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Sunday, January 9th, 2005

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    Water Temp: 53

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished today with my partner, awesome day for winter it felt like spring. Cranks and blades all day. Best five went 11.32, caught about 40 or so fish, all solid fish. As we were gettin ready to leave a kid from durham stuck a 10.7 largemouth 24.5 inches long, 23 inches in girth in was a HAWG. It goes to show that the floridas are in there!!!!! Good luck to everyone.
    City: paradise

    Tips: Fish in 0-20 foot of water. Slow roll your blades and cranks.

Saturday, January 8th, 2005

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    Water Temp: 52

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Fished from 8:30 to 4:30. 50+ fish to 3'2. Fish were in the top 20 feet and were crushing the jig and drop shot. Also caught some blade, rip and crank fish. Best 5 went 12'13. Where is that limit when you are fishing for a boat. That beats the best limit I have ever had on Oroville by a pound. I cannot believe how good the quality is getting on this lake. 50+ fish and not one was under 13 inches. We got 13 over 15 inches. That is some quality fishing. Awesome day.
    City: Roseville

    Tips: Beautiful weather. We took a break and went in to Bidwell to eat lunch and drink a couple of beers and you could have sworn it was April. Back to the delta on Sat to pre fish for a tourney on the 21st. However, I think I will have to sneak back to Oroville on Sun. :-)

Saturday, January 1st, 2005

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    Water Temp: 52.3

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Happy New Year. We have color in the water now, and the lake is up in spite of all the water they are dumping. My first fish came on a rock pile that had been visible the week before and was now submerged. Two and a half pound largemouth. Not a bad way to start the day. Did catch a lot of fish but none as good as the first one. The bite seemed to come in deeper water and I think we fished a little faster only because of the wind. Then it got ugly and we left at 1 P.M.
    City: Paradise

    Tips: Best bite came on muddier banks and in deeper water, but if you don't mind the crappy weather you can still catch some nice fish.

Thursday, December 16th, 2004

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    Water Temp: 51

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Showed up around 10:30am. Fishing was decent caught a couple fish over two pounds. best five went 9.5lbs. Threw jigs on the main body.
    City: paradise

    Tips: Find wind blown points and fish them slowly. the bite was light, they would just pick up the bait and just sit on.

Friday, December 10th, 2004

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    Water Temp: 46

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished Bidwell marina area from house boat marked lots of fish from 30ft to 70ft boat in 110 ft of water,46 degrees @ top with live bait no takers,stopped boat and drop shot the drocks from 30 feet to 60ft with all the Robo worms no hits fishing slow in the marina area for the last two weeks
    City: Chico

    Tips: buy herculize lure with long fuse,worked in W2 have fun still a better day than working

Thursday, December 9th, 2004

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    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: ATTENTION: There will be a turkeyshoot held a lake Oroville Sat. (12-11-04)If anyone is interested please show up at the Spillway ramp at 6:00am. Thank you and hope to see you there.
    City: Yuba City

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    Water Temp: 54-59

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: wear are all the reports? Ive never seen it go this long without a report. amazing.
    City: Yuba city

    Tips: fishing is ok the fish are moving alot so watch out there one day gone the next

Friday, December 3rd, 2004

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    Water Temp: 53

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: i fish south fork, and the main body with
    gary dobyns, what a great guy... i learned a lot on this day with him..... water was 53 deg. low and clear. lots of wind at times, and very nice at times. cold in the a.m. and nice in the p.m. fished jig heads with tubes on them.... casting to the shore line and draging them out to about 20+ feet before gitting bit. best 5 fish went
    9 1/2 lbs. we looked all day for bait balls, and only found one all day. only drop shotted a few little fish this day also. total fish count for the day was 15.
    City: palo alto

    Tips: some bites where light, some smacked it.
    have fun, fish hard,

Wednesday, October 13th, 2004

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    Water Temp: 68-70

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Just a quick report of my guided trip, teaching a client ways to approach the lake. The fishing was tough overall after several days of north wind and VERY hot temps. The early morning was good for topwater with 2 over the slot and 2 over 13 inches. One on a rip bait. After that we threw one ton jigs (Yamamoto #297), drop-shotted, and split-shotted. We looked hard for bait and did find some in a few areas. Instead of catching several in an area, it was just one or two. We wound up with 13 tournament keepers - five for about 9 pounds. We caught 6 shorter bass. Very slow presentation worked - felt almost no bites!
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: We fished all forks and the main body. Since I believe he is fishing a tournament, I won't say any more.

