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Thursday, April 13th, 2006

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    Water Temp: N/A

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Hi. I am going to be fishing out on Clearlake with my nephew next week. I have never been on this lake. I would appreciate any info on lures and colors I should use. I am planning to launch out of Lucerne. Just out to have lots of fun and catch a lot of fish, even if they are dinks.
    City: Discovery bay

    Tips: N/A

Sunday, April 9th, 2006

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    Water Temp: 52

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: What a day! Let me tell ya... Didn't see any leopard sharks, but I saw a lot of bass! Launched out of Red Bud, and drove to Konocti. Caught 2 keepers, but later on that evening, the bass were every where. Fished Red Bud (Lower Lake). Ended up catching 20 bass! The biggest was 8-9 pounds. It was a lovely day!
    City: Marysville

    Tips: Pumpkin Green Sinko Worms & Jumbo Minnows

Saturday, April 8th, 2006

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    Water Temp: 50-56

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished Redbud arm in the AM 50 degree water and loaded the boat with 20+ fish best 5 14.00lbs. Went looking for the kicker fish and could not get the big bite going. Found 56 degree water around konocti in a great spawn flat but no spawn fish *shrugs*
    City: Antelope

    Tips: Lots of fish stacked up in prespawn patterns, ledges and breaklines in 20-30ft. You can find a small area that has 100 fish in it, but seem to be all cookie cutters.

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    Water Temp: 51-52

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished from 9:30 - 4:00 today starting at mid-lake and working my way down into Konocti Bay. I did nothing for the first two hours. Tried just about everything drop shot, spinnerbait, LVR, jigs...etc..etc unfortunately no takers. Finally took my first fish in about 20' of water just past Konocti resort on a Staysee 90 in the ghost minnow pattern. The Staysee was the ticket, from then on it was non-stop action for the next few hours. Nothing huge, but I did scratch out 15 or so fish with the largest 5 going just over 14. Beautiful day on the lake the bite was best right after lunch until the sun came out in the mid-afternoon.

    Tips: When you find a fish or two work the area over real, real well. The fish today were bunched up very tight today and I'd typically catch one then several more working the same area very slowly.

Friday, April 7th, 2006

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    Water Temp: 51-53

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Another real nice trip for numbers but not for size. I guided this father-son team a few years ago on a night trip and "sonny" ruled with several big bass. Today was different - dad caught most of the bass and the biggest - but only around 4 lbs. He was hot! Numbers were good for us at 40 1/2 fish - the 1/2 being a crappie!! We fished several areas in the south end from 7am to 3pm. The wind eventually made fishing difficult but we caught fish 'til the end of the trip. Most bass were caught from 5 to 20 feet - on or around rock. A dropoff seemed to be necessary to get bigger bass. Only a few one pounders - most 2 to 3 lbs and about a dozen over 3. Our limit was a few ounces over 18 lbs. For ONCE - the rain cooperated - it started just after I took the boat out - my rainsuit is finally dry!!!
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: Like everyone else, I am constantly thinking about how to approach the bass in this most unusual winter ever (the calendar says spring but trust me - it is not spring and the bass know it!). I have found rippin' and split-shotting small Berkley Power Worms has worked well. Yamamoto Kreature baits - color 221 - were excellent today. The jig bite has been surprisingly slow for me at Clear Lake lately, but good at other lakes. We slayed them at Amador yesterday on jigs! Maybe it's just my presentation. I found a ripbait that I hadn't used before with red, yellow, and other colors in it. Weird looking! I caught one on the first cast and about 10 others after that. The son caught a few rip fish on a Staycee ghost w/ chartreuse stripe. I think Senkos would have worked well with nice water color in the south end but we didn't throw any. Our best spots always featured deeper water close to the shoreline - especially if there was a dropoff. Docks and rock walls were good - especially with the split-shot worms. Green pumpkin worked well. Last week junebug was good - today they wouldn't look at it! No wonder bass guides can't sleep at night!!!

