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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Sunday, November 4th, 2001

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: unknown

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Launched out o Paradise Point at 7:00 am. Fished tules on Disappointment Slough with little luck, catching ew small Bass on Senko's. Switched to Rip-Rap and hooked into another small Bass. That was it or the day, not much luck!
      City: Escalon

      Tips: Fish hitting Senko's close to tules.

    • By

      Water Temp: 62to64

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: got on the water about 8:00am headed or the east wall by the dam ,took 2 ish on the outside edge o the weedline in 5 to 8t o water.both were good size in the 5lbs range.pulled up to the cove on the east side o the dam ,and trough out a castaic trout ripped one ater 5 casts it went 4.7,then cut over to the west weedline busted one pig at 8.4 worked the west to the 5mph bouy with no other takers.headed back or the launch about 12;00 couple guys need a scale,we weighed there ish at 9lbs 3ozs.
      City: gilroy

      Tips: water gets colder weedline and water level start to diminish,i you dont want to ish deep try the ringes o the weeds.purple jigs,brush hogs,senkos,or small plastics.ramp closed 11/5/01. i think you can still car top.good luck!and god bless.

    • By

      Water Temp: 62to64

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: got on the water about 8:00am headed or the east wall by the dam ,took 2 ish on the outside edge o the weedline in 5 to 8t o water.both were good size in the 5lbs range.pulled up to the cove on the east side o the dam ,and trough out a castaic trout ripped one ater 5 casts it went 4.7,then cut over to the west weedline busted one pig at 8.4 worked the west to the 5mph bouy with no other takers.headed back or the launch about 12;00 couple guys need a scale,we weighed there ish at 9lbs 3ozs.
      City: gilroy

      Tips: water gets colder weedline and water level start to diminish,i you dont want to ish deep try the ringes o the weeds.purple jigs,brush hogs,senkos,or small plastics.ramp closed 11/5/01. i think you can still car top.good luck!and god bless.

Saturday, November 3rd, 2001

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 64

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Arrived at lake while still dark, anticipating a great bite. Started off day fishing a rock pile near Spanish Flat. No luck....same all over the mid and north end of the lake. Only boated one 1.7 smallie all day on a worm. Tried shallow and deep,,,saw fish cruising shallow, and deep on my graphs. they seemed to have lock jaw today. I wonder if the full moon had any effect on the bite???????
      City: San Leandro,Ca

      Tips: I don't know,,,low self esteem at the moment!!!!!!

  • Santa Barbara County
    • By

      Water Temp: 62-66

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: It's a good thing I got up early to go to Cachuma on Sat. it seemed like a very busy place with multiple tournaments and a bunch o ellas preishing. I went down the lake to try out my topwater thing...A little slow but there was no og or cloud cover to speak o I did get a ew...Then I played around a bit and inally got some plastic and jig ish to go.These where some o my better ish. It seemed to me that the size was down a notch rom last week but that could be a lunar thing and these jig ish will only get better.One thing I'm not understanding is the shad in the lake. While I know that they spawn on ull moons and are capable o multiple spawns in a year.They are extremely small like 1 inch plus or minus an eighth. Are these just a late spawn or is that my orage base this year. It's so dierent rom Lopez where you can catch shad on little jigs or nail one by accident while cranking and rippin.I am perplexed about this as I don't see balls o shad I just see a layer???? I guess it will keep my winter interesting. Anyway, I played with my optimum out in the breaks or no takers " a bit early but I like to keep them honest" and threw my A.C. up between Johnson's and Clark's and had some serious ollows but no takers and got o the lake at noon.
      City: Santa Barbara

      Tips: I think the worm and jig thing is going to get much better and soon!

