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Saturday, April 16th, 2005

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    Water Temp: 55-58

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: I fished the north end with a client on Thurs. We thought that would be better with the scheduled wind. That part worked out fine, but the fishing didn't. The sun was out, but it was COLD. Everybody looked to be wearing winter clothing. We only boated three bass on Senkos and jigs, though my client lost a nice one ona Senko. Friday, I took two fellows out on the south end and, in spite of big rollers and wind, we did boat 14 bass, but only up to 2 lbs 11 oz. Our limit was 10 or so pounds. We were split-shotting 4 to 8 inch worms and did get into a great tule bank bite in the rough water. We tried ripping and swimbaits, but no action there. Green Pumpkin seemed to be the best color again. It was nice to feel a little warmth in the air for a change!
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: We found bass in the tule banks that had a rock base. We found some bass on off-shore rock drop-offs, but not many. This week should be better as more consistant warm weather will prevail!

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    Water Temp: 53-57

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: I prefished on friday for a Basin Bass Tourament on saturday. I launched at 3:pm out of the free launch at the Oaks. Very windy around Rattle Snake Island. We stayed along Hwy 20 side using lizards in 4 " June Bug. Some nice fish in 2-3 lb range.
    Our tourament was out of Redbud @ 6:15am with light winds, so I started in Jaco Cove with my partner Dennie using spinners and swim baits, no luck. So we switched over to a worm in brown cotors, picking up two keepers and 10 non so keepers. Moving north ,not finding any keepers. Went over to the hwy 20 side picking up more non keepers. A tourament out of lakeport winner on Friday had 42 lbs to win on swim baits. Our winning weight was 10.62 for Jim and Quency using a june bug lizard.
    City: rocklin

    Tips: fish slow around rocks with tules

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    Water Temp: 53-57

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: I prefished on friday for a Basin Bass Tourament on saturday. I launched at 3:pm out of the free launch at the Oaks. Very windy around Rattle Snake Island. We stayed along Hwy 20 side using lizards in 4 " June Bug. Some nice fish in 2-3 lb range.
    Our tourament was out of Redbud @ 6:15am with light winds, so I started in Jaco Cove with my partner Dennie using spinners and swim baits, no luck. So we switched over to a worm in brown cotors, picking up two keepers and 10 non so keepers. Moving north ,not finding any keepers. Went over to the hwy 20 side picking up more non keepers. A tourament out of lakeport winner on Friday had 42 lbs to win on swim baits. Our winning weight was 10.62 for Jim and Quency using a june bug lizard.
    City: rocklin

    Tips: fish slow around rocks with tules

Friday, April 15th, 2005

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    Water Temp: 53-57

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: I took my son Niko to Fished a Club Tourn. sat. and sun. Sat. we a strugle day for us, because I have not been back to this lake in over 2 yrs. Our first fish in the boat was a 14" crappie. tried everything (blades, rip, crank, swimbait) nothing. Switched to a 6" texas worm and started to get bumps. Niko drop-shot and started picking up my bumps.( No size) I switched to a black/blue tube and our first keeper 4#. 15+ fish with 1 keeper on sat. Sun. we had high winds and rollers. Did not run far, stayed in calm bays. 10 fish best 5 for 10.85 giving us 3rd place. Great job Niko!!! Club big fish for Sat. 9.75 and sun. 8.50
    City: Fremont

    Tips: Water is still cool. Go slow.....

Thursday, April 14th, 2005

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    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Hey i got a club tourney at clear lake this sunday if anyone could email me a few tips on whats going on out their it would be greatly appreiciated.
    City: sacramento

Tuesday, April 12th, 2005

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    Water Temp: 54-58

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished from April 12-14th. GOT WIND !!!!! Very windy conditions. Caught a fish with senko's and carolina rigged brush hog. Since the Future Pro Tour is coming up next week the area we fished will be secret. It probably will not make a difference since the air temp is rising and the water temp will rise also so the conditions should change.
    City: Arcata

    Tips: Dress warm it has been cold........

