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Wednesday, November 6th, 2013

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    Water Temp: 63 - 65

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Wednesday, 11/6/13, it was our goal to find bass chasing shad. Again, as was the case about 2 weeks ago, we didn’t find any. During the day, we fished Cherry Creek, the Warm Spring Branch and Smith Creek. Several different top-water baits, hard and soft body jerk baits, rattle traps, swim baits and drop-shot worms were tried. Of these, only drop-shotting 4½ and 6 inch RoboWorms caught fish. We did manage, off and on during the day, to catch 10 fish. Several fish were between 3 and 3½ lbs. The others were between 1 and 3 lbs. Two trout were also hook on RoboWorms but lost at the boat. This was good as there was no need to handle them for release.
    City: Pinole

    Tips: Hooking two trout in near shore and trees could be an indication that shad are schooling in close to shore. It should be just a matter of being in the right place and time of getting into a school of bass chasing shad and having real fun time catching many fish.

Friday, October 25th, 2013

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    Water Temp: 65 - 67

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Friday, 10/25/13, We started fishing halfway back into Cherry Creek using top water baits with no success. We were looking for breaking shad but seen none. As the sun hit the water, we switched to drop-shotting. By 1:00, we caught only a few fish with one about 3 lbs . Other techniques were also tried with no success. Next, we tried part way up Dry Creek without success. About 4:00 we moved to Smith Creek (where the outhouse was) and fished the first 100 yards on both sides. Over the next hour,6 more fish were caught all drop-shotting 4½-inch RoboWorms. We ended the day with 10 fish.
    City: Pinole

    Tips: Look for bass chasing shad on the surface. Last year at this time with the water temperature at 65 – 67º (same as this year), we had two really good days by finding breaking shad.

Saturday, June 15th, 2013

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    Water Temp: 71

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Fished the Redwood Empire Bass Club tourney on Saturday. We fished in Yorty and Brush creek. Found a little top water action before the sun hit the water catching a 7 & 4 pounders. Then started throwing small swimbaits and flukes. Caught a lot of fish but most were under 12".

    Tips: Bait fish were busting the surface everywhere and saw a lot on the graph. Slow roll the baits in 8'-10'. Watch your graph for fish.

Saturday, May 4th, 2013

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    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Fished from 9am-3pm. Launched at the main ramp and shot up to Yorty. Quickly got a small SMB and buddy picked up a small LMB. One on jig the other drop shotting. The bite slowed so we motored up cherry creek. Between the 3 of us we boated 7 more fish; the best went 3-09 the rest were under 2lbs. 2 of the last 7 were jig fish the rest were drop shotting, one was pulled off a bed the others were hugging submerged trees in coves and on points.
    City: Santa Rosa

    Tips: Jigs in green or orange with dark color craw trailers and drop shotting bold bluegill roboworms.

Wednesday, April 24th, 2013

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    Water Temp: 61-69

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Haven't send any reports in a while so I thought I would post one. Fished last weekend in the REBC tourney and everyone had a tough time. Only 10.5 lbs for first. Went out again Wednesday evening and the daytime bite was still tough. However. The night bite really turned on. Caught a 4-13 at 10:30 pm slow rolling a brush hog then we switched to blades and the bite really turned on after 11 pm. For the next 3 hours we landed close to 20 bass up to 4 lbs. best 5 fish was in the 19 lb range.

    Tips: Water was cloudy from all the wind. Daytime bite was still tough. Water temp on the main lake was only around 60, but 68-69 in upper Cherry Creek. Night bite use spinnerbaits with a single Colorado blade. Cast to the shore and work down the bank. Fish were still not on beds, but the upcoming warming trend should move the bass shallow.

Saturday, March 9th, 2013

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    Water Temp: 56 to 58

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished again from ~10:30 to ~5:00 and only hooked 1 largemouth which I didn’t land and miss another. Water seemed a little murkier overall and colder with the cold front that came through last week! Tried about everything to entice them so it was a hard day but still fun fishing!!!!
    City: HEALDSBURG

    Tips: Hard fishing so enjoy the outing!!!

