 within the first 3 docks going 2.8...2-6...and 2.3...nothing else any farther in... left after about 40 minutes... headed over to a few docks just North of Boat House in Nice...stuck 2 footballs going 3.7...and 2.8...off two docks....left after about 40 min..feeling bad cause brother in law still hasnt stuck a fish.... took him to a spot I found with fish stacked for about 300' of shoreline...(sorry, not giving up this spot guys....lol)... immediately we started sticking footballs...was so busy we lost count, he was having so much fun he refused to change his worm... was too funny...his worm was so tatered and he wouldnt change it...this guy is 35 not 13...giddy like a kid... spent 2 hours there catching probably 35-40 fish....my best being 3.2....his best 2.8...majority being 2 or better...was great time at that spot...leaving that spot and heading back to 3rd street ramp, we stopped and fished the piles at the park... pulled out a 2.8 and a 4.2 off a couple of the pile's.....we put boat on trailer at 2:30... best 5 going around 16.5 or so... I threw several baits... LV...RIP...JIG..SHAKEYHEAD....dropshot was only bait taken
    City: Lakeport

    Tips: Not good enough to give tips....lol...just wanted to share a fun day....

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    Water Temp: 56-59

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: I fished early Friday and Saturday morning and endured some very, very windy conditions. I caught a few fish each day, but mainly spent time trying new parts of the lake where I could actually fish without being blown all over the place. My largest fish was hooked near Dollar Island on a Jig with a Yamamoto Flappin Hog trailer and came unbuttoned right at the boat, I'd guess it was a 4-6lb fish. My other fish were taken on the drop shot and none of them went over 3lbs. I also had a REAL nice hit using a 10" worm, but was in the middle of re-positioning my boat (did more of that than fish, did I mention how windy it was?) and blew the hook set. I also shot over to Kono Tayee and caught a few crappie using 1/16oz crappie jigs. As usual all fish were released.(And some folks were quite pissed I released my crappie, too bad as everyone else seemed to be keeping EVERYTHING) Water clarity was good all over the lake, however the wind did stir things up a bit.
    City: Petaluma

Wednesday, November 22nd, 2006

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    Water Temp: 59

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: I was able to return to my "roots" last night with a great night trip. Imagine - I never saw another boat! I guess tournament guys do sleep!! We launched out of Red Bud and fished the south end. We started near Jensen wall and caught a few before dark and one of the fellows landed a nice 5 3/4 pounder. We didn't have to wait too long for the night bite to take place and caught fish most of the trip. We fished docks, points, ledges, rockpiles, and walls. It was a 10" Power worm and brush hog bite, along with a few on 8" Dead Ringers. Never threw a jig this time. The only disappointing thing was that I lost a monster that actually bent out my hook a bit. Lost another big one on the next cast. No matter, my clients did well and caught all but one of the big bass (photo page). We caught one bass about 1 3/4 lbs and all the rest were 2 1/4 up to 8 lbs 1 oz - 20 bass total. The water is not cold enough for the savage early winter bites - most bass just picked up the worm.
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: 58-59 degree water at Clear Lake in unheard of around Thanksgiving. If you forget - surface temp is usually around 49 to 54 degrees in later November. But bigger bass are beginning to show anyway - day and night. The 13 pounder caught recently is a good example. Average depth for us was about 10 to 18 feet. The "8" did come from 20-25 feet. This is a good time to use scent on your baits and think about slowing down your presentation. Believe it of not - Clear Lake will cool down - eventually!!!!

Sunday, November 19th, 2006

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    Water Temp: 57-59

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished yesterday and today. On Saturday there was a of lot pressure around the lake. I got bit 5 times and only landed a single fish. (I know, pathetic....) I headed to Shag rock and joined the flotilla of crappie fishermen and caught 4 crappie and a few bluegill in about 45 minutes.

    Sunday started with fog as thick as pea soup. I fished for about 3 hours and took 3 fish, a 5-10, a 3-8 and a 2-8. I then chased the crappie again and caught a bunch of them the largest just over 2-4, very fun on light tackle. All fish were caught and released. The fog didn't clear until well after 1PM.
    City: Petaluma

    Tips: When fishing in low visibility conditions please run with your lights on. I was amazed at the number of folks running around this morning with no lights at all.

