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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Wednesday, October 24th, 2001

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      Water Temp: ?

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Luty, your're too unny. You're cracking me up. Rods were made to be broken. Oh man
      City: Petaluma

      Tips: Use bamboo sticks or start praying to the ishing gods. Your luck will change soon when the weather changes.

Tuesday, October 23rd, 2001

  • Shasta County
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      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: The bite is great until about 9:00 or me. Had around 12 ish in the irst hal hour, nothing solid, all around 1.75 on topwater. Cranks picked up a ew more and then went to the jig. A lot o the bait has really moved, looks like Im gonna have to burn some gas running them down again. The unny thing yesterday is that the graph would look just perect or dropshotting, and no takers. I inally got a smallmouth (2 pounds) in 5 eet o water on the dropshot- I just ollowed this one group in and got one. Hopeully the wind will subside and we can get some clouds and rain going.
      City: Redding

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      Water Temp: 65

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: in at centimundi at 635 am and the ramp has been cleaned up good, all the mud removed, wind howling at 20-25, air temp 53, ran north to just south o dolly point looking over some new water, irst cast at 717am with a surace lure, 5 casts later 4 in the boat to 2.5, wal mart BFL olks roaring past and I get 3 more and pick up the jig rod at 745, 4 more ater that on a jig in 12-25 t or a total o 11, wind started gusting to 40 plus with some 4-6 ooters blowing down the main channel towards the dam, ran up and past bridge bay into the McCloud near birdhouse or three more on a crank bait when the shad suraced all around me, best 5 went 9.6 by 945 am, ran back down towards Centimundi and the water is ROUGH, got out at 1115 with 3 ooters breaking over the stern at the ramp, got home and ound a letter rom my avorite partner Ray Spoon rom the Casting kids gig two weeks ago, 7 pictures and a very nice letter rom Ray and one rom his mom, As Ray would put it"get in, sit down, shut up and hang on" God Bless you Ray, I had a great time.
      City: Redding

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      Water Temp: ?

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished rom 1pm to 5pm. Went way in the back and dropshotted baby brushhogs(water/red). Caught seven ish to 3lbs. Here's the bad part. All ish caught o steep rocky banks with tree stumps. Had to cast rom the cattle trail or about ten eet above the water. Could not get to water level because too steep. Extremely dangerous way to ish One slip and it's adios. You could get seriously hurt. Not a good idea to ish by yoursel. Be smart. Anyway I tried blading and crankin. Nothing. Shallow water. Nothing. The urther you can go back the better. Where it starts to narrow. I cast out and let some more line out and then I engaged the reel. The line would start to swing towards me and the bank. Three ish hit while it was still alling(suspended)? , the other our hit while I was reeling in slowly o the bottom. I'm sure I would have gotten a ew more i I ished earlier or later.
      City: Petaluma

      Tips: The urther back you go, the better. Try dierent things. It does not have to be a baby brushhog, but I do know they like them. Obviously you can't bring all your tackle with you, so you have to have a little game plan. A couple o rods and a ew dierent lures and techniques. You don't want to be dragging !@$#% all over the lake. Blades, brushhogs and senkos or me. Maybe rattletrap also with the wind and suspended ish. Bring water and most o all be careul. No ish is worth getting hurt over. Finally, I could not help but notice all the debris out there. Its pathetic. I you can, try and pick up a ew pieces out there and put in garbage can on the way out. It can make a dierence. These !@#holes are ruining it out there or everybody. Some spots look like the dumps.

Monday, October 22nd, 2001

  • Sacramento County
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      Water Temp: 65

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: launched out o Granite Bay's last ramp so i'm told at irst light.Stuck a 16 incher on a spinnerbait irst shot out o the cannon.Minutes later stuck one on a jerk bait about the same size.Caught a ew more rats on drop shots but that's it.Be careull out there it's quite dangerous or your 500 dollar props.
      City: citrus hts.

      Tips: Reaction baits are catching the bigger ish.

