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Friday, September 22nd, 2006

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    Water Temp: 75

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: As Cooch mentioned in a previous post, Clear Lake is not pretty right now up close - you wonder how fish live in water that color - sometimes almost a burnt red color. Trust me - they are doing fine!! I took a fellow Wed for his first experience at the lake. One of my big thrills when guiding happens when someone is on a legendary big fish lake for the first time - and a legendary bass is the first one in the boat! Then I get to tell them - "Yea, this is a normal Clear Lake bass!!" That happened last year when a client's first bass (after a dink)was 7-2. Wecome to Clear Lake! Wed it was a 7-1 that took a 10" black Power worm about 9 am for first fish honors. Unfortunately, it hit my worm as I was showing him how to worm a rockpile, but the effect is the same - wow! - what a lake!!!! I showed him many areas that might help him in an upcoming tournament - all in the south end. We found the worm bite to be fair but only a fish here and there - no real concentrations of bass anymore. We did get a 4-10 on a white DD-22 crankbait in Horseshoe Bay. This "teach the lake" produced 15 bass for us - but a real nice limit of 22 lbs 2 oz. I was happy with that and he was really excited about learning and the nice bass he caught - about half of our total number.
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: I have noticed a few "self-contained" clients that bring their own gear have been doing very well on the Yamamtot Kut-tail worm - either 5 1/4 inch or the 7 inch. I fish them too but these fellows each fish them different and get the same results - lots of quality bass. Big fish was caught on a previous trip by a client with that worm. Finally, no more sitting on a spot catching bass after bass - if you don't get bit in a reasonable time - move! I would like to mention more areas we did well but this time of year I have to respect the client's "right to know" when they hire a guide.

Monday, September 18th, 2006

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    Water Temp: 70-77

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Took the day off from work and spent the day at the lake. We took 13 fish with the best 5 coming in at just a tad over 13lbs. Big fish was 4lbs+. Today everything worked, drop shot, white spinnerbait and the crankbait. It was nice again all day until just before 5PM it clouded up and the wind kicked in, that triggered a pretty nice crankbait bite once we found a spot sheltered from the wind. All in all another good day, but we did work pretty hard to get bit. Spent the day mid-lake to the north today.
    City: Petaluma

    Tips: I will say one thing, I am not catching numbers like I did last year and I'm beginning to think it's due to the water level, the lake sure seems very low right now. It just seems that the spots I've relied upon to produce 10-20 fish are now just producing 3-5 fish. Oh well....

Sunday, September 17th, 2006

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    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished the weekend Jago Bay. I caught about 6, 1-2 lbs. and 2, 5 lbs. I fished off and on during the weekend. There was just one thing, I fished from the same dock at a friends cabin where we stayed. I was very restricted to a very small area of fishing. I had all my tackle and then some, but couldn't bring the boat due to having a newborn baby...
    City: Pinole

    Tips: Caught fish late evening on chartreuse spinnerbait, during the day, plastics in oxblood, and early morning husky jerkbait when baitfish are schooled around with bass busting on bait. Oh yeah, next time bring the boat....

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    Water Temp: 70-77

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: We had two decent days fishing this weekend. While weather and lake conditions were excellent the fishing was quite tough, at least for us. On Saturday we caught and released 8 fish with our best 5 coming in at 13 lbs. All fish were caught on the drop shot from mid-lake to the south. The big fish of the day was a tad over 4lbs. Today we caught 13 fish with our best 5 coming in at 17 lbs. Our big fish of the day came in at just under 5lbs. We caught fish today drop shotting and with a white spinnerbait. Today we focused mid-lake to the north and caught fish in every spot we stopped at. We especially did well drop shotting around the tules throughout the day. Several times we thought we had a HUGE fish on only to be "disappointed" in another 2-3lb football. These Clear Lake footballs fight like no other, they are a blast.
    City: Petaluma

    Tips: The weather at the lake has clearly changed, fall is in the air for sure so plan your day accordingly.

Saturday, September 16th, 2006

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    Water Temp: 76

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: The Redwood Empire Bass Club held their monthly tournament on Saturday. Top weight came in at just over 19 lbs and the big fish weighed just under 6 lbs. Most fish were caught on plastics around docks with a few on crankbaits.
    City: Rohnert Park

    Tips: Fish the shade areas around docks and shoreline structure.