  • Santa Clara County
    • By

      Water Temp: 68

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Started about 9:30 on the boat with a buddy from RI. Haven't used the boat in a while, so we had an interesting time. For starters, I forgot the plug! I realized and started looking for it but couldn't find it. It couldn't have gone too far...it's on a chain!! With finger in hole, I searched around until I found it wedged near a bulkhead. Turned the bilge on and off we go! We fished all the coves on north/west side of res with a couple of dinks. I went to try some of my medium sized minnows that I placed in the livewell. I had a dozen when I bought 'em, but when I opened the lid, there were only 4? Ok, where'd they go? I looked at the drain tube and saw there was enough room for them to squeeze through....right into the lake! Gonna have to fix that. Later in the afternoon we went down to the S-SW side of the lake where it's drying up. Found a little cove on the stable side where we could use the trolling motor. Fished there with some good hits on a pumpkinseed spinnerbait with double golds. A few minutes later I hooked into a real nice one. Here's where it gets funny. You know how when your line breaks, there's kind of a "tink" feeling on your rod? Well, I got a "fvvoop" feeling! I reeled the line in and saw the unmistakable "pig tail" end of my line. The knot came undone! Oops. Well, about 5 seconds later, this 4+lb bass came jumping out of the water about 2 feet from the boat, about 2.5' high, with this really nice pumpkinseed spinnerbait with double golds in its mouth! It was so sad and so funny. Too bad it didn't jump into the boat! Moral of the story....Chances are if your gonna forget the plug and lose your baitfish out the drain, your knot is gonna come undone on the only fish of the day! Cheers.
      City: San Jose

    • By

      Water Temp: 68

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Started about 9:30 on the boat with a buddy from RI. Haven't used the boat in a while, so we had an interesting time. For starters, I forgot the plug! I realized and started looking for it but couldn't find it. It couldn't have gone too far...it's on a chain!! With finger in hole, I searched around until I found it wedged near a bulkhead. Turned the bilge on and off we go! We fished all the coves on north/west side of res with a couple of dinks. I went to try some of my medium sized minnows that I placed in the livewell. I had a dozen when I bought 'em, but when I opened the lid, there were only 4? Ok, where'd they go? I looked at the drain tube and saw there was enough room for them to squeeze through....right into the lake! Gonna have to fix that. Later in the afternoon we went down to the S-SW side of the lake where it's drying up. Found a little cove on the stable side where we could use the trolling motor. Fished there with some good hits on a pumpkinseed spinnerbait with double golds. A few minutes later I hooked into a real nice one. Here's where it gets funny. You know how when your line breaks, there's kind of a "tink" feeling on your rod? Well, I got a "fvvoop" feeling! I reeled the line in and saw the unmistakable "pig tail" end of my line. The knot came undone! Oops. Well, about 5 seconds later, this 4+lb bass came jumping out of the water about 2 feet from the boat, about 2.5' high, with this really nice pumpkinseed spinnerbait with double golds in its mouth! It was so sad and so funny. Too bad it didn't jump into the boat! Moral of the story....Chances are if your gonna forget the plug and lose your baitfish out the drain, your knot is gonna come undone on the only fish of the day! Cheers.
      City: San Jose

  • Yuba County
    • By

      Water Temp: 62

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Launched at 6:30am. Started out in the ishing arm, but there wasn't very much structure to ish. Caught the irst ish, a 2lber, on a rock pile shakin a worm. Worked our way back to the main lake with no luck. Saw a ew ish chasing shad, threw some top water at em with no takers. Got to the dam at around 9:00am and stayed there until 2:30 or so. Caught a total o 13 ish at the dam between the two o us. a ew dinks, and 3 ish just over 2 lbs. with everything else at 1 - 1.5 lbs. A great day considering the lake level.
      City: Nevada City

      Tips: Shake worms, 5 - 20 eet deep. Keep it real slow. I got a lot o bites with the worm just sitting there.

    • By

      Water Temp: 64

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Phil and I arrived at Collins around 1:00PM. The water was way down making it a pain to launch. We started ishing up the river arm with some Senkos and rubber worms. I missed a ew light Senko bites but ater about 45 min. I landed a nice 1.5 pound Spotted bass.When I landed the bass he spit up about 10 very small minnows. Phil noticed and switched to a crankbait. A ew casts later he nailed a really nice 2.1 pound Spot. I started throwing a crankbait and I landed another nice Spot a short while later. We ished until dark and only scraped up a ew more small ish. We landed 6 total and missed a ew but the ish we caught were pretty nice ish. We only saw 5 other bass anglers wich made or a nice quiet day.
      City: Yuba

      Tips: Our bigger ish were caught where we noticed ish chasing minnows. Every ish caught spit up small minnows.