Friday, November 17th, 2006

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    Water Temp: 59-63

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: I hate fog!! Not the visability problem but what it does to the bite! Wednesday my client and I had to fish in the first bad fog of the year and it didn't clear totally until noon. The only fair bite was around noon near Konocti Resort and again at dusk around Sea Breeze. Five bass - 2 to 3 1/4 lbs and a few dinks - all on jigs. After some night rain and a very cloudy Thursday, my next client and I expected some pretty good fishing. Not so for numbers but quality was good. Again, all fish on jigs. Brown/orange seemed to be working the best again. I finally gave up on my purple/brown. He caught his biggest jig fish ever at 5 1/4 lbs and another around 4 lbs. Just before we quit about 4 pm, I showed him a tiny rockpile near Rattlesnake Island and I dared myself to try to work a jig over it. I had no success at all - a 6 pounder ate it! No bragging here - I lost the Rodstrainer jig on the next cast. So - you figure this out. We had 4 bass for approx 17 1/2 lbs and 5 bass for 18 lbs. Yes, you're right - the fifth might have been 10 inches!
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: This warmest water I have ever seen in mid-November has caused the dinks to still be shallow. They hit our jigs and bite the tails off the Yamamoto grubs just like they do in the summer. Bugs are still sticking to my boat. They should be long gone by now! If you look at the photo page, some big bass are beginning to show. Unfortunate, the fog really slowed the bite down for the last two days. We tried other baits with no luck. The bass seemed to leave the normal 8 to 15 foot range when the fog hit - just my observation. The nice bass we did catch were in that range and we could not get the deep bass to bite. I tried to remind myself - if you are not catching anything - move! We moved a lot. I heard one angler that has been doing well lately also had a very tough day yesterday. I guess I feel better!

Sunday, November 12th, 2006

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    Water Temp: 59-61

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Hit the lake early this morning. It was fairly cold and gray all day and I worked hard for the bites I got. I got bit 3 times and landed each fish. A 3-10, 3-06 and 2-08 all fell to the drop shot. I was quite happy with each fish as I used my fish finder to locate each fish (well the structure each fish was holding to) in areas I don't normally fish. Only fished for about 2.5 hours today.
    City: Petaluma

Friday, November 10th, 2006

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    Water Temp: 62

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Started off early with jigs at Shag rock with one going 2.8 lbs. Moved to another spot by Anderson Island and began to throw the delta colored Voo-Doo with the first big fish of the day going 4.63 on the Cull-M-Right scale. We stayed around Anderson Island for the remaining time of our trip catching and releasing about 12 fish. Best 5 went around 13 pounds. We threw the LV 500 and the Voo-Doo all day but the Voo-Doo seemed to be what they wanted.
    City: Roseville

    Tips: Try the Voo-Doo in white or orange. Seems to me that the Voo-Doo lure seems to get the more aggresive fish which is what we were looking for.

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    Water Temp: 59-61

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Had the day off so the wife and I spent the morning crappie fishing at our secret spot called Shag rock. She caught the most with 16 and I caught 15. Sizes ranged from 1lb to just over 3lbs (she also caught the largest). All fish were released.

    We then targeted bass in the afternoon which started off nicely with a fat 4lber just engufing my LV 500 while the bait was being dragged along the bottom like a jig. We ended up with 7 bass (not counting the dinks we caught crappie fishing) with the best 5 coming in at right around 11lbs.
    City: Petaluma

    Tips: Crappie - chartreuse and red/white 1/16 oz jigs. Let the jigs sink then work them in slowly using different retrieves.

    Bass - LV 500 and drop shot. Experiment with your bait selections and technique. These fish seem to like things that are VERY different.

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    Water Temp: 62

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: It has been awhile since I have had to fight a cold north wind w/bluebird skies, but there was no way out on Thurs. Two clients and I worked hard for 9 bass - however - one of theirs was well over 5 lbs, caught on a small brush hog. Our limit weight was fair with several in the 2 to 2 1/2 lb range. Some dinks always bite too in a cold front. I showed them several places that should produce bass for them in the future during better weather. Dark colored worms worked ok - cranks didn't with a cold front.
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: In-coming storms should definately help the bite and cool off the water. 62-63 degree water a week or so into November is rare. I was going to do some night fishing after dinner but figured it would be a bust - it was going to be VERY cold. Went home to my warm house!!

Thursday, November 9th, 2006

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    Water Temp: 55-60

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished Claer Lake for a few days last week. Don't get to fish for big fish very often,so it was a pleasure meeting some of them. Thursday bite was good to awesome on jigs. Boated fish to five pounds with none under two. Don't know how many, maybe 20. Friday bite got better with slightly fewer fish but bigger, palyed with crappie a while. Big fish that day was 8 followed by a 6-2 and 5 or 6 in the 4-5 pound class. Saturday went into rattle snake and lost one 3.5 on a senko and caught several short fish. Sunday had to leave but not without hammering somemore 2-4 pounders on jigs. Where or what did they catch the 13.31 pounder on? What a fatty. Caught fish from one end of the lake to the other.

    Tips: Jigs on rock. 4-10 feet of water.

Sunday, November 5th, 2006

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    Water Temp: 61

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished Saturday and Sunday. Bite was tough. Caught fish on rattle traps, LV500, DD22(red) and draggin' a lizzard. Had bites in 25ft up to 6ft. Best 5 on saturday 14lbs. Lot of pressure from the future pro tourney. The fish didn't seem to be everywhere. Found them in certain spots mostly in the south end between Jago and Wheeler. Needed rock, bait, and stained water.
    City: Clear Lake Oaks

    Tips: When in doubt, through the lizzard, but the bigger fish were on the LV500 or rattle trap. Yo-yo style.