Sunday, April 10th, 2005

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    Water Temp: 56

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: I was honored to guide a great fellow from South Africa who also lived a few years in London. This was his first trip to northern Cal and of course, Clear Lake - which must have a good reputation all over the world! He has fished for bass all over Europe, so, no pressure on me of course!! Thursday, Clear Lake resembled the Pacific Ocean, so we just stuck around Rattlesnake and the keys. I struck first blood with a nice 4.1 bass on a #221 Senko, near a rock drop-off, about 10 feet of water. We were split-shotting a Berkely 4 inch Pulse worm in junebug and green pumpkin - throwing the rig near the newly green tules and dragging it out into the dormant underwater tules where we found some fish. The wind made it difficult but we managed. His first Clear Lake bass was a FAT 3 lb 9 oz beauty. He soon landed another at 3-12 - this one in the keys. He had one spinnerbait fish on my Terminator, but it jumped and he lost it. He caught one or two more in the two pound range. I ripped a 3 pounder on a ghost Staycee 90 on the island, but that was the only rip fish. Thought there would be more. We wound up with 9 bass only, missing several because of the wind. Our 5 best did weigh 16 lb 2 oz. I was pretty happy with that considering the weather.
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: I could have run him more around the lake, but I don't that would have left a good impression on him, especially his backside!! We ran into a boat fishing the island that had gotten blown off the north end. I knew I could get him into some fish where we were and it seemed to pay off. I felt if I ran somewhere else, the bite probably wouldn't have been much better and could have been worse. Those are the decision we all have to make on the water. He had a great time and so did I - he had great stories to tell! And he was a great fisherman - man, could he throw a spinnerbait!!

Saturday, April 9th, 2005

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    Water Temp: 50-55.6

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished on Saturday with Mitch from Reno. Our initial plan was ta go up to ClearLake and enjoy some of that awesome swimbait bite we keep ghearin' about. Well, thanks to a bluebird, high pressure day proceeding a storm front, it just wasn't happening for us. We did manage to catch a couple of nice 3 pounders rippen' early. Crossed paths with Rich Pounds who had some clients out fishin minners, whatched catch a 4+ right away, so I knew we wuzon the right pattern of where the fish were. We then bounced around some lookng for a flip bite in some canals, drug some c-rigged green pumkin lizards and Robos with no takers. We worked our way up through Lake Port and were only able to manage a few keepers on the jerk bait following a simular pattern we found earlier. Before heading into Nice, Mitch suggestsed we grab some minners, lets do it, at least we can go locate some fish, then try ta figure out how ta catch em with artificials. Well we went back to the area we started and got fatreal quick on the minners, 4 pounder after four pounder, then Mitch catches a 7 pounder, next cast I git a 9 pound 14oz fish. Okay, time ta try artificials. Three colors later I stick a two pounder on a 9X 194 watermelon Senko, then a 3 pounder. Okay, we got the color they want WATERMELON! We then began to C-rig the same color Lizard and started catching these fish, couldn't catch the big girls but the 2.5-4 pound fish were willing ta hit both the Senco and Lizard. 35+ fish day, best 5 over 30 pounds, not a bad post frontal fishing day. Gotta love this pound!
    City: Oakley

    Tips: Water temps have dropped to the low 50s, these fish are still in transition and in some areas may be staging awaiting that series of warming days to move up on the next full moon. Fish the outside edges, get off the banks and tulles. Stick to watermelon greens and green pumkin colors that closely match the hitch. Also try using light colored jerk & swimbaits with some yellow in it. And then when all this fails, GO GIT SOME MINNERS and have a ball!

Monday, April 4th, 2005

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    Water Temp: 58

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished with my daughter on Tuesday on southwest side from Konocti to Baylis Point. Daughter caught one 2.5 #'er on dropshot. I brought in 6 or 7 in the 1.5 to 2.5 range. At the end of the day I boated the biggest bass I've caught on Clear Lake, a 6.5 #'er from under a low dock. All the fish that I got where on a Staysee deep diver. Pic is posted. It was a nice day on the water. Went to Lake Sonoma on Wednesday and did'nt even get a strike. Clear Lake IS The Bass Capital of the West!!
    City: Santa Rosa

    Tips: Got lots of strikes, but they seemed to just be swatting at the lure. Caught several on the outside of the mouth. Slower presentation seemed to work better.

