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Clear Lake and Reports

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Sunday, August 1st, 2004

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    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Been reading all of the great report on Clear Lake and had to find out for my self that it was back to the late 80 and early 90's for numbers being caught and it was true. Thanks to Tackle it in Lakeport, Limit Out bait and tackle in the Oaks and Mel Cottons in SJ(yes I do my homework before I drive 3 hrs.) Bottom line drop shot 4-6 inch purple MM II (Roboworm) Mike Folkstad special AKA Lake Mead special. Instead of using 6 lb test like you would use at Oroville or Shasta I used 12 lb test and they liked it better because I tried 6 lb test for fun with same worm and they hit it but not as fast, I think the heavier line makes the worm stand straight out better.
    City: SAN JOSE

    Tips: Fish deep docks with low overhangs with rock near by and hang on. You don't even have to work the worm they hit on the way down. My daughter and I caught 40 + fish to 3 lbs.

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    Water Temp: 76-81

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Algae bloom is pretty much over. Fished from 7:30 pm on Saturday till 3:30 am, best 5 went 29.6 lbs with the bigger fish on cranks. Everything on off shore rock piles that top out around 10 feet surrounded by 30 feet of water. The bigger fish are packing up according to size now and two 8's came back to back off the same rock pile. Slept from 3:30 till 11:00 am and fished from 11:00 am till 5:00 pm and top 5 went around 18 lbs. Had a 4.76 break the chain on my cul em rite while shaking around. The 18lbs is a guess. Lots of fish every where, mainly drop shot whacky riged arrons magic with red flake. For every 10 1-2 lber you would get a nice 3lb fish on the drop shot. Like last night the bigger fish came on a crank bait. Enjoy while it last , it's already starting to slow down from last weekend.
    City: Sacramento

    Tips: Crank bait , lucky craft deep diver, 20 Feet , in ghost pattern, even at night the white out produces the darker for the last several trips. Cover some water, and if you pick up a good fish slow down and pick it apart, there bunched up by size right now. It's hit and miss, one rock pile will have nothing and the next a school of 6 lbers, gotta move around. Glad the bloom is over.

Saturday, July 31st, 2004

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    Water Temp: 80

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Clear Lake is incredible!!! Stayed in Nice and went out solo Sat and had a guy who hasn't bass fished on Sun morning. Didn't have to go far to start with a 5 but that was the biggest for both mornings. The rest were 1-3 with some dinks thrown in which totaled somewhere around 15 to 20 each morning (lost count after 10). Lost a big one Sun morning, couldn't get him turned at all and he was in a gnarly dock area. Threw top water and got one blow up and that was it (looked perfect for topwater but couldn't get it going). Big Cut Tails got the big fish, Senkos worked of course, and had great success on a lucky craft pointer covering water. Handed the drop shot rod to my buddy who didn't know what to do and every 1 pound bass within 10 miles decided to hit it. It seemed unfair at times since I had to keep unhooking them. I got the bigger fish though.
    City: San Carlos

    Tips: Since I didn't know the lake at all except for the map that I had and the reports from NCBF I tried a little of everything and it all worked (exept buzzin, why I do not know). The best pattern would have been sticking to low hanging wood docks with tules and other aquatic cover near by. The fish seemed to move back and forth between these two ambush spots. Just a killer lake!!!

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    Water Temp: 80

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Stayed a week at Clearlake, with my wife and kids. I took a guest, of the lodge, out with me on my Ranger, Sunday the 25th. He is from Zimbabwe, Africa and working on his ph.D., at Berkeley. He had fished from a rented boat the day before and from the dock that evening without any success. When I asked him how he did, he said that he didn't think that this lake (Clearlake) had any fish. WRONG...

    With my wife's encouragement, I asked him if he'd like to join me at 6 A.M., the following morning. I told him to just bring himself and that I'd supply the tackel. We went out to Anderson Island and within four hours, he had caught 20 bass. His largest was a nice 3 pounds. He, his wife and daughter left later that morning, feeling a whole lot happier.

