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McClure Lake and Reports

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Saturday, November 25th, 2006

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    Water Temp: 60.5 to 62.5

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: We had about 20 fish, but only 7 keepers for about 8 1/2lbs. All our keepers were about a pound except for our big fish a 2 1/2 lb. spot my partner caught. We caught fish in 5 to 60 feet of water. ALL our fish came on worms (we did throw swimbaits, spinnerbaits, crankbaits, ripbats, jigs, and even spoons without being touched). Most of the fish came on darterheads and brass and glass, but we did catch a couple dropshoting. We caught them on 4" and 6" Keeper 082 with red, red and green, and gold flake, as well as Roboworms in Aarons Magic with no flake. We caught fish on rock, and "nothing banks", but most of the keeper fish came IN or AROUND WOOD. There was quite a few boats out there, that being said hopefuly some of those folks will post reports as well. I noticed a couple of the Motherloads "Big Sticks" out there so maybe they will let us know what was working.
    City: Modesto

    Tips: Worms in and around wood in 25 to 35 feet of water.

Friday, November 24th, 2006

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    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Went on our annual day after thanksgiving fishing trip. Caught six bass lost two. All fish were caught drop shooting MM Rabo worms tried other stuff but nothing else worked.
    City: Hollister

    Tips: Didn't catch anything in the Merced River

Saturday, November 18th, 2006

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    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Great report JT, thanks for the info.
    City: Atwater

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    Water Temp: 60

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Didn't get on lake until 7:30..fished narrows on way to Horseshoe..there were two tournaments fishing today..A club and A.C.Teams..Lot of boats but no one on my stuff..I fished one cut that had wind blowing in and stuck a 3 1/2 spot on a swimbait....then another boat flew in and almost ran me over and spooked the fish. Went up river and fished steep cuts on both sides..Caught a lot of small fish on dropshot..Started throwing jigs and the bite was on..threw brown/purple 1/2oz football jig with a netbait paca chunk pumpkin color and caught a easy 12lb limit..in about one hour..fishing the end of points downwind in about 30ft any shallower and caught small fish..the best bite was 30 to 38 feet deep..just dragging..no hops..didn't get a thunk all day..just went weightless and they were there..about noon I think every boat on the lake came into the river and you had to wait your turn..most boats were dropshoting and catching small fish..
    City: Madera

    Tips: fish up hill..put your boat shallow and drag uphill

Wednesday, November 15th, 2006

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    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Has anyone been fishing McClure lately? I'm planning on doing some fishing over the Thanksgiving holiday and would appreciate any input. I haven't been up there in a few months.

    Thanks,

    Steve
    City: Atwater

Friday, October 20th, 2006

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    Water Temp: 69

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Friday evening white buzzbait 15 bass around 2 lbs. missed about the same amount. Saturday only a couple in the early morning. Not one worm fish. That evening only one on a buzzbait but it was a 4 lbser.
    City: Hanford

Wednesday, October 18th, 2006

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    Water Temp: 68-69 degrees

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: The water was crystal clear. Visibility to 15 feet! I fished the western corner of the dam at 25-35 feet and caught 12 fish largemouth 2-4 lbs. No dinks. I caught them on a pro Worm brown/red flake/chartreuse pattern. (crawdad). I jigged the worm on the concrete shelf from 15 feet to the strike range and them Wham!..each time I caught a 14-18" bass. I fished from 0630 and by 0700 I had caught 12 Black Bass 2-4 lbs. After 0800 I fished every point down the lake taking 1-2 fish 1.5 to 3 lbs on either craw pattern for baby brush hogs at 20-30 feet. I never used any topwater or blades. I just pulled up to a point and dropped a carolina rigged plastic (craw/shad or watermelon baby brush hog) on the edge of darkwater and started working it behind the boat. I got this idea from an old timer who pulled up to dock two days ago with a five fish limit of 16 pounds! He told me the bass were deep, and he was right! The lake is pre turnover, so the fish are hanging 20-30 feet at this point. I caught a few bass on smoke and chartreuse as well. I have never caught so many quality fish in one day (total 30 bass >2 lbs..biggest 4lbs)..hope this bodes well for fall bassin' at Mcclure.
    City: Merced

    Tips: Craw pattern and Shad pattern off of points 20-30'..catch 1-2 then move on. The best fishing so far has been from 0630-1000 and 5:00PM to dark. After the water cools off, I think the fishing should be off the hook!