Saturday, April 2nd, 2005

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    Water Temp: 55-60

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished on 3/31 and 4/1 in and around Rodman Slough. The bass definitely seem to be relating more to the main lake. I did everything wrong, using big lures in midday, going to ultralight during low light. It didn't work, but this is how we prove things to ourselves. I saw several guys doing things right and catching some good bass, so I found out by observation what's working now.
    City: Santa Rosa

    Tips: The bass are definitely much more active when the sun is shining or in the evening. They appear to be holding very close to or in emergent tules, in the warmest pockets and holes, most probably in the late prespawn stage. They don't appear to be chasing shad in open water off the points much. Lures larger than the shad (4"-6" lures) work much better than good shad imitations. With more unsettled weather expected, I'd expect the bass to stay tight to the tules.

Monday, March 28th, 2005

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    Water Temp: 52-56

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Spent the 21st through the 27th at the Lake. Water temp dropped about ten degrees since the everstart. Fished LV's and caight a couple with the biggest going 9lbs. Averaged 2-3 fish a day until about the third day when we wised up and bought some jumbo minnows. Bite was wide open in the same areas we couldn't buy a fish in with artificials. Best five on fourth day went 31.5 lbs with an 8,7,6, and two 5's. On Saturday stuck an 11.4 and my buddy caught two more 10's in the same area all within an hour. I hated to resort to those old minnows but I was there for fun fishin for a change it it paid off big....Moral of the story.. if you want to have fun in the cold water with bad weather try some minnows otherwise tough it out for a few bites a day.

    Tips: Jumbo minnows anywhere you can catch pre-spawn fish.

Saturday, March 26th, 2005

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    Water Temp: 56

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: I did a "teach the lake" trip on Saturday with two clients. More learning went on than catching! We launched out of Lucerne - but not at first light. We starting catching a few north of Lucerne and had we stayed there, would have caught several in the 2 to 3 pound range. But we needed to look at several areas and did catch a few here and there on split-shot worms and the biggest - about 3 1/4, on a Weapon jig. We ripped a lot with no success except for a big one that followed it to the boat. One of the guys threw a spinnerbait a lot, but no takers. We wound up with 7 or 8 in the boat, but no big fish hooked. Several folks we talked to were struggling with artificials. We saw some using minnows and hooking a few. I knew it would be slow because of the weather and water temp drop. I hate it when I'm right about bad things!! We did as much traveling as fishing, and the guys will do well when it warms up a bit.
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: After I left them at the ramp, I tried a little late afternoon fishing with jigs, but had no hits. I did catch a few more smaller bass on Staycee rip baits, but overall - pretty slow.

Saturday, March 19th, 2005

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    Water Temp: 55-57

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Thanks again to the solid input from the board members for my 1st mission to Clear Lake. Conditions were rough, w/ wind, rain, and too many baitfish! Jigman and I did what we could and threw swimbaits, ripbaits, and blades all over the north end. I Got one 7 #'r on blades early then nothing till a buck at dark. Jigman, ripped up a good fish the next day in pouring rain and that was it. We had a killer time as always, but headed home early realizing that Clear Lake is not the place to be mid front!
    City: SF

    Tips: The only thing that worked for us...Rip, Rip, Rip and slow role blades with a big trailer sapped w/ scent.

Tuesday, March 15th, 2005

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    Water Temp: 55 - 60

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: I wanted to catch crappies, but I didn't find them and had to fish for bass instead. Fished the north end of Clear Lake seriously for bass on 3/13, 3/14 and 3/15. On 3/13 I caught many around 2# and one 23 3/4" long, probably about 10#, using a 2" silver Rattlin' Rap. Hooked 6 big ones on 3/14, landed 5 totalling about 31# using a silver Rapala Husky Jerk (3-6#, 1-5#, 1-8#). Caught a few 2#-3# using the Rattlin' Rap on 3/15, but the calm, stable weather of the previous week changed to strong winds and rolling waves and no big ones hit.
    City: Santa Rosa

    Tips: When there is a lot of boat activity, fishing pressure and ambient forage, the bass must usually be finessed or provoked into biting. If the weather is favorable for the fish, fishing loud, flashy lures using fast and/or erratic retrieves can provoke strikes when finesse or "normal" presentations are ignored. If everyone around you is throwing a rip bait, try burning or rip-jigging a lipless crankbait. The 2" and 3" silver/black Rattlin' Raps are my personal favorites.