Saturday, September 25th, 2004

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    Water Temp: 70's

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: We hit the lake from Lime Saddle Marina and had nothing but the lake to ourselfs until...........BAM! Here come the tournament fishermen. It sure would be nice of those fellows to recognize that not everyone is out here to be so serious that they cut off a father and 9 year old son out for a nice day of fishing. We did well with Senkos and Kastmasters all day. I hope the two guys in the boat that cut between us on the wrong side between us and the bank had a good day on the lake. I sure wish my son had not been with me so I could have told them a thing or two about boating. My son had a great day and it was worth everything to see his face as he caught bass with a big grin one after another.
    City: Sacramento

    Tips: Fish are deep, and only reacted to a very slow presentation. Rocky points and rocky banks held most of the fish.

Saturday, September 18th, 2004

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    Water Temp: 72-77

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Well Bassman and I hit Oroville on Thursday 9/16
    pre-fishing for the upcoming FPT on that following Saturday.

    We had stable weather (hot) and sunny skies started on the main lake throwing custom painted spooks and Bassmans Lunker Plunker (new spook type bait ) and just murdered them!! We had topwater going till 1:00 pm and I mean 16-18 in. spots! So We found em stacked in a few places on the main lake and decided to leave em alone on Friday and look for a back up pattern.

    We hit the main lake on Friday and started with Topwater again big fish but the bite died quick like 9:00 am . The Low was coming in skies were clouding up we though these fish shold be on fire!! They were!! switch to jig and split shot,Cranks and murdered them again!!! All on the main lake and mouth of the south.

    So GAME DAY we decided to hit our first day spots we had 2 that was holding big fish we knew we needed to get the topwaters on em before the sun was showing , Lucky us we are 10th boat out in the first flight!! We head to our first spot and as soon as my spook hit the water BAM ! FISH ON! Nice 1.8 lbder in the boat! We work down this bank and BAM! a 2lbder in the boat! 5 ft more down the bank and Bam ! Bassman nails a nice largemouth about 2lbs ! (we missed 2 blow-ups each OUCH!) These fish were very aggressive I mean coming clear out of the water to nail these spooks! You got one shot the fish would aim and hit our lure and either you had em or they missed and they were gone.

    Sun came up and the bite just DIED!!!! We knew the High was trying to settle back in and this would push those spots out and down.

    So we backed off and hit the points on the main lake me fishing a split shot and Bassman fishing a jig. Right away I nail a keeper size largemouth on the morning dawn 6in worm only about a 1 lb. We got 4 in the boat !!

    Then Jermemy sets on a nice keeper spot on the jig we got 5! We run the main lake some more throwing jigs and topwater but the fish just were being tough! We did manage to cull the largemouth and finished with 7.80 lbs for 5 and got 9th place.

    We caught lots of fish that were undersized on Saturday tryed drop shotting only to get the dinkss so put it away quick.

    If I was headed back this week end I would try topwater in the morning (run shade) and goto jigs or plastics whe the sun hits the water.

    But main thing is find the fish.

    Tight Lines Dom
    City: Tracy

    Tips: If the wind is blowing goto the bank it is blowing into! If you want to catch the bigger fish on Oroville throw spooks,jigs you can catch a ton of small fish drop shotting.

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    Water Temp: 73

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Had a really good rip bite going the day before the Future Pro Tour event, but decided with the overcast day that I was going to throw the spook for most of the day, while my wife threw her favorite crank bait in the south arm. My wife put the 1st fish in the boat on the 3rd cast, good for 1.4lbs. I managed to catch about 10 short ones before the second fish came on the spook good for 1.9lbs, then we moved to the middle fork and got another 1.10lber on the spook. Three good fish in the well before noon, felt we had the pattern figured out and then the sun showed its face and it fell a part. We decided to run up the North fork and start drop shotting and got another fish that maybe went for a pound or so. The four fish on weigh in went for 5.76lbs. Obviously my scale is a little off.
    City: Sacramento

    Tips: Have a solid back up plan.

