Submit
Report

Clear Lake and Reports

Limit:
Click for interactive map

Friday, August 5th, 2005

  • By

    Water Temp: NA

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Pete from San Rafael - To keep the hook perpidicular to the line is easy. I tie a pallomar knot leaving whatever extra length to put the weight on as the "tag" end. After the knot has been tied, hold the hook, point side up and put the "tag" back down through the eye of the hook. Snug it all up. Then put on the weight. This keeps the hook pointed up on the line. Is this what you were looking for?
    City: Santa Rosa

  • By

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished from Thurs to Sat. in my 12ft tin can (what can I say, Im a broke college student) just south of the state park on the rockwalls. Hit the water every morning at 0600 and threw crawdad type crankbaits and mini bombers in shad color. Once the sun started picking up I continued fishing the rockwalls and weedlines on texas and wacky rigged powerworms, senkos and those good looking creature baits. The colors that were working were pumkin-seed, dark browns and motor oils. Tried drop shotting, but It was my first time and was kind of lost. Landed about 15 fish each morning! Actually, if anyone can post something about drop shotting, and how to keep the damn hook perpendicular to the line I would appreciate it.
    City: San Rafael

    Tips: Motoroil colored plastics

  • By

    Water Temp: 81-83

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: The bite was so good 2 weeks ago, I decided I just had to play hooky from work and go again. I took a buddy of mine who had yet to experience Clear Lake at it's very best. Needless to say, he wasn't disappointed. Began throwing cranks and blades on deeper breaks down south, and immediately my buddy sticks a 5+ on a Rat-L-Trap. We managed several more fish on the crank/blade pattern, but nothing else over 2.5lbs. and with less consistency than 2 weeks ago. About 12:30 we headed for a deeper break in the Honeymoon Cove area, and after 20 minutes of fruitlessly casting the cranks and blades, I decided it was time for a change. I could clearly see bass relating to the shad schools moving up and down on the break, so I began dropshotting a 6" oxblood/red flake Roboworm in about 14-20'. The first 4 drops produced two 4's, a 5 and one more in the 2.5lb. class. My buddy then got in on the action and stuck another 5 and several more in the 2-3lb. class. The last hour of fishing produced ~20 bass and a helluva lot of fun! Our best 5 fish limit was easily in the 23-24lb. range.
    City: Elk Grove

    Tips: Cranks (DD22 in Lavender Shad and Parrot colors, Rat-L-Trap in Bleeding Shad) and blades (1oz. Blade Runner Tackle in chartreuse/white) fished on deeper breaks down south and in the narrows produced ~15 bass between 1.5 and 5lbs. Dropshot fish were all caught from one break down south, and the key was fishing a bend in the break. Just monitor the movement of shad on the breaks, and fish depth ranges accordingly.

Wednesday, August 3rd, 2005

  • By

    Water Temp: 80's

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: With 4 little kids, my fishing time has suffered more in the last several years than in my whole lifetime. Today was worth the wait. Brandon convinced me that the jig bite was happening, so I took my 7 year old daughter, Stacy, over for the day. Started off losing a 2.5 on a darthead right next to the redbud ramp, rats! Next stop, I hook something good in some deep pilings on a crankbait. It pulls my line around some underwater supports and I fight the tremendous temptation to pull back hard. Instead, I loosened pressure a tad and managed to get it coming at me. Several minutes into this, I figure I had a catfish, but it turned out to be a 7.5 bass. Wow, what a way to start the day! Bang another keeper of these pilings then cast a jig off these deep rocks and kept missing bites, presumably bluegill. Wheeler gave me 4 fish I believe on a 3/8 oz brown jig, from 5 feet down to 25 feet. Bait/fish everywhere. The highlight of the morning was when Stacy started yelling that she had one. The child must have been dragging 50 yards of line between her rod and her splitshot worm. She caught her first fish on an artificial on her own off the beacon off monitor island.

    Dartheaded some deep docks across from konocti and caught 5 or 6 more to 2.5 or so.

