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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Friday, November 15th, 2013

  • Butte County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Jeff and I launched at the spillway about 7:15am, fished till about noon. We managed 8-9 spotted bass with one location giving us 5 fish, with 2 right at 15". Dead calm early, then WIND the rest of the morning. Caught most fish drop shoting or with stand up shaky heads rigged with roboworms. Most fish 30-40ft of water. Not a great bit, but we managed a few fish. Looks like the lake went down another 10ft, just a single launch lane now at the spillway. Has to be close to 180ft down.
      City: Magalia

      Tips: Anyone with a boat looking for a fish partner, let me know, lets go catch some spotted bass. I'm available 95% of the time. Email me at jewelweaver@earthlink.net Let go fish.

Wednesday, November 13th, 2013

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 58-60

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: This report will be brief. Want to make sure this new system works - LOL! I took a client from Oregon yesterday, late afternoon 'til midnight. He is a very good bass fisherman and showed it during this trip! His first trip on the water ever, after dark. He caught 16 bass - including a matching pair of 6 1/4 pounders. He was liking after dark fishing more and more - imagine that!! I fished different baits and caught 7 - the biggest at 6-10, using a D&M Piranha swimjig. We fished all over the south end and some mid-lake. Best bite was soon after dark for the quality bass, and they gradually became smaller (3 to 4 lbs) after 10pm. I was very pleased with our 29+ lb best five - but didn't quite make the magic 30 lb limit. Most of the biggest bass were between 10 to 20 feet. Smaller ones a bit more shallow.

      Tips: We used all soft plastics except for the D&M swimjig. He was an expert using the 6" Senko! We used Berkely Havoc baits, Power worms, and various jigs. Other than a few earth shaking hits. most were soft bites - some watching the line move sideways in the black light.

Monday, November 11th, 2013

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 62

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: This weekend the weather was sunny but cool with no wind to speak of. The lake was like a mirror and the water was clear. Everything was perfect except that the fish have moved deeper with no surface activity visible at all. These conditions call for different set-ups till you find the one that works best. I decided to worm three different ways. I had John do drop shot in about thirty feet of water with no luck. Then I had Art fish brass and glass and he caught some small bass. I tried texas rig weightless and I got a tap tap and set the hook on a good size bass I played it for about three minutes when I saw the bass nearing the boat I asked John to get the net and the bass got spooked and dove under the boat and my line snapped. That was very exciting!!! We went to Big Island and started trolling for trout. Art and John got a hook up at the same time which was fun and the trout looked like twins (see photo). We headed in after having a good day. 'til next time..............................................................good fishing!!!!
      www.fishingconnection.net If you have any questions or stories you would like to share please email me at bestguide@hotmail.com
      or call me at 650-583-3333.
      City: San Francisco

      Tips: digital speedometer app on your smart phone is free also get latitude and longitude app also free

Saturday, November 9th, 2013

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 58-60

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Started around franks tract. Was surprised to see just how clear the water was. Saw several, fish in about 6 ft but could not get any to bite. Went to some islands down old river picked up several small fish but nothing big. All fish were on a crank. Tried flipping deeper weeds but no luck. Tough day not sure why.
      City: elk grove

      Tips: Wondering if last weeks 100 plus boat tournament and all the boats on the water today pressured the fish into lockjaw.

Friday, November 8th, 2013

  • Butte County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Been a while since I could talk anyone into fishing. Went out today with Dana. Nice day, windy early, but not too bad. Picked up spots on points, 25-40ft of water on drop shot roboworms. Largest a 15" smallie, all others 13-14" as a guess. We ended up with 13 spots total for the half day of fishing. Water still dropping, has to be close to 170ft down.
      City: Magalia

      Tips: Anyone with a boat looking for a fish partner, let me know. I'm available 90% of the time. Email me at jewelweaver@earthlink.net Lets catch a few.

Wednesday, November 6th, 2013

  • Sonoma County
    • By

      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.