    • By

      Water Temp: 63+

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: First time on this lake. Went across rom the ramp and ound a tree and some bushes in 23.3' o water about 100yards o shore and started catching CRAPPIE!!! Got them on a 7" worm drop shotting and they were beautiul and BIG! But where were the bass? I was marking schools o ish and had to drop the Aqua View down and see what they were. They were bass, crappie and trout! Lake must be turning over because the weeds looked like they were dying and trout, big trout, were on the surace eeding like made dogs but the bass were in a negative mood. I could see that killer creek but desided that the shallow ish would be the toughest to catch so I went north and ished a rock pile and ledge that I graphed and inally started catching some bass. I threw brush hogs, 7" oxblood worms and crankbaits. There was no discernible holding spot because the ish were spread out so the bite came that way too. One here one there and never the same type o cover or more than one ish per spot. I simply went back and orth and caught the ish that were moving up and down the ledge. I managed 7 bass in the boat and 11 crappie. The biggest bass went over three pounds and the biggest crappie went over 16", holy smokes that was a good one. Guess I choose one o the o days to try this lake, as I have heard o many great stories about the average size being around three to our pounds and numbers o ish over ten being caught. Once this lake is inished turning over I'll be back or a second try and hopeully get one o those Coyote toads to go.
      City: Mountain View

      Tips: I think when a lake gets tough the best thing you can do is stick with whatever you have the most conidence in and keep chucking. Your bound to get bit i you have conidence. I would say ishing slower was not the answer under these circumstances either. These ish were roaming and not just sitting there. Most o my ish came on the drop and only two o them came while I was working the bait. Give this lake another week and it should get better.

  • Bayfield County
    • By

      Water Temp: 66 F

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: 3 buddies and mysel went ishing at Ruth lake on Oct. 27, 2001 at the north end o Hobar Creek and within an hour and a hal we had 8 12" and above rainbow trout and 2 Kokanees. The combined weight o the ten ish was 25.6 pounds. Right now it seems that since the water at Ruth is cooling the trout and kokanee are hitting on the top o the water, making or an enjoyable ishing trip or those o you who have children and want to catch ish! P.S. every ish caught was a wild (non-hatchery)ish, still retaining the adipose in.
      City: Mckinleyville, CA

      Tips: We tried using live bate with no luck but powerbait on the other hand kept us catching ish about 1 every 5 or 10 minutes or so. I also used a red beaded wedding ring, light action lure and I was slaying them on that also.

  • Shasta County
    • By

      Water Temp: 60-63

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: First o all Jerry didn't have to talk me into ishing the WON Bass Team Tournament, I was more than eager to give it a try. This was my irst tournament o any kind. I have been ishing Shasta since May. We are recently retired and I ish with my wie most o the time (She's the one Jerry gives me a bad time about because she usually outishes me.)Well i she beats me and I beat Jerry, where does that put him? HA HA. Thanks or everything Jerry, I really enjoyed today. I had a good time watching you raise the lead content o the lake. You can be my net boy anytime. Ater the preish Fri. I thought we should do air to good today. Like they say,"you should have been here yesterday and tomorrow"
      City: Cottonwood

    • By

      Water Temp: 60-63

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I imagine that some o you have had this happen and it sure tastes bad, now or the rest o the story,I talked my buddy Bryce Fuller into jumping into the Won Bass Team tournament on Shasta, that was last tuesday, we couldn't get on the lake till riday and we went out yesterday to pre-ish, We knocked them dead yesterday with about 10 lbs by 10am so went home thinking things were gonna be hot today, got going this am out o bridge bay and ran to our spots in the lower pit and started throwing, Bryece gets one right o and I am throrwing top water just knowing the ish are going to be there, THEY WEREN'T. I couldn't buy a bite, we moved around a little and Bryce gets another one and some more dinks, We run up stream above Browns Canyon and I inally get a legal ish and about 4 dinks, ater that it was dink ater dink ater dink,We took o or the upper McCloud and get some more short ish, went to the weigh in and saw some very nice ish, a 4.9 spot was the big ish when we let. Bryce is now looking or a new partner even though i promised to be his"net boy" in the uture, I didn't miss a single one o his ish with the landing net. At least the weather was beautiul!
      City: Redding