    I just e-mailed a photo of him with his fish and great smile.

    I was blessed the following morning while I fished with my wife. I landed an eleven pounder on a Fat Free Shad. I went onto catch an 8 1/2 pounder on Wednesday and a nice 4 pounder on Thursday.

    I gave another guest, of the lodge, a Fat Free Shad, who like the earlier guest had no luck. I showed him where to go, on his map and gave him a few tips. This guy was all the way out here from Chicago on vacation with his family. He too had the time of his life, just hours before leaving to go home.

    Overall, our family caught over 200 bass ranging from several dinks, to lots of 2's and 3's. I had caught well over 100 during the week. My thumbs are both really sore from holding the fish while removing the hooks. We kept and ate four and gently let the others go, even my Hawgs. I'll be back in three weeks or so with my brother and some new gear...
    City: Fairfield, CA

    Tips: Cast towards the shore using crank bait (citrus colors best)and bring the lure down slowly and evenly. Give it a jerk or two in order to break up the patern. Berkley 4" Pumpkinseed Worms worked well too!

Wednesday, July 28th, 2004

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    Water Temp: 76

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: My brother Jack is in from Houston and we have been fishing every day with fishing slow this time of year until our planned night trip to Clearlake. Launched out of M&M and all the reports were no topwater, dragging a purple worm off Rattlesnake and Senkos up until nightfall and then no bite until sunup. We started out near Windflower Point throwing blades and nailed a couple up to 2lbs and then headed for Jago where my brother caught more bass in 2 hours than he had all week. Working the docks and rocks we killed them on jigs. Next stop was the state park tules where Senkos were the item of choice, averaging 1-3 pounders and then when the sun went down, the bite got slower but NEVER disappeared and that probably was due to the good moon we had. Nailed our largest 5.25 pounder at 3AM on a 10" worm near Konocti. When the sun started coming up we started all over again catching one after another until I said we gotta go as I need a break and we finally pulled off the water around 9AM. It was extremely hard to figure our count for the night but a minimum of 50 keepers were brought to the boat, not mentioning our misses. Clearlake is HOT, HOT, HOT right now and you better get out there. We hit it on a good night as the lake was calm all night and made running easy.
    City: Wheatland

    Tips: When they are on Senkos, it doesn't really matter what color you are throwing and we were throwing them weightless. Our 10" MGM Baby Bass were in hogsbreath scent and weighted Texas rig while a 5" purple worm worked slowly near docks and rocks was very effective.

Saturday, July 24th, 2004

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    Water Temp: 79-82

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: had the COttonwood bass club night tournament as Clearlake..took 25 for 10 to win....lots of dink-2lb fish everywhere..rocks were key..green pumpkin brush hawgs,senkos,jigs,and buzz baits all took fish as well as drop shot 6" robo worms..big fish was a 6
    City: redding

    Tips: fish hard and find the pockets of fish and stay with them eventually youllpcik up some bettr fish

Sunday, July 18th, 2004

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    Water Temp: 77

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished our local club tourney and WOW...what a bite this lake has going on. I prefished with a buddy on Friday for about 6 hours and we caught over 60 fish between 1-3 lbs. Nothing big but a lot of fun anyway. It didn't seen to matter where we fished or what we threw, we caught fish all day. I even dragged out the "the box" that we all have in the boat, you know, the box that includes the bags of worms that you get for Christmas from the kids or wife that you wouldn't actually use in a million years but you don't dare give away or you end up sleeping on the couch for a month when she finds out...that box. I caught fish on every one I threw. Anyway...on Saturday it wasn't quite as wide open as Friday but it was still fun. Started out at Monitor Island and held on for the first 15 minutes as the Anglers Choice boats roared by as they launched out of Red Bud Park ( maybe some of you guys could stay a little farther out when a boat is fishing a point, I could have handed a few guys a cup of coffee as they went by...that is a little too close for me. The wind blew pretty hard so topwater wasn't an option but we did pick up a few fish on crankbaits and jigs. Moved to a spot near the narrows (I won't say exactly where since it is a spot my boater showed me and out of respect I'll keep it vauge). Caught a lot of small fish there but did get a 5.05 right before the first weigh-in time. Went back out after the first weigh-in and did a lot of the same. Jigs, cranks, dropshot (which seemed to be the best overall bite) and caught fish all day long. We caught over 70 fish and had a blast doing it. Took second place with just over 14.30 lbs. First place was a young punk (just kidding Chris) who weighed in over 16 lbs including a 3.25 smallmouth bass...first one I've ever seen out of that lake.
    City: Ukiah