Friday, March 1st, 2013

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    Water Temp: 55 to 57

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Went out again later in the morning at ~10:30 and fished to ~5:00. I hooked 4 and landed 3 of them which where all keeper size being ~2.0, ~3.0, and the biggest ~5.75 lbs. Landed all these on senko’s and swim baits.
    City: HEALDSBURG

    Tips: Fish slowly and be patient while the water keeps warming! Hopefully the colder weather and rain next week doesn't hurt clarity and water temp to much!

Friday, February 22nd, 2013

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    Water Temp: 52 to 54

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished from around 10:30 in the morning to about 5:00 when is stared cooling down fast again. Water was still stained with only about a foot of visibility!! Water temp was 52 to 54 with a couple of spots hitting 55, but the minute the wind blew registered 54 again. Caught 2 Largemouth Bass of ~3.5 and ~5.25 pounds, so it made my day!
    City: HEALDSBURG

    Tips: Be patient and fish slowly!!

Thursday, February 14th, 2013

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    Water Temp: cold

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: On the water at 630am. Fished until 2. Tried everything in my boat. First top water zara spook. thought Id get lucky. Still way too early in the season. Tried soft plastics, jigs, spinners. Didn't resort to drop shotting. Water is muddy and I dont plan on trying this lake again until at least the middle of March. Going to try lake Medocino tomorrow. Ill post on that lake. Talked to one guy he said he caught three on a plastic worm he threw all day. Good Luck out there.
    City: Santa Rosa

    Tips: Wait till spring. lol.

Saturday, January 19th, 2013

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    Water Temp: 50-52

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: The Redwood Empire Bass Club held their first tournament of the year and it was tough fishing all around. Very few fish caught overall with none over 2 lbs. Primary tactics were a drop shot using lighter colored baits. Big difference from last week when I fished and caught several on 7" black worms and brush hogs. Those same baits didn't produce this week.
    City: Rohnert Park

    Tips: Drop shot on main lake points with shad colored Roboworms down 40'-50'. Water is clearing everyday. Fish the rocky areas over the wood, but when you fish an isolated tree, use your electronics to find fish holding tight to the cover.

Friday, December 14th, 2012

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    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Mr. Benjamin John Crowley. I am desperate for some action. its already December 14, but was wondering what part of the lake you found the steelhead and bass chasing shad? That bite may be over by now but i was thinking of barrowing my buddy's boat and heading up to the lake hoping and wishing for that kind of action.
    City: san mateo

Thursday, November 22nd, 2012

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    Water Temp: 62

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Epic fishing today, Thanksgiving Day. Huge schools of Shad with hundreds of Steelhead and Bass underneath. Crystal Clear water and the fish were biting well. Caught over 30 bass myself and caught 2 limits of Steelhead between my dad and I. Best freshwater fishinf I have ever seen. Caught on castmasters and 2.5 inch Rapala Countdown.
    City: San Diego