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    Water Temp: 70

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Fished Future Pro today. Try buzz bait and spook for about an hour with no luck. Switched to drop shot at sout arm and instantly got a 14" keeper. Managed to get two more small keeper for the next 2 hrs by the bridge tower and main lake. It was 12:40pm and we still have three keeper in the boat. Ran back to south arm and got 2 small large mouth and a spot on drop shot. We have 6 keeper whole day long and may be twelve bites. Weighted in at 5.97lb for 5 skinny fishes.

    Tips: keep drop shotting

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    Water Temp: 71-73 degrees

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: I fished the Future Pro Tour 9/18/04. Started near boomer just off the main channel. Worked a Pop R...had a couple of blowups...and a 12" spot. Also threw a super spook with no luck. Moved back down to the bridge fished west side bank....several hits....no catches. Dropped shotted in the area south of the bridge...still lots of dinks. Finally with check in about an hour and a half away and no fish in the well, we went up north found an area with about 20-25' of water drop shoted robo worm morning dawn and caught about 10....12" ers and 1-14"er. Weighed 1 fish 14 1/2 = 1.34 lb. With the cloud cover and breeze but no rain...It was a nice but unproductive day for us.
    City: Oakland

    Tips: As much as I hate drop shotting. That was the way to go. Tried dart heads also with no luck. If you can find an area with 20-30 feet of water. And lots of arches on your fishfinder stay there. Warm small fish are in shallow water....colder larger fish are in deeper water.

Friday, September 10th, 2004

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    Water Temp: 70-75

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Started at safe light. No partner today, doing a little pre-fishing for the up coming Future Pro tour event on the 18th. Started in the middle fork fishing points. Nothing on cranks or top water. Only caught fish on the drop shot... All spots and spitting up bait all over the boat. Fished a few other spots in the middle fork, when the wind died down, Saw bass busting bait all over in the middle fork. Threw top water with no takers, but threw a white fluke and was getting bit ever cast. Nothing big but still had fun only three keepers so far. Left that area and went up the North fork, fished points, caught better quality fish. Wind picked up and started to fish the mud line with cranks, adn started to catch more fish. biggest fish was only 15 inches... oh well, going out again on Saturday. Got to find some better fish. best five went for around 7lb.
    City: Folsom

    Tips: Caught all fish 5-15ft. Maybe I'll try deeper for bigger fish. Wind is our friend. tight lines

Monday, August 9th, 2004

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    Water Temp: 81+

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Had a late day guide trip with a grandfather and two youngsters aged 8 + 10. Fished from 4 to a little before 9 pm...worked the late afternoon shade on the west wall of the slot before the confluence of the north fork and west branch. Caught fish on dropshot, mini-C-rig and darterheads using 3 1/2" Yamamoto kuttail worms (color 323) and 4" Roboworms in purple/brown. Caught lots of small spots (8 under 12"), several in the slot (5) and the younger one caught our only fish over 15"...about 2 1/2 pounds. The boys got a lot of bites that they failed to hook but I just let them keep trying until they learned how to do a proper hookset. All the boys' fish were caught without adult assistance...just a little coaching. Its great to see youngsters becoming proficient at fishing!

    There were a lot of suspended fish on the graph and fish were busting the surface everywhere after the shade had been on the water for about an hour. Couldn't quite trust the boys with treble hooks yet (ouch! Even that IDEA hurts! HaHa!), so we didn't try for the surface bite or crankbaits! All our fish came on plastics on or close to the bottom between 22 and 35 feet deep.

    The boys also spent a half hour swimming in that 80+ degree water...all in all, it was a really fun trip for kids!
    City: Fair Oaks

    Tips: Bite exploded for an hour before sunset and thereafter. While the sun was on the water, the bite was slow. Shade from west banks or from thick mudlines helped while the sun was high. Find shade for active fish in the late afternoon.