    Tips: Come on Dads...this is the perfect time to take the kids fishing. The bite is extreme and it lasts ALL DAY! Take the little ones to your favorite spot, rig them up a dropshot rig with any 4 inch worm and enjoy the smiles that will follow. It can be a fishing trip that will stay with them forever. I'm taking my 11 year old this weekend so I'll see you there!! Good luck and don't forget the camera.

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    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Spent the day bouncing around the south end and found fish at just about every stop. Points, rock piles, walls and spawning coves all produced. Caught some up on the bank and others down to 25 feet. Most of our fish came on drop shot 6" worms in just about every color I had in the boat. Brown/orange/red jigs also produced very well but suprisingly the quality wasn't much better than the drop shot. Caught quite a few on red craw crank and just a couple on buzzbaits/spinnerbaits. Overall it was a quantity day (we lost count, but boated at least 50 maybe more) most fish were under 2lbs. Best fish were a pair of 4's my girlfriend flipped on a tube bait, we also had a few 3's. Best five around 16 1/2 - 17lbs.
    City: TRACY

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    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Fishing from the end of my friends dock across from Konocti. Only had 2 places to throw bait...a small brish bed on one side and in the shade under a dock on the other. Basically a fish or bite almost every cast until I got tired of catching. Kids, wives...everybody hooking. Dinks to 3 lbs. I finally tied on a big hook and a 12" worm and threw it under the shade dock. Unfortunately. I knew what would happen with my 6lb test worm pole. Something like jaws got hold of it..took off into the pilings..and snap!!..it was over in about ten seconds. This was all in the heat of mid-day. Amazing!! All the time I've spent in my boat, never had a day like this...off the end of dock!!
    City: Hayward

Saturday, July 10th, 2004

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    Water Temp: 74-78

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished 1o and 11, fishing was hot. Caught over 50 fish. Drop-shoting with green,purple and brown 4 in. worms, caught only small fish nothing over 2 pounds. Switched to spinner late morning to mid day, white and chartrues-white. Caught a 5 and 6 pound fish.
    City: royal oaks

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    Water Temp: 72-74

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Had a guide trip from 10pm to 7am. Started at Rattlesnake but wind pushed us out of the area. Ran up to Lakeport where the wind was not a factor and caught 2 small fish over 4 hours. Tried top water, spinneraits, dropshot and Senkos...both fish came on Senkos shallow. At 2 am we ran to Konocti and Dollar Island where we finally started catching fish. Caught 26 total with best five only 13-14 pounds. Most came on white spinnerbaits with a few on Senkos and 10" grubs. Largest went 3 pounds and most were 1-2 pounds and most fish came shallow. Couldn't find any kicker fish shallow or deep. Fish seemed to be in schools. We'd cover a couple hundred yards with no fish, then catch a bunch of bites in a small length of shoreline.
    City: Fair Oaks

    Tips: Cover water! Fish thoroughly and when you get a fish fan cast that area with repeated casts until the school plays out.