Sunday, September 10th, 2006

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    Water Temp: 76

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Another picture perfect day on the lake, little or no wind and not too much pressure even with a decent sized tournament being held. I took 11 fish all day mainly drop shotting. My best 5 went 16lbs with the largest coming in just over 4lbs. I again had fun with the LV 100 on light line and had a HUGE fish come unbuttoned near Buckingham.
    City: Petaluma

Saturday, September 9th, 2006

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    Water Temp: 76

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Wife and I had a very nice day on the lake. We launched at about 11AM and fished until about 6PM. We caught 18 bass a few nice sized crappie and one bluegill (all released). Our best 5 bass went about 12lbs. Drop shot and crankbaits caught all the fish today. I downsized today, throwing an LV 100 on light line and had a blast, the majority of our fish were caught using this setup.
    City: Petaluma

    Tips: MMIII, Flappin Hogs, LV 100

Friday, September 8th, 2006

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    Water Temp: 78-80

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: I had another "double duty" day (24 hr day!) yesterday. I started early helping 2 good fishermen tune up their fish location skills - showing them some new areas for their repetoire of fishing spots. The bite started off slow around Rattlesnake and I noticed the carp slept in too. Not much morning activity! We worked our way up to Soda Bay and and did manage 15 nice bass up to 4 lbs 10 oz - about 17 lbs for our best five. I can't say much more since they are fishing a tournament sometime, but I will say the jig bite is "on" again in my boat! The jig (brown/orange) produced most of the biggest bass. After a nap and some dinner, my "second wave" clients (two great guys from the Folsom Bass Club) and I hit the water around 6:30 pm and wet our lines at Anderson island to get out of the strong wind. I knew a cold front was moving in and really worried about the wind. After catching some "dusk' bass, we prepared for night fishing and look for areas to get out of the wind. Lo and behold, the wind totally laid down about an hour after dark and the fishing turned on, almost like the 'ol days! We fished some of my favorite areas in Konocti Bay up to Brados and all the way back to the Oaks. The bass were active and shallow though bigger ones were hiding in shadows. We lost our share of bass but did put 31 quality bass (3 to 3 1/4 lb average) in the boat plus some undersize ones. One of the guys had a fat 5 lb 5 oz bass and I landed one slightly larger in 3 feet of water under a dock (shadow)! It was interesting how some areas were "on" and some were "off". A lot of that is timing, of course. We had a nice five fish limit near 23 lbs and a beautiful full moon - though dimmed somewhat by smoke. That might have actually helped the bite. I was surprised how good the "open water" bite was since the lake has cleared some. Many times the open areas (rockpiles, etc.) are slow during the full moon periods when the lake is clearer. For some reason that wasn't the case last night.
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: Since my clients were "self contained", I wasn't sure what they were using all the time. At night we were using mostly plastics - 10" Power Worms, large brush hogs - that type of thing. I did break out my remaining black/chartreuse 10" Power Worms (they arn't made anymore) and the bass were glad I did. They were all over them! I used a #135 6" Senko and it produced some nice "piling bass". My cients would change baits and colors a lot - always staying "in the zone". They caught most of the bass - especially the "guy in the middle" who sometimes struggles. They both were great fishermen - fun to see guys landing those "noisy night bass"!!! We were hooking bass in 3 to 4 feet of water in many spots. Is it too early for the fall feed??

Thursday, September 7th, 2006

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    Water Temp: 79

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Well, as Larry stated below, fishing has slowed down a bit. The water has cleared a lot and days were a little cooler. We did not catch as many as two weeks ago. Biggest 4.8 lb. Wife lost one same size. She got lazy and did not retie knot later into the day. She broke off while she tried to prevent fish from wrapping around a dock post. What fun! We caught a few smaller 4 lbers and some nice 3 pounders too. Stuck to fishing the docks from 10 am to 3 pm. Some fish on top of the break. Most fish on the break or just below break.

    Night fishing was fair. Started out slow. Once the moon was high, fishing turned on. We could not get the cranks to work for some reason. They would only hit a spinnerbait. We only had a few black spinnerbaits and they destroyed them. I really was not prepared with my night spinnerbaits . We both lost bigger fish at the boat, due to our fishing line and spinnerbaits not up to par (that won't happen next time, hehe). Best fishing was 12 to 2 pm. Bite was steady thru 2 pm, but we had to leave to get some sleep for the next day.

    Tips: Stick to the shade during the day as usual, if using worms stick to 6" and 7" for a little bigger bite. Have the 3/0 trailer hook for the night spinnerbait and nothing smaller.