Saturday, October 14th, 2006

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    Water Temp: 69-72

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Whoa, my 10 yera old Grandson, Cade and I spent the day on McClure Saturday and what a pleasure it was. We caught over 50 fish mostly 1.5 - 2 pounders but one four pound spot. What really amazed me was the number of yearling and 2 year old Largemouth that we caught. At least 3 to one Largemouth and even one Smallmouth, I haven't caught a Smallmouth on McClure since the 80's and they used to be up the river, this one was in the main lake across from Barrett's! The lake hasn't even begun to turn over yet so maybe that's why the large presence of Largemouth. We'll be fishing McClure weekly through December as Cade will be my team partner in several tournaments this fall and early winter. The last two wet winters have really enhanced this fishery and I fully expect that 12-15 pound limits will be the rule here this fall.
    City: Le Grand

    Tips: Get on 'em and follow 'em!

Tuesday, October 10th, 2006

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    Water Temp: ??

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: My Dad and I are headed upto Mclure and Don Pedro this weekend for some fun fishing..
    If you have been out lately and would be willing to share some advice it would be greatly appreciated. E-mails are welcome
    Thanks
    City: Gilroy

Sunday, October 1st, 2006

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    Water Temp: 71-73

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Oh yeah..I forgot...I fished the wall on the west side of the dam, past the dam and along the points on ski cove.
    City: Merced CA

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    Water Temp: 71.0 - 73.0

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Fished in off/on showers from 3:00 P.M. to dark. Caught a total of about 20 bass. 12 on White/Silver and Chartreuse 1/2 OZ Blades, 5 on Lucky Craft Pointer-Ghost Minnow Rip Bait, and the rest on top water. Most of the Bass were Spots 1-2 pounds, but the largest was a Black Bass-4lbs. It was raining 90% of the time and you could see the Bass chasing the shad all over the place. If you threw up against the bank with a rocky cover, the bass would come up from the deeper water and slam the lure. Well worth fishing in bad weather.
    City: Merced CA

    Tips: Like my buddy Anthony Tanachion once told me; when its raining, the shad come up, and the bass follow. Topwater, blades and rip baits in Shad patterns were hot. Plastics were not. Fish up against walls with rocks at a 45 degree slope. Also hit the points as usual. The water is starting to cool off, so fall fishing is here!!

Monday, September 18th, 2006

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    Water Temp: 75.0-77.0

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Fished from 0600 to 1200. Started off with white/silver blades, around ski cove and surrounding points. Caught 8 1-2.5 pounders until the sun hit the water. Switched to luckycraft chartreuse minnow/rip bait and caught another 4, largest about 2.5 pounds. Fishing slowed after 1000, but I caught another 4 spots on smoke and chartreuse/witches brew and chartreuse 6" Predator worms at about 20-25 feet off rock piles/points.
    City: Merced, CA

    Tips: Water is cooling, and fish are starting to fequent rocky points in shallower water. From what I see, shad patterns seem to work the best. Go to A-1 or the Gas station in Snelling for good shad patterns/hand pours. Starting to feel like fall bassin', so hang on!

Saturday, August 5th, 2006

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    Water Temp: 81.5

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Spent the afternoon at the lake with my wife. Told myself I was only going to dropshot, but ofcourse tried a bunch of other things first and just wasted time. Caught 15-20 fish 14" and better all on shad pattern with a red stripe. Don't know the name, got them for Christmas. The bite was solid and the fish were all spitting up shad.
    City: Oakdale

    Tips: Fish any point about 20' of water, fish the windy side of the point.