Thursday, April 6th, 2006

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    Water Temp: 60-64

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: I treated myself to two days (and part of the nights) of guiding myself and doing some exploring of new areas. I don't need to say how good the bite was - you all know. I though the size of the female bass overall was smaller this week - that is what I was hearing and seeing until I talked to a guy today who caught a 12 pounder on a small swimbait. I fished from north of Lakeport to a mile into Cache Creek at the south end. Speaking of the creek, an amazing thing happened there today. I saw a fellow fishing a rip bait at 1 pm and saw him catch a nice one. I did think that was sort of strange, but I got out my 128 Pointer, hitch pattern, and started throwing. After catching one or two small ones, I threw it out near the middle of the creek, made one of two rips, and had the rod nearly jerked out of my hand. The bass jumped quickly and I said "10"!! Believe me, I took my time as she was 25 yards away. What was she doing out there? I did lose a big one in heavy cover. About five minutes later I netted her, just 8 lbs of her. Well, it was hard to judge at 25 yards!!! She had bent one of the hooks out a bit. Landed her at 2 pm - my biggest rip fish to date. What a surprise!!! My best five for the two days was 31 1/2 lbs, not great but ok. The large brush hog (green pumpkin) bite was amazing during the day and equally as good at night (black/red flake).
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: Hard to give any tips because, as has been mentioned, nearly everything works. The last 2 hours of light Wed and Thurs were simply awesome - not so much the number of bites but the average size - nearly nothing under 3 lbs!! This is a good time to experiment with different baits or colors. If it doesn't work now - it never will!!

Sunday, April 2nd, 2006

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    Water Temp: 49

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished north end of lake found fish on spinnerbaits and Texas rigged lizards around docks.
    City: Sac

Saturday, April 1st, 2006

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    Water Temp: 49

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Friday it poured rain until about 3pm then started to let up so the boat guy Jessie and me (back of boat guy) headed to Redbud to launch.

    Ran out to the rocks along Jago Bay and worked the docks with rip baits, different colors and depths. It was getting dark quick but Jessie hooked up a 2# fish that hit hard on a blue and white med dive rip. Fished a little more but it was getting dark quick so 1 fish was it we headed back.

    Saturday was nice, no rain little wind. Started out the same spot with rips and spinner, and a little worms and baby brush hogs but not for too long, Jessie likes to fish fast.

    Not much action. Late morning Jessie got into a few fish. We picked up and tried the north side of the first pipeline above Redbud. A guy was anchored on the sweet spot and we saw them drop shoting and bringing in fish. We didn't get too close and did get any hookups.

    Early afternoon we moved to a spot just above Jago Bay where the "Rocks" marker is in the water. On the meter we could see the rockpile and again Jessie pulled fish off the rocks by casting towards a tree and ripping it back. First he got a 3+, then a few casts later in the same spot got a bigger fish 4+. Was it a male first defending a nest and a female second? Maybe, but the water temps were 48 degrees might not have been but when you hear of getting 2 fish, one smaller 2nd one bigger at the same spot it was just like that.

    Of course it could have been just 2 fish.

    Now mid afternoon we headed back to the southern point on Jago Bay and worked the shoreline heading down towards Cache Creek. We tried spinner baits, and swim baits, mostly slow, but agan Jessie caught fish on a rip, kind of white belly with a chart. back. He got one off the rocks and one by the docks.

    Then we tried the island at the end of the lake and nothing. Headed back to the dock and it was a good day. Even if I didn't catch anything. Dang.

    The water is really high with these late rains, and at the south end it is pretty clear. 2 weeks of sun and decent weather this place is going to pop big.

    While we were loading up a guy down the street tried a burnout on his Harley, "vroom vroom pop pop" dead motor. Probably sucked a valve. We laughed, bet he didn't.

    ps: No leopard sharks caught...
    City: Oakland

    Tips: The trip cost me over $5000. Wife let me go fishing on our 15th anniversary weekend. Stopped in St. Helena for a little diamond thingy on the way back.

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    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished the north end of the lake in the muddy water. Could see maybe an inch or two. Threw spinnerbaits and lipless crank. nothing. Caught fish on black and blue lizards. All good size. Nothing less then 3 pounds. Very aggressive strikes.
    City: Morgan Hill

    Tips: Caught all bass near and around docks. Not one bite near trees and bushes. I suggest stay near the docks.