  • Shasta County
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      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: LAUNCHED AT 6:30 AM AT PACKERS. GOT TWO SMALL FISH ON BLADES ON FIRST MAIN POINT ON THE EAST SIDE GOING OUT OF PACKERS. RIPPED FOR A WHILE AND NOTHING, RAN DOWN JONES VALLEY WAY AND STARTED PICKING UP NICE KEEPER FISH ON CUT BANKS AND MAIN POINTS IN 10 TO 35 FT OF WATER. USE A MGM IO9 AND A WORM CALLED MORNING DAWN THEY WORKED BETTER THEN OUR NORMAL COLORS WE USE. CAUGHT A COUPLE ON THE DROP SHOT USING A MGM SLUGO.THE LAKE WAS GREAT THIS MORNING VERY FEW BOATS AND CALM WATER. THE BITE WAS TOUGH, FOR MY WIFE AND I A LONG TIME BETWEEN BITES BUT THE FISH WERE QUALITY FISH THE BIGGEST GOING 2 1/ 2 LBS, AND YES MY WIFE STUCK IT, ILL GET HER NEXT TIME. I DID TAKE TWO FISH OFF THE NORTH PIER OF THE PIT RIVER BRIDGE WITH A HOPKINS SPOON,IT CAME UN BUCKLED THAT ONE THERE HAD SOME WEIGHT ON HIM BUT HE WON THE BATTLE TO BE CAUGHT ANOTHER DAY.
      City: ANDERSON

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      Water Temp: ???

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Oh man! So I head out on Spring lake at 5:30pm with the ather-in-law in the canoe to try out my new GL2 rod. As soon as we push the canoe in the in-laws rod catches a stump...and crack! Oh man it sucked. So we head out, and I thow some senko's, but tried some grubs splitshot. Lots o nice bites, and one little 1 1/2 lb bass. Not bad or 1 1/2 hours. Dad thru with the broken stick, and man I can't tell you how unny and pathetic we looked. We better get some good luck soon.
      City: Santa Rosa

      Tips: Plastic grubs, worms, split shot or carolina. Try a dark green w/ lake or Smoke.

Sunday, October 21st, 2001

  • Amador County
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      Water Temp: 68

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished Amador Sunday rom 7 am till 2 pm with a riend. We picked up about 10 ish all 2 pounds and under on jigs and worms. Fish were between 3' and 15' deep. No big ish but we did miss a ew jig bites which might have been larger ish early in the morning. The bite slowed around 11:30 am and started picking up again when we let around 2 pm. Blades, topwater, and crankbaits didn't work when we were throwing them.
      City: Folsom

      Tips: Brown/orange jig with green craw Magic craw trailer, black jig with Yamamoto smoke/silver lake grub soaked with attractant were best baits.

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: warm

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Launched out o Paradise marina at 5:30 pm. My wie and I headed up Disapoitment slough; looking or tullies near deaper water and current. Started with white spinnerbait with no luck, went to rootbeer w/red lake senko and hooked into a 2.6lb o a point. Also hooked small ish right ater that. Moved to rocky bank next to current and My wie ound a 1lb. ish near the bank. I also ound 1.8lb in same area. Moved to get out o the wind. Found some tulles and my wie hooked into a 2.6 pounder, on a watermelon w/red & gold lake senko. We ished until it was too dark or us to see.
      City: Escalon

      Tips: All ish and all bites were on senko.

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: ?