Friday, July 9th, 2004

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    Water Temp: Unknown

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: I stayed at Reel Inn trailer park on Saturday, July 3, started fishing from the shore with about a dozen other people. Drop shot was slaying them! Color didn't seem to matter. Biggest fish was 3 plus lbs. I ended up with 9 for the day. I had to work on the 4th. Came back and fished Tuedsay July 7 with my buddy Bob. Not positive, but I think it was at Ben's rock! North west of Konocti about 1 to 2 miles. Bob started with a drop shot and I started with a Crank bait. From 6:20 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. we caught and released about 60 fish. Bob caught some on a Senko too! I did not stray from a crank bait the whole time. Bob switched to a Lucky Craft crank and started slaying them the last hour! He outfished me 3 to 1. I fish Lake Sonoma mostly, but today was my best day ever. 28 fish in 5 hours! Fish went from 1 to 3 lbs.
    City: Windsor

    Tips: I used crank baits both white and shad color. Bob's Lucky Craft had green and blue in it. Fish varied in dept from 2 feet to about 8 feet. We only covered about 1/2 mile during the whole morning. The bite never slowed much.

Sunday, July 4th, 2004

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    Water Temp: Didn't even che

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Stevie "Guitar" Miller, fireworks, and a wide open drop-shot bite!Man,what a cool 4th of July!After the party on the water(there must have been over 500 boats),wife and I motored South and tied off at windsock point(don't know the official name).They have placed a steel pole w/flashing light and ROCK sign at it last week.We fished until the moon came up big over the hills,when I decided to sleep for a while.The self appointed drop-shot queen of Clearlake continued to splash my face with bass thrashing in the water until she got tired of unhooking them, at least 25 fish from the same spot!They went from tourney keepers to over 5lbs.and it didn't even make a difference what color ya used.They're also on the jig bite pretty good.4th of July on Clearlake, highly recommended,just watch out for drunk a-holes in boats! God bless America,Rich.
    City: Hidden Valley Lakes(Middletown)

    Tips: We used purple neon,rythem & blues,arrons magic, and what ever old stuff I had in worm bag. All nose hooked w/14" leader.Brown jigs w/dark trailer seemed to work good too. Also,pinch down barbs on drop-shot rigs to make it easier on all dem bass so they can become Clearlake trophies!

Wednesday, June 30th, 2004

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    Water Temp: 71-73

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: I ran another marathon at Clear Lake Wed, with a five hour day trip from 6 to 11 am and a night trip from 4 pm to 3 am with an hour dinner break at Konocti. The fellow from southern Cal loved his first time on Clear Lake - weather perfect and bass biting. We started in Konocti Bay with Chug Bugs near the edges of weed patches and rocks and landed 4 to 2 1/2 pounds. The jig and drop-shop bite was excellent also, winding up with 20 bass in the five hour period. He lost the biggest, hooked on a Rodstrainer jig, that seemed to be in the 3 lb plus range. We just stayed in the Konocti Resort area since it was a short trip. The electric grape 4" Berkley Pulse worm was our best drop-shot bait along with the Basstrix bluegill minnow. The afternoon-night trip started with a bang when a regular client (who brought his 9 year-old son for his first night trip) hooked a big bass behind a dock on a 6" purple Senko. I jammed the trolling motor in reverse and with some effort, he got the fish to swim out into open water. I soon netted his beautiful 6 lb 2 oz bass, along with about 6 feet of frayed line! Wow!! Good fish for 5:45 on a summer afternoon. We drop-shotted and Senkoed bass like crazy until dark. The young lad got his share - his biggest at 2-9. After dinner, the wind behaved itself pretty good while we worked the docks at Buckingham and Konotci Bay. While they were worming and Brush hogging, I made myself throw a Rodstrainer Monster King black spinner-bait - ticking the weeds I say that because I know I should be doing that more. I was rewarded with a five pounder and a 2 3/4 pounder. Guess I will be doing that more! Dad was having a lot of success with the black emerald brush hog until we got to Dollar Island! He set on a good fish which made a huge boil in a moonlight after about 15 seconds of battle - and that was it - gone! Trust me - that was a hawg!! The young man was good to go the whole time until he got a little tired after 1 am, losing several on tired hooksets! What a trooper though - he had a ball! What a fabulous trip - over 40 bass and 4 bluegill, with out best five at 20 1/4 lbs! Yes, I think the bite is ok!!
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: It will be very interesting to see if the lake returns to the thick algae. So far, it is only on the surface. However, it still smelled the same when I put my boat back in the garage. Dark colors worked well during the daylight hours - black/grape, electric grape, and junebug were the best. They are excellent when the lake gets color. Look for the bass a little shallower if the algae is thick on top. Don't forget your jigs this summer - they are working fine.

