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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Thursday, October 19th, 2000

  • Shasta County
    • By

      Water Temp: 66-70

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: things are slow up here, out mon-tues or 2 ish each day in the pit arm, the bass are ull o shad, no activity either day but the bass were chasing shad all over on wed and today according to a riend who ishes the lake as much as I do, I went up on the upper Klamath below the hatchery at hornbrook with two riends or 40 in the boat, 35 more that got o, we kept a ew hens or roe and I put back a dandy steelhead today, ished with Mick Thomas rom over on the coast and had the best guided trip I have ever had. Soooooooo, here's the plug or Mick 1-800-248-4704 he ishes ,most o the north coast and southern oregon, especially the smith. I will be booking him or steelhead this all. My shoulders are sore but it hurts so good!Unless we have some weather soon things are going to be tough or the bassmasters and other tournaments, i the weather wil cool o quickly then the lake wil start to turn over but with present conditions possibly continuing then its gonna be awhile.
      City: Redding

Wednesday, October 18th, 2000

  • Sacramento County
    • By

      Water Temp: ?

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I STARTED FISHING AT 2:30 ON THE SOUTH FORK.I JUST BOUGHT SOME SENKOS SO I THOUGHT I WOULD GIVE EM A SHOT.FISHED AROUND SOME TREES, BUT WAS TOO SHALLOW.I WENT OUT TO ABOUT 15 OR 20 FEET, AND I CAUGHT A 1.5 SPOT. NEXT CAST I CAUGHT ANOTHER SPOT ABOUT THE SAME SIZE. I CAUGHT 3 MORE WITH IN AN HOUR AND THEN THE SUN WENT BEHIND SOME CLOUDS AND THE FISH SHUT OFF. THE LAST SPOT WAS NICE, ABOUT 3LBS. THE FISH WERE REALLY AGRESSIVE ONCE I FOUND THE RIGHT DEPTH. NOT TOO BAD FOR TWO HOURS IN A FLOAT TUBE. SENKOS ARE EVERYTHING I HAVE HEARD OR READ ABOUT.
      City: El Dorado Hills

      Tips: THE FISH ARE STILL DEEP, BUT ACTIVELY FEEDING. I USED THE SENKO WEIGHTLESS, AND EITHER TAPPED ON THE POLE OR JERKED IT OFF THE BOTTOM PRETTY GOOD. THE FISH LOVE THE ACTION ON THESE BAITS. GOOD LUCK!

    • By

      Water Temp: 68

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: We saw one boil but it didn't stay up too long. Jimmy caught one striper (5lbs) on a hopkins spoon. Boated around looking or busting ish.
      City: So. San Francisco

      Tips: When ish are busting I like to throw poppers but anything resembling shad will work. Be in the right place at the right time.

Tuesday, October 17th, 2000

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: 'Wow' is a word I can hardly say after a day like this. Leaving Sugar Barge an hour prior to dawn with my uncle, we headed south to one of my honey holes. It started off slow, but once the sun broke, the bite began. Topwater bites were had off of a black buzzbait and small spinnerbaits early. My uncle was thrilled catching his first black bass and had a few more to come. Stripers were randomly caught in the mix. When we started pulling stripers more consistently and frequently,we both knew we were on to something. We shifted gears and started targeting stripers. We happened upon a school, and anchored the boat at the northern part of Franks. This is when the fun began. In a 3.0 hour period, we caught around 50+ stripers between the two of us. We frequently had double hook ups. It would of been more but my uncle took a break to eat lunch. The sizes ranged from 0.5 to 3.5 pounds, with alot of the smaller ones. Despite the sizes, it sure made for one heck of a day. I wish you could of been here, Bob and Joe.
      City: Union City

      Tips: Fish on a weekday.

    • By

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: This lake is so drained, that it isnt even unny. I you want to make a map o the lake this the time to do so. Fished about three hours till sunset, nothing happening. Dont think i'll ever ish her again, until they plant trout.
      City: san jose

      Tips: dont go here, this place sucks. The county manages the lake and they sure dont care about the ishes or the anglers.

