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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Friday, May 14th, 2021

  • Solano County
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      Report: by WB Staff » Fri May 14, 2021 4:20 am

      IMG_0510.jpg

      Donny in Oakley

      Report: Hit the water in the afternoon for some after work action. The wind was howling out of the west and there was a high incoming tide. Started off with reaction baits in the front of the boat and shaking worms in the back. Noticed the water color was getting dirtier as the water came up and the wind continued to blow. Needed to make a move to where there was less water flow and a more protected area, so went into the Central Delta.

      Stuck to reactions baits, but no go. Picked up a flippin' stick and went to work.Water color wasn't any better and what I thought was protected was blown out.

      Moved again to a south facing bank, again hoping for some wind protection. It was a little better. Flipped D-Bombs and threw a dropshot to get a few around the hydrilla. Nothing too big. They came out of 3ft.

      No matter how many years or decades you've spent on the Delta, if you're not in tune, it can be a new lesson every time... or maybe it's just me.

Wednesday, May 12th, 2021

  • Lake County
    • By

      Report: by Csuhchris » Wed May 12, 2021 1:10 pm

      Went out this AM! The depth inside the launching area is approximately a foot deep. Using a trolling motor to exit while angled w/o being fully extended will only be possible a few more weeks. Was approximately two feet deep last week. Time to pull out your airboats!

Sunday, May 9th, 2021

  • Solano County
    • By

      Report: From Alan Fong at Fisherman's Warehouse Megastore Sacramento. If you want to talk fishing, you know where to go to find him!...

      Finally got out to the Delta on Thursday with Chris, a buddy of mine for years.

      It was blowing very hard so we stayed in Minor Slough but we caught some nice bass on blades and Senkos.

      Most of the bass are post spawn now so I'm finding them in little more current.

      Finally around 11 am I stuck this seven pounder on a Senko.

      Considering a windy day it was pretty good and lots fun fishing with Chris. Used to fish a lot with him until he moved to Oregon. Chris bought a ghost, 2 HDS 12 lives from FW so I took him out to set them up n teach him how they work.

      For those going out this week the bass in the North Delta are post spawn and are moving into current. When the wind blows throw blades in grass on flats and look for areas that are in 2 to 8 feet of water!

      There are also some bass under the mats so throw frogs and then turn around and punch the mats.

      For those of you that don't know Chris. He used to travel and fish the west coast. He is the 2010 WON Bass U.S. Open AAA chamption.

Friday, May 7th, 2021

  • Tuolumne County
    • By

      Report: This week I was able to head over to New Melones with my buddy Earl Dalton for a day of fun fishing, and I have to say we had a blast!

      When we put the boat in the water, the surface temperature was 65.

      We started off with a variety of topwater baits. I settled in on a Rico popper and Earl went with a walking bait. I am not sure what brand he had on.

      For the first couple hours we played the shade, what I mean by that is we fished-any bank that had a shade line and it and it was on!

      When the sun got higher, we noticed the water was pretty clear. After that we started fishing the back of coves. We caught quite a few with a big TRD green pumpkin Ned rig and a brown 3/8 oz Bass Union jig with a Yamamoto Twin Tail trailer. We stopped by Hook'd tackle store in Ione for more big TRD’s and I’m glad we did. With that being said please support your local tackle stores.
      I hope this helps.
      Good luck fishing!
      stanL

Friday, April 23rd, 2021

  • Shasta County
    • By

      Report: by BASNFAN » Fri Apr 23, 2021 5:55 pm

      Shasta fishing was crazy this year compared to most years . Between my partner and I, we boated 72 bass and one crappie in the 3 1/2 days. Usually we do that many for both of us in one day. Biggest was pushing 2 lbs. The crappie though was 14 1/2 inches and provided more meet and bigger filets than the bigger bass. We saw a few beds and little bucks swimming around. We kept 14 fish for the freezer and not one with eggs and only two that had red tails. Keitecks at about 3.8 in was a good bait but most fish came on Robos rigged Texas, darter headed, or Neko rigged. My umbrella rig never got a bite, nor did any cranks. It was still a good trip for us. Water temps were up and down but generally between 58 in the AM and 63 or 64 in the PM.