Monday, November 4th, 2013

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 60 ish

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Weather: cool mornings around 30 60s daytime
      Lake Level: 1 ft above rumsey normal for this time of year\Best Depths: you can catch em in a foot or 30 ft whatever you want to fish
      not many reports coming in but the reports im getting are good. lv 500, deep and shallow cranking, swimbaits and spinnerbaits are a good bet
      Big Bass: you can catch em in a foot or 30 ft whatever you want to fish
      11.49 in the aba toc caught by JodyJordan
      Events: small club events only until new year
      Guide Information: clearlake outdoors\Name & Number: 707-262-5852

      Tips: minnow bite is coming on strong had a pair of anglers said they went thru 10 dozen on sat.
      catfishing remains very good .not uncommon to catch 15-20 pounders right now . lots of silversides still up and more threadfin shad than in the last couple years

Sunday, November 3rd, 2013

  • Plumas County
    • By

      Water Temp: 64-68

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: This report is from 2 weeks ago - forgot to post it. Mike Sperbeck and I did an overnight trip to Almanor, fishing on Thursday afternoon and Friday for about 6 hrs. The fishing was good around noon on Thurs but died in the later afternoon along with many short strikes! Quality was good though with several 2 to near 3 lb smallies. Friday was slow during the first few hours but picked up near Hamilton creek where I caught back to back 3 and 3 lb 6 oz semi-toads. About 2 pm I showed Mike an off-shore hump that has been fairly good off and on. It was on fire!!! Mike had a field day, landing about 10 smallies in the 2 3/4 to 3 1/4 lb range and I caught a few too! We landed 14 or 15 smallies from 2 1/2 to 3 1/4 lbs - in a row - nothing smaller! Wow!! Mike did lose a 4+ lb smallie at the boat. The wind came up rather quickly around 3:30 pm and we got out of there fast. A nice, bumpy trip to the dam - but it was worth it!! Great trip!

      Tips: Green pumpkin was the color of choice - their choice! That is the color they wanted! We fish many types of small plastics - mostly on dart heads. We actually caught quality bass from 14 to 55 feet, mostly on the east side of the lake. Some areas we like produced nothing - weird!

Saturday, November 2nd, 2013

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 61-65

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Mike Sperbeck and went to the lake Fri afternoon/night for some quiet time of bass fishing. Wow!! When we hit Henderson Point about 6 pm - there was a November party going on. Didn't see a burger stand however! Nine boats on both sides of the Henderson wall, 3 or 4 boats on Shag, and a few elsewhere. I have never seen that in November - with boats fishing up 'til dark. I know there was a party somewhere - maybe today! Anyway, Mike and I fished Henderson and surrounding area for a few hours and still were able to catch some quality bass. We hit some of our favorite area on the way back to Red Bud, where Mike was able to land a 6 lb 7 oz bass - our biggest. I lost a real big bass after a good battle. Not my night! We landed 8 with the best 5 slightly over 25 lbs. All caught on jigs - fairly shallow - 5 to 20 feet. Nada on topwater.

      Tips: I must say that I lost the big bass on one of "Cooch's Wadda jigs - and I don't think it was the jigs fault. Ran into Cooch - at night no less - and he wanted me to try one of his jigs which he was nice enough to give me. Obviously it was of interest to a really big bass. I would expect the water to cool pretty quickly now - which should cause the more compact "brush hog or jig" type baits to be more attractive to large bass. Big bass do tend to prefer "bulk" type baits in cold water. Longer, plastic worm type baits aren't as effective in cold water. Also, downsizing is often necessary during the winter days - but not at night.

Friday, November 1st, 2013

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 65 -67

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Friday 11-1-13, my buddy and I launched at about 8:00 AM out of Capell Cove and started fishing in Skiers Cove. There were many schools of baitfish but we could only catch one fish. Next, we headed to just inside the opening of the Narrows and fished from there all the way to the farmhouse. A few more fish were caught. About 1:00 me tried behind the Big Island and caught a couple more fish. Because the bite was slow all day, we quit early with a total of 7 fish. Nothing big. All fish were caught drop-shotting 4½ in. Roboworms. Other techniques were tried including top water with no success.
      City: Pinole

      Tips: Jigging spoons in schools of baitfish should work. However, we didn’t try this because another boat nearby was having no success with this technique. Perhaps they had success at another location.