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    Water Temp: 47 to 50

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Went out of Red Bud fished 7A.M. to 3:00P.M. stayed on the South end of the lake. Did not find any fish in less than 10 feet. No crank,spinner,rip,or swimbait fish. Caught fish on Jigs,Brush Hoggs,and lizards. Best 5 went A little over 15 about 20 to 25 fish landed.
    City: Sac

    Tips: Caught most fish from 7:30 to 12:00 around the docks not to many after that.

Thursday, March 30th, 2006

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    Water Temp: 50

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: We decided to brave the weather and fish Clear Lake today regardless of the fact that the Leopard Sharks may have eaten all the bass! We found that there still are some bass in the lake as well as a ton of shad floating everywhere! As soon as we found water without shad everywhere, we also found bass! We fished from 6:00am until 1:30pm with rain, wind and about 6 other boats on the lake......too much fun!
    City: Sacramento

    Tips: Save everyones time and don't post trash on here. Not all of us want to read garbage about Leopard Sharks! 6" worms were the ticket, no jig or rip bait bite at all today! Tight lines everyone!!!!

Wednesday, March 29th, 2006

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    Water Temp: 50.5

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: The wife and I went to the lake to enjoy the great weather weds and thurs, you gotta love all the rain and wind. The fish responded well even though it was nasty out. Started in the south with action instantly on plastics and occassionally a minnow fish-I never thought I would admit to using live bait, but Richard Pounds made it look too fun to pass up. I set one rod up with a minnow and freespooled it with the clicker on, and let it lay on the boat while we used dropshot rigs and carolina rigs.The plastics prevailed 3 to 1. We marked alot of fish in 12 to 16 feet of water. I positioned the boat in about 8 feet of water and casted toward the open water, they were killin' the 6" junebug lizards and mm111s'. Unfortunately the window of opportunity was short due to the rough wind we experienced. Once in a while the minnow rod would start singin' and we hit a few that way. We saw one of Richard's cliants nail an 8.13 right in front of us, that stung for a minute. All in all we made the best of it and got the chance to try out some of our new baits- stay tuned there coming soon.
    City: placerville

    Tips: We couldn't manage to find anything big, our best five were about 19 pounds, but we loaded up on consistantly nice fish. Find areas out of the rough seas so you can work your rigs carefully. You don't always mark the fish when they're there.

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    Water Temp: 50

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: I sure thought the Clear Lake reports section was supposed to be about catching bass, not sharks or whatever. Sorry to disappoint, but this will be a BASS report! One of my former clients and a fishing partner of his invited me to go with them on Tuesday - enjoying another rainy, windy day in beautiful sunny California. What fun - I got to stand in the back of the boat and just wait on me!! We started at the north end but were shortly blown off - and towing to the south end we went! These guys really know how to rip and they did that from 11:30 to nearly dark. They don't know yet that their arms will fall off in about 5 years!! They used a variety of lures and did some cranking too. We spent most of the time in and around docks. I wasn't having any success rippin' so I decided to split-shot a junebug
    Berkley Pulse worm. First fish was 3 1/2 lbs - next one was over 3. Guess what - they took a break and started throwing small worms - with sucess! They wern't trying to make me feel good - I know - their arms hurt, har!!! One fellow got a 4 pounder on a ripbait, I actually got a 4 1/4 on my 4" Pulse worm (that was fun!). I was king for about 10 minutes until the other fellow rips a 4-11! We didn't throw any spinnerbaits, though they might have worked. I'm not sure what our 5 biggest weighed but they were over 20 lbs. I believe this is the most bass I have ever seen in one trip (7 hours) - we had well over 80 bass in the boat, counting a few undersize ones. My record with a friend is 74 in 6 hours. I was impressed with the two of them - excellent fishermen! They did very well in a recent tournament at Clear Lake a few weeks ago - I can see why!!!
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: I won't offer any tips because this is their strength and they are very good and stick with it. They know what they want to do and they do it!! The water color looked pretty good in the south end. I was surprised at how well the bite held up after the frontal passage and a major switch in the wind direction. It was fun to be in the back and see how well a Ranger 520 fishes 3 people.