Wednesday, August 4th, 2004

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    Water Temp: 79

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: I took 8 and 11 year old boys, their dad and his dad to Oroville today for a half day trip - what a crowd in my Ranger 520! We fished the middle fork for an hour and then finished in the south fork. There really isn't much to say - we only fished 6' worms split-shotted. Smoke blue seem to be the best color by far. I did drop-shot a #239 Yamamoto Kut-Tail and it produced a few. Our biggest was only 13 1/2 inches and we had 4 under the slot. We landed about 17 or 18 and had a lot of fun. Quality fish were not biting, though I saw several on the meter. We saw lots of small spots chasing this years spawn on the surface. So, the fish are biting, but quality is lacking.
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: Night fishing is probably the way to go from now on. Because of the crowded boat, I really didn't try any other options. The bite was best about 15 to 20 feet. The boys had a ball and that is what counts! Look for flats in the south fork - they are there! And they are loaded with fish!!!

Tuesday, August 3rd, 2004

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    Water Temp: 71-75 deg windy

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Jim and I started from the spillway with the winds blowing 20 + mph, so we headed over into the middle fork for some crankin and blades with no takers off points and inlets. I used a brown/orange jig. We then went into the south fork, found a long deep bank (10-25 ft) using split shot with a robo 4.5" morning dawn worm. Before going home at noon we picked 11 dinks, no keepers. The weekend labor day houseboats were coming out. good luck with the winds.
    City: rocklin

Monday, July 5th, 2004

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    Water Temp: 78-81

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: I fished the north fork today for the first time. I did not get as many fish as I would in the south fork but I landed 7 large mouth all over 2.5 lb it was great I have never caught a large mouth there caught them on 4" plastic.
    City: yuba city

    Tips: take a kid fishing I took a nine year old with me and he caught the first 3 fish of the day and now is hooked on fishing.

Tuesday, June 22nd, 2004

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    Water Temp: 76

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Hit the north fork with a buddy on saturday. We had a little one boat tourney going on that both of us thought was a good idea."You know the rules, Money for first fish, most fish and biggest fish" he says as we are leaving for northfork. At first I thought he would get the first fish because of all the bites he was getting on his topwater but he was new to the topwater scene so he was missing all the early bites. By the time he got used to it I had already gotten a few on a spinnerbait." so the first fish pot is gone, I'll get the others" he said. He kept throwing that zara puppy as I switched to a jig. We both landed fish for the next few hours and by the time it was 10:00 a.m. we had a total of 31 fish with 18 of those being mine. Since I had a few fish lead on him I said to him " let's hit that creek coming in" knowing that he hated fishing that area because of a past fishing trip where he lost three of his fav. lures in about an hour. He said alright but only if I use your lures." Fine, put this on " I threw him a senko. We both worked the creek channel all the way to the creek itself. We got to the end and put our boat in about two feet of water wedged between two trees. As soon as I turned around I could see a school of fish leaving the area. All of them very nice fish. I threw my senko in and wham! I had hooked one of those fish. I landed him and he went just shy of 3 pounds. My buddy wasn't very happy at the sight of that fish. I was kind of giving him some crap when he pointed out another school of fish. This school was led by a HORSE. I'd say it was ten plus! Behind this hog was maybe 5 fish and none of them was smaller than 5 pounds. I told my buddy to throw ahead of them and let that senko sit. I was pretty sure those fish would not bite because of the size of them. Boy was I wrong. He set the hook and his pole went no where. This is a bigen' he said, he got that fish to the boat and I nearly fell overboard at the sight of this fish. I was going for the net when I heard a splash, I turned around and saw my buddy holding his pole in the air. What happened I asked and all he did was sit down."she got off" he moaned. The fish had pulled his knot right out. You could see the pigtail at the end of his line. He was done after that and I didn't have the heart to take his money after the day was over. It was only three dollars. :]
    City: Paradise

    Tips: The spinnerbaits I was throwing were a purple-ish double willow blade with a white skirt. The senkos were a smoke shad and the tiki sticks were watermelon red. The big one that got away was not the leader of the pack but it was a good 7-8 pounds. I had heard of these schools roaming Oroville lake but this was the first time I had seen them. I'm going to bring some live bait with me next time, just in case I see them again.