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    Water Temp: 57 in am

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: I fished the FLW this past week, was in 7th the first day. Got all my fish on swimbaits by 8 am the first day and culled three times by nine am for 19.11 lbs. Fell apart the second day, couldn't concentrate and focus on just catching fish. we had a warming tred prior to the tournament and water temps were getting up to around 62 in the afternoons. Almost all the top finishers except one said they threw swimbaits, jerkbaits and the winner even used a lucky craft lv500. I have had two guide trips out this week, both minnow trips, one trip, 31 fish, biggest a 6lber and three over five on that trip. Yesterdays trip resulted in a 10.3lber, my biggest by a customer this year. It came in five feet of water along a wall on a minnow. The Northlake Ford tournament is this weekend. It's suppose to rain Friday and again some rain On Saturday. The lake is loaded with bait fish and they are covering the north end of the lake pretty rapidly. My thoughts are to try and stay away from the huge concentrations of bait to have better fishing results. Jerkbaits and swimbaits if you stay with them should produce some decent results and just cover a lot of water. This cooler weather has lowered the water temps by about two degrees. Check out the 10.3 lber on page five of my photo pages on this site for guides. JFYI, Bassin' With Bob
    City: nice

    Tips: Try a carolina rigged lizard popped and fished threw the tules. Also test the fluke bite in the tules. """Good Luck"" e mail me if you need more info. bob@fishclearlake.com

Monday, March 14th, 2005

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    Water Temp: 61 North Lake--

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fishing buddy and I got SKUNKED on Tuesday after fishing hard for 5 hours in the North West shallows using Senkos, cranks and Jigs. Thread-fin Shad were EVERYWHERE. Buddy slapped at the shad with his rod-tip and a nice bass blew-up out of the grass within 2 feet of the boat, probably thinking that another bass had blown up on the shad school and taking advantage to pick-up any confused and injured shad .

    A meal is too easily had for these fish right now. Talked to some other folks at the ramp when departing and they were skunked, also.
    City: Vacaville

    Tips: No idea!

Saturday, March 12th, 2005

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    Water Temp: 59

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: drove 2.5 straight hours to finally get on the water. lots of bass boats out there, i heard rip baits and soft plastics were the key, i also heard the fishing was great. thats not what i found. i fished from 8:30 am to 12, 1 fish, no other bites. it was on a rip bait in about 3 feet of water, and the bite was nothing, he just swam away with it. So yea, the dam tournament scared all the fish.
    City: larkspur

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    Water Temp: 60

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: On Friday 3/11, caught three bass to 4 lbs. on june bug brush hog and drop shotting Marguarita Multilator. However, on Saturday had little luck. Saturday was the last day of a big four day tournament that I understand finally shut down the bite. I did talk to a few anglers who did well rippin a Stacee 90 in Chartruse Shad.
    City: Novato

    Tips: Wait a week for the bass to calm down.

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    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Hello out there--Hi everyone! I just wanted to know somethings about clear lake. What type of bait fish are in the lake? I will take your emails at eldoradokid@comcast.net that way the reports will not get messed up. Thanks in advance and may God bless you.
    City: El Dorado Hills

Friday, March 11th, 2005

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    Water Temp: high 50's

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: First trip here this year andI was limited to fishing from 10-4. Started off losing one on a pointer 128 by entrance to keys. Then I blanked in rattlesnake arm till 12:30. Made an adjustment and headed to mouth of spawning area near anderson. First cast a 2.5 on a smaller pointer...............smaller bait at least got me some bites. Caught about 20 in this area, but they got smaller and smaller. I tried duplicating this in several other areas, but found them so full of baitfish that the bass were not interested in my fake fish! Tried a swimbait a bit, but the dam thing swam sideways and I lost interest quickly.
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: I guess that the north end was where the action was for the better fish during the tournament this week.