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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Monday, December 17th, 2012

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 50-52

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Weather: rain, we got some snow on saturday clear now thru wednesday
      Lake Level: 3.50 and rising\Best Depths: 2-30
      I havent been out but guys throwing big baits are doing good , Ive seen photos of 40 pound limits
      Big Bass: 2-30
      several 8-10 pounders being caught
      Guide Information: clearlake outdoors\Name & Number: 707-262-5852

      Tips: get out and fish

Saturday, December 15th, 2012

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 47.4

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Launched from Ladd's around 9:00 am and fished in Fourteen Mile slough bite was slow but caught 6 nice bass the biggest was 3.25 lbs. Most fish were in 6 to 8 feet of water and caught all fish on a shad colored rip bait. I missed three other fish, the bit was suttle and I didn't get a real good hook set. We got off the water around 1:00 pm as the wind picked up and the water was getting rough.
      City: Sacramento

      Tips: Cast the lure out, reel it down and let it sit...give it a twitch and let it sit for 20-30 second count. All fish were caught as the bait was sitting still.

  • Alameda County
    • By

      Water Temp: 54-56

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Cold front came through and seem to have affected the bite. Had too work the jig fish harder and really slow down. Got about 10 bites to 3 lbs. early and shut down later when it started raining. Brown 1/2oz. jigs did the trick,quit around 2pm.
      City: Bay Area

      Tips: Be prepaired for the weather and bring good raingear.

Friday, December 14th, 2012

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 56 to 57

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: First time back on Berryessa after several weeks. Fished from about 1100 to 1530. Overcast skies and near calm conditions. Only debris was small (1 to 2 foot) branches and assorted crud. Nothing spectacular but the smallies were chewing pretty good. Caught one small spot near the first point before the Narrows (across from the sunken island). Then the fun began. Along the North shore of the first cove in the Narrows hooked up with my first smallie on a jig with 420 beaver trailer (just slowly dragging it). Next three smallies, including a really nice 5 lber, were caught on a spinner bait (3/4 oz. Revenge with a clear/black hula grub trailer with chartreuse highlighter on the tips) from the point at the start of the rock slide and down that shore. All very healthy and fought like hell. Love it when they get near the boat and go into the dive mode. 5 lber had my 704 Lami Cert Pro bent in half.
      City: Windsor, CA

      Tips: All spinner bait fish were caught in 40 to 45 ft. of water with fish suspended at 25 to 30 ft. Didn't venture up to Putah but probably still close to mocha colored. Stayed pretty much in the Narrows due to limited time.

  • Butte County
    • By

      Water Temp: 49-52

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: I have not been very good at reporting lately but these last few weeks have been some of the best weeks of Fall/Winter fishing I have seen. Average numbers have been from 40-50 with high days above the 60 mark. Most of the bass have been in the bracket but many over as the average bags have been around 10 lbs. Good bags have been 12-14 lbs. I had a great guy out today for just 5 hours and our total fish count was around 40-45. The exciting thing was his best bag went 16lbs-14oz. His two biggest bass were 5lb-4oz lg mouth and a 3lb-8oz spot. I don't have to say he was pretty excited about his day!! Today we did not get real fancy as all we used were senkos. With this storm and the 50 feet of new water, it has brought the bigger bass up. Last week were using blades,rip bait,drop shot, jigs, finesse jigs with worms, spoons, A-rigs, just to mention a few of the patterns.
      City: Paradise

      Tips: Don't mind the weather. Go out and experience some great fishing.

    • By

      Water Temp: 49-52

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Mike Sperbeck and I launched at the dam today, fishing from 10 am to 4 pm, mostly in the main body. Too cold to run around much and there is already floating debris! Be careful!!! The bite was slow but steady until about 3 pm, when it died for us. The sun came out for about an hour around 1 pm and the spotted bass liked that - bite was pretty good. All the bass were good quality (including one largemouth) except for 2 undersize. We had 6 "overs" but nothing much over 2 lbs. Possibly the now extreme cold weather has slowed the bigger fish bite - or we got on the water too late this morning. Clay/broken rock banks held most of the fish - at the 10 to 25 food depth. We could not really get anything going with deeper bass.
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: We both felt that the bass seemed "on a diet!" None of them seemed to have the nice bellies that have been evident in previous years. The jig bite was good for me this morning - and I got two on a D&M Piranha swim jig (green pumpkin). Mike was using various soft plastics on a dart head. Not sure how many total bass we caught - somewhere around 30.