  • Alameda County
    • By

      Water Temp: N/A

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Weighed in an 18.3#, 36.5" striped bass by 9am and back out after the picture. Switched to fishing for lm bass and got a couple 2# each in trees and drop offs. Day was actually slow until I decided to leave at 3pm but a striper wouldn't let me go. Then saw fish feeding across the lake so I stayed an extra hour and caught 7 more stripers to 3#. Had a blast.
      City: dublin

      Tips: Lm on soft plastic in the trees and crankbait on the drop. Stripers on top and 10-15' deep on plugs depending on when and where you find them.

Sunday, October 27th, 2013

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 65

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Picture of Fishing with Sid























      Friday at sunset I headed out with Bob for some night fishing. Bad move on my part should have checked the calendar a little more closely to see what phase the moon was at. It was pitch black out there and we decided to wait for a moon lit night to try again. The next morning I took Art out. We started the day in the Narrows where we were landing small bass. I decided to go for trout because I could see them on the surface all around us. I trolled through the area and sure enough we were getting hit after hit. Art was using a blue and silver "Speed Trap" crankbait with a feather trailer and I was using a white with sparkles crankbait with a feather trailer. We were very happy with the outcome (see photos). Art asked me if fishing with a plastic worm really works so I said let's go do it. I set him up with a senko worm with brass and glass and threw it into four feet of water as he reeled it in slowly I asked if he could feel the bottom and he said yes. He practiced for awhile and then we set off to find some bass. His first cast he could feel the bottom as he reeled in slowly. He felt a tap but did not set the hook but on the second tap he was ready and set the hook on a nice two pound bass. On the way back to the launch ramp we trolled through a large ball of bait and we hit a double hook up it was a little hectic trying to net two fish at the same time but we managed. I showed Art some new spots to fish that he had never tried before and we had a very enjoyable day. 'til next time............................................................................good fishing!!!!
      www.fishingconnection.net If you have any questions or stories you would like to share please email me at bestguide@hotmail.com or call me at 650-583-3333.
      City: San Francisco

      Tips: Follow the bait

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 62

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Hey OttaB...thanx huge for the response and tip...I always wondered about doin' a rip retrieve with a crank...good stuff! Really appreciate it! If ya see a tracker 185 walkthrough with a couple guys and a yellow lab, that's me, my bro, and my pooch buddy!
      Anywways, for the report, my brother and I launched 6:15 at B&W and just worked the Moke down toward Tower. Slack tide was real still so we threw topwater...bro threw a spook and I threw an Ish frog.... lots of blowups but couldn't hold the bite, so I tied a clown/clear spook on...bro already had 3. Immediately got a violent blowup and it was a 23" striper. From then on, it was junk fishing for about an hour and a half. Decided to look for moving water and went up to Sycamore. Water was real muddy so went just outside Sycamore on main channel to find some moving water. I immediately hooked up a couple 1-2lbers on red craw RedEye shad, bro tied on a DD22 in what looked like a Tenn Shad, picked up 4 2lbers in about 40 mins. We kept jumping back and forth on either rock wall/tules and throwing deep divers...I didn't get much, just a few barely keepers, but my bro picked up about 6 more 1, 2, and 3lbers on his deep diver. Dang, just didn't work for me but now I'm tyin' on deep divers just to catch one!
      City: folsom

      Tips: Like OttaB says, look for moving water, which when we found it, our hit percentage increased. Since I didn't hit as much, I have no real tips. But according to my bro, he would cast diag to tules, then slowly work a deep diver across the weedline and pause on contact, then rip it through. They'd hit on the pause or the rip. Dang, I gotta practice!

    • By

      Water Temp: 62-65

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Another late start out of Orwood at 7:30. Cold but not as cold as I thought it would be. Fished top water on the north/south cut just past the bridge to the north but no takers. Little further north got shaker striper and a dink + a few more blow ups.

      Started fishing tule island points with S-waver, Arashi Storm and still no takers. Couple keepers on jerk bait in Mildred Island. Left Mildred at 12:45 and the wind started howling. Tucked into Disco Bay and caught 3 more keepers on drop shot. 10 in the boat but only 5 would have kept. Best was only 2lbs 6ozs.

      All in all pretty slow disappointing day. I'm guessing there was a fast moving front that moved through the region and it shut down the bite?
      City: San Mateo

      Tips: When the wind kicks up duck into Disco Bay and flip the docks.

      I thought the shad patterns would be the key by this time but I was wrong. Should have switched to bluegill or craw at some point. Best bites were on Roboworm Pumpkin Punisher.

