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Thursday, June 10th, 2004

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    Water Temp: 68+or-

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Went out for an hour w/ my 6 y.o. daughter late in the afternoon. Wind has really stirred up the algae and weeds are getting thick in many areas. I picked up a 3.5 on a rip baitin the shallows near a steep dropo off and had a blowup on a spook off the tules. Savannah wasn't "slaying" the crappie this trip so got bored easilyhence the "hour".I believe the early AM topwater bite should be there or start very soon.I am up here till Sunday and will try to pass on current info. Tight lines!
    City: Lucerne

Monday, June 7th, 2004

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    Water Temp: 68-72

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Spent a few days on the lake for the WON. Lots of small fish with fish over 4# being very tough to come by. Lots of 4"-13" fish. Bad winds on the lake Sunday have the water clarity poor with visibility ranging from 1-3 feet. Spawn seems to be 95% complete with lots of fish in the post spawn mode already. Fish were spread out depth wise from 2 feet to as deep as 20 feet. In 5 days I had only 4 fish over 4# and caught from 20-100 fish a day (lots of non keepers). Of the bigger fish the biggest was 11.35# and came on a jig out of 20 feet off the end of a dock. Next biggest was a 5.5# that came on a frog from 2 feet. Had a 4# on a drop shot off a dock and a 4.5# on a jig off a retaining wall, both out of 4-6 feet of water. I would classify the fishing for Clearlake as tough right now, although you can catch lots of small fish in some areas. Still lots of shad and bait in most areas so the fish are well fed.
    City: Brentwood

    Tips: Jigs and soft plastics were the ticket for me. I did have a few crank bait fish and a couple blade fish, but the jig and drop shot bites were more productive.

Saturday, June 5th, 2004

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    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: I threw a 1/4 speed trap from 5:30- 8 am, Picking up 20+, Biggest one was 19inches ( around 4-5 lbs) . I fished Pirate cove and fished a 200 yard stretch in a float tube. even caught one on a white buzz bait, single blade, I would like to thank Walton's for hooking me up with current fishing report.
    City: Gold River

    Tips: Bigger fish were caught on the end of the docks but fish were all along the docks.

Sunday, May 30th, 2004

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    Water Temp: 68-69

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Here's something for you Bass Rancher. Fished South End of lake from Konocti to Jago for about three hours Sun and Mon mornings over Memorial Day as the wind started to die down. Cranking tule points over the weeds was effective with Shad type baits in the early hours, switching to a senko bite in the pockets later in the AM. Five or six each day between 2 and 3#. Nothing huge, but they are there.
    City: Manteca

    Tips: It is ALWAYS worth the trip to this lake.

Wednesday, May 26th, 2004

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    Water Temp: 69-72

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: First night trip of the summer. Started out about 5:00 pm outside of Lakeport throwing a Spook,nothing so about 8:00pm I went to Jago and caught 4 or 5 quick 2 lbers dropshotting a trick worm on the outer tulle edge and pockets. Started my night run and did not catch anothre fish until 11:30 which was a huge 11 inches long. Thinking I may have picked a night a little too early in the season I went to one more rock hump and picked up a 10.01 and a 4.39. From 12:00 until the moon set about 1:45 was good, mostly all solid 2-3lbers and no other big fish. Slept in the tulles fromm 2:30 till 9:00 am. Alot of 2lbers on Thursday, again drop shotting and topwater with a Sammy. WINDY.
    City: Sacramento

    Tips: The 10.01 came out of 20 plus feet of water as did the 4.39, same rock pile. Not a mark on either fish so I think they were in the earliest spawn and have already moved into the summer pattern. Favorite night bate, 8 inch Yam. grub, Florida Rig, in black with blue or red flake. Alot of hits on the jig but they were eating my tails of the grub, darn "pearch".Real windy and it was nice not to see a lot of boats this two day trip.