Sunday, June 27th, 2004

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    Water Temp: 74

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Not muddy but green goo on the surface, below which is clear. I fished the night shift till about 3:00 am and took a nap till 9:00 am. A total of 10 fish at night the largest only went 3.2 but enough bites to keep it interesting. Monday was a different story. I had marked a bunch of off shore rock piles around Rattlesnake that topped out around 8-10 feet deep. Thank God for way points and GPS. Crankbaits, lucky craft deep diver in ghost and white normanDD-22 pulled a fish or two of each pile and then I went back through drop shotting the ledges down to 25-27 feet. Good pattern for that day. Cul em rite said best 5 went 17.6 and probably picked up 20 or so fish that morning. A good come back from my Delta Tourn. on Saturday with my big bag of 4.65 lbs. Lesson learned , don't make a run from Big Break to Lost Slough in a 6 hr. Tourn.
    City: Sacramento

    Tips: Fish are concentrated on off shore rock piles in 8-25 foot of water, ( South). I did not fish the North end. The crank bait bite was aggressive and produced the bigger fish by far. Seemed like the first 3-4 casts accross the structure produced the larger more aggresive fish . Drop shotted a pearch colored 3 inch swim bait nose hooked about 12 inches from the weight. This also produced 2 BIG bluegill, Cannabels, and a crappie. Does anyone hear the makings of a milk run? anyway had to leave at 1:00 pm and they were still biting.
    Night fishing for my last two trips is a hit and miss. Last trip the better bite was in the daylight. Beats the gagibbers out of the Delta right now.

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2004

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    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Got out on the lake around 3:00pm. Fished around Konocti bay, Jago bay, and surrounding area. Didn't take long to land the first fish, a nice 3 pound largemouth. To make a long report short by the time we got out of the water at dark we had caught 40+ fish between the two of us. In those 40 there were two 6 1/2lbs, two 5lbs, and probably five or so in the 3-4lb range. The rest were averaging from 1 to 3lbs. Not many shakers either. Went out the very next day and almost duplicated the day before. Throughing mostly green and red pumpkin colored baby brush hogs along with cranks and some other plastics. Brush hogs seemed to work the best.
    City: Pinole

Saturday, June 19th, 2004

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    Water Temp: 74

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: The water isn't really stained, just covered with green stuff. Fished off rocky reefs and main points around the mid-lake area in 8 to 15ft. drop shotting a Basstrix 4" perch (fat minnow) and 3" shad (bait fry)and caught a lot of bass. Our best five went about 33lbs. and best 10 probably close to 50lbs. We missed a lot of hits and caught quite a few small fish and one 12lb. catfish. Fun day!
    City: Sacramento

    Tips: Rig your drop shot hook about 3ft. from the sinker and work offshore rock flats and boulders.