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    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: With the fishing reports showing lots of fish being caught why don't you come and fish with the Redwood Empire Bass Club at our next team tournament on Clear Lake on September 16th out of County Park. We welcome new members both boaters and non boaters to join us at our next meeting on September 13th at 7p.m. at the Rohnert Park Community Center at the corner of Rohnert Park Expressway and Snyder Lane. For further info log onto rebc.net or call me at 707.758.5762. I hope to see you soon.
    City: Santa Rosa

Tuesday, September 5th, 2006

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    Water Temp: 79.5

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: My buddy Brian And I launched out of red bud at about 9 am hitting a few areas in the south arm. I think the action is starting to taper off from the previous times out, but still no complaints. I flipped a couple on a junebug brush hog in the tules but nothing big. We decided to go track down a couple of our buddies and we were amazed they weren't anchored out on L.P. point. They were doing well on cranks near henderson in about 15 feet of water. A good crank bite happened for us as well near soda bay hitting about twelve fish in a half hour on lav. shad lucky crafts. We ended up going north at about 1:30, and started hitting nice fish instantly up to 4.10 oz, but couldn't break 5#s. Good action coming from my voo-doo baits, I was trying a new color(lavender shad) brian suggested I start making and I'm glad
    I did with great feed back from my customers I think I'll keep it around. We finished the day with around 45 fish and our best five went 19.5#s.
    City: placerville

    Tips: The north end had better action with bigger fish, the reaction bite was hot. We threw chartreuse shad and lavender shad voo-doos, lucky craft LVs and a few lav. cranks. The fish were in the shallow grass; just find it and pull your baits threw it, pretty common tactic for clear lake right now, but it definately produces good fish.

Sunday, September 3rd, 2006

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    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished Soda Bay and Horseshoe today. I caught 12 fish best 5 went 12. Caught fish on the drop shot and spinnerbait today. The DFG was out checking fishing licenses.

    Tips: Didn't do much with the spinnerbait until I let it sink and then slowly rolled it across the bottom. They wanted it slow and low this afternoon.

Saturday, September 2nd, 2006

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    Water Temp: 77-84

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: SIMULAR TO THE PREVIOUS REPORT-caught about 30-40 fish a day in about 5 hours on sat. and sunday a.m. 2 PEOPLE IN THE BOAT. Early morning shallow cranks... 2-4 feet of water.late morning white spinner baits, brush hogs, watermelon senkos,and drop shoting all produced fish. No size really... lots of dinks- limit around 11-12 pounds. Fun practing hook sets!
    City: antelope

    Tips: Light hits,,,missed 3 times more fish than we landed......Good times

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    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: We fished for 3 hours today after launching at 3PM. Ended up catching 11 fish, best 5 went 12. Biggest was a 4.5. Drop shot, crankbait and spinnerbait all caught fish. Most fish were taken on the drop shot. We launched late and the lake was semi-crowded but we found plenty of room to fish.

Friday, September 1st, 2006

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    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: We spent the weekend up at Clear Lake and once again had an awesome weekend of fishing. This place is hands down the best bass fishery around.

    We stayed at the state park and never fished more than a couple of miles away from the launch ramp. We got there Friday and after setting up camp and a long nap we hit the water around 3:00 PM. Wes forgot to put the drinks in the ice chest so him and Rashelle went back to camp after launching the boat. I stuck two bass on a frog within 20 feet of the launch ramp in the 10 minutes him and Rashelle were gone. They got back and we fished our way out of Kelsey Creek. Before we even fired up the big motor we put 4 more fish in the boat. Then we ran to a spot around the corner in Soda Bay and proceeded to catch a bunch more. Totals for the 1st day were 13 bass for me, 6 for Rashelle, and 2 for Wes. Rashelle also caught a duck...LOL. the duck put up the best fight of the whole trip. All this...and we only fished for about 3 1/2 hours the first day.

    The 2nd day was even better...for me anyways. We went out around 2:00 PM and fished until about 7:00 PM. Rashelle only fished for about 30 minutes total and didnt catch anything. I caught 22 fish for the day...All the fish I caught were on dropshotted MMII Roboworms and came off of docks in Soda bay. The fish were sitting anywhere there was shade. We got back to camp and Hayley bragged that she had caught 8 bluegill. Everyone was catching fish.

    On to the third day...We fished the morning bite first. I caught 13 in the first 3 hours of the day and Rashelle caught 8. We started off hitting docks and picked up a few then we noticed a bunch of fish blowing up on shad in a small cove next to a tiny little island. I started throwing a Lucky Craft Sammy and picked up 8 fish in a short period of time. Rashelle threw a Trixie shark and caught her very 1st topwater fish. Rashelle and I also had a double off of one of the docks we'd been catching fish on all weekend (see pic below). Rashelle's holding both fish because we were the only ones in the boat. Hers is the bigger one.