Thursday, April 22nd, 2021

  • Lake County
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      Report: by Mitch » Thu Apr 22, 2021 11:30 am

      Launch out of Red Bud and fish the whole Red Bud arm. Much deeper. Wacky Rig Senkos or Niko rig and work the "Scattered" tules and outside docks. The Bass up there like the darker colors. Junebug, Watermelon/red, Greenpumpkin etc.

Wednesday, April 21st, 2021

  • Lake County
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      Report: by farmboy9695 » Wed Apr 21, 2021 7:26 pm

      Came up Monday after the big tournament. Launched out of LakePort headed north the last two days. Water is low, caught a couple of bed fish, no real size. Fishing tomorrow and I’m thinking launching out of Lucerne. Any suggestions, I’m not a tournament fisher but would like to catch a few 4 or 5 lbs before heading home.
      I fished drop shot last two days and caught @6 total. About 2.5 lbs
      Any constructive help would be appreciated.

Thursday, April 15th, 2021

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 62.2

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished this past Monday & Weds evening. There was a small cold front setting in plus the Won 3 day tournament. The fishing was ok with the majority of our fish coming on black 8” powerworms. Monday we caught 11 fish with the two biggest at 7 lbs 5 oz & 5 lbs 11 oz. They came late as the fish seemed to become active at 3 am. Weds we were only out for 2 1/2 hrs coming in at midnight. I fished with Don Iovino on Weds & we had a ball catching 12 in a little bit of time. Best fish was 7 lbs 2 oz that was the only crankbait fish of the evening. I think it would have gotten better later but we came in early. There were only a one jig fish but they were really on that black worm Texas rigged. Monday we had to hide from the wind but Weds was calm. They were very close to the bank & often just picked the bait up. Monday’s limit was a tad over 23 lbs & Weds limit was a tad over 21 lbs. The trip only yielded 1 blade fish, 1 jig fish & 1 crankbait fish. All of the rest were on the Texas rig. Hope this helps!

      Tips: I think spawn had started so you have to run into foraging fish. They were shallow but when you hooked them, the fight was on! We were south fishing in front of tules & back of docks. When the weather settles, I think the bite will improve! Have fun & stay safe!

Saturday, April 10th, 2021

  • Solano County
    • By

      Report: From Alan Fong at Fisherman's Warehouse Sacramento

      Fished the north delta yesterday with Ryan Peterson good friend of mine. Started off slow as we only caught a couple in the morning. Water was over 60* but the fish were not cooperating. I decided to start fishing very slowly with a 6" senko
      and started to catch fish. We quit at 1 pm which is early for me with a 18# limit! So it ended up being an ok day! Some of these fish were spawned out!

Thursday, April 8th, 2021

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 68 to 72

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: My friend Pete and I fished Berryessa today and finally I can say the action was not too bad at all. We never left the narrows and ended the day with 17 fish. I had 15 and Pete got two. Nothing on small swimbaits, the umbrella rig, square bills, and even the rip bait. All our fish came on Texas rigged Robo worms. I didn't even try a Senko. I had my 1st limit by 9 AM and then moved around and found some good spots. We saw some beds in the back of coves but only small bucks sitting on them but did not catch any. Big fish was 2 1/2 to 3/4 pounds. Most fish were 14 to 17 inches.

Friday, March 26th, 2021

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 54.8

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Came up for a quick trip as fishing has been really good. We fished a few hours late Wednesday afternoon, couldn’t get on the water Wednesday night as the wind was howling, & fished Thursday night. We ended up with four fish Weds in the 4-5 lb range. They were scattered in what they would hit, 2 were on the jig, 1 on a crankbait, & 1 on the Texas rig. (I’m not the best daytime fisherman!) Thursday night was much better. It was a shame that Rufino & I were suffering from “I can’t buy a hook set” issues, but we still managed to boat 19 fish. They were biting in spurts but really became active around 4 AM. They were hard on the Texas rigged Brushhogs & Beavers with a few blade & crank bites thrown in. The jig bite was slower with just a few fish. We were throwing baits with green & red & they were deep in the 20-22 ft range. We were fishing Konocti bay & didn’t venture further as we only had one night. Our biggest was 7 lbs 9 oz & our best five went 27 lbs 15 oz’s. I think we may have improved on that if we didn’t have two left hands last night!