Saturday, May 22nd, 2004

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    Water Temp: 65

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: fished the BnT float tube/kickboat open at clear lake saturday and sunday. drove up to the launch and weigh in site saturday morning, arriving at m&m campground at 3:30 am. This was only my second trip up to clear lake, and i had never fished or seen the area where i launched. launched saturday at 5 am and started off throwing 3/8 oz brown jig. i started fishing docks in the keys. i kept passing patches of what i think was hyacinth and first cast to it, dragged it across the top and dropped it in a hole and it got popped right away, and i was able to bring in my first fish of the day, a 5 even, good start, and the beginning of my days pattern. Picked up my second fish hopping the jig in on the rocky backside of a cove in about 10 ft. of water, 2 lber. About an hour later picked up another 2 lber swimming the jig by a point of hyacinths in about 8 ft. of water. Moved deeper into the keys and picked up my 4th keeper, another 2 lber fishin the jig deep into some bushes. Flipped my 5th keeper, a 1 lber out of hyacinths, flipped right back in and nailed a 2 lber, culling the 1 lber. Caught 2 more 1 lbers right infront of weigh in site, and that was it for day 1. Ended up with 13 1/2 and 2nd place. Day 2 i ran to kenocti bay, launched at kenocti resort and had a limit by 6 30 off one rocky point right in the resort area. caught about 10 fish off that point, all on jigs except 2 dropshotting a brush hog. Came back to the keys at 9 30 and spent the rest of my time in search for a kicker. Culled one for an extra half pound. went into an area i hadn't fished yet with about an hour left in the tournament. There was a cut in a a shoreline of tules for a dock. but at the mouth of that there was a line of rocks that came out about 50 ft from shore. along the rocks there were about 5 trees in a row. first cast under the first tree, the jig got tapped as it was falling. i set the hook hard and new right away it was a good fish. fought the fish hard back to my float tube and saw it below me, easy 5-6 lbs, brought the fishes head up to land, right when its head came out of the water, the jig popped out, and the fish was gone just like that. that moment absolutely killed me mentally, i basically gave up. headed back for weigh in. weighed 11 lbs and took 3rd place with 24 lbs. 2nd place was 24.5 and 1st, was 25. Once i found out that fish would have won it for me i was hurting even more. oh well, theres always next time.
    City: windsor

    Tips: good bite first thing in the morning, as sun comes out fish moved into heavy cover and were hard to get to bite. i fished a jig the whole tournament, couldnt get anything on senkos,spinnerbaits, or cranks, had one hit a swimbait.

Friday, May 21st, 2004

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    Water Temp: 65-68

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Spent three days on Clear Lake this week for my annual birthday big bass hunt. Found lots of fish, just all happened to be of smaller size than I hoped. Wednesday fished senkos, brushhogs, and tubes in and around tules and docks in the north end. Caught nearly 20 fish, best were in the 4#class. Key seemed to be tule points, and or, the entrance to slough like areas. Day two, fished crank baits hard in the am around the narrows. Caught good numbers, but the biggest was 3-4 #'s. Fished white norman deep little N's, and speed traps. Spent some time in Konocti fishing docks and tules. Started catching some nice 3-4#fish on flukes and senkos, but the wind came up a bit and made fishing those area's pretty tough. Fished soda bay and some other areas again with the speed traps in and around rocks. Best fish was again in in the 4# range on a speed trap. The rest of the day fished the tules with a white Timber tiger and different speed traps. Caught fish, but no size to mention. Day three, marine layer and no wind. Figured I'd try and get some topwater action going....nada. Fished cranks with minimal success. Ended up fishing some around Lakeport and flipping some tube fish up, and ended the morning with taking a few crank bait fish around the rocky point area. I always look here for info before I head that way, so hope this might help some folks. Lake is still pretty full, the fish have a lot of room to hide!!! Water clarity depended on where you were. Never saw any fish on beds (spent minimal time).
    City: Chico

    Tips: Green or brown tubes. Watermelon senkos/orange pumpkin worked well aslo. Speed traps, white or red. I tried throwing blades, only one dink (usually this is my best producer?)Tight lines fella's.

