McClure Lake and Reports

Tuesday, February 8th, 2005

• By BPC

  Water Temp: Estimate 50

  Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

  Report: cold fromt on the horizon cloudy day little wind no rain. 3 total bass in 3 hours in pineecreek no action in coves no mud lines most action 30 feet on 3 inch worms split shot light bites probably missed 5-10 fish.
  City: Manteca

  Tips: slow and light tackle

Tuesday, January 11th, 2005

• By Wally

  Water Temp: 55ish

  Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

  Report: Fished 100% sunday. 79 boats and 68 limits. We had 11.14 lbs for 32nd place. 17 places in the 11 lb range. Caught our fish on jigs like about 80% of the fishermen. We were deadsticking them in about 5' of water. Fish were also caught on the drop shot, I hear, but not by us. Course I will fish anything in place of the drop shot. Tried reaction baits but couldn't get bit. T-rig worms also worked for us from the bank out to 45'. Fish the bait super slow with a little pop every 15 sec, or so.
  City: Sonora

  Tips: Fish 100% Teams.

Sunday, January 9th, 2005

• By Bob

  Water Temp: ?

  Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

  Report: Fished local club tourney Sunday. Our "loaner" boat had a inoperable trolling motor and no electronics. we were forced to tie-up to trees in coves and work the area slowly. Caught 3 over 15" in the morning. Moved to see what the rest of the club members were doing. We found them fishing muddy water and very little in their wells. We went back to our tree and clearer water and caught two more for a limit. Used Robo "green weenies" and Berkeley Power Worms "June Bug."
  City: Valley Springs

  Tips: Up in the cove in shallow water where the clear water was entering. Bass were able to see our bait. Stay out of the muddy water.

Saturday, January 8th, 2005

• By Nathan

  Water Temp: 55.7

  Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

  Report: Took my wife fishing it was her first time ever bass fishing. Stopped and picked up some live crawdads on the way. Got to the lake around 11am was a little overcast and a little wind. Ended up catching 4 nice keepers in about 3hrs. Her first fish was 2lbs and the biggest caught was a 2.6lb. Had a good time.
  City: Hughson

• By Chris

  Water Temp: ??

  Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

  Report: This is only my 2nd time on McClure so I'm still really green on this water. Got on the water really late, around 11. Skies started off clear and by the end of the day it was overcast and cold. Fished for about an hour and found 2 spots lookin for a meal. Got them to hit in about 35 ft. of water on shad colored worms rigged on the dropshot.
  City: Stockton

  Tips: New to this lake so no tips from me just yet.

• By Gilbert & Shon

  Water Temp: 52-56 ave.

  Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

  Report: Caught 9 spots & 1 black bass off of drop shotting 4 inch robo worms(Fantasia thunder) early in the morning on rock piles. Bite crapped out dramatically around 10 but we picked up some fish on brown/orange jigs, staysee 90's, and dd22s, but just a few. Fish didnt bite for us after noon.
  City: Gustine

  Tips: Drop shot and catch fish/buzz! Be safe and dont litter!!!

• By shon mckinney

  Water Temp: 52

  Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

  Report: Fished the nor-cal tournement on sat. Me and my partner took 4th place, all on blades and some rip baits. Big fish was 7.6 pounds caught on a dd22 sour grape color. Most people caught fish on jigs and drop shot, but they were mostly smaller fish. Pinee creek produced good for us.
  City: manteca

  Tips: Throw blades in shallow coves and mud lines for a good reaction bite. They hit it good so be ready. A dd22 would would work great fan casted across the points. It'll put better fish in the boat. Good luck.

Sunday, December 12th, 2004

• By Jeff

  Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

  Report: Went fishing on Sunday with my fishing partner, Dad and another friend. Started fishing about 6:30am. Tried all my normal spots in the lower end of the lake throwing just about everything in my tackle box with not even a bite. Finally decide to head up the river and at 10:30 finaly got the first fish drop shoting. We had finally found some active fish! Unfortunately the wind kicked up and created 3' swells so we had to leave. Headed back to the lower end of the lake and picked up one more 1 lb. fish. Made it back to the dock at about 3:00. Finished the day with 3 fish for 2 lb. 10oz. My dad finally found some active fish in the lower lake around 1pm drop shoting. And ended his day with 4 lb. 2oz.
  City: Denair

  Tips: Everyone I saw on the lake was drop shoting. The bite was very slow which is normal for this time of year.

