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Friday, February 16th, 2001

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    Water Temp: low 50s

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Fished Friday rom 1-5 PM. Only tried a drop shot rig with a 3/8 Jig on the bottom with a 4" worm 1 t up rom the jig.Caught 4 ish all in the 2 lbs range. All hit the worm not the jig. All were caught past the narrows up against blus in 25 t o water. Bites were solid. Worm color was shad. Went back on Saturday or a repeat perormance. Went to the same places and used the same tactics and could not buy a nibble. Overcast and light rain may have made the dierence. I was too inlexible to change tactics.
    City: Foster City

    Tips: Drop shot may not work every time out. Be lexible and be willing to change tactics i what you expect to happen doesn't. I need to take my own advise. I may have caught more ish i I had tried other baits.

Saturday, February 3rd, 2001

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    Water Temp: ?

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: With the weather projected to be 70 degrees I knew who my ishing partner would be on Saturday. My wie joined me again this week and we both agreed to keep the dog home. Hard to set the hook when you are pulling a 90 lb. Lab into the boat ater she took an unexpected dip or the 5th time!!!We ished 5 o the usual spots (rocky shorelines, airly steep drops, rom 20 to 30 t depths) rom 7:30 to 1:30. We wound up with 15 bass (1 smallie) while split shotting o the bottom. No size today as they all ran rom 1 to 2 lb. Lost at least a dozen others in this time. I have to admit that today I was not #1. My wie landed 8 bass while I had 7. At 1:30 I was urther behind (4 to 8) when we started striper ishing or 1 hour with out any success. We then switched to trout trolling or the next 1.5 hours. At 4 PM I was desperate and hit 2 spots I saved or an emergency. At the irst spot I landed 2 quick bass to make it 6 to 8. I moved to my last spot and at 4:55 I got slammed. I set the hook only to eel a ish being dragged through a bush. Well the bush won! It was now 5 PM and time to go. My better hal keeps the trophy or the day with a inal count in her avor o 8 to 7 (she also caught a Sacramento pike (??) so in reality she beat me by 2.Can

    Tips: Get out o the house, orget the chores and go ishing!!

Thursday, February 1st, 2001

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    Water Temp: cold

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: I heard on the radio the weather was going to be good so it became imperative that I use it to my advantage by going ishing! Knowing that it was going to be colder than Siberia in the morning we didn't actually get on the water till 8:30am - sun shining with a very minor breeze coming rom the South. We stayed in the narrows throwing Mepp's or the irst 30 minutes along with a ew shore ishermen with no action at all. Hence, we moved to the rock wall on the right (past the narrows) and tried a new technique "drop-shotting". Even had to get out the paper that shows how to tie a Palomar knot. My partner and I were trying this or the irst time so we thought it would take some time. Wrong! First drop down my partner pulled a at, chunky 2.1 lb largemouth that came up out o the water like a water-logged stick. No ight at all. We thought it was dead. Ater CPR, the ish came back to lie. It was probably in shock because it wasn't caught by Bubba o Fremont. Instead, it was caught by Tom o Fremont. On the second drop, Tom nailed a bright 16" Silver Salmon. Now that was a beautiul ish. Both o these were caught at 30 eet. Next, we went across the lake to the other rock wall. We drited the entire wall at 30' deep with no hint o a strike. So we moved to 50' and guess who nailed another beautiul Salmon - Tom ! I was starting to think drop-shotting was only or people rom Fremont. We headed to the mouth o Badger Cove and I picked up 4 Largies in 45 minutes (1.8, 1.7, 1.3, 1.0). OK - Now I'm eeling better about this drop-shotting thing. Tom eventually picked up a small largemouth just beore leaving that spot. (Tom-4, Gary-4). We headed to the dam and ished the rock point to the let o the dam. Nothing doing and no ish marked on the inder. We needed to break the tie, so with only 20 minutes let in the day, we headed to the rock wall to the right o the dam. First drop produced a 1.4 largemouth or guess who ! (I you guessed Tom - you were wrong). Now, with 5 minutes let, Tom needed a miracle. We drited over the cement piling and Tom got the 'TAP' signaling 'miracle about to happen'. So he 'set the hook' (which, by the way, is what you don't do when you are behind by 1 ish with only 5 minutes let) and he pulled the bait right out o the ishes mouth. So, we inished at 3:00pm with 9 ish. My ive bass would have gone about 7.2 lbs.
    City: San Jose

    Tips: Fish were 35-40 eet deep. Drop-shotting is a viable technique or winter bass ishing.

Tuesday, January 23rd, 2001

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    Water Temp: 49.2

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Fished rom "7:20"am until 2:00pm. Started at the rock wall near the dam. Nothing doing, worked our way around the wall and had a serious hit below the concrete cylinder. Lost him ater about a 3 second encounter. Only excitement all day. Four boats were docked and ishing in shallow water. Saw two trout as we pulled into the marina.
    City: San Jose

    Tips: The top 10' o water seems to be doing the best.