Monday, October 16th, 2000

  • Santa Barbara County
    • By

      Water Temp: 67

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Launched early - ished till noon. No top water bite. Nailed one on a blade tight to stickup. A lot o time spent breaking in my new ight. Dont understand all that bad press. Mine runs great.
      City: Santa Ynez

      Tips: No wind this am. Made it tough. Look or windy days.

    • By

      Water Temp: 67

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Launched early - ished till noon. No top water bite. Nailed one on a blade tight to stickup. A lot o time spent breaking in my new ight. Dont understand all that bad press. Mine runs great.
      City: Santa Ynez

      Tips: No wind this am. Made it tough. Look or windy days.

  • Santa Clara County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: We'll I've just started to fish bass, my first love is trout, steelhead and salmon. New to the South Bay and all my favorite spots four hours away I decided I need to learn to fish local and that means learning to fish bass. Sunday night 5-7 pm, I pitched a crawdad lure for the first hour no luck? switched to a top water pencil and small hula poper, again no luck. Talked to guy who caught a 3lber on a grub fished very slow in close to the bank. Going to fish slower lures next time. Again I'm new to the SJ area and don't have a boat at this time, if anyone is looking for someone to fish with on weekends or early am weekdays I'm willing to split the gas just send an email.
      City: San Jose

    • By

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: We'll I've just started to fish bass, my first love is trout, steelhead and salmon. New to the South Bay and all my favorite spots four hours away I decided I need to learn to fish local and that means learning to fish bass. Sunday night 5-7 pm, I pitched a crawdad lure for the first hour no luck? switched to a top water pencil and small hula poper, again no luck. Talked to guy who caught a 3lber on a grub fished very slow in close to the bank. Going to fish slower lures next time. Again I'm new to the SJ area and don't have a boat at this time, if anyone is looking for someone to fish with on weekends or early am weekdays I'm willing to split the gas just send an email.
      City: San Jose

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 68

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: launched from king island sat at 3.00 p.m. lots of boat traffic and a real tough bite fish were not shallow and what bumps we got were very suttle. next morning on the water at 6.30 a.m. foggy and cool air temp . started in whites work back to around tinsley island finnaley located fish on a point of the san jaquin in deep water pulled 6 fish out only two keepers.

      Tips: reaction baits in white

    • By

      Water Temp: 68'

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: I also fished our club tourney out of Orwood sat. Had fish going weeks before on 5" junebug Senkos. Sat they wouldn't completely eat it. I missed several, early, who were striking it short, even had one 3-4 lb jump out at it and miss. I caught 3 small keepers for 9th place. My non-boat however,fished black jigs most of the day. Broke a 5 off at the boat trying to swing her in. I netted two 4's after that for him. The winning weight came on 4" senkos,shad color. Why didn't I think of that?
      City: San Leandro

      Tips: Downsize after a storm or during the full moon, or when they're not eating what you got.

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: varied dependin

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished Clear Lake Saturday or irst time since April. Did ok, not great or this lake. First thing in morning cranked a wall and oshore rocks on South side o Rattlesnake arm, but did not get a hit. Went to area on north side o Rattlesnake arm that I know has ish holding on it. Missed one with a deep diving red crank, no more hits, so switched to rattletrap and bang! A eisty 8 inch dink! Started doing this and ater 10 or so, realized that I had a problem. Had only caught 2 hal pounders that were barely keepers in the mix o dinks. Tried a black blue jig, and brush hog with no bites. Moved o the spot towards a group o docks and pulled a better ish o about 2 lbs, and a second slightly smaller. Decided that big ones were not in the mood, so started buring the trap along a steel retaining wall on the way out. Missed a better ish right at the base o the wall, and put another o about 2.5 lbs in boat. No other hits, lots o boat traic. I knew I could work this area or a limit witht the chance that eventually a bigger ish would come up, but decided to see i ish had moved o the bank due to pressure. Ran up the lake to the sailboat dock just south o the narrows on the north side o lake. There are some oshore brushpiles here that have been good or me in the past. Had one hit on crank, nothing on brush hog, and decided to try a new area on the South end by Bass alley. Many boats in here, but ound an oshore ledge and cranked it. No hits. Decided that maybe best bet was to thrash moss near shallow water or what ew active ish were let in an area that had at least 5 boats move through. Wanted to try Senko and Bingo! Caught 3 keepers, 1 to 3 lbs in hal an hour. Saw several good bass in area, but gave water to two gentlemen ishing the tournament. Now I elt that I was onto something. Ran to similar water by Buckingham and started pitching senkos aroung docks and o deeper weed clumps out rom shore. Caught a couple o hal pounders and another or 3 that nearly yanked the rod out o my hand! Cruised back to my home base in Soda Bay, and noticed a good ish busting shad or baby bass on an outer weed line. Decided to throw a Devils Horse topwater and pulled a two and a our on back to back casts. Then caught nothing but small ish on senko and topwaters to inish out. All in all a decent day considering that I had not been up in a while, but no big ones.
      City: Hal Moon Bay