    Shag rock produced 3 or 4 more on jigs, but only to 1.75 or so.
    Along about 4pm at about 100 degrees with no wind, my god it was hot, we pulled in to the concrete boathouse on the south end and started to get bit on the jig. Bites on almost every cast, but I was only hooking about 1/4 of them. Stacy caught another keeper here. Maybe it was the time of day, I dont know, but when I started fishing a long break from 18-25 feet, the fish started to gain in size and I started missing less bites. Caught 3 in the last five minutes including a beautiful 5.2 that swam off with the jig, dropped it, then came back and ate it again! This was the most enjoyable day trip with my best fishing buddy!
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: Rallyers should have no trouble getting bites on jigs, though dropshotting/splitshotting seems like you could catch 50 fish a day. I figure we caught about 25 fish between 9-6 pm.

Thursday, July 28th, 2005

  • By

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Went out on wed., got there late/driving from san carlos. Got on the water around 8:00am, drove around a point and looked for some exposed rocks. Threw "yo-zuri" cranks in shad patterns===7 fish.....200yrds. Had to run back to the launch to go to the bathroom and met a guy with a 2005? ranger z21....great looking boat... he gave me some advice. go to the tules and flip white frogs... I had no frogs so I fliped everything else, jigs, worms, grubs... 2 fish... Went out searching for a good spot(some more exposed rocks) got on a piece of shorline with no docks. It was about 500yrds of shorline.... caught 32 lmb,,, biggest was 8 lbs smallest was 2.5 lbs......WOW!!!!!
    Was burning up in the sun(around 2:00pm) and headed back to the ramp. On my way I stoped off at to docks and tossed cranks and worms and caught 10 more in 100yrds of shoreline...WOW!
    I am from arizona and have never experienced fishing like this, I have been to lake fork, Okechobee, Ten killer, Kentucky lake, etc...... This place was unbelievable............
    City: glendale, az

    Tips: Caught the majority of my big fish with--- 7" texas rig culprit worms with curly tails in dark purple with green flakes......

  • By

    Water Temp: 80

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: fished the 28 and 29. Fishing was spectcular, finished both days with limits going 18pds, with 25 to 50 fish. No huge fish, best big fish going 4.3, but had 3 of them. All where caught on blades and senko's and drop-shot, mostly on steep drop offs and changing flats, with shad all over them.
    City: Royal Oaks, CA

    Tips: Slow rolling spinner baits until wind dies, at steep drop offs and changing flats, in chart./white, and white with big blades. Switch to senko's and drop-shoting, where schooling shad are, and fish right in front of the cover, or out in the deeper water underneath the schools.

Sunday, July 24th, 2005

  • By

    Water Temp: 80-81

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Took my dad out for his annual Clear Lake birthday trip, and although the weather was BRUTALLY hot, the fishing was equally hot! Folks, it's on! We started Saturday in search of a topwater bite in the north end with only 2 frog blowups to show for it. Headed down toward State Park to fish some of my favorite tule points and immediately began picking up fish dropshotting in front of the tule walls. Pitch the "bubba" shot up to the tule edge and slowly work back out to about 10' in front of the edge. Somewhere in between, you'll get bit. Also, any pockets in the tules are fishing just like a creek channel on any lake. Fish the middle out to the deeper water and you'll get bit. We had many, many fish between 1.5 and 4lbs. on this pattern, but most were in the 2 lb. range. In search of bigger bites, we headed to the narrows to fish some deeper, rocky areas, and here we found the pattern for consistent quality fish. We worked a long, rocky breakline which dropped from 12'-18' with a combination of Norman DD22 and Poe's crankbaits, as well as a Lucky Craft LV500. We caught several fish in the 3-4 lb. range, topped with a fat 5lb. beauty. On average, MUCH better quality. Then and there, we decided we'd found our pattern for Sunday. Sunday we stayed down south and fished the same-type breaklines we'd fished Saturday afternoon. Fishing from Red Bud to Konocti Bay, we followed the breaks and enormous schools of shad to consistently catch 2-4lb. fish on the same cranks as the previous day, but added another bait to the arsenal which accounted for a bunch of quality bass: a 1oz. Blade Runner Tackle spinnerbait in the white/chartreuse pattern. Best 5 on Saturday were in the 18-19lb. range, Sunday's best 5 prolly a bit less at 17-18lbs. Excellent trip, and what a great way to spend a couple days with your dad!
    City: Elk Grove

    Tips: LOTS of fish to be had in front of the tules up north dropshotting, but they average a bit smaller. Use 6" and 7" Roboworms in the Oxblood or MMIII colors. Also lots of dropshot fish available directly off the rocks in the narrows and down south, but the better quality fish are out on the breaks in 12'-18' of water. Keep the boat in 18'-22' and slow crank or slow roll a big spinnerbait. We used a Norman DD22 in the Lavender Shad color, a Poe's 400 series in the "big red" pattern, and the Lucky Craft LV500 in both Ghost and American Shad patterns. The spinnerbait was a full 1 oz. bait by Blade Runner Tackle, white/chartreuse with #4.5 and #5.5 white/chartreuse willowleaf blades. Good luck!