Thursday, May 13th, 2004

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    Water Temp: 64-68

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Got a late start on this thursday out of redbud. Looked in several marinas in the south end and found no bed fish. Caught a 2lb out of a tree in the mouth of a little slough and found one small fish kinda guarding an area, but he wouldnt stay on the bed. Looked near Jago, Konocti bay for sight fish, but only found millions of bluegill, hitch, shad and small bass. I finally gave up and enjoyed 15 or so fish on senkos in sparce tulies, under docks. Flipped some fish in thick wood in pm. Tried a double wide sweet beaver for this application. I dont really like the feel of the lure as it is hard and fragile like a senko. It did produce though and I had one swim off with it and I broke 20# test setting on it......rats.
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: I really wanted to try to catch fish on nests, but felt more familiar with the south end. Later reports tell me that this day was the day to sight fish as there was no wind and it was sunny. Maybe next year I'll head to the north end where it is shallower.

Monday, May 10th, 2004

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    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Heads Up. Bowfishing Trny May 22, and 23. Should be a lot of carp guys out the next two weekends. Always looking for tips.

Friday, May 7th, 2004

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    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: I fished Clear lake May 7 - 9. We fished all over the entire lake. There were carp everywhere, but they were MUCH MORE ACTIVE in Cache Creek than anywhere else.
    City: Los Altos

Sunday, May 2nd, 2004

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    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished from May 2nd to 6th and caught alot of bass.I fished all over the lake on different days just looking for a big one.I had a a few fish in the 5lbs range and one about 6lbs.Caught alot of 2 pound fish in the tules on brush hawgs,spinnerbaits.Caught bass on docks dropshotting,and ripping.The bigger fish were eating up a frog in the isolated weed patches around the lake.Over all it was a great week and I look foward to returning soon.
    City: Winston

    Tips: Look for clear water.Everyday was different with the wind changing directions daily.

Saturday, May 1st, 2004

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    Water Temp: 63 - 69

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished the lake the past 10 days and it was pretty darn good. The first 3 days featured hot weather with no wind and the bed fish were easy pickins. Every day after that, the wind blew pretty hard and a small front came through which moved alot of fish off. We just adjusted though and found them again. Every year, my buddies and I come up for a week and this is probably the 2nd best trip we've had up here. The bast was 4 years ago. HOLY CHRIST! A few observations from this year: 1)The water is clear in random spots. You really have to figure out the spot within the spot. 2)I've never seen so many 8 - 12 inch Bass roaming the shallows as I have this past trip. It's apparent that the last couple spawns have been awesome. 3) There were millions, scratch that, BILLIONS, of shad all over the place. I think one reason the bite was slower than it should have been was because of this factor. All in all, we had a fantastic time and can't wait til next year. Best fish was almost nine with countless 5 - 7 pounders mixed in. No monsters.
    City: Placentia, CA

    Tips: Swimbaits were slow, jerkbait bite was there but it was hard to catch quality, dropshot bite was stupid but mostly for rats, sight bite was solid, senko bite was slow as well. Good Luck!

Saturday, April 24th, 2004

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    Water Temp: ?????