Saturday, November 3rd, 2012

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    Water Temp: 67 - 70

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Saturday, 11/3/12, My buddy and I started fishing Cherry Creek. I started with a top water bait followed by a shallow diving crank bait, a spinner bait and a rattle trap. My goal was to target larger fish throughout the whole water column, I had no takers over three hours. . During this same period, my buddy almost exclusively drop-shotted a 4½-inch RoboWorm. The bite was slow for him but by the time I decided to go to my confidence technique (drop-shotting), my buddy had at least 6 small fish to my zero. By about 3:00, I also had 6 small fish. At this time we decided to move to Dry Creek. We started fishing about a half mile up Dry Creek on the South side across from the mouth of Cherry Creek. As winter approaches, the sun is moving across the southern sky thus creating early shadows on the northern side of the hills. As we approached a large shadowed area, we saw a lot of fish chasing shad in the trees and in open water outside of the shadows. Also, the fish finder was marking a lot of fish and bait balls. At this point my buddy put on 6-inch soft swim bait. He immediately, caught a 2 lb. bass. The fish took the bait very aggressively and totally inhaled the bait. So, I immediately put on a 4-inch soft paddle tail swim bait and threw to some breaking shad and caught a 2½ lb. bass. A few casts later to another group of breaking shad, my swim bait was slammed hard and the fish took off running hard. It took me a few minutes to land the fish. It turned out to be over a 3 lb steelhead trout. The larger swim bait and a bass assassin weren’t working for my buddy. So he switched to a smaller hard jerk bait and immediately caught a 2 lb bass. A few casts later, he landed a 2 -3 lb squawfish which had a large belly and was spitting up small shad (I didn’t know there were squawfish in Lake Sonoma). A few casts later, it was my buddy’s turn to land about a 2½ lb steelhead trout. While this was happening, I continued to catch bass. After about 30 minutes, the bait turned off. But during this 30 minutes of fast action, we caught at least 8 fish all at least 2 lbs. Great fun! We ended the day with over 20 fish.
    City: Pinole

    Tips: If you see breaking shad, cast to them.

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    Water Temp: 62 - 65

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Great day on the water, the sun shined all day and there wasn't much wind or a crowd. Took my son & his friend stayed mostly on the main lake right before the narrows, found a spot that had 8' @ rocky shore to 20' with trees & then 30' -40' drop off. Found fished staged on deep ledge, threw crankbaits in silver shad to catch fish until noon, then switched to jerkbaits in afternoon. When we would catch a fish you would see others following. Caught 20 fish between all 3 of us, with 2 biggest 3lbers, my son lost a 5+ (that was chasing my hooked 1 1/2lb), was still exciting to see that.
    City: Pacifica

    Tips: Caught most of fish on Jerkbait, then crankbait, a couple on Dropshot & one on Zoom Fluke. All baits were Shad color or white,

Thursday, September 13th, 2012

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    Water Temp: 69 - 72

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Saturday, 10/13/12, We started fishing halfway back into Cherry Creek with top water baits. A couple of small ones were caught. As the morning sun hit the water, the top water bite turned off. A lot of fish were observed on the fish finder in 15 to 30 ft of water along with a lot of bait balls with fish near by. Multiple techniques were tried to catch these fish. Only a small 4½-inch RoboWorm worked. We even found that a 6-inch worm of the same color did not work. Very few fish were caught further than halfway back into the creek. Our fish were caught in the first half of the creek, also just outside the 5 mph zone and on the south west side across from Cherry Creek. More fish were generally caught in areas where the bass were breaking water chasing shad. We ended the day with about 30 fish. A few weighed 1 to 1½ lbs. with one weighing 4 lbs 3 oz. All the rest were in the 8 inch to 13 inch range.
    City: Pinole

    Tips: When fishing with artifical worms, size matters. If the fish are not biting on larger worms, down size. The opposite sometime also works.

Saturday, August 18th, 2012

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    Water Temp: 76 -82

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Saturday, 8/18/12, there was a nice breeze on the main body making the hot air temperature somewhat bearable. We started fishing on the East side near the dam with only one boil up on a buzz bait. It didn’t take very long until the skiers drove us to move further up the lake. By noon, we had 6 fish using a small top-water popper. All were caught near some weeds or a tree with some shadows on the water nearby. A couple of times, several fish attacked the popper at the same time. Just after noon we moved into Cherry Creek and caught a couple more fish on the popper. But it didn’t take us very long to move back to the main body because the lack of a breeze back there made it feel like an oven. The top water bite had turned off so we junk fished the rest of the day. A couple of fish were caught drop-shotting a RoboWorm. Also, one fish each was caught on a River2Sea S-Wave, a Senko and a Bass Assassin. We ended the day with 14 fish. The fish were in the 1 to 2 lb. range with one weighting 3 lbs 8 oz.
    City: Pinole

    Tips: If it is possible for you to get to the lake very early, you should be very successful fishing using top water baits before the sun hits the water. Similarly, if you can stay late, you should also be very successful as the sun leaves the water and later.