Saturday, October 26th, 2013

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Deepv... I was using the red craw color. I was fishing it around tulle points that had grass around them. Casting it out,steady retrieve, but was working my rod like a jerk bait. Never stopped reeling just jerk,jerk. It gave the lure a nice action.
      City: elk grove

Friday, October 25th, 2013

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: na

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Hey OttaB....what color Arashi were you using?
      I think only ones I have are the red and rusty craw, which have produced but on par with my red eye shads. Maybe it's where i'm presenting them. Any insight is helpful and appreciated!

      Thanx!
      DeepvBasser
      City: folsom

      Tips: none, I'm trying OttaB's on Sat and Sun.

  • Sonoma County
    • By

      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.

Thursday, October 24th, 2013

  • Butte County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Jeff and I fished the main portion of the lake today, worked our way to north fork. Fist fish a nice 16 1/2" or about 2 1/2 pound spot. Not our best day on the lake, ended up with 7 spots, most 13-14" Tried assorted baits, could not get it to pick up any. Fish tend to be getting fatter now days. Still nice fish trip, thanks Jeff. We fished mostly roboworms in tan to brown shades.
      City: Magalia

      Tips: Anyone with a boat needing a fish partner, let me know and lets catch a few spots. I'm available most of the time. Email me at jewelweaver@earthlink.net. Lets catch a few.

Wednesday, October 23rd, 2013

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 67-69

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I was telling my buddy - spoonmeister Rick Tietz about a slower than expected spoon bite during my Berryessa guide trip last Fri - after his good trip 2 days before. 'Bring your Duh! spoons and we'll catch 'em!!" So we hit the lake yesterday and after a few hours of intense spooning, Rick said - "Wow - the bite slowed down!!" "I told you so!" - I said with great glee!!! Fun to be right occasionally!! We worked the main lake (with the same dead calm clear water we have seen for the last week) and really didn't catch many bass - but they were in the 3 lb + range (spots). We decided to try the narrows during the later afternoon - and - there they were - giant schools of shad! We did catch quite a few smallies, spots,and one nice largemouth, but we still had to work for them. Lots of missed hits which is rare when they are aggressive. We both agreed that a cooling trend (next week) should get them going. There were a lot of bass near the shad, but they seemed to spook easily - one or two bass and that was it - had to move on.

      Tips: Can't speak to any other bait - only used spoons! Are my elbows aching today? Naw!! As you probably know - move around until you find the bait. Bait does move a lot - as this report proves! Some areas that looked good had no bait, one non-appealing wall hosted tons of bait - 40 to 65 feet. I had never fished that wall seriously during my 45 years at Berryessa! We are always learning, aren't we?!! I was using black shad color most of the time while Rick was using his newer morning dawn color, though he changed color often. And watch out for those trout - they will give you a thrill when they take a spoon!!!

  • Shasta County
    • By

      Water Temp: 64.2 to 65.7

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Shasta is 122' down and fishing very well and getting better! Throw reaction baits early (top water, spinnerbaits, ripbaits and crankbaits) on main and secondary points. After the sun gets on the water pull out to the 20' to 30' range and fish down baits such as darthead worms, 1/2 & 3/4 oz. jigs and brass n' glass.

      Tips: What to use
      1.) Super Spook's: Bone, Baby Bass, Okie Shad
      2.) Lucky Craft Sammy 128: Ghost Minnow, Ghost Trout
      3.) Spinnerbaits: Ganns Stilleto 1/2,3/4 & 1oz.: White on White, White & Chartreuse and Clear Glimmer Flash
      Rodstrainers: Same sizes in white or chartreuse and white.
      4.) Lucky Craft Pointer 100 DD and Staysee 90: Chartreuse Shad, Ghost Minnow and Phantom Chartreuse Shad
      5.) Norman Deep Little N: Chartreuse and white and Texas Shad
      6.)Gann's Draggin' Jig: Green Pumpkin Candy with a 4" Green Pumpkin Yamamoto double tail.
      7.)Mothers Finest Mojave Oxblood w/ Red flake on a 3/16 oz darthead OR a Brass 'n Glass rig. The Brass n' Glass is an old school way of catching quality spotted bass and the Shasta is PRIME for it right now.