      Tips: Be lexible, and don't be araid to go into an area that has already been ished over. I am now really a believer in the senko. I did not move the lure at all. Allowed it to sink on slack line, just watching line or movement. Missed several senko ish because sometimes they sucked it in and did not move, so when I took up line it elt like weeds and I would set too late - DOH! Have a topwater rigged and ready i ish come up. Most o the T-boats were very courteous - thakns!, but had two boats that were a little pushy. I you ask, I will always share the water, and the majority o the time I will give it up completely, so please be considerate.

  • Alameda County
    • By

      Water Temp: ?

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished Sunday (10/15). Arrived at gate at 5:55 and 4 cars ahead o me. Launched boat while it was still dark and proceeded to the end o the narrows and started ishing my special "large tail white worm" right side rock wall in about 25 t o water. Took about 15 minutes to hook the irst largemouh. Nothing special but about 13 inches. Next cast produced a slightly larger ish. Still dark and I motored across the way to a small rocky shoreline and started ishing. Had a good bite and lost it. Let the "worm" there and another came back and ate it "hard". This one went about 2 lb.I moved across the way where I have seen a lot o striper activity and put down 2 broken back Rapalas and trolled around or 45 minutes with out any hits. Seing as how this is in the area o one o my avorites spots I reeeled up and started worming this rocky area in 30 t o water. Action was hot. In the next 1.5 hours I caught 16 ish in one "hole". I caught 3 catish (4, 5 & 7 lb), 2 stripers (19 & 17.5 inch), 2 small mouth and 10 largemouth. Most bass about 2 lb. One smallmouth and one large mouth about 3 lb.Hit one more spot and had only 1 bite and missed it. Moved to dam and picked up a couple largemouth in 20 t o water.Trolled or trout or 45 minutes with no luck so I decided to call it a day at 3 PM and go home. Total count or the day 25 ish. 20 bass, 3 catish and 2 stripers.Did see one guy in a rental toplining or trout. He said action was red hot trolling orange rapalas in the area o dam and spill way. He also claimed to have lost a 5 lb striper at the net (probably more like 17 inches). Not a large crowd today and most people ishing narrows and coves. Dam area was empty.Todays bites were all very aggressive. Fish would hit and run (stripers ran like a train!!).
      City: Fremont

      Tips: Try 20 to 30 t o roch walls with a slow drit or assist by trolling motor.white or orange colors.

  • Sacramento County
    • By

      Water Temp: 68

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Let ramp around 3:30pm headed towards rattlesnake and targeted rockpiles in about 20 -30' o water.could'nt buy a bite.We tried jigs ,dropshotting ,even prayer but no go. But once the sun went down it was a diernt story the top water bite was on.Target shallow rock piles.

      Tips: Early morning and late evening seem to be the ticket with an ocasional prayer here or there won't hurt either.