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    Water Temp: 48.5 degree's

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Well Bubba, it seems like you had a good ishing day again. Everytime I was trolling by, you were nailing another bass into the boat. You've got some good spots and I'll have to hook up with you someday and you'll have to show me the secret. Thanks or the comments on the boat. It is nice.See you out on the lake sometime again.
    City: milpitas

    Tips: ish around Bubba

Saturday, January 20th, 2001

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    Water Temp: ?

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Somebody please slap me. Is it really January? Another great day and I am deinitely thinking the bass are still biting! I couldn

    Tips: ish deep, but not as deep as winter usually orces us.

Monday, January 15th, 2001

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    Water Temp: cold

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Fished usual spots, did well on the splitshot crawlers.Looking or live crawdads , i anyone knows where I could score some the ino would be much appreciated.
    City: Dublin

Saturday, January 13th, 2001

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    Water Temp: 56

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Went to Dell Valle today and ished the eed in creek. We got 4 trout each to about 2 pounds and lost a ew others. they were hitting rapala countdowns and bass tubes i you can believe that. It was a clear and very sunny day and i had a heck o a un time. thanks to Bassen Boy or showing my whats up and where this treasure is. Anyway i got to go but hit it up i you can.
    City: Piedmont

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    Water Temp: 48

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Well I was ten minutes late this morning,but it was not as crowded today.Finally motored my way to the dam and immediately started crankin a 15' runner against the rocks,with no takers.Moved around the corner and stuck a mean'ol Bronzeback on a clown ripbait.The red eyed chunk weighed 2.1, but still made me work like mad to land him with those sketchy treble hooks.Kept ishing and stuck a 1.9 blackie in 25' o the bird cages with a brown jig.Ditched my boat when i ran into delta Dan out there.We ished pretty slow with spider grubs the rest o the day,and stuck one more blackie in about 19'on rocks.Better ish about 3lbs and shook Delta Dans spider jig out at the boat.Bummer!A very un day o ishing with one o the nicest isherman ive met.Thanx Dan.Timdog, thanx or the insight and ino on bass boats that you gave me at the launch ramp.All you guys watch out or timdogs gal,she's gonna be a stick!She even backed down the ramp by hersel like a pro.Slow bite,but a great day on ol'delvalle.Tight Lines to all!!!!!!!
    City: livermore

    Tips: Wind can sometimes be wicked out here, but its always good or the bite here.Even in winter.This is when I like try or reaction bites.Ripbaits and at cranks.Bang them as hard as you can against anything,and always cast into the wind.This wind causes current around around the rocky blus which helps position the shallow ish. P.S.,The smallies really like chartreuse here too.

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    Water Temp: 49

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: I have never ished here beore, my iance and I decided to go try it out, got on the water at 12:30 and ished until three. 2 very solid keepers on 1/4 oz dartheads, shakin rainbow 3" zipper worms- blue ghost. Pretty much just out havin un.Had three other solid thumps on c-rig junebug brush hogs. It was a un day, not a bad body o water at all or something so close.
    City: Sa Ramon

Sunday, January 7th, 2001

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    Water Temp: ?

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Went out at about 8:30am wanted to try dropshot out or irst time. Tried blus and rockpiles in the narrows and by the dam. Started o in about 25 to 35 eet o water wacthing the graph.ound a school about 33 eet caught one largemouth about 1.25 o 2" blue ghost reaper, ished area or about 25 min with no more bites. moved to dam area ound some larger schools in 55 to 60 eet o water, caught two more largemouths one 2.25 the other about 1.75,ound some more schools in the 55 to 60 depth range but could not get them to strike . I think i could have got some more ish but i had to pack up early and go to work. Oh well get em next time.
    City: hayward

    Tips: Most o the ish seemed to be in the 55 to 60 oot range probably due to the bright sunny no wind days that we have had. No smallmouths ,they usually like the brown colored plastics over the shad and blue ghost colored ones i was using,did not try any brown or green worms.Just A thougt.

Saturday, January 6th, 2001

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    Water Temp: 47-48 deg

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Caught ish rom 0' to 50' with most caught on c-rigged shad type 4" worms. Caught about 15 keepers between the two o us rom 1-3+ lbs, all blacks. Later in the aternoon started catching the ish much shallower as the sun went behind the steep banks.
    City: Livermore

    Tips: Slow and move between 25-50' and as the day goe on try up shallower with reaction (small ripbait)

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    Water Temp: ?