Friday, June 18th, 2004

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    Water Temp: 74-79

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Launched at Red Bud at about 8:15AM and took a nice ride up to the Nice area. On my 2nd flip into some tules with a pig and jig I got a hard bite and set hard. Snap goes the flourocarbon leader! Please don't let that be the only good bite today was the thought that ran through my head. Decided to head up and try Rodman for the first time. It looks great but I didn't get a bite until I got back to the low bridge. At 1PM I got 2 little 12 inchers on a Nories Bug and a chartruese Norman crank. I fished some docks along the west shore with no luck. By now the wind was howling so I headed down to the south west part of the lake. I was seeing a lot of fish in the 9-12 foot range on the meter out in 16- 22 ft. of water. So I did the same thing I did the day before at Berryessa- I trolled that chartruese crank on 12 lb. Big Game and a Striker glass rod. I caught 9 more bass but only half were 12" or bigger- one was 15 1/2" and 2 pounds. The 3 best all came along shorline areas that had big rocks on them. You could actually get within 12-15 ft. of shore in a lot of places. The best part was the looks on the face of the bass boat guys as I'd go by in my aluminum boat- they must have thought I was the most clueless trout troller in the universe. Maybe I should talk my WON bass TOC partner into using the aluminum boat instead of his Ranger! All in all a decent trip but I really was looking for a few nice ones. Next trip!
    City: napa

    Tips: My tip... thank your wife profusely for not insisting you go with her and the baby girl to Minnesota. I've fished every day so far- Berryessa twice, Black Butte, Clear Lake, Lake Henessey, 2 local ponds twice and I still have 3 days to go- ain't vacation GREAT!!!

Wednesday, June 16th, 2004

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    Water Temp: 72-85

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: My buddy and I started off Tuesday evening 6/15 at about 7pm. We hit a point off an island down south near Red Bud with spinnerbaits and rattle traps and caught about 6 fish pretty quick up to approx. 3 1/2 pounds. With all of the carp spawning it made the bite a little tough but we made due. I had two frog blow-ups and landed one @ about 3 pounds. The other one I could not turn her head and she spit my frog. She was a big one!!! We fished till about 8:30pm and ended up with 16 fish. A good amount of them were about 2 to 2 1/2 pounds.
    We started Wednesday in the A.M. at about 5:30 around Rattle Snake. Everywhere we looked there were carp spawning so we got out of there pretty quickly. We flipped Silver Dollar with jig's and 5" senko's and caught 4 fish up to 4 pounds. We wanted to fish up north but the further up we went the nastier the water got. That green algea was every where and it was "Thick." There was no bite up north from what we were doing. We were tossing frogs, buzzbaits, crankbaits, spinnerbaits, senkos and jigs and not a bite. We then took off back down south and stated catching fish on crank baits and drop shot's. One thing we noticed was down south the water temp. was about 70-76 and up north due to the shallow water the temp. was about 82-85. This was a big part of the algea being so thick up there. Not to mention there was no wind what so ever. I was told the wind had been so bad throughout the past couple of weeks, perhaps the fish were not use to the calm weather yet. We ended up with about 13-15 pounds for 5 fish and a total of 25 fish. It was a productive and fun day. Any trip up to Clear Lake is worth it. Good luck and be safe out there!
    City: Walnut Creek

    Tips: Stay away from the carp spawing and thick algea blooms.

Sunday, June 13th, 2004

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    Water Temp: 69-71

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: wow what a trip..our club had their first night tourney of the year ... we started at 6 pm and fished to 8am.. wind blew 15-25 ALL NIGHT ..we did ok as i finished fourth with 12 + our winner had 24 + .. fish caught on the rocky points by konocti resort.. he threw the sweet beaver in black/red.. we ran to oak cove by the boat works in my little 17 foot champion.... and i'll say again champions are about the best rough water boats i've ever been in . they have other problems but not here. we had 9 keepers before dark on wacky wormed senkos and yamamoto cut tail worms. the senkos were blue/smoke and the cut tails watermelon . both fished wacko style.. the wind picked up and the bite died for us so we tied up to a boat slip and napped from 12:30 to 4:30 as it got light we swithed to spinner baits . i caught my fifth and culled four until 6:45 when we decidee to start back and it was really rough in the same place as last weekend ( the konocti bay area)
    City: SUNNYVALE

    Tips: white/chart spinner and speed traps for bigger fish also that sweet beaver. wacky worm slow for loots of fish but including several dinks. get a quick limit on plastics then go hard baits..