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I just got my butt kicked in one o the biggest tourneys I ished this year. DOH!!On Saturday I went to the narrows and ished Dollar Island and Anderson Island. First crack outta the hat, my livewell pump goes kaput and I have to ill the well by hand and add a couple bubblers or aeration. As it turned out, I never would need them. Jigs, C-rig, lippin', cranks...nada.On Sunday I went to Lucerne and ound lots o ish and caught 15 rippin a Lucky Crat. Only 1 was legal size and that was caught lippin' a senko.Clear Lake just kills me sometimes. I love that lake!
      City: Cotati

      Tips: Don't do what I did. LOL

  • Riverside County
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      Water Temp: 65-70

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Got there about 8:30 ished o the bank on the west side(bernosconie beach). caught our nice size largemouth(0ne to two pounds) on a carolina rig. Used 4" purple pigtail worms,bite was spaced out and died down ater 1:00. whtched boats ish around us and leave because they couldnt catch anything on there dropshots. Same thing on the bank.
      City: Riverside

      Tips: use worms(purple smutherd in hotsauce crawish scent) on a carolina rig the ish are seeing to many dropshots and need something dierent. Fish hard on rocky points dont give up they are there.

  • Shasta County
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      Water Temp: 64-66

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: in at Sugarloa at 7am, loat knocked o track, air temp 49 and water murky with bottom scum coming up as the lake turns over. Made the trip north to get out o the way o the tournament guys, daughter here or ew days, irst 4 casts produced 3 bass to 2.6 on her secret bait, upstream rom the ramp, 4 more in next 10 minutes and I shited to a jig or another and then many short hits up by the railroad bridge, only two tournamet boats made the trip up. we got o the water early, shasta rec at the ramp and taking both loats out ater some idiot in a houseboat hit the loats and tore o the rail,i ur going to put in there u might want to reconsider i ur doing it by ursel, ok or two guys per boat but a real pain by yoursel, 100% team event today plus a local club and a club rom reno, next week its the big shootout or the walmart bl tues-saturday.
      City: Redding

      Tips: my jigs and Kelly's "secret bait" ok, she just said I can top water.

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      Water Temp: ?

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Hey revrat, read your report. Start throwing big brushhogs(watermelon/red or junebug) with smelly jelly. Texas rig with 5/0 EWG. Trust me. I ish there sometimes. My neighbors ather owns a lot o land out there and he brings me out to his athers house sometimes. His backyard is Soulajule. Its awsome. They bite pretty good because there's no pressure. Blades are also good. Char/white with Yamamoto 5" single tail grub(green pumpkin). Also a Berkeley power lizard in black is good or a trailer. Hang on. They love them brushhogs. I'm sure Senko will deinitely work i wind is not blowing.
      City: Petaluma

      Tips: Wind blowing -texas rig and blades. Try and get way back as ar as you can away rom the dam. I think that would be southeast i I got my bearings right. Work your way back and I'm sure you'll run in to them somewhere. Give yoursel enough time to ish areas slowly with the brushhog. Heck i wind is blowing, throw that LuckyCrat Pointer 100 rip bait. It should work. There's some good size ish out there i you're willing to put the time in. Good luck.

Saturday, October 20th, 2001

  • Napa County
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      Water Temp: 63-67

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: My wife and I got on the lake around 10:00am. Fished accross the lake from spanish flats marina. We got on fish around 11:45 working the main lake humps from 35ft to 18 ft dragging a 4" morning dawn magic worm on a mojo rig. We caught 10 fish from 11:45 till 3:45 when we had to have the rental boat back. We caught the last 2 at 3:40. This was our first time fishing berryessa so we did not know where to go plus having a rental boat limited us to how much water we could cover. The fish we caught were a mix of smallies, largies and spots. the size was ranging from a pound and a half to 3 pounds. My wife did have one major rod bending hit that about took the rod out of her hand and I had a largemouth that I lost 10 feet from the boat that was going over 3lbs. Over all, a great day with my wife with some fun fishing.
      City: San Jose

      Tips: work the humps on either side of the coves and look for fish in the 15-30 foot range with the magic number being 26 feet. Small worms drifted across the hump on a light carolina or mojo did the trick. nothing on live bait, one bite trolling a chartruse tail dancer.

