Submit
Report

Northern California Lake Fishing Report

Limit:

Tuesday, October 10th, 2000

  • Shasta County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Sacramento arm good or trout early. Boated 3 to 19" trolling while on our way to bass ish. Bass bite spotty and slow, weather is now cooling and it seems ish have went o the bite. We did pick up a couple dinks in appox. 50' o water on jigs.
      City: Redding

Monday, October 9th, 2000

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 67-70

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Launched out of Holland mid-morning. Stopped by Frank's Tract near Sand Mound and cranked, spinner'd, jigged and ended up trying something new (for me); a weightless Senko. Popped a 2.10 which turned out to be big fish of the day (thanks Cooch. Think I finally believe in them now). Went to Old River, Mildred's, Whiskey and back to Holland. Bunch of small 1.5-2 lb but nothing substancial. Was really windy and after the rain stopped, nada (2 pm). Think the weather confused the fish as much as me...
      City: san jose

      Tips: Only got bit on soft plastics.

    • By

      Water Temp: cooler

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Launched out of the Hook Saturday. Did my typical pass through barge cove. 3rd cast with rattletrap get 1lb striper. Couple of casts later pull a bigger striper maybe 4 lbs. Loose another one at boat of same size. Start cranking weedline in cove for blackies, miss two, land one of about 1.5 lbs. Run to another spot in big break that has held fish - primarily stripers, though, hook another striper on trap that throws bait at boat looked to be about 5 lbs, no blackies. Run to Little Franks, another boat is on a spot that I have caught fish, so move on, casting at cuts, lose one fish, and head to area in Franks that always gives up some fish - bingo! Pitching brush hog (my confidence bait) get a solid thunk! and first 3.5 lber in boat. Two casts later, thunk!, another clone in boat - these are much better fish! Lose two good ones, put another near 4 in boat and a 2 lber after that. All fish were in an area about 40 feet across. Decide to crank points draining into Franks with rattletrap, couple of small stripers, no blackies. Head to Middle river, crank weed wall, one fish of 1.5 lbs, missed two others again! I know there are better fish on this stretch of bank, and promised myself I would try to use the Senko, so start fishing it. No fancy stuff, just gently pitching it to weed walls and deeper pockets and letting it settle on slack line without any action at all. 10 minutes into this the line moves off, and I set the hook on a solid fish that is largest yet, 4 lbs or better. Decide to rest spot and head into Mildred to see if the big stripers are back. Start cranking a rattletrap and land one striper of about 7 lbs. Other boats are watching and move in. I lose 3 more that felt small, so decided to go back to black bassing. Only manage a couple of small keepers on red crankbait, so decide to try a new area, and run up to White's the wind is howling by now, and makes for a difficult time. Tried cranking, pitching brush hogs, and spinnerbaits, only one bite and it is on a senko and I miss it - too windy! Finally find sheltered area and try frog on cheese, nothing. This spot looks ideal so I try the senko and get a 2 lber. Decide it's time to get back because wind in nuts now. Fish Turner, cranking docks on way back, miss two and then get biggest of day for 5 lbs. All told, 10-12 blackies and 4-5 stripers. Best 5 blacks would have gone 15 lbs or so. Not the numbers of previous trips, but much better fish.
      City: Half Moon Bay

  • Alameda County
    • By

      Water Temp: ?

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished on Friday 10/6/00. Lake level has been lowered but not all the way yet. Water was clear and still warm to the touch. Excellent bass day! Within 45 minutes I had caught a limit o bass. All ish in the 2 to 3 lb range. By 11 Am I had caught 12 bass (9 largemouth and 3 smallies). Biggest largemouth weighed 3.5 lb and largest small mouth went 3 lb. Also hooked 2 catish (5 to 6 lb range) while bass ishing.Got a little exciting when a "huge" striper attacked a 2.5 lb largemouth I was ighting. Amazing to see!!! I was hoping the striper would swallow the bass and take me or a ride!! Ater seeing this I devoted an hour to tossing large lures in the are. No luck! I switched to troit trolling rom 12 to 2 Pm and caught 2 trout (12 to 14 inch) while trolling.At 2 I started striper ishing again and worked it till 5 PM. No luck. I also ished Del Valle lat week with the same results (7 bass, 2 trout, 1 catish & 1 salmon).
      City: Fremont

      Tips: split shot white worms along rock piles in 20 t o water.Use silver and blue Kastmasters or salmon. Fire tiger needle ish or trout.For stripers try depth charges or hand grenades.