    We headed back to the launch ramp after having breakfast at a small resort. We hung out at camp and went back out for the evening bite. Rashelle forgot her fishing license at camp but decided to risk it and fish anyways (with a little coaxing from me) because we hadnt seen DFG all day and we've never been checked at Clear Lake...Big mistake. We were on a hot bite when we look over to see 2 DFG wardens pulling up to check and make sure we had out licenses. Rashelle got a ticket for not having her license in her possesion. We finished the last day off with a bang...catching a bunch of 3-4 pound fish off of the docks using brushhogs and Kreatures. Wes hooked a nice 3.5 pounder and was bragging about it. I stuck a 4 for the 2nd double of the trip. Rashelle outfished us for the 2nd half of the day, catching 10. I caught 9 and Wes caught 8.
    City: Newark, CA

    Tips: Pretty much everything we threw worked. Junebug seemed to work the best for the plastics (kreatures, Roboworms, and brushhogs)

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    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Launched out of Konocti Vista Resort around 6:00 A. M. and headed south for a few miles till I found tules and trees along the shore line. Immeadiatly got on a Senko bite at edge of tules and tree trunks. Boated 9-10 fish in about 2 hours,then the bite shut off. Got one close to four pounds and one close to 3 pounds, the rest going about 1.5 pounds. One 2 pounder and one 3 pounder came unbuttoned. Man do those babies come flying out of the water, shaking their bodies and thrashing the water !! Guess that is the only thing they can do in 2 foot of water. Best 5 around 12 pounds which is very good for me. Tried swim bait for the toads, no takers. Had a slurp at a frog.

    Tips: When throwing the Senko, do a hard side arm cast to skip the Senko against tree trunks and into tule pockets. There in there !!!

Wednesday, August 30th, 2006

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    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Around 10:30am the first cast with a crappie jig I hauled in a 6lb bass.Also caught several nice bluegill. Fishing off the rocks at our home in Jago Bay, in about 4 ft water. Yesterday around 11:30am my husband caught a 5lb bass off our dock in about 8ft deep.... also with a green crappie jig.
    City: St. Helena

    Tips: Good luck!

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    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: A buddy of mine and his brother just returned from Clear Lake yesterday after two days on the lake. He reported that they had two great days of fishing with their best five going 20-21 lbs. both days. The fish caught were up to 5.5 lbs. According to him the Rat-L-Trap bite is coming on as they did well on shad and craw colored Rat-L-Traps. Also caught good numbers of fish on worms and buzz baits.
    Note to KC: Pal, if you don't like Larry's report - skip it. Just because he's a guide doesn't mean he can't fish and post a report. I enjoy Larry's report and rely on them when I'm going to Clear Lake. Keep giving us those good reports Larry.
    City: Redding

    Tips: Try Ral-L-Traps or Lucky Crafy LV's in various colors.

Sunday, August 27th, 2006

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    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Fished Clear Lake on Sunday with my two son's 11 and 9 I was in Horeshoe Bend throwing blades. We got there early and were having trouble getting bites, a fisherman came over and offered some advise and gave us some baits to try we started catching fish. My 9 year old caught his biggest bass 6lbs on a blade this guy gave us he called it clown color. He also hooked us up on drop shotting we stayed there for hours caught several fish using Robo MM, and a worm called Maverick Shop Special 1.
    City: Stockton

    Tips: Throw blades and drop shot around the rocks, it was a blast. Oh thanks I found out the guy who gave us the bait was the owner of Tackleit in Lakeport. Thanks man you made my kids day.

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    Water Temp: 78

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: I have said this before - but - what a difference a week makes!! I took an excellent fisherman out on a rare Saturday trip and there were LOTS of bass boats - amazing!! I didn't see them have much action however and we didn't either in the early morning. Not a single carp rolled although we did see a few small bass chasing bait. The overall lake was very quite. Places we caught good fish on my previous trip (south end) were devoid of feeding quality bass - at least in the morning. Action did pick up after 10 am and we did manage to put 18 in the boat and scratched out a five fish limit around 17 1/4 lbs. My client's 4+ and my 4- were big fish for the day, along with some nice 3 to 3 1/4's. After preaching about off-shore fish in my last report, all but two of our nice bass were caught near shore. What do I know?!!
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: I talked to one of my former clients who is now a top-notch tournament pro at Clear Lake with a boat or two to his credit. He was fishing the north end Sat and only caught about 13 lbs - so - who knows. I know the great summer bite often changes near the end of August and the bass get a little harder to locate and then the September tournament pressure arrives. So , you just work harder! Like the previous report, crankbaits and spinnerbaits did not work for us. The worm bite was good when it started, but I can't say much more since I think he has a tournament coming soon.