  • Santa Barbara County
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      Water Temp: 66.4

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Water temp started at 62 or so and was not really a actor.My new best BUDDY Chris Washington o the Wasco bass Club e-mailed me a ew days ago to inquire about the conditions at the Big C. Well I've been dinking around with some saltwater stu and had not been out or ...something like 6 weeks so I e-mailed him back and said I'd get the dope...I was told that the buzzbait bite had died...wrong...here is how it worked out...Went down the lake to an allegeded killer spot and threw rattle traps until it dawned on me that it was not going to happen, went to my numero uno,Ichi ban, topwater spot and slapped out 3 buzzbait ish, that while they were'nt big they were ish... gooed around some more and then went back to the rattle trap spot and nothing until I lost the biggest ish I personally have ever hooked on a trap....It's like a horror movie that keeps replaying in my mind what could I have done dierently????I changed the hooks I had her or a good long time up comes the head and there goes the trap.....NO...No....NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Sweet suering mother o christ she be gone....So I start looking around and there is baitish everywhere in the shallows...Really shallow...1 oot shallow throw the buzzbait "it's 11:00 o'clock ...Wham one ...wham two....thats it go till 11:30 throw out the rattle trap arther out but at the same depth "I was on stork lat" wham ...wham!!!!Ok time or lunch...I run into Chris Washington and his partner and they have 1....FISH....ollow me....I show them my spot and they just slapped 4 ish or 10 or so pounds....My second limit went about 12+ lbs.....or so I sure would have liked to see her in my LIVEWELL..pardon me as I digress....Chris and his partner came in 2nd I think ...they're best o the year...I could be wrong.....And Chris i you ask me a question I WILL ALLWAYS TRY TO GET YOU AN ANSWER...I am so sorry that I can't remember your partners name thats prolly why I ain't in MANAGEMENT.....
      City: Santa Barbara

      Tips: Go ahead and throw topwater right o the bat....the rattletrap conditions are not the best until the wind kicks in...turns out that a chart/craw or a solid chartruse is best ....go igure ....Later gater

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 69

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished club tourney with Basin Bassmasters and launched out o Paradise at irst light. I was excited to ish a place that I hadn't ished since March, but when we got there it was choked. We decided to go to the opposite bank and try some reaction baits. My partner Ken Hicks was throwing a s-trap and was throwing a chugger. No luck on those baits, but I got bit right away as soon as I starting pitching plastics. We put a couple keepers in the boat as well as some undersized ish. We decided to hit some rip rap in hopes o getting on to a reaction bite and managed a couple more keepers over the next ew hours. It was starting to get late in the day, so we decided to ish over by paradise and picked up our 5th keeper on a brushhog. We ended up taking 2nd with just under 9 pounds. The winners had a nice 13.5 pound limit that they caught on topwater and senkos.
      City: roseville

      Tips: It was a tough day. Overall, Ken and I caught 20 ish or so and all but the limit were undersized. It was a very calm day, otherwise I think the crank bite would have been on. The ish were in the weed lines or the most part. It is supposed to be cool this upcoming week which should cause the delta to bust wide open.