  • Sonoma County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Went ishing twice in the last two weeks. Caught two smallmouth that were 2 1/4 and 2#'s. Caught one other short smallmouth. Also caught seven other largemouth bass. They were all less than 2#'s each. Lots o small ish around, but the big ones were hard to ind. Caught most o the ish on topwater.
      City: Santa Rosa

Sunday, October 8th, 2000

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 65-69

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Launched out of Sugar Barge and decided to throw topwater plugs for Stripers and Largemouths at a favorite spot in Franks Tract. No takers on topwater so went to throwing Rattletraps and hook a 4lb stiper. Good fight for his size. Throw it out again and get hit by a freight train! Line starts smokin and I'm havin some fun with this one following him around with the trolling motor. The fish actually pealed about 80 yrds of line on first run and took me through an Island break. 20 minutes later and I net a nice striper. 14.2 lbs on the hand scale. Caught 3 more stipers up to 6lbs. and decide to target Bigmouth. I cranked some rip rap but could not get that bite going so I went to plastic worms. Caught 5 bass but biggest only went 1.5lbs.
      City: Danville

      Tips: All of my fish where caught in current.

    • By

      Water Temp: n/a

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished the Delta today w/ fellow NCBF'er, Durbin. Launched at Holland at 5:30, tried topwater to start. He missed one, I land one about 1.5lbs on a buzzbait. When it got light, we ran around to all his spots. For 13 hours of fishing, we caught over 30 bass, nothing over 2lbs. I hooked and lost 2 big fish on a blade though....never saw them. We caught Bass on a little of everything: blades, cranks, senkos, and topwater. Great day out there, and not much wind, considering how I hear it was on Saturday. Thanks for the ride Durbin.
      City: San Mateo

      Tips: Crank/blade outside weedlines/rock, use a Senko on anything. Bring LOTS of mosquito repellant for morning/evening!!!!

    • By

      Water Temp: 68-70

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: launch from B&W at 630 this is the first time on the Delta for me, went south to lighthouse resort and caught my first Delta bass with black buzzbait, no more takers moved to fishermans cut no luck work my way down to Franks tract and flipped my second bass from the tules where false river and Franks cut meet, no more takers here, head for tower park marina used frog in the moss no luck, than moved up to sycamore slough no luck, headed down to B&W caught my third and final bass of the day pitching a aron martin robo worm by Perrys. All bass where 1.6lbs to 1.8lbs. I'm a little disapointed hope to do better the next two days.
      City: Lompoc

      Tips: buzzbait and Robo worms work for me they always work good down south where I live.

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 70

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished clients on Friday, took a short nap, and ished more clients that night. That is a long day (or night?). Even though we moved around a lot, learning new areas, we did ish some, and caught about 6, up to nearly 3 lbs, mostly on jigs and morning dawn Magic worms. Found a shallow rockpile in shadows about 9 am on the west shore o the Rattlesnake arm that had several ish. The client that was learning lost a nice one, I landed 2 splitshotting a Magic worm, and the other client lost one or two. We landed a ew more in Pirate's Cove on Rodstrainer jigs, and one or two in Konocti Bay. I was amazed at the number o boats I saw on Friday - amazing! It is not hard to igure out why the quality ish eat at night! The trip Fri night started out slow, and really ended with a bang. We cranked Shag Rock at dusk and clients caught one each - about 2 1/2 each. One o them lost a 4 ater dark on a worm. We worked Henderson area or over an hour - not a bite! Spent the rest o the time south o the narrows, and as the moon got lower, we started picking up quality ish - client with a 5-1 on a red shad 10" Power worm - other client with a 5-6 on the same bait - and me with a 5-3 on a Weapon jig. We ending the trip on a small rockpile near Rattlesnake Island. I was waiting or them to make their last cast ater putting some things away. One o them said "one more cast", and not just wanting to stand around, I picked up my crankbait rod and threw my deep-diving black crankbait over the rockpiles and "ticked" it back to within 7 or 8 eet o the boat beore a 6-14 jumped all over it, jumped, and got us all a bit wet! Wow! This is not a sport or the aint-hearted!!! We wound up with 8 bass - our 5 biggest ended up at 26 lb 2 oz. Great ending to a really nice trip.
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: Though cranking, Senkos, and jigs are all working during the day, don't orget that you can ish Clear Lake, when there is a lot o pressure, just like you would Oroville or Folsom. Try dart heading a Magic worm or splitshotting a worm or grub - casting or dragging. Clear Lake bass love a morning dawn or blue ghost Magic worm. You will get a lot o small ones this time o year, but you will also get quality bass as well.

    • By

      Water Temp: 48-52

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Still really muddy. Thick with mudd and debree. Fished jigs and worms and lizard rom 7a.m to 3p.m all around rocky points. No takers but I did see a nice one jump right o shore. May have been a big carp. Went to Calero or the evening bite and nailed two nice 2-3lbers right o the back damm, in close. I was using a pro-model ratteling jig and pig. Black
      City: S.J

      Tips: needs alot os sunshine to warm and clear

    • By

      Water Temp: 65+

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: since I'm a local to the area, I had to try guada or some bass, even though I usually ish Calero or Anderson. Water looked really good but the bite sucks. Fished with my buddy or 4 hours all around with only one ish on a crankbait.(only 1.5 lb) I ished jigs, worms, lizards, even tried the senko or about an hour. he ished cranks and spinnerbaits. I ished at Calero a ew days beore and caught 8 bass on a black and blue power worm(texas rig)rom 1.5 to 4.3lbs.. But guada ailed to produce. I am staying at Calero or Anderson where you can actually catch bass. Besides this lake is damm hard to walk around(steep,muddy,loose rock everywhere)
      City: S.J