Saturday, June 30th, 2012

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    Water Temp: 74

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Caught a limit on spinner baits before 8:00 AM, all over 3-1/2 pounds. Not the norm but not the only time either. Fishing it like a jig, pulling it off the bank in to about 20'-25' of water. As the spinner bait action died off, I switched to a Caroline Rigged Brush Hog and had steady action until about 11:00 AM, catching another 9 fish between 2 and 3-1/2 pounds.

    Decided to troll back and caught two small steelhead on a silver Little Cleo behind flashers and a 2 oz. weight, trolling at 1.5 mpg.

    Like I said, not the norm but what a great day of fishing (and catching!). Other anglers reported good limits as well.
    City: Rohnert Park

    Tips: On those calm mornings with clear water, keep a quiet boat, make longer casts to or on the bank, working down the drop. Work with the wind if possible. Work it slow, or if fast, lots of pauses.

Saturday, June 16th, 2012

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    Water Temp: 70

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Fished the REBC club tourney in the morning. We fished on the Dry Creek side of the lake fishing trees in 20'-30' using a drop shot. Caught a lot of small fish and 8 keepers. Best was almost 4 lbs. Total weight for best 5 was 12.3 lbs. Stick to the main lake areas near wood and rocks. Also look for grass lines.
    City: Rohnert Park

    Tips: Use at least 10 lb fluorocarbon, 6" Roboworms. If you are not getting bites, change colors. If the bite slows through the day, change colors. That worked for me and I was able to continue catching fish all morning.

Saturday, June 2nd, 2012

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    Water Temp: 72

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: I didn't catch the limit of bass out of 15 I landed last weekend at the lake, but I still got 2 keepers out of 13 fish landed Saturday with the biggest ~14 inches. Used worms and got most the fish in around 5-10 foot depth on the upper end of the Dry Creek Arm. Need to try morning or evening instead of during the day.
    City: Healdsburg

    Tips: Be patient during the day!!

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    Water Temp: 72 - 78

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Saturday, 6/2/12 I fished from the back of my buddy’s boat. The air temperature was around 80° but was very comfortable because of the strong breeze all day. The water temperature in Cherry Creek, where we fished all day, was 72 - 78°. My buddy and I caught a total of 38 fish for the day. We started with top water baits because the sun wasn’t fully on water. Within the first few casts my buddy caught a nice 4 lb 3 oz. large mouth and a few casts later a 2 lb 13 oz small mouth both on a shad-colored Bass Assassin rigged weightless. He continued to catch 5 more but smaller fish on the Assassin. Against my rule of thumb of switching baits if two or more fish are caught on a particular color, bait or technique, I continued using a walking the dog top-water lure with no luck. I did finally switch to a Bass Assassin but by the time I did, the top water bite had turned off. Both of us switched to drop-shotting RoboWorms and started catching fish on red or purple colors like MM. After several fish each, I noticed that my buddy’s fish were all larger than mine. Contrary to normal thinking, my buddy was catching larger fish on a smaller 4½-inch worm compared to the ones I was catching on the larger 6-inch worm. This time I used my rule of thumb and switched to a 4½-inch worm. Sure enough, I started to catch larger fish. Over the remainder of the day, all the fish caught were in the 1 lb to 2 lb range with perhaps 10 dinks. We also tried wacky-rigged Senkos, jigs and a Texas-rigged Brush Hog with no success. Most fish were caught in 5 to 10 ft of water around entrances to cuts and as far as 50 yards back into cuts also along drop-offs on flats. Because of the breeze all day, I couldn’t see if there were any fish still on beds. In one area where the water was calm enough, I did see one large cloud of fry around a stump. We did not see any balls of shad like we saw two weeks ago.
    City: Pinole

    Tips: As I suggested in my report two weeks ago, if you are on the lake early in the morning or late in the evening, top water baits will work, particularly a Bass Assassin.