      Tips: my MGM 109 was again consistent, now i I can just throw it in the right spot, tried out a new MGM worm #001 and called the brown bomber, used the 4 inch variety yesterday and had 4 in a row on to 2 lbs on our casts, caught 3 more today and one was my only contribution to Bryce's eort. Gonna have to get some more o those, its a great color.

  • Trinity County
    • By

      Water Temp: 59-62

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished all day Saturday with Dave Saunderson. Water was extremely low, could not launch at Trinity Center so we launched at Estrellita. Headed to northend o lake. Everything above the ballpark area is high and dry. Fished some tailing piles, those on the outside edge closest to deep water seemed best.Also ished steep rocky points and blus. Lots o small ish, one largemouth 5 1/4 caught on smoke grub. Fish were bunced up anywhere rom 5 to 30 eetdeep. We really only used tubes and grubs but I am sure other baits would have worked.
      City: Arcata

Friday, November 2nd, 2001

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 63-67

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: went out on riday and it was sooo oggy at Holland Riverside Marina. My buddy and I decided to ish near the launch along the rockline. We threw some crankbaits and spinnerbaits and got 4 ish within 30 minutes or so. 2 were keepers. We moved up to ranks and caught about 4 more ish and caught 2 more keepers. No bites until about 4 or so and on our way back to the luanch cuaght 2 more bass and only 1 keeper. All in all, an ok day with 5 keepers or around 9-10lbs. pretty bad weight.
      City: Martinez

      Tips: Wht/Chart Spinnerbaits, and Speed Traps along weedline at high tide.

  • Sonoma County
    • By

      Water Temp: ???

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Met up with Patrick at the public ramp around 8:30pm or the night ishing bite. Clear, no clowds. Missed a monster on the South side o the Dam...I've learned to SET MY DAMN HOOK! HAHA! Next time, he's mine! Clod ront came in and KILLED the bite...and I mean killed it dead about midnight. Patrick had 5 ish, one great Small Mouth at 3 lbs, 2-3 1 1/2 to 2 lb'ers, and a MONSTER at at least 8 lbs. Naturally the scale crapped out beore we could weigh him, but what a nice big beautiul largemouth! Thanks again Patrick or taking me out on your boat...we'll kill 'em next time![i]Luty[/i]
      City: Santa Rosa

      Tips: Senkos, senkos, senkos...

Thursday, November 1st, 2001

  • Amador County
    • By

      Water Temp: 65

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Again, the ishing was good and bad - irst bad then good this time... Fished rom 3:30 pm to 3:30 am. I was only catching 5 lb. to 15 lb. sticks until about 1:30 am when the sticks stopped biting and the larger ish started hitting or one and only one hour. Got an 8.3 at 1:30 and a 5.9 at 2:20 am. Got a 12" at about 3:00. That was it. All ish came on 8" - 12" worms.
      City: Folsom

      Tips: Fish jigs or worms in the main body.