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Today I promised to take my wie and dog ishing. Weather has been comortable and the ish have been cooperating. Wasn't so much concerned about my wie but the dog had me concerned. She is a great house dog and a beautiul choc. lab weighing 90 lb. When she gets outside or even suspects she is going outside she gets very excited and hard to control. She's just a teenager (3 yrs)! I have always wanted a good ishing dog so with my wie along thought it was time to start getting her out. What a mistake. Beore I could even wet a line I was ready to pull the boat out and go home.Thought I would make it a little easier on my sel, so I bought 5 dz jumbo minnows ($54.00!!!). Figured it might get expensive teaching my wie how to deep ish artiicial.We hit most o my usual spots. I tried to keep the boat in 30 t o water. I know a lot o guys are hitting the 50 to 60 t depths but I have ound the active ish are holding at about 25 t.Best 2 spots today:1.let hand side o lake ater the narrows where irst bay starts, rocky shoreline2.in ront o spillway (right below log barrier which is sitting on shore due to low water.)We used simple outits, spinning reels with 8# and 6 t Fenwick rods. A hook, minnow and split shot was all that we used. We would try to bounce the bait right o the bottom. All day long I only graphed ish 2 times and they were solitary ish (no schools) hugging no more than 3 t o the bottom.The bites were mixed. 1/2 were aggressive and very noticeable (hard to miss all that line ripping o an open spinning reel) and the other 1/2 were just a slight sensation o weight on the line (like some weeds were picked up).Between the 2 o us we landed 16 or 17 bass (lost count). 3 were smallies in the 2 to 2.5 lb range. 2 largies about 1.5 and the rest were solid 2.5 to 3 lb ish. The wie's largest weighed just over 4 lb. My largest or the day was a beautiul and FAT 5.25. The ish were all large and healthy and put up a great ight. Only 2 ish broke water and the rest stayed deep. We had several hits that we lost (dog in the way, helping wie with a tangle, etc). In act I lost 5 in a row (2 the hook came o ( better practice my knot tying!), 2 wrapped in trees and 1 came o 5 t under the boat. We also missed several ish on the hook sets. The minnows were probably too large and we should have let them eed some more. We wound up using all the minnows but 6.
    City: Fremont

    Tips: Fish a little shallower than traditional winter days. Wether has been warm and bass are eeding hard on crawdads and shad. Stay close to bottom and ish slow.

Tuesday, January 2nd, 2001

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    Water Temp: 47-48 degrees

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Decided to learn the dropshot today. Worked it or 3 hours and maybe one bite. Nothing on a jig either. So back to the split-shot and 4" shad worm. Finally got the ish, all but one ish were 50-60' deep, the lone 'shallow' ish was 25-30' deep. One smallie, rest were blacks - 8 nice keepers total rom 1.5-3 lbs each. Ater that 'bite ' window rom 11-1:00 I never got bit again. Darn this nice weather. Tried shallow but nothing seemed to have moved up but then again thewater is real cold, a big high pressure sitting over us or weeks, lots o sun and very little wind makes or a tough winter bite. Only graphed one o the ish I caught - they must be hugging the bottom...
    City: Livermore

    Tips: slow and then slower, deep! Pray or rain !!

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    Water Temp: cold

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: I got a chance to ish over the holiday week and ater catching a limit o trout I decided to try and catchsome bass.I had read some o the reports and laughed at theireworks between "buba" and the other guys.I was not ableto do as well as "Buba" had done,but I did catch two niceblackies on an oxblood worm in about 30 t. o water.Notmuch wind made or a GREAT day.
    City: San Leandro

    Tips: SLOW SLOW SLOW splitshoting.

Friday, November 24th, 2000

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    Water Temp: 51.5 deg

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Lake is real low even or this time o the year. Went to the dam end where the water is clearer and ished DEEP breaklines in and around bait. Partner pulled in 6 keepers with three o them solid, at 3 lbers. All 50'+ on c-rig 4" shad worm. Fish had to be needled. Lots o boats, most were trout isherman. I the lake gets any lower I'm not sure i people can launch bigger boats at the ramp.
    City: Livemore

    Tips: slow and deep.....

Monday, October 30th, 2000

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    Water Temp: ?