  • Sonoma County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Mr. Benjamin John Crowley. I am desperate for some action. its already December 14, but was wondering what part of the lake you found the steelhead and bass chasing shad? That bite may be over by now but i was thinking of barrowing my buddy's boat and heading up to the lake hoping and wishing for that kind of action.
      City: san mateo

Tuesday, December 11th, 2012

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 58.9

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Spooned 4 hours for bass. I did horrible. Overall for me this was the worse spoon bite this fall in my 7 years fishing Berryessa...
      City: Elk Grove

      Tips: Water starts to stain up around Big Island. Be careful 1/2 back in Putah Creek...quite a bit of debris including entire tree trunks...

      Until next year

  • Yuba County
    • By

      Water Temp: 54

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: I made a quick 3 hr trip today, mainly to try my new G. Loomis NRX rods. I only used 2 models, hooking 2 bass - a 2 1/4 and 1 3/4 lb. The rods felt great! I did hook a bigger one, but lost it. As I was leaving. I made one more cast with a D%M Piranha swim jig (craw color) and got a good hit in about 15 feet of water - and I even landed her! She was a spot just shy of 3 1/2 lbs. Nice short trip!
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: The lake has come up some 20 feet. It looks great but still fairly dingy. I would use some type of bladed bait or bulky bait. All my bites were about 15-20 feet deep. Got the first 2 drop-shotting Robo worms in the main body.

  • Butte County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished today, ended up with 13 spots, nothing of any size, maybe 14 1/2 as the largest. The Coho salmon plants were hitting our roboworms, ended up landing one, small about 9-10 inches. They hit worms like a machine gun firing, Tat, tat, tat, fast. Worms and hooks seemed a bit large for them. North fork full of wood, nearly like a log jam. Fishing way off, all our honey holes very slow. Weather will probably hold us off for the next trip till next year. We'll try to get out, but not likely. Lake water still rising.
      City: Magalia

Monday, December 10th, 2012

    • By

      Water Temp: 60

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Water level dropped for incoming rains. Water clearing. 6+ lb. on Jig n' Pig and a couple 2+'s on suspending jerk baits. Targeted steep banks with rocks.
      City: San Jose

      Tips: Caught several 2-3 pounders on craw pattern deep diving crank baits while grinding the rocks before the storms. Trout feeding on surface, time to get out the big swim baits!

      With water temps. dropping, its time to get out the big jigs and s-l-o-w down!

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 52-55 still!!

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Weather: clear calm lake has been like glass
      Lake Level: 3.38\Best Depths: 2-30
      Midlake is still clear ,muddy down by redbud and by rodman, I went out sunday and we caught fish to 5.5# on minnows. The local club tournament was won on an a rig with.23#
      Big Bass: 2-30
      several 9 # caught at night
      Guide Information: 707-262-5852\Name & Number: clearlake outdoors\Pricing Specials/Open Dates: clearlake outdoors, Mention this report and get your minnows at $11.00 a dozen

      Tips: A rigs , big swimbaits, lv 500 has slowed,

  • Alameda County
    • By

      Water Temp: 60.5

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Threw ripbaits till sun came up-nothing. Moved to Swallow rock and caught 2.5lb on a dropshot. Switched to brown/purple 1/2oz jig and it was on. Caught three more 2lbr's and my DelValle PB of 9lbs. Fished my way toward the dam concentrating on steep rock only to catch a few under sized fish. All fish were caught at 20-30ft. Picture of fish in photo section.
      City: Brentwood

      Tips: For me it was a brown/purple jig right after the sun started warming my hands up. Fish hard in the morning. Afternoon slows down.

Sunday, December 9th, 2012

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 50

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Launched 715am B&W; water on s.moke and san joaquin is muddy and lots of debris. worked dark senkos, big bite baits kriet worms, jigs, beavers, nada. was gonna try black spinnerbait but left spinnerbait box at home. tried st francis yacht club entrance and picked up a 1-lber on a black/red flk senko right at the tules. couple more hits there but nothing else on the hook. went to look for clearer water but couldn't find it so called it a day around 1pm.
      likely won't be back for a while but sure would like to see some other reports if anyone decides to go!
      City: folsom

      Tips: nothing to offer but would welcome some for these tough conditions! isn't anything dark/black in muddy water the recommended offering?
      guess i'll try my backyard lake (folsom) ... it's tough there too but least i'll save on gas.