Sunday, November 28th, 2004

• By night guy

  Water Temp: 57

  Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

  Report: Fished today with a buddy of mine and it sucked. Caught a few fish between the both of us all under 11 inches. Could not find any fish and not a whole lot of balls of shad either. Must of been due to the brite blue - bird day. Hope it turns on soon. Our fish came on a spoon and drop shot. Good luck at this place for a while.

  Tips: Stay home and wait for some steady weather.

Tuesday, November 16th, 2004

• By BPC

  Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

  Report: What happened to steve melander were is he he must be to good to fish he is starting to remind me of alex
  City: Manteca

Friday, October 22nd, 2004

• By tgruber

  Water Temp: unknown

  Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

  Report: Fished Friday evening for a couple hours and all day Saturday. First time to the lake, and had a wonderful couple of days fishing with my young son and nephew. Caught 8+ fish in a couple hours on Friday evening splithshotting and on drop shot. Biggest went 2lbs on a drop shot.
  
  Day Two: Got on the lake early and the bite on the main lake was tough for the first three hours, as we managed to catch 6 fish. Four on drop shot and two on spooks. Left the main lake and began to catch fish consistently in the 1.4-3.0 range. All fish came on drop shot and jigs. Caught over 40 fish for the day with the best five going 8 - 9 lbs. All but two were spots...largemouth for the other two (13-14) inch fish.
  City: brentwood

  Tips: First time on lake so I'm not certain where we were most of the time. I do know that purple & black, or brown & purple were the colors of choice. Used Robo Black Grape, Mutillator, and Oxblood for drop shot & split shot fish. Jig fish all came on brown/purple. Caught fish from 2 feet (spook) to 45 feet. The most consistent bite came when we did nothing with the bait and baitfish were present. I also noticed that all our fish came inside points where there were defined depth breaks. Fun lake, enjoyed my first trip. Stay safe. TG

Tuesday, October 5th, 2004

• By Manuel Bajo

  Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

  Report: There is good catfish caught there we caught 9 pound catfish and a 4 pound trout with powerbait for the catfish we used anchovies and chicken liver the bass we caught where to small so i dont know about them. the first catfish we caught was the first teen minutes we got there good luck.
  City: merced

  Tips: use for catfish anchovies and/or chiken liver for trout use powerbait the green or orange and also use salmon eggs for them. FISH WITH PACIENT.

Sunday, September 19th, 2004

• By juan

  Water Temp: 75

  Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

  Report: WHAT A TRIP /RAIN,HAIL,WIND,LIGHTNING YOU NAME IT.HELL WE EVEN CAUGHT SOME FISH . FISH WERE SHALLOW AND BITTING LIGHTLY. THEY WEREN'T TOO PICKEY WHAT EVER YOU THREW THEY LIKED.MY BOY EVEN CAGHT A TROUT ON A CRAWDAD OF ALL THING'S OVER IN COTTONWOOD. THAT SEEM TO BE THE SPOT WITH NO RAIN .LOT'S OF BITE'S TOO, THEY REALLY LIKE ALL THE TIMBER IN THEIR RIGHT NOW.
  City: turlock

  Tips: FISH SLOOWWWWWWWWWLLLLLLLLLLLYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!

Sunday, August 29th, 2004

• By Ken

  Water Temp: 75-78

  Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

  Report: Fish the main lake rock walls. Fish were 30'-50'. Bigger fish came off drop-shot and spoons. I boated 8 with 2-3 lb. fish coming on the spoon. they were hungry, had the spoon in their throat. My son and a friend fishing from another boat said the caught 15 or so. they were on the water at 0500 hr. and were picking up top water fish, super spooks and torpedo tailspinners as late as 0800 hr. a few cranking and drop-shotting as well. I used my electronics to find a school then dropped down on top of them. i'd pull one nice fish out the then nothing. I only caugh one sweeker the rest were quality fish. left the lake at 1030 hr. after 5 hours of fishing, getting too crowded.
  City: Turlock

  Tips: Rock walls main lake. 6" brown worms with red flake. hoppkins spoon (silver).