  • By

    Water Temp: 79

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Went out Sat. eve for a few hours. I used all my usual lures for this time of year and just could not get a bite. I tried cranking for a while, nothing. I was on the same spot as two other boats. I knew there were fish on the spot. The other boats had no observed luck either. I put on a rip bait and started bringing it hard, nothing. Experimented with the cadence. Whacked four fish back to back on a long pause. Is this March or July? God I love a good rip bite.
    City: Redwood Valley

    Tips: Try your jerk bait on a rock/grass area.

Saturday, July 23rd, 2005

  • By

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished sat. from 2-10pm. the bite is on. fished cranks,jigs and dropshot. had an 8#,7#, (2) 5# and couple fours. best five about 30#.cought about 60 total. also fished last fri. night not as many but still had 25-26# for five.
    City: yuba city

    Tips: Fish the outsides, little deeper,8-12ft.cranks in white and jigs, drop shot dark colors.

Friday, July 22nd, 2005

  • By

    Water Temp: 81

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: What a fun trip to report! I did one of my rare half-day trips today with a regular client, his business friend and 10 year old son! The boy's father starts the trip - about 7 am with a 4-2 bass. I love it when the pressure is off the guide immediately, har!!! He later lands a 5-3, and the 10 year old get his own 4-8. Was the young one ever excited! In the 4 1/2 hour trip we caught 21 bass and one bluegill - 2 dinks and 2 under 2 lbs. The rest were 2 to 5-3 lbs with our 5 best a few ounces under 20 lbs. We just threw Yamamoto creature baits in #301 color (Texas rigged), some Sweet Beavers, and I tried a black 10" Berkely Power Worm which one of my favorites in dingy summer Clear Lake water It usually produces good summer bass, but not today - biggest was only 2 3/4. We just fished around Rattlesnake Island, not on major rockpiles, but just on subtle ledges, etc, that I have learned through the years. These fish don't get much pressure and if you hit it right, good things can happen!
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: Our first good bass came near the tules, but we soon realized that there were small bass and bluegill everwhere shallow which usually means that the quality fish have moved out. It seems they did because all of our bass were caught at least 30 feet off the island in probably 8 to 18 feet. I always target ledges if I can - they worked today!

Monday, July 18th, 2005

  • By

    Water Temp: Hot

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Spent a week fishing and tubing Clear Lake with the family and a friend and his family. Hot Hot weather. Hot bite for smaller fish. We easily caught 200 bass on crankbaits over the week. We primarily fished a few hours in the morning rested and then fished a bit in the evening and afternoon. Chartreuse shad was the hot color with fish up to 4 lds on rocks. Most of the fish were smaller, but it was a blast to be able to just catch fish and have fun. Decent bite on the dropshot, Margarita Mutliator was the only color we used or needed. Best fish of the trip came at night(of course) on a DD-22 on a rockpile with a bass close to 6. That rockpile had a 30 minute hot bite with a 16-18 ld limit caught in those 30 minutes and then it went completely dead. We dedicated the morning sessions to frog fishing and did get several each day. No huge fish but several decent 3-4 lders. Just too much fun to try and catch the fish on another bait when they are blowing up on a frog. Best frog was white and more fish came in the open water just off the weeds than came through the muck. Great time for all. We stayed with Bob Higgins at his cabins next to Limit Out tackle and he was a gracious host always willing to share the info he had. The most interesting catches of the week were two catfish over 20 lds, each caught on a crankbait. Since it was a fun trip, I did not target the big bite, but the quantity was certainly there. A serious day of fishing will get you 100 fish a day. (per boat with 2 anglers)
    City: Yucaipa,Ca

    Tips: Be careful with the heat. Bang rocks with your crankbaits and have fun.