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished a club tourney along with all the future pro boats and had a blast. Launched out of County Park and with my big motor ailing from a hole in one piston I had to fish the area all day. After watching everyone blast out at 60 mph+ I wandered over to Corenthian Bay and threw reaction baits till the sun was up a little with no takers (ripbait, popper, and crank). Caught a 1 1/2 on a wacky style senko and the fortune hit me like a ton of bricks. While talking to a wonderful lady about her flowers, I saw a flash in front of me and after staring through the stained water a minute, I saw what I thought was a 4 lb female on a bed. Threw a jig at her for a while but no dice, so I grabbed a little white Gitzit tube and pitched in. Well, the "female" started to back out of the bed and then a huge shadow appeared out from under my boat and scared the %&*# out of me. What I thought was a carp swam over to the bed and turned left. That's when I saw that beautiful lateral line running down the side of that fish and then it struck me that my tube was gone! I set up and saw the flash and it was on! I was by myself, since my partner was a no show, so I proceeded to entertain the homeowners trying to net that fish by myself but had a blast anyway. She was 8.55 on the scales and along with her male (the only locked on bed fish I saw that day) and two other dropshot rats, I had 16.50 and first place (second was 9.80) and I did it all within sight of the launch ramp. What a day!
    City: Ukiah

    Tips: No reaction bite but caught a lot of 11-12 inchers on a red dropshot worm on the tule point. Saw a lot of fish move up as the afternoon moved on but they were doing a lot of rubbing before finding their bed spot. Water is murky so some bedding is going on deeper than you can see. With the forcast calling for very warm temps, it should be red hot very soon. Call Ross and Ed at Tackle It in Lakeport for the best and most up to date fishing info, they have been responsible for some of my best days on this lake. Tight lines and don't give up!

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    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished the Future Pro Tour today. We had 146 boats out there. Who would've thought we would outdo the 143 at Berryessa. Vince deserves a pat on the back as well as his staff and the anglers fishing the tournament. We've got great sponsers out there supporting the tour, so it makes it great to fish. Andy Cuccia and the tour donated $500 to the Boys and Girls club of America! What a great thing to be a part of. Well now to the fishing. Shaun and I started out fishing docks and tules early on with jigs and brush hogs. We put 12-13 inchers in the boat one after another for the first couple hours, we knew we needed some bigger fish. Ran to rattlesnake island fished some more tules and trees with senkos and jigs and spinnerbaits on the outside edge. Than ran to fish some more tules. Fishing the back of tules and anywhere in the trash there was a hole I could put a senko in, produced fish. Then as the afternoon progressed anywhere with some shade from the beating sun held fish. Broke a jig hook on a nice one from under a dock. 12.52 lbs was good enough for a 3rd for us. 14 won the small boat division. It took 24 to win the big boat division.
    City: rescue

    Tips: Senkos in the trash n' tules, jigs under docks, brush hogs. Many anglers were drop shotting the outside of the tule lines. Didnt hear of any bed fish being taken, most big fish were on senkos.

Wednesday, April 14th, 2004

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    Water Temp: 59-60 south of

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Caught one on green hula grub right off the bat, then later hooked a another on a brush hog right in the tules, later during the evening used a 4in. purple worm on south shore of lake,rigged it texas style, and caught 10 on that, the next day I used that all day on south shore of lake, and caught 10, all the fish where small none where over 2 pounds, but caught one 8 pd. and he ran in the tules and ended up getting off.
    City: watsonville

    Tips: fish are on the fronts of the tules are in them, fish points and under trees, fish slow. wind was also really bad on the second day, and cold.

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    Water Temp: 45ish

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished Evestart @ clearlake, man it was tough, (for me!) my pro had is game plan set on bed fish, but the wind stained most of the water. That was great for me.Caught two 2-3pounders on white spinner bait.Late morning caught another on green 8inch sinko in one of the sloughs. My pro cought one on a sinko all day.Swimbait and jig were not working for us today. My second day pro did very well drop shotting with 15inch leader on a 4inch green weenie.He caought 14 pounds the second day to put him on the top 20 to continue the Everstat series,. I cought two for 6 pounds drop shotting.
    City: Elk Grove

    Tips: fish tight on tulies and points drop shotting!