Wednesday, October 31st, 2001

  • Santa Barbara County
    • By

      Water Temp: Not bad

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: What do you Know? I got out on Sunday... YAHOO! "the 28" I was irst down the lake to try out my topwater bite. I ished about 10 minutes when I heard a noise over my shoulder and turned to see that a branch had snagged a rod and as I moved along it was pulling it out o the passenger area. You know that o course the reel handle had snagged a multitude o other rods and now 6 or 7 rods where getting ready to plop in the lake in the next second . Splash went the rods and without any hesitation with my rod still in my hand.....Mannn over Boarddd! I hit the water like the lame duck that I am but, I did garner all o the 3000.00 dollars or so worth o rods and reels and get them back in the boat. I wish I didn't keep the darn thing so highly polished that darn wax makes getting back in across that telon/carnuba surace more than a little tricky. So I swam to the outboard and climbed up/in and pulled o my down jacket"as it was cool that morning" and shucked my clothes and wrung them out as best I could. But the sneakers and the jeans were very cold when I put them back on.Actually the water was warm relative to the water temp. About this point I lapsed into my Chumash Indian trick o shivering and shaking.Well the only dry thing I had in the boat was a pair o skimpy shorts or the summer thing and while there was a dry coat in my truck the thought o driving back to the marina made big jim and the twins wince and get even smaller so ...I decided that I I pulled out to where the sun was trying to shine through the little bit o mist that there was and i no wind came up I would be OKAY. Daunted but not out o the game, I ired up the main motor and idled out and I igured that I could throw crankbaits to keep warm until I was a little less rozen. Nothing or 2 hours and I was just getting a little more daunted when I got the irst ish o the day ...at least 5lbs. and then a 4 and then a 21/2lb. smallie all in about 5 minutes! Now I'm eeling a little better"THANK GOD FOR WOOL" and I ended up with 3 smallmouth and 8 largemouth and got the heck o the water by 11:30.I would like to take this time to make a statement: Ater last week's post I recieved a phone call rom my mentor..."WE ALL HAVE THEM!" and he expessed his concern over my last message " I didn't know the old CogKnocker had a computer, much less the ability to access ino on it. In a nutshell he expressed concern over the act that I had actually mentioned WHERE SPECFICALLY I had been ishing the week beore and pointed out that the weights or Saturday where hal what Sundays where. I don't think I have that big o crowd reading these posts but NCBF.Com has in act had about a million hits now and well GEE GUYZ! I could barely get in past the gate into the lake last week or all o the tourney"s and I did in act, not see one single post rom all o that activity. Including any posts rom the people I had advanced inormation to....It's unney but I keep tabs on Clearlake and while everyone complains about all the ishing pressure on that lake very ew people with the exception o Larry Hemphill keep you guys posted on recent developements....WHATS UP WITH THAT ?????? So in light o a request o a personel nature. I will no longer be as speciic with my inormation or advise to all you bassmasters out there. I will strike you a deal. I you e-mail me...I'll e-mail you....Until I see a change in everybody else I can't really be doing all the work....it's a shame because I really love this lake and ater 20+ years on it I have alot to share and learn but.....I have been asked and I will comply with my mentor's wishes to spill less in the way o beans to any and all.
      City: Santa Barbara

      Tips: Keep slugging it out and perseverance will pay o on whatever you have conidence in and i not then at least you were'nt at work.

  • Butte County
    • By

      Water Temp: 65degrees

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fish the Bidwell area north wind most o morning dropshot in 40 eet o water,temp 65 dgrees ish power bait on 6lb test number 2 hook caught one keeper over 15 inches then ish shut o about 11 am caught a dink while cranking the largest lake in the lake to take the small bass ater several trys the ish settled or some surace minows I switch to a silver grub several cast in his area no luck, I have ished the lake since the dam was constructed this was the largest ish I have ever seen,not carp but one hell o salmon or lake trout how some sees this ish and gets a picture went on to catch a ew more spots .Have Fun
      City: chico

      Tips: Dont ish the ull moon also had my best luck on bubble gum worms with green tail shorten to three inchs 6lb test ans 1/2 oz sinker drop shotting ,have a good one

  • Shasta County
    • By

      Water Temp: 61

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Yeeha- Launched at Jones Valley 6:30am. Worked on the Pit or about a hour with nothing much going on. About 8:00 threw out a spook and got hit hard. 1.7 spot. My buddy threw out away rom the bank and was hit also. We continued ishing this same area or 2 hrs with spooks and caught 12 or 15 Shasta clones. No dinks, but nothing over 2 lbs. We moved o or 3hrs, drop shot and texas ishing with a couple 13" ers and some dinks. About 1:00 went back to the irst site and started thorwing the spooks again. Caugt another 12 to 15. what a blast! They were right out in the middle in 70+ t.
      City: Red Blu

      Tips: Look or the bait ish and don't discount throwing top water baits at anytime or anywhere.