Saturday, July 16th, 2005

  • By

    Water Temp: 84-86

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished Friday PM, Saturday AM & PM and Sunday AM in the Rattlesnake Island area. The heat was brutal!! Ended up a with 30 fish total. One 4lb'er on white spinnerbait, lost one at the boat that was pushing 5lb on a black jig. All of the rest of the fish we caught were on drop-shotting purple or blue Robo's. Those 1-1/2 and 2lb'ers sure are a lot of fun on light spinning tackle!!!
    City: Santa Rosa

    Tips: All of the fish that we caught were holding in 10 to 12 ft. of water

Friday, July 15th, 2005

  • By

    Water Temp: 76-83

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished at night 9pm-1am on Friday and caught 6 totalling just over 20 lbs (biggest going just over 6 lbs) all on buzz baits and jitterbugs - nothing on plastics the whole night. Dropshotted, t-rigged, senkos...but all the fish came from top-water. Focused on grasslines near lakeport.
    City: San Jose

    Tips: Fish the grasslines- black buzzbaits and dark green jitterbugs. I tried throwing all kinds of colors, black was the only one working. Most fish were caught about 4-6 feet off the grass lines.

Thursday, July 14th, 2005

  • By

    Water Temp: 81

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: After 2 years of not night fishing this lake, I got the green light to go. Kris and I arrived at 8:45 and tried flipping trees in the south end w/no luck. Just at dusk, Kris bangs a 3.5 and I soon feel like I've got a weed on my brushog. I keep reeling until all of a sudden it is below the boat and up comes a 5+ and goes down and throws the hook! I thought that might have set the tone for a not so well evening, but it turned out ok. We ended up w/ 11 keepers by 2:30am. All fish caught on plastics. I must say that the water is higher than I've ever seen it on this lake in july. Some of my rocky spots had bushes hanging 10 feet over the water, so proper presentation next to the bank was not a possibility.
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: It became apparent that all fish that bit for us were right on the bank. Working the lure back produced no bites all night. None of our spots were red hot, just a fish here and there. This was the calmest night I've ever seen on this lake. One interesting side note: After a long dry spell, I decided to turn the flourescent light on along with the black light. I did this so I could get my lures as close to the bank as possible. I cant ever remember catching a fish with this white light on. On this night though, We did get 3 good ones and missed one with it on.............I shall have to experiment more.

Monday, July 11th, 2005

  • By

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Rad
    You could probably kick out from Redbud and fish around there unless its too windy. Flippin around the mouth of cache creed could be good for you and the back side of Big Island can produce good fish too. Around Konocti stays pretty protected too and there are a lot of areas to fish but you might have to deal with a lot of boat traffic. Good luck

Sunday, July 10th, 2005

  • By

    Water Temp: 79-82

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: SPENT FRI-SAT-SUN AT THE LAKE. BIGGEST FISH 3LBS.
    DUE TO WIND CONDITIONS FISHED MOSTLY THE KEYS.
    City: antelope

    Tips: BRIGHT SPINNERBAITS,AND RED AND BLACK MINI-BRUSHHOGS DID IT FOR ME. THE TOPWATER BITE NEVER REALLY HAPPENED, TRIED EARLY AND LATE.

Wednesday, June 29th, 2005

  • By

    Water Temp: 75

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Well, a client and I caught 5 fish for about 46 pounds. That's right - 46 pounds. Four of them were bass! I have finally found the solution to that "punched in the gut" feeling when a client loses a 10 lb class bass at the boat. She was ready to net about 11 pm when she made one last lunge and hit the edge of the prop - and that was that! Still using his 10" Berkley black Power Worm, my client set on a fish about 2 am and what happened in the next 10-12 minutes was awesome! After the first minute, he is flat on his belly, hanging over the side on my 520 with both hand on the rod that is slowly being pulled underwater. He simply could not control the fish even with the drag slipping. I moved the boat to deeper water and just watched. I just hoped it wasn't a carp. Finally, after another 20 yard run back to the tules, he had the strength to get the fish up where we could see it. After the third try, I got the monster channel catfish in the net. On the initial lift, I realized I better watch my back as I lifted this "thing" in the boat. I have never seen a fish like this and even my client, who is a world traveled hunter and fisherman, was amazed. We did not have a 50 lb scale to weigh her but we have a lot of experience with big fish and figured she was a minimum of 28 lbs, but more like 30 or more. She possibly could have been a lake record - who knows. We are calling her a "near 30"! I will post a very accurate photo next week and you can decide. We wanted to release her, so back in the drink she went! THAT is how you forget a lost monster bass. We fished a marathon 12 hours and landed 20 bass that included many 3's and 4's. Our five fish limit was 18-2. Power Worms and Kreature baits were the lures of choice. Bass turned on when the moon rose at 1:30 am.
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: Again, rock/tule combinations were working well for us, and most bass were in 5 to 15 feet of water. The big bass that was lost was hooked in 4 feet of water - might have been spawning.