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    Water Temp: 79-82F

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Got on the water at about 6:30 and fished until 11:30. Started in the spillway area and then headed upriver. Caught a few largemouths and had a few blow-ups on a double-jointed topwater walker in ghost shad. Once the sun was high overhead, switched to dart-headin' and split-shottin' 4 and 6" worms. Caught 2 nice spots and the rest were largemouth.
    City: Atwater

    Tips: They seemed to like the dark colors the best. Best luck w/ green pumpkin, black, and rootbeer electric blue - www.berserkbaits.com

Thursday, June 29th, 2006

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    Water Temp: 80-83

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: We must have caught about 75-100 fish just not a lot of big ones. Caught fish on just about everything we threw. Topwater, ripbaits, crankbaits-rattletraps, huddlebug, dropshot, and TnT jigs. One good thing is that 80% of our fish were largemouth and really fat. For a good custom made jig call Troyce-TnT baits (209) 505-8504

    Tips: Any type of grassy point in about 15' to 20'. Baitfish are everywhere and crawdads are being spit up. For a guide trip call (209) 604-8222 fishwranglers guide service

Wednesday, June 28th, 2006

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    Water Temp: 74 - 78

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Bring your top water and jurk baits and be ready to have a ball. But, don't forget your plastics in shad and crawdad patterns, they're working as well. The action is good to great most of the day on long sloping points and wind blown banks. Dinks are on the bank with fish to 3 pounds in 10-20 feet of water, they will come up and streach your line. Fished the Cotten and Temperance until 0930 hr., then headed for Horseshoe. The action was the same. All in all we boat 30 + fish with a dozen or so of dinks thrown in, but a good number of quality 2 pounders and up are active. Only a few small blacks with the spots thinking they were 10 pounders as usual.
    The lake is as beautiful as i've seen it in 20 years and filed to the brim. I just wanted to drive around and take in the scenery, believe me it's will worth the 12 bucks to get in.
    My partner was throwing a Bomber, black back with clear body, shallow diving. I was throwing a Chart. shad Lunckcraft 110 pointer deep diver. the deep diving jurks after the sun hits the water seem to be working better than shallow diving.
    Be safe and have a good time..
    City: Turlock

Tuesday, June 20th, 2006

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    Water Temp: 73

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Off of the water by 11am and caught around 50 fish. Most of them were largemouth. Caught them on every bait that I threw from topwater, ripbaits, cranks, blades, TnT jigs, senkos, and dropshots. Quality fish were caught on reaction baits, quantity were caught on dropshots. A lot of 2-3lbers. One 5lber on topwater.
    City: Delhi

    Tips: Fishwranglers Bass Fishing Guide Service (209) 604-8222

Saturday, June 3rd, 2006

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    Water Temp: 72-73

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: We caught our fish on dropshots, the new huddlebug and TnT jigs. Caught some also on brushogs and blade fish. Majority of the fish were in the 2-3lb range. Took my wife and 2 1/2 yr. old boy out. Off of the water by noon.
    City: Delhi

    Tips: Topwater and blades in the morning. Guiding on McClure, Eastman, Don Pedro and some others (209) 604-8222

Friday, May 26th, 2006

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    Water Temp: 69-71

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Absolutely beautiful day on the lake. I love this lake and wish I was closer to fish more often. A little slower than it has been but we still managed about 25-30 fish mostly using rip-baits, and tubes along the rocks. We did best upriver.
    City: Hanford

    Tips: Be extremely careful now with the higher water, it is barely covering several island tops and we had a very close encounter with one near McClure Point.

Saturday, May 6th, 2006

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    Water Temp: 71

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Fished a fire department tourney caught about 30 fish between partner and I. Our big fish was 4.70. had 10.96 for 5 fish limit. Big fish of tourney was 10.22. w/winning weight 18lbs. Caught fish on topwater,crankbaits, and plastics. Caught bigger fish in the morning. Fishing seemed to slow down in afternoon and fish got smaller.
    City: modesto

    Tips: Try anything fish are biting.