  • Butte County
    • By

      Water Temp: 69-70

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Had a blast! Found a bite on reaction baits on wind blown areas. Most productive were big rocks in areas where a mudline orms. Caught a dozen or so ish to 17 inches on white spinnerbaits. Also had a ew on a jig, a couple o them hit the jig as I was reeling up. Deepest ish caught was in 10-12 eet o water. Best 5 weighed 9.59.Ramp is in good shape. Another nice note is I was inormed tht my annual pass has been extended or another year at no cost. Woo hoo!
      City: Marysville

      Tips: Target banks with wind and mudlines. Keep moving and come back to areas to give them another chance.

  • Trinity County
    • By

      Water Temp: 66-69

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: water clear down to 30t, only managed our dinks on jigs out o Trinity Alps marina on a small island straight out rom the ramp and in a deep cove just east o there. Saw a lot o small bass cruising in a ew coves but they showed no interest whatsoever. No wind, lat water and no traic except or a riend o mine who showed up as I was pulling out and had the same luck, 6, none legal and all on worms o dierent colors. The lake is down 40 eet but alling slowly, Lewiston Lake is down 4 t which is a lot or it and there is hardly any low, the river is way down with ishing in the catch and release section is closed.
      City: Redding

Saturday, October 7th, 2000

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: didn't check

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Launched out of Big Break. This was my first time launching there. As soon as I launched, the winds began to howl. I fished around Big Break for a while and got nothing. Around 11 I was searching for calmer water and found a nice spot. A couple of casts later, I caught my first fish on a Senko, and my biggest to date. (4 lbs.) I have only been fishing seriously for two years. Through the rest of the day I was able to land three more on the magic Senko worm and just prior to leaving I got on along the weedlin with a Rattle Trap. All Senko fish were over 2 lbs. The last fish was a little over a pound.
      City: Modesto

      Tips: Gotta believe in Senkos after today. Watermelon / Red Flake

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 70

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished the ABA TOC. I could eel the pressure that the ishwere under or the past ew weeks. The larger ish were getting harder to target as the days wore on. We got 16.77pounds or ive ish ishing weeds with Senkos, Brushhogs, and some reaction. Thursday and Friday, we were getting quality blow-ups on Spooks and Buzzbaits, but it basicallyshut down the morning o the TOC. The bass seemed to pullo shore and at the same time, tight against shore, butout o were they were being hammered in the 5 to 8 ootzone. We igured it out too late.
      City: Lincoln

      Tips: Work top water around shallow structure 3 to 8 oot earlythen lip weed patches with brushhogs and worms later inthe morning. Fish hard all day and believe the next bite will be a big one. Never give up!!!!!

  • Mariposa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 58

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: ished rom lot tube at irst light with my brother. tried top water with no takers, so ished a little deeper with split shot 4 inch, inese worm still with no takers. decided to leave at 9:00am.
      City: san jose

    • By

      Water Temp: 73

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished rom 6am too 12:30 pm..Caught app 30 bass,most were spots.Most ish came on light line in 40 & 50 t o water.All were caught on plastics.One ish came on a spoon,15 3/4 in black,caught by my partner.Most o the ish caught ran rom 12in too 15 3/4 in.
      City: Riv

      Tips: Fish deep & wind blown coves

  • Butte County
    • By

      Water Temp: 69-72

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Caught 15+ ish all under 15". Caught several ish dropshotting 4.5" Angler's Choice kick tail worm. Also caught several ish on Darter Head with 6" worm and several on spoons. Most ish came rom 18 to 25 eet, but I think I could have gone deeper or bigger ish. I wanted to share my bad experience to hlp you all avoid what I did today.
      City: Citrus Heights

      Tips: Good time to practice deep water techniques like dropshotting and spooning. Spotted Bass are aggressively eeding on Pond Smelt, but I just couldn't ind the ish over 15"

Friday, October 6th, 2000

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: This is a product Warning to All OMC Owners and possible future owners. OMC HAS STATED THAT THEY DON'T FEEL THEY CAN MAKE OUT THE YEAR, DO TO THE LOSS OF 62 MILLION DOLLARS IN THE LAST SIX MONTHS. THIS AFFECTS ALL WARRANTIES ON THEIR PRODUCTS . SEE ARTICLE REGARDING THIS MATTER AT WWW.PROBASSANGLER.COM

  • Riverside County
    • By

      Water Temp: 73

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: started at 6:30 caught 2 3lbs ,climbers cove 6 in lizard.hooked one on island 12 to 14 lbs onbl.blu jig.had along side boat 3 times..
      City: pasadena

      Tips: deep and slow