Sunday, March 26th, 2006

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    Water Temp: 50

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Launched out of Redbud.Caught one at Garners on minnow.Went to Jones bay south side caught 15 on minnows 12 on river sea crawdad.Fish from 12 ins. to 1 seven pounder couple of 3and 4 lbs.
    City: San Francisco

Saturday, March 25th, 2006

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    Water Temp: 49-51

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: The shad that you see dieing and floating are mostly dieing from birds and crappie hiting and missing them,I live in the keys,and I have been whatching the shad schools alot the last month.Your right there is a lot more bait this year.
    City: Clearlake Oaks

    Tips: south west end bays.

Friday, March 24th, 2006

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    Water Temp: 51-53

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Launched out of Lakeport and decided to fish the north end. Caught about one-third of my fish on Senkos, one-third on dropshot and one third on jumbo minnows. Best five went about 23-24 pounds. Overall pretty slow, only had about 15 fish.

    Tips: Slow, Slow and slower!

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    Water Temp: 48-50

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: After the last two posts, I feel like I completley missed the boat, not to mention the bite. I put in at the keys, seeing dead, dying shad on the ramp, in the water, everywhere. Every bird in the whole lake was in the rattlesnake arm. I wasted 2 hrs throwing swim/rip baits near keys off rattlesnake. Still dead/dying shad everywhere. Finally at 1:22, they ate my pointer minnow for 20 minutes and I caught 2 and lost another. I saw the two guys in the previous report and they were dropshotting fairly shallow. I just figured that the fish might wake up w/the warmer weather that was forcasted. It never did get warm as I never took my jacket off all day. I just hear about these big sacks and figured they mights start chasing. Thanks to the older gentleman from Auburn who told me they started biting at 1pm!
    City: Yuba city

    Tips: I dropshotted enough to get a bite or two, but I guess I was moving the bait too fast. I've never seen the amount of dead/dying shad as I did today. I wonder why. Natural dyoff, extreme temp fluctuation, heaven forbid pollution.

Thursday, March 23rd, 2006

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    Water Temp: 48-50

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Caught several small LM's at Konocti Harbor Wed the 23rd and at Holiday Harbor Thurs the 24th. Got em at Konocti with Western Rig (dropshot) and at Holiday Harbor dragging a Hula Grub. All were between 1 and 2 pounds except for a 4 and a 3 landed at Holiday. As an aside, the Crappie fishing at Konocti was sporadic...good morning bite but a very slow afternoon and evening bite. As "JDUB" indicated in a recent post here, I met him and his dad at Konocti. Clearly they both have perfected the dropshot technique as evidenced by their constantly bent rods. Great to see father and son experiencing the joys of angling together...they sure made a super team. It was my pleasure to meet them.
    City: Santa Clara

    Tips: All I can recommend is "plastics" fished very slowly. I witnessed the current shad die-off in the Clearlake Oaks arm of the lake but saw no evidence of same at north end near Holiday Harbor. I'm sure the shad die-off has an impact on LM's but as a Clear Lake newbie I don't know what that is. Also observed an unexpected bonus of over 100 pelicans scooping up the dead shad near Clearlake Oaks.

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    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Started fishing around 7am at Holiday Harbor. My dad caught a 5 with in a half hour and I caught a 3 a little while after that. Wind picked up and we decided to go to Konocti. At konocti I caught two extremely fat fish. One went 5.4 and the other was close to the same. Dad caught a couple 3's there. We caught probably 60 plus between the two of us on our trip. Also met a fellow Western Bass visiter PoleBrother. Really nice guy by the way.
    City: Clearlake oaks

    Tips: Dropshot mutilators and oxbloods about a foot off the bottom.

Wednesday, March 22nd, 2006

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    Water Temp: 48 to 53

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Thanks to westernbass.com, I posted on the forum and met another angler on line Brandon and we went to Clear Lake for a little fun fishing and catch up on the bite there. We launched at Red Bud and since it was cold, we fished close and then just hopped around on the sought end of the lake. We caught a little over 40 fish for the day biggest was only 3.5 "Brandon got it" The fish we caught on brn/ppl jigs, dart head and drop shot brn/pppl and green worms. No reaction fish found. We found a lot of dead areas and then when we caught one we could get two to five more fish close by. Most all of the fish we in the corners of the coves out of the wind with some sun. What a awesome lake post frontal day water under 50 degree and we still got over 40 fish, can't wait till next week!
    City: Martinez

    Tips: During ther day we found if you fished slower you caught more fish. Keep the bait in one area and the fish seem to be drawn to it.