Thursday, August 12th, 2004

• By Wes

  Water Temp: N/A

  Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

  Report: The water level at McClure is WAY down. The old boat ramp by the marina is at least 40-50 feet out of the water. I made a last minute trip just to do some bank fishing, but the water was so low I ended up throwing some buzzbaits off the end of the new boat ramp. I caught 2 small largemouths (10" or so) in an hour, then decided to leave and go fish down below McSwain for trout.
  City: Turlock

  Tips: Don't even think about bank fishing. Access is very limited. I should have taken my boat...

Saturday, July 24th, 2004

• By kstone

  Water Temp: warm

  Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

  Report: Float tubed saturday night with my wife at McClure from dusk till 12am.Best 30 went 10lbs well maybe. Seriously had to go through alot of fish to get any decent fish. Best 5 probably only 12 lbs. Spots everywhere did not realize so many fish here. Most fish were caught on a split shot and 4"senko #180 in 10 to 25ft. But the biggest were all caught on blades Black and red all these fish were right on the bank to maybe 10ft off the bank.

  Tips: trailer hook was a must as fish wre short striking the spinnerbait

Friday, June 25th, 2004

• By Russ

  Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

  Report: Got to lake about 7 pm, caught 3 fish dropshotting a reaper in first 10 min. One fish went 3 lbs, didn't catch another fish until dark. Fished until 1 am with jigs on rocky points. Caught 17 more from the bank to about 15 foot. All but a couple were quality fish. Best 5 12-13 lbs.
  City: Hilmar

  Tips: Fish the rocky points, most bites were after jig sat on bottom for a couple seconds shaking jig slightly.

Saturday, June 19th, 2004

• By Mike Espinola

  Water Temp: 78

  Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

  Report: The bass classics of santa clara valley had thier tournament and it took 16 lbs to win. I was throwing crawdad crankbaits on wind blown banks with rock in the morning for the two best fish about 4lbs each then I cranked two more.Then I went to split shotting morning dawn worms with cht tails in muddy water in the wind blown banks again. I (Mike Espinola) won first place with 16 lbs. and had both the big fish and 2nd big fish. In second place with 12.75 lbs was Dieter Spicker and in third was J.R. Taylor with 12.35 lbs.
  City: Fremont

  Tips: Crank the windy wind blown banks with crawdad cranks and fish real slow with worms split shotting in the middle of the day. Every fish I caught had crawdads tenticles or claws sticking out of there throats.

Wednesday, June 16th, 2004

• By Ken

  Water Temp: 76 - 78

  Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

  Report: Evening bite, 1700-2200 hr., If the wind is a blow'n and the waves are a roll'n fish top water, BIG TOP WATER luers like the Jimmy Huston Super Spook. Work main lake points, wind blown cuts, not coves, and hold on to your rod, they're inhailing em like no tomorrow. Flukes didn't work well nore did smaller top water that accounted for only a couple small fries, but offering them the big spook was what they wanted working it slow and pausing occasionally. Fish were on the bank to 40 feet deep. Of the 15-20 fish we caught 2-3 were under the slot the rest were all quality fish, pound and half to three pounds. Once the sun sank so did the bite. A couple rats on 8" lizzards and we called it a night. Great memories again with a Great Partner even though i had to spank ya. Your turn next time.
  City: turlock

  Tips: Big top water baits, main lake points/cuts, and wind. Stay away from stained water and coves if you're throwing top water it just didn't seem to be where they were or what they wanted.

Tuesday, June 8th, 2004

• By Bass Cat

  Water Temp: 70

  Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

  Report: whacked them good on blue plastics up shallow- lots of numbers but very few fish over 15"- lots of 12-15" fish. Fun day on the water.
  City: Snelling