Sunday, June 26th, 2005

  • By

    Water Temp: 72

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: I was a busy guy Sat.late-afternoon and night as I guided a husband-wife team and her father. He didn't have much fishing experience and struggled with his casting, but got much better by the end of the 6 hr trip! I was REALLY worried about the wind because of the cold front, but for once it wasn't bad - just a stiff breeze. We started fishing Dead Ringers about 6:30 pm in weed patchs around the narrows and after an hour it was wife-3, husband and guide-1 each! She was good!! We wound up with 7 before dark - averaging about 2 lbs. After dark, I had them using slippery Dead Ringers (Smelly Jelly) and I tried a brush hog to see if that was the night ticket. A funny thing happened a while later - my client heard a fish jump on the other side of the boat - I thought it might be a carp. Tried to feel my black/red brush hog and couldn't. The bass now decided to jump in front of the black light and by gosh - I was connected to it!! My drag is usually locked with my 30# Fireline and this bass is pulling out line. We got her in and she was 6 lbs even! A perfect specimen - she looked liked she hadn't spawn, or spawned months ago and was totally healed and well-fed. Not a typical Clear Lake post-spawn bass. No, I wasn't asleep - I don't know where that bass came from!! I gave the husband a brush hog and he soon caught a 3lb plus bass. The wife was back at it - hooked one and gave the rod to her dad - and he lost it. She had some others on but couldn't get them in the boat. We wound up with 12 bass in our shorter trip with the top 5 going 15 1/4 to 15 1/2 lbs.
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: Because of 4 people in the boat, options were limited to plastics, jigs, and bait like that. I did crank a bit to see if anything was happening - it wasn't. We found some bass very shallow but most were off-shore in about 10 feet of water. Rocky bottoms helped. It looks like weeds are back this year - so far. If hot weather ever comes to Clear Lake and enhances more algae bloom, the weeds may slow. It is going to be interesting to see what the summer patterns will be like this summer. Frogs, anyone?!!

Saturday, June 25th, 2005

  • By

    Water Temp: 68-71

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished both saturday and sunday, couldn't get any bite going until saturday evening, on drop-shoting, and managed to get about 15, best fish going 3pd's and best 5 going about 10pd's. Sunday the bite picked up, for the morning, with a reaction bite, using blades, and switched over to drop-shoting, when the reaction bite ended, hooked up into about 20-30 fish for sunday, but best 5 only went 10pd's. Fished the South end of the lake, mostly around jago bay, indian island and Konocti, went north to state park, but didn't get anything.
    City: Royal Oaks, CA

    Tips: Look for a reaction bite in the morning and evening's, then switch over to drop-shoting and senko's.

Monday, June 20th, 2005

  • By

    Water Temp: 72

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Stayed at Konocti Sunday through Friday Morning. Fished Monday through Thursday usually only for a couple of hours in the morning. Tried to target only bigger fish. Got fish on a pointer 128 in ghost (varying size from 1 to 5lbs) and a 6" senko (2-3.25lbs). I threw frogs for hours with only one lillte half-hearted slap. Also threw spooks with no success. Everyone I talked to said they were catching fish on drop shot. I didn't want to do this at all. On Thursday I met a guy at the state park who said his friend caught a 10.5 the day before drop shotting. I was amazed. So I tired it and caught a 4. Every fish I caught was shaped like a football and was healthy as can be. saw lots of bait. Those fish have plenty to eat.
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: Best fish were in the north end near tules. Some fish are still on beds. drop shot will produce, but I would prefer to rip.

    In the south end, the people I talked to said they were catching fish on watermellonseed brushogs and dropshot but didn't sound like the fish had any real size to them.