Saturday, April 10th, 2004

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    Water Temp: 48-72 (04/07 th

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Early wednesday morning i headed to clear lake for four day days of dawn til' dusk bassin. I was unpleasantly suprised that morning by 48 degree water at the mouth of rodman slough. I Originally thought that my temp gauge had gone haywire til' i stuck my paw in the water-brrrr!-it was cold. Jerkbaits did not produce but the flip bite started to come through when the sun hit the water. My partner and i were able to boat about a dozen gutter weisels before we headed down to the south end where the water, to my surprise, hovered around sixty. A few more keepers and it was time to hit the hay and get ready for thursday. With the water warmer on the south end we decided to start there first thing. It was a a free-4-all for the next 12 hours! I alone used up four packs of creature baits, three packs of senkos, and numerous other soft plastics. My boat was a virtual graveyard for worms by the end of the day. Lost count of the total #(probably around 75 at least) but weighed the five biggest for about 16lbs. Friday morning started differently, (probably because i lost sleep in anticipation of another day like thursday), it was slower most of the day but bites yeilded larger fish. I was able to catch two donkeys on a swimbait late in the morning weighing about 5.5 and 7.5. Also flipped 3 more around 4lbs at different times during the day. With a good day on friday I decided to fish Anglers Choice with my buddy Gary Churchill the following morning. We had a fun day but fell short of money by about a pound. The fish really seemed to come in to spawn and it took over thirty to win and 19.5 to check. We stopped at several places and saw many, many fish cruising and on beds. We were unable to get any of those huge fish that seemed to be suspended, (they were just trying to get a tan I guess). If we would have known that there would have been so many spawners we might have had a different gameplan, but I had an absolute blast and i can't wait to go back to clear lake where it's always high tide!(i usually fish the delta)
    City: fairfield

    Tips: prespawn bass like the bulky plastics, fish them slow and early, switch to the beds or a swimbait in the afternoon for larger fish.

Thursday, April 8th, 2004

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    Water Temp: 56-59

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Spent the past 2 days with clients at a well behaved Clear Lake. The shoreline was beautiful, birds were singing, and the lake was calm or slightly breezy. Wow! The fishing was very good if you pretended you were fishing Oroville or Shasta. We caught 21 fish on Wed and 14 on Thurs - all except 5 at the 1 1/4 to 2 3/4 pound size - about a 2 pound average. And they are footballs. Also saw some small bass from last years spawn - another good sign. We saw everything except large bass and carp for that matter. Water is clear enough to see some bass if you look hard. They just havn't moved shallow yet, at least at the noth end. The early warm spell didn't speed up the spawning cycle because, I believe, it came too early. Now the water has cooled again because of the latest cold fronts, and as the previous post suggested, the spawn will be in later April or in May. Soft plastics and jigs worked well for us, as long as they were worked slowly. One of my clients on Tues caught his first bass on a jig, and another, and another, etc! He was very excited!! He was using the brown/orange Rodstrainer jig with #180 Yamamoto grub. I was using a purple/black/blue Rattlin' Weapon jig with #157 grub. Both worked well. I had one of the clients use a chartreuse jig which is good for shallow bass. He did hook a big fish but lost it. I lost a good one too. The black/red baby brush hog worked well in the afternoons, as did a Zoom cotton candy lizard in the clearer water we found. Berkley Pulse worms (6 inch) and Dead Ringers produced a lot of fish. We found males as shallow as 2 feet. The Senko bite is getting better - we caught several using colors #221 and #222. Most of the fish were 6 to 12 feet and tight to cover. We caught some moving worms slow through tules and I caught one rippin' and one on a Terminator spinnerbait first thing in the morning in offshore tule beds. Thurs client loves to rip but we got no more doing that.
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: As I mentioned, fish were tight to cover, fairly shallow, after 11 am. One good pattern was to find shadows at the corner of a wall - a bass or two were always there. Drop-shotting didn't work too well for us - didn't get many on pilings. The fishing for big bass will improve soon. Remember, Clear Lake takes longer to warm up because of the wind factor and because the nights are cooler at 1300 feet.