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: 68

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Since I had two night trips at the same time as the W.O.N. Tri-State tournament, I thought it would be un or my clients (boyriend-girlriend olks each night) to see i we could beat the winning weight. The night ishing wasn't great and the clients were learning. I thought that was a un challenge! Well, we came close - winning the irst trip with a 29-3 limit, but ell short Friday night (see report rom gentleman rom Tracy) with 4 bass or 13 1/4 lbs. I guess that would have put us around 5th place or the two trips. It was no accident that the bite was slow Fri night. Friday and Saturday both were warm, cloudy days. Thursday night was warm and on schedule, the carp became active around midnight and so did the bass! Friday night saw clear skies and it was much cooler - the carp never really became active, nor did the bass. I love watching the carp-bass thing at night. Normally when the carp play - the bass bite!! Thursday night we ished early evening at Shag and Henderson without so much as a bite. We went south and I caught a 2 1/2 pounder at 9:30 PM. About 11:30 we heard the irst carp roll, and at 11:45 the gentleman client sets up on a real good one, using a junebug Dead Ringer 8" worm. This time I have a net and it was a little easier to get his 8 pounder in the boat! This was by ar his biggest bass and his excitement was un to watch. It was very satisying to me, since he had only caught one bass in a previous trip. What a way or him to start. In the next 3 hours we caught 7 more or our previously mentioned 29-3 limit. He added another good ish, a 5-14, and I inally got a great ish to slam a Weapon jig - it was 7-1!! His girlriend ended the evening with her only bass o the trip - a nice 3 pounder. All bass were caught on the dead ringers, 10" Power worms, one on a jig, and a 4 pounder on a Frenzy crankbait. We were ishing rocky areas and points. They were supposed to leave the next day, but were excited enough to ish another day - I hope they had some luck! The Friday night trip was already reported, but I will mention that I caught my two bass on a Ho-Daddy, a brush hog type bait one o my clients told me about. A 3 and a 4 something slammed that bait! As mentioned in his report, his girlriend lost two good bass that would have given us a nice limit, but the second bass was the irst one she ever hooked on a worm. That is always exciting. I told her a little more power in the hookset, and she will be on her way! I had a day trip last Tuesday, and we did manage to get 4 in the boat or about 12 1/2 lbs, with one o the clients getting a nice 5-11 on a #194 Senko - lipping in weed pockets. The other client got a nice 3 1/2 on a jig. I got a 2 1/2 on a white rog and missed the one that would have given us a decent limit. I think it was around 4+. We caught all o our ish ater 1 PM.
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: It is hard to tell i the night ishing is also eeling the pressure o way-too-much tournament ishing. One would think that night ishing would be better, but it doesn't seem to work that way. I have ound that when certain rockpiles are pounded day ater day, the bass simply move and don't return at night. I have really noticed unusual mobility o bass in the last three weeks - they don't seem to stay in an area very long. Probably has something to do with the ood chain too. They certainly havn't started schooling yet. Cooler weather is bound to help - at least it will get them to stay in one spot longer!!!

    • By

      Water Temp: 69

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: I was the irst boat on the water on Saturday morning. Started out with a buzzbait in the south end with only one short strike. Switched to 6" magic worms at about 9am. Quickly caught 2 small ish. Moved to deeper water where I was reading ish on the meter. Ater an hour and a hal o nothing I inally caught a decent ish (just under 3 lbs.). That was it or the day. Let at 1. Tough day.
      City: San Jose

      Tips: Lots o ish on the inder in about 20 eet o water. Fish slow. Topwater seems to be tough this time o year.

  • Mariposa County
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      Water Temp: 70-72

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Went up river,started ishing abt 7 am.We caught 10 plus spots rom 11 1/2 in too 18 in. Fish were caught rom 10 t too 60 t deep.Most came on Cali & pro worms, one was caught on a tube bait.Light line,shakeing heads & drop shot.Nothing on top water or crank baits......I orget this,last sat we caught 3 spots & lost 2.All were deep.Those 3 were 13 1/2..14/12 & 16 in...Not lbs.
      City: Riv

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      Water Temp: 70

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Launched rom McClure Pt. & ished main lake points on both sides rom there to s. ramp o Barretts. Started morning w/top water, Shad Rap, blade, & pig n jig but did not boat 1st ish until 8:30 am & only ater I switched to split shot 4" grn. weenie. It was a chunky 14 1/2 incher. My wie boated the 2nd ish about 1/2 hr. later, a 12 incher, split shotting a 4" grn. weenie w/chatruese tail. An hour later I boated another 14 1/2 incher then it took another 3 hrs. beore I boated my 3rd and last ish or the day a 15" largemouth on a split shot curlytail purple ghost. We did get to see a big ish, an 8 lb. black chasing a 10" trout in a shallow cove. Did try cranking & spooning throughout the day but no luck.
      City: Delhi

      Tips: 8 hrs. o ishing & we only boated our, three spots & one black. Our ish were split shot using 4" grn. weenies & curlytail purple ghost. Caught them on main lake pts. in 20'-25' o water. No hard strikers, bites were pressure only & missed several bites riding out the ski boat wakes.