Saturday, November 4th, 2006

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    Water Temp: 60-63

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: I fished from 10-4 yesterday and the bite was very, very dificult for me. I caught 6 fish with the best 5 maybe approaching 8 lbs. Only decent fish was a 3lber caught on the drop shot. The future pro tournament was in full swing so there was pressure all over the lake. I caught fish on the drop shot, LV 500 and DD22. The water was pretty clear in the areas I fished; mid-lake and around Rattlesnake.
    City: Petaluma

    Tips: Fish slow and try a lot of different things.

Thursday, November 2nd, 2006

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    Water Temp: 60-61

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished Clearlake on Nov. 1-4 Prefish for the Future Pro Tour on 1-2 and TOC on 3-4. Thurs. 11/2 first day of prefish. Rained most of the day. Started out fishing deep docks in the south end with traps, cranks and spinnerbaits. Caught several fish all solid 2.5-3.5 lb fish. The pattern noted here would be the pattern for the tournament. Rocky banks and fish up shallow. Pulled the boat out around noon to dry off, eat and launch the boat on the north end. Found more fish up shallow and ended the day with a limit for about 16lbs. Wet but satisfied with our results and looking forward to Friday. Checked in at Konocti and got some much needed sleep. Friday Morning found calm conditions. Fished all day and had 2 small fish and a real let down to the confidence. Checked in for the TOC got our launch number and off to the casino for a little fun. The gameplan was to start on the best area from Thursday, we also decided to only take reaction baits and leave all the other rods in the room. Tournament day #1. We started on the deep docks around Windmill Point and got 2 small fish. We went through the area and by 7:30 we decided to head north. Our first stop was around Henderson and our biggest fish of the tournament about 7.5lbs on a spinnerbait in 2ft of water off rocks. Some high fives and then another fish in about 15ft of water on a deep runner spinnerbait about 3.5lbs. Then off to an area off Highway 20 and into a wide open bite on crankbaits and traps that lasted about 45 minutes we caught a 6.5, 4 and several 3-4lb fish. We had our limit and culled and its about 1045am. We know we have over 20lbs in the boat and decide to hit several areas as a prefish for the next day. We spend the rest of the day bouncing around the lake and do not get any better fish. Day 1 weight is 23.12lbs and we are in first place but only by 1.5lbs. We are happy with the result and have a nice steak dinner with a few brews and then off to bed. I wake about midnight with a killer headache and walk down to the lobby for Motrin. I notice a very bright full moon and no clouds, uh-oh. Tough bite tomorrow. I get nervous and do not sleep well the rest of the night, unlike my partner who slept like a log. There are a lot of good anglers within striking distance and we know we need a good weight to win the boat. Day #2. We head to our best spot from Saturday and get 2 2lb fish. We then head back over to Henderson and in the same spot that our biggest fish came yesterday and we get our biggest fish of day 2-5.77lbs on a spinnerbait again. We then bounce around the lake and catch 2 fish to fill the limit on rattle traps. We now have 5 fish for around 12lbs and we need to cull out our 2 smallest fish. We head to Windmill and my partner sticks a nice fish and we cull one of the fish a little bit later we stick another 5lb spinnerbait fish and cull again. Its about 2:30pm and our weigh in is at 3:15. We feel we have around 15-16lbs but we don't think this will be enough, but we are unable to get anything better and head to the scales. We are feeling a little disappointed but we were able grind out a respectable limit. We begin to hear how tough the bite was as we pull in and our hopes begin to rise. We talk to the day 1 2nd place guys and they say they have 13lbs. We bag our fish and they look bigger than we thought. We are beginning to get optimistic. In line we are waiting and no big bags are coming in. We get to the scales and Vince Harris talks us up good and then sees our fish. He asks what we think we have and we say 15lbs. The pros doing the weighing say we have 17+ and the scales say 18.98lbs Vince says the weigh in is not over but he is declaring us the winners now. We can't believe it. Anyway we get the victory and our first boat. What a rush. Total weight is 42.10lbs for 10 fish. We had 4 fish 5lbs or better and 3 of them came on spinnerbaits. The rest of the fish came on crankbaits and rattle traps. This was a real team effort as we both caught fish.
    City: San Jose

    Tips: Thanks to the guys in the Nitro who had the slot next to us at the dock. They lent us an extension cord. Ours was not long enough. Thanks guys. A lot of nice people on the water and many people came up and introduced themselves and congratulated us. Very rewarding to get a good vibe from your competitors. Thanks to the FPT and all the fishermen who participated.

Wednesday, November 1st, 2006

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    Water Temp: 63

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: I did some night fishing last night off a friends pier hear in jago,i had a feeling the lockjaw switch was turned off now that the weather has changed.had a great time in the short three hours I was there,proceeded to stick two 4 pounders in a row followed by a 3.4,2.6 and a few 1 pounders all draggin a brush hog.the countdown to the rip bite is hear!!!
    City: lower lake

    Tips: while night fishing,add brass n glass with a hog or big worm,shake vigiorously,pause,get the net!