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished on saturday 10/28. Arrived at the gate about 5:45, only 1 car in ront o me. Gate was opened by 5:50 and my boat was loating by 6:05. Stll very dark and oggy. I motored to my irst spot right past the narrows on the right. Fished the rocky steep drop o. Still pitch black out and I will assume that is the reason things stared out so gloomy. I had 3 solid hit and runs but no ish landed. It is now starting to get light out and WHAM a 2.5 lb. largie. 2 Minutes later a smaller 13 inch ish. Next cast produces my biggest ish o the day. This one goes 5.25 lb. Water is lat and no wind. Temp is a little mild but still nice. A lot o suracr action all around me. I suspect smallies eeding on shad. I continued down the rest o this shoreline (about 100 yards) and totaled 10 largemouth at this irst stop. I lost at least 5 additional. In act the spot was so productine I thought I would go back to the beginning (where I lost the irst 3) and try again. It has now been 1.5 hours since I irst hit this spot ( I usually leave ater 30 minutes). I decided to try to igure out what all the top water acticity was. I tossed out a small black rapala (jointed) and rolled the 100 yards back to my start point. Within 2 minutes a solid hit but no hook up. I was now back at my starting point. I ished ny same area gain and landed 3 more bass in the 2 to 3 lb range (glad I came back).Decided 13 rom 1 hole was good enough so I cut across the lake to ish the other side o the narrows. On my last trip this spot yielded 16 ish (2 weeks ago). I ished this shoreline or about 1 hour and pulled out 8 buetiul bass (all 2 to 4 lb). I tried one more spot and landed 3 more largies and 1 smallie.Now 11 AM and I have 25 bass landed. I decided to try or trout. I trolled or 2 hours (used at least 10 dierent lures). Wind came up, rain came down and i put my rain gear on. I inally caught a 2.5 lb trout on a Fire Tiger Rapala (jointed).Went back to bass ishing and landed 3 more bass in the 2 to 3 lb range. Got tired o ighting the wind so I decided to go home and see i my amily remembered who I was.All I can say is everyone I talked to was catching bass. Many people also had some nice trout. A riend o mine went late on Sunday (29th) ater the rain stopped. He ished rom 10 AM to 4 PM and caught 27 bass all in the 1 to 3 lb range ishing the same spots I did on Saturday.
    City: Fremont

    Tips: Surace bit looks promising. Fish are deinetly active as all bites wwere VERY aggressice.

Friday, October 27th, 2000

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    Water Temp: 68

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: A riend and I arrived at the lake at 8:00am with it still misting. It had been raining three days previous and was expecting a pretty slow day. Went into the narrows and put on a Panther Martin (black/gold blade) while my buddy put on some powerbait. He had been soaking powerbait or 15 minutes beore I made my irst cast, but it was a good irst cast - yielding a nice 12" trout. We went into Badger Cove and I put on my avorite bass jig (Yamamotto spider grub in clear with large black lake). First cast again gave me a nice largemouth (~2lbs). Went back to trout ishing. Tried power bait but nothing there. Trolled some small silver spinners and that was the ticket as it really matched the small bait ish that are clustered into tight schools. Trout and bass just love 'em. Ended up catching 7 trout and the 1 bass or the day. I should have stayed with bass ishing as the rain did not put a damper on the bite. Another guy said he limited on trout in the irst hour by using a silver spinner in the shallows adjacent to the clis o the narrows. We caught our trout in 7-10 eet o water while Mr. Bass was around 25 eet deep.
    City: San Jose

Thursday, October 26th, 2000

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    Water Temp: don't know

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: My riend Eric caught a huge crappie on nitecrawlers in Swallow Bay and I caught a nice 2pd. smallie on a 4 inch Brush Hog ( watermellon/red) The wind was terrible!
    City: Livermore

Monday, October 16th, 2000

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    Water Temp: ?

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Fished Sunday (10/15). Arrived at gate at 5:55 and 4 cars ahead o me. Launched boat while it was still dark and proceeded to the end o the narrows and started ishing my special "large tail white worm" right side rock wall in about 25 t o water. Took about 15 minutes to hook the irst largemouh. Nothing special but about 13 inches. Next cast produced a slightly larger ish. Still dark and I motored across the way to a small rocky shoreline and started ishing. Had a good bite and lost it. Let the "worm" there and another came back and ate it "hard". This one went about 2 lb.I moved across the way where I have seen a lot o striper activity and put down 2 broken back Rapalas and trolled around or 45 minutes with out any hits. Seing as how this is in the area o one o my avorites spots I reeeled up and started worming this rocky area in 30 t o water. Action was hot. In the next 1.5 hours I caught 16 ish in one "hole". I caught 3 catish (4, 5 & 7 lb), 2 stripers (19 & 17.5 inch), 2 small mouth and 10 largemouth. Most bass about 2 lb. One smallmouth and one large mouth about 3 lb.Hit one more spot and had only 1 bite and missed it. Moved to dam and picked up a couple largemouth in 20 t o water.Trolled or trout or 45 minutes with no luck so I decided to call it a day at 3 PM and go home. Total count or the day 25 ish. 20 bass, 3 catish and 2 stripers.Did see one guy in a rental toplining or trout. He said action was red hot trolling orange rapalas in the area o dam and spill way. He also claimed to have lost a 5 lb striper at the net (probably more like 17 inches). Not a large crowd today and most people ishing narrows and coves. Dam area was empty.Todays bites were all very aggressive. Fish would hit and run (stripers ran like a train!!).
    City: Fremont

    Tips: Try 20 to 30 t o roch walls with a slow drit or assist by trolling motor.white or orange colors.