Tuesday, April 6th, 2004

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    Water Temp: 57

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Spent a couple days at Clear Lake w/ Jimbo from Norman, OK. Wind and fronts moving through early in the week made the bite slow down a bit. Averaged ~15 fish/day, largest ~ 4lbs. Most were 2-3 lb footballs, with a few dinks thrown in. Saw no beds, or cruising fish the whole trip. All fish were shallow and very tight to cover. 5-7 feet was the magic depth (tules, tules, tules).
    City: Castro Valley

    Tips: Fish plastics very slow (7X Kut tail in #208, and Super Flukes in Watermellon seed & Smokin' Shad), and very tight to cover. TONS of shad in the Keys and in Rodman. With the warmer weather predicted for this weekend, it might really cut loose, but still seems a few weeks and some stable weather away from busting open.

Sunday, April 4th, 2004

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    Water Temp: 52-66

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Wow what a week...arrived in Nice last Saturday to find HEAVY winds thru monday.....didnt spend much time on the water till tuesday when we went out with Larry Hemphill. I was very impressed with his knowledge both of the lake and bass in general-a VERY pleasent individual that I enjoyed fishing with very much-thanks Larry! Well like Larry said tuesday we did-well OK with the 21 fish for the three of us. I do have to be honest though it was a "lake learning" trip so that helps ease the pain! Weds we really wanted to go back to the spots Larry had showed us on Tuesday but we wanted to respect the fact he would probably take weds. client there too. We tried the same wall pattern around state park and up into Lakeport and squeked out one little dink....we just couldnt find the warmer water in those areas. Lucky for us Larry came buzzing by and after BS'ing with him we hauled tail back to where he had taken us the previuos day. Right away we started catching fish and managed to squeak out like 11 in three hours. Thursday was a different story....I am amzed at the water we fished-if a bass fisherman were to have a dream we were fishing the type of water he was dreaming about up in Rodman...we fished HARD for hours with everything you can imagine....NADA! We came back out and got a couple on the east side of the rodman bridge.We finished thirsday with a very disturbing 9 fish. We decided for friday since it was our last real full day of fishing we would head south-went into Konocti bay and instantly started catching fish....we caught about 25 in less than 2 hours. We were low on gas and energy so we headed for the resort in Nice and we were flagged down by our kids fishing from the resorts dock-2 at better than 10lbs were hovering under the dock! Our kids had been fishing for the past 3 hours right at the resort and were knocking them dead! My daughter was catching 2-3lbers like there was no problem! We-being the great fathers we are,beached the boat and started fishing in our kids spot and caught 40-50 more fish in the next 3 hours! We had a wonderful trip,the people in the area are so warm-this has to be what heaven is like! Thanks to all the great people at the Worldmark/Trendwest resort in Nice,Bob Higgins @ Limit Out Tackle in Clearlake Oaks,Ross @ Tackle It in Lakeport and of course that great professor of bass fishin'Larry Hemphill! We didnt get that lunker over 10 lbs this trip but we will be back to try again reeeeeal soon-our biggest fish probably went a shade over 3 (yep one of my daughters!) but it was a great week. Tight Lines!
    City: chowchilla,ca.

    Tips: Here is my secret....just because fishing is so tough right now I'm gonna spill the beans. 1/8-1/4 oz (I prefer 1/8 oz) darter heads with 6" Roboworm Aarons Magic straight tail worms (look back at my report from last october-same baits!) a bit of Smelly Jelly and near brush / tules / walls / docks / COVER! Like Larry mentioned jigs worked well as did blades/crankbaits/senko's in the right water.Didnt get any on takers on ripbaits / swimbaits. PLEASE practice catch and release-we saw some greenhorn at our resort catch a big fat egged up female about 5-6lbs and right on the stringer she went-tried like hell to get him to release her but he was intent on eating her-sad deal....should be against the law! I know in "basstamer's ville" it would be ;) Good luck-tight lines and take your kids fishing-its fun to have em kick your tail once in awhile!