      Tips: Slow presentation was key as was deep water access. They would be active for a bit, go dormant for a bit & repeat until we got to 4AM, then they got after it so you may have to wait them out. We also caught quite a few males but the females were still healthy, big bellied, & full of fight! Hope this helps, stay safe, & have fun out there!

Saturday, March 20th, 2021

  • Amador County
    • By

      Report: My buddy Ed Austin and I made the trip to camanche last week and put the smackdown on them!!

      When we got to the lake we noticed the surface temperature was 54° and water clarity was about 8’. the lake had dropped which usually means tough fishing but I think the bass' instinct to come shallow is overwhelming this time of year so we started on flats adjacent to deep water.

      Ed started with his homemade underspin that we call the Super Hornet and I started with a Bass Union A-rig.

      Ed caught 3 and I caught 2 but after the sun came out and the wind died down the reaction bite really slowed down.

      That's when I started throwing a Green Pumpkin Yamamoto Senko and Ed threw a Ned rig with the big TRD. We were fishing in less than 15’ of water and we ended up catching 12 fish in the 3 to 5 lb class.

      I know the high school fishing teams have a tournament tomorrow and my best advice is to fish the day, if it’s cloudy and or windy try some reaction baits. If it is calm and sunny stick with your bottom baits.

      I hope this helps.
      Good luck fishing
      stanl

Sunday, March 14th, 2021

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 52.3

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Went out Friday & Saturday night for the first trip of the season for us. The fish are very active & healthy right now. Friday was the better of the two evenings as a weather system came in Saturday night. We fished Konocti exclusively as we didn’t have any reason to move. They were hitting the jig, blade & cranks with gusto! Found them in 10-15 ft around structure. Texas rigged plastics were working well too. Docks were very productive around the likings. The fish are macking on crawdads right now. Their lips are so red it’s as if they’re wearing lipstick! Lol. So, red jigs & trailers were really working for us. What was surprising was the reaction bite as they were hammering the cranks & the blades! I managed to nail a 11.0 on the blades & she was fat & sassy! Friday our limit went 37 lbs even while Saturday went 26lbs 5 oz. Friday fish total was 31 fish while Saturday slowed to 9 fish. The overall average size was big through both days with a lot of fish caught in the 5-7 lb range! I think when the weather stabilizes, the bite is going to be very consistent! I had heard it was really good before we arrived!

      Tips: Red is the color! For plastics anything that resembled a crawdad worked. The single wide beaver was productive for us. Jigs were worked over rocky structure, Texas rig & reaction baits were worked around the docks. Slow presentation was key. Some times when you made a cast, then you lifted your rod tip, the fish would be swimming away with it, so be vigilant. They seemed stacked so work areas slowly. There were big limits caught during the tournaments this past weekend, so the fish are really active! They’re also really healthy & fighting very hard! Stay safe & have fun out there! I’ll post a few pics on the forum.

Friday, March 5th, 2021

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 52 to 56 degrees

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I took my young friend from Church today for his second time ever fishing. He is just 10 years old and he is going to be a pretty good stick in just a few more years. We fished from about 7 AM to 2:45 PM, put on 26 miles before finding the right area. Together we caught 5 bass between us, 3 spots and 2 smallies. Biggest went about 3 Lbs. Needless to say the kid was quite happy! All five fish caught in shallow bays on the main body and in 10 feet or less. Small swimbaits and Texas rigged worms did the trick. I would attach a couple of photos but I don't see where I can do that here.

Sunday, February 28th, 2021

  • Santa Clara County
    • By

      Water Temp: 55

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished for about five hours and only got hooked up bouncing texas rigged worms in about 15 feet of water. Caught two in total with nothing big. I spoke to another angler who said they caught some fish on a crank bait in deep water.

Friday, February 26th, 2021

  • Solano County
    • By

      Report: by StanL » Fri Feb 26, 2021

      For the first time this year, my buddy Earl Dalton and I made our way down to the river to start looking around for some up coming tournaments we will be fishing in.

      We put in at Ladd’s and the first thing we noticed was the tanic water color. The surface temperature was 54° degrees.

      With that being said, we started hitting some spots off the main channel with reaction baits, but after about 2 hours and 4 spots later we still had no bites. We decided to slow way down and Earl finally got a bite on a Yamamoto Senko, pitching it on some scattered tules. After that, we decided to run that pattern for around Mildred and ended up catching 7 fish for the day. They all came from scattered tules on flats.