Sunday, October 15th, 2000

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 70-72

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: FISHED THE HOOK TOURNAMENT, PARTNER PREFISHED THURSDAY. HE FOUND SOME GOOD WATER HOLDING SOME BARRACK FISH. NEEDLESS TO SAY WE ARE NO BOBBY BARRACKS, WE WERE ABLE TO GET OUR LIMIT, EVEN CULL 3 FISH. STILL OUR WEIGHT WAS ONLY 9.77LBS. MOST FISH CAME IN TIGHT WEEDLINES ON BUZZBAITS(BLACK) AND SENKOS, ANY DARK COLOR WITH FLAKE. CAUGHT ABOUT 15 FISH ALL DAY. WORKING EARLY ON STATAGY FOR NEXT TOURNAMENT.
      City: CONCORD

      Tips: WHEN THROWING BUZZ, NO SPLASH AND REEL BEFORE BAIT HITS WATER, SENKO ALOT OF LITTLE FISH EAT THESE THINGS AND @ $1.25EACH RUN THE HOOK DOWN THE WORM A WAYS, KEEPS THE WORM FROM FLIING OFF WHEN SETTING HOOK ON THE BABIES, AND KEEPS WORM FROM HAVING THE TAIL CHEWED OFF ALSO.

    • By

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Caught a ton of keepers fishing a club type deal. Tried spinnerbaits, the fish were eating them good in practice. Started catching them on a Timber Tiger DC 8 in chartuse. My partner threw his blade up in the rocks, and snagged. Before he could get it off, I caught a limit. I told him to break it off there was a ton of fish here! He caught two on a red Speed Trap, slightly bigger than mine. When I finally stopped to cull, DFG would have arrested me. My partner figured later that I must have caught at least 30 fish off that one little area. We also caught fish with Brush Hogs, and a few on jigs. Also Senkos were good for a few fish. Couldn't seem to find any big ones though. They were all about the same size, my partner beat me out and took third, I finished behind him we both only had about nine something pounds, apiece. But what a great day for biting fish! No kidding for awhile there it was a bite every cast!
      City: Rio Vista

      Tips: Before you give up on an area, throw something else! In practice those fish just pounded spinnerbaits, (Persuader, blue&chartuse) They wouldn't eat em on game day, threw in my favorite crank and WHAMMO! Turned into one of those days you wish you had more often. The kinda day nobody would believe!

    • By

      Water Temp: 64

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished our small club tourney over the weekend, finished 2nd. Most our fish came in the morning on high tide. The fish were right on the bank,we cranked red speed traps and threw senko's. Later in the afternoon I swiched to shad and parrot colored cranks. Not that many fish caught on plastics or jigs, our better quality fish all came on reaction baits.
      City: San Lorenzo

      Tips: speed traps red and shad color,senkos dark colors.

    • By

      Water Temp: n/a

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: went out at 6:30 and got nothin on a luke or rapala so went to the senko. I lost one but got another on the next cast on the same spot. Then got one more bite but he took o hal the senko. My dad wanted to get a trout so we went o irst dock and got one. This other guy got like 3. But my dad wanted to leave to see the gay raider game.
      City: Livermore

      Tips: only got my bites o o a watermelon senko. trout you use any power bait

  • Sonoma County
    • By

      Water Temp: 63

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: well it was pretty tough on sunday.Only managed three bites with one o those beinglanded. had teo bites and one ish on a drop shot with seducer drop shot worm. had on more bite onyamamoto spider jig. Fish were deep 15-40. I belive that the cold air had something to do with the poorishing. Fished creek chanels up in cherry then ran down and ished some rock piles in the main bodygood luck to all those who ish this lake. Dress warm runing up to cherry in the ranger in the morningelt like i was eating ice cream to ast. I any body has any ino on whats happening at Clear lake or Folsomei would appeciate an e mail. good luck

      Tips: Fish deep or now when the weather stabelizes look or the trap bitein the creeks to pick up. should have gone duck hunting!

  • Calaveras County
    • By

      Water Temp: n/a

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: started @ sun up with small spook and picked up 2 keepers. lots o small ish but they went into hiding ater the sun came up. they held deep in the hydrilla or whatever it's called. all in all a beautiul day to be on the water. haven't ish this lake enough to give mysel any consistency. i anyone has suggestions, i'm open.
      City: denair

      Tips: ull moon may have aected the daytime bite but early the ish were aggressive. ish along the weed lines close to deep water.