    • By

      Water Temp: 52-53

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Launched B&W 7:15am and started on S.Moke tule strips working anything dark in the muddy water...nada. Moved to Little Connection Slough by H&H....nada. Moved to St. Francis Yacht Club, picked up 1 keeper on blk/red flk senko (water was a tad less muddy...more like stained). Nothing else so quit at 1:15pm since everything was muddy water.
      City: folsom

      Tips: Need help on delta muddy water...any insights / tips are appreciated. Talked with a couple other bass boats and they had same result. What's the method for muddy delta water?

Saturday, December 8th, 2012

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 54-56

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Mike Sperbeck and I hit the lake yesterday - out of Red Bud - from 5 pm 'til midnight. It was a quite frustrating trip because it was the second day of the weather change (cold air mass) which definitely affected the bite. Air temp was 36 degrees when we left. I started out with a near 5 lber, lost another big one, and Mike had a big one on a swimbait - which he lost. That was how the evening was to go for us. We only landed 6, but missed or lost about 15!! They would just nip the bait - sometimes very aggressively. We would set - and nothing there! And I lost my monster of the late fall - maybe between 8 and 10 lbs. Again - jumped - and spit the hook. The good bites did keep us fairly warm - our first cold night with fog forming on the lake as we left. All of our fish were 3 to 15-20 feet deep - up some with the warm rain. We used jigs and Berkely Havoc baits most of the time. We just stayed in the Clear Lake arm.
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: We are supposed to have a major weather change by Wed. An northern storm is predicted with some very cold weather to follow. As the lake stabilizes and cools, the bass probably will move deeper and we will need to fish more slowly. Last night we saw something that most of you haven't seen. As we returned to Red Bud, the lake was dead calm with a winter silver-like sheen on it as fog would rise off the water. I have seen this many times before - it is like looking at a huge pane of glass made of silver. It reflects off lights on the shore. Absolutely gorgeous - but cold!!

Thursday, December 6th, 2012

  • Butte County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Couldn't get the boat out, so shore fished at Lime Saddle. Fished 7:30am to noon. Ended up with 22 spots. Two 15 inch, 2 14 1/2 inch, the rest 12-14 inch. Fished Texas style roboworms 4 1/2 inch. Lots of floating wood in the water. Very few boats out on the lake.
      City: Magalia

Wednesday, December 5th, 2012

  • Alameda County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Got out on the water around 11 when the rain started to die down. Water wasn't as clear as it usually is so I fished shallower than I have been using 1/2 oz jigs. Caught 2 right off the bat in the 3 to 3.5lb range a rock wall. Went to the dam area and got a 4lb smallie on a shallow point and a 3 lb smallie on a steep rock bank both on the same 1/2 oz jig. Worked the area a while longer a got a couple more more lm. Jig bite started to slow so I found some deeper water and worked a drop shot and a spoon. Got one lm on a drop shot in 30 ft of water and got 2 catfish on a spoon is 60 ft of water. Overall great day, first time I had felt I had something worthy to post. All though I do appreciate when others post despite not catching g anything.
      City: Livermore

      Tips: I think the weather had more to do with the bite being on. All the fish were extremely healthy and plump with very sharp teeth. I went out the previous week and got skunked during a day with bright blue skies and light wind. The rain really helped the fish start to feed.

Tuesday, December 4th, 2012

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: ?

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: DFG planting this week. I went last week and had a limit in about an hour on a mira shad. All nice trout to 16 inches
      City: lakeport

      Tips: fish shallow early then go deeper later . nightcrawlers will always catch fish up there
      Bitzy minnows and mira shad are my go to baits

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: around 55

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Weather: rainy 50s- 60s
      Lake Level: 2.90 and rising!!\Best Depths: 2-30
      big swimbaits , lv 500, rip baits and A rigs are all working
      Big Bass: 2-309
      gary and mike collins weighed a 36# limit with a 9# kicker on 12/1
      Guide Information: clearlake outdoors\Name & Number: 707-262-5852

      Tips: get out and fish the big fish are biting!!