      I talked to Lorenzo Rossetti that was out with his son, Lucca the same day and he said they caught a few nice fish ones. I hope this helps.

      Good luck fishing
      StanL

Sunday, February 14th, 2021

    • By

      Water Temp: 53

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Short story - early prespawn fish on the move. 2 bites, 2 fish 4#, 4.5#. Channel swing banks adjacent to spawning areas 5’ deep on 6” STC swimbaits.

      Long story - headed up mid-morning to test out my new Lowrance Active Target system and expanded network. Spent an hour fussing with settings and learning that I need to download a software update to the transducer/module.

      Focused on 3 steep points and banks with deep access and adjacent to spawning areas. Rotated through LV500’s, A-rigs/swimbaits and suspending jerkbaits fished 5’-20’ deep. Steep point in Whiskey yielded the first fish on a 6” STC swimbait on the initial drop. 2nd fish came 50 yards later on channel swing bank on the drop.

      Water in the back of the major creeks was clear with 3* warmer water compared to main lake. Several big spots of fish deep off of primary points and in the bottom of breaks that would not bite anything. A little bit of stable weather and it could bust wide open.

      Tips: Don’t let the cold weather fool you. There are some shallow active fish staging for the initial prespawn movements

Saturday, February 13th, 2021

  • Amador County
    • By

      Report: by StanL » Sat Feb 13, 2021 4:36 am

      Fishing Camanche Feb 12

      Today I got a chance to get out with my buddy Ed Austin.

      Before we left I checked out the Daily WaterResource on the WesternBass forums and seen that there was 225cfs going out and 161 CFS coming in and whenever Camanche is falling it always makes for some challenging fishing. But when we got to the lake, the water temperature was 53° and I noticed the water had a little bit of stain to it and hat usually means there should be some shallow fish.

      After a couple hours of fishing less than 20 feet with no bites, I ran into a friend Tre Dodd and he said he had gotten bit earlier on a Jig in deeper water, so we decided to move out and check some Island tops in 40’. We got some action right away using the same old 3/4 oz bass Union jig I’ve been using all year.

      At the end of the day we had caught 12 fish all on jigs, just running points and island tops. Not sure how many Tre caught, but it was a supper nice day. I hope this helps good luck fishing.

      P. S I have to give a shout out to Russell Marine, one of the WesternBass sponsors. On Monday before the Wild West Shasta Pro-Am, I ordered a new graph and needed it before the weekend. I received it on Wednesday with no tax and with no shipping.

      Thanks!

      StanL

Sunday, February 7th, 2021

    • By

      Water Temp: 49 to 50

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Slow day out on the lake fished senkos and drop shots. only managed 2 fish in 5 hours. fished main dam with only 1 bite and fished north lake end with the last remaining bite. no fish up in the Bear river stretch. We only marked a few fish all day. Look for bite to pick up when water temps in spring reach 57 degrees.

      Tips: Keep an eye out on your depth as to current low water conditions especially if you are unfamiliar with this lake,most hazards are not marked here.

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2021

  • Tuolumne County
    • By

      Report: 3 Days of Fishing Melones
      Postby StanL » Wed Feb 03, 2021 3:55 am

      I fished 3 days at New Melones. I started off fishing Monday with Earl Dalton and Casey Cabral. On the way up to the lake, there was about 6” of snow on the ground. The surface temp dropped to 50°with about 10’ of visibility.

      We started with jigs and dropshoting in 30 to 50 feet and the bite was slow. Until we started moving deeper and found the fish in 50’ to 60’ on rock and caught around 20 fish.

      The next trip was on Saturday, I fished with George West. The sun was out and the air temperature got to the high 60s. surface temperature was 63". We both fished 3/4 oz jig’s in 30 ‘to 40 and that seemed to be the best depth for that day.

      On Sunday I fished with my buddy John House and 30” to 40”seemed to be good findings. The rock seemed to be the key, but we also caught a few on a Frenzy Nail with a Zoom Trick Worm throwing up on some windy banks in less than 20 feet of water. Each trip we caught over 20 fish per day not bad for January. most of my fish came on a bass union 3/4 oz brown jig and Yamamoto Twin Tail trailer .I hope this helps.

      Good luck fishing!
      StanL