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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Monday, September 24th, 2012

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 70 - 74 degrees

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Luanched the Custom Valco "BASSBUSTER1" out of Ladd's today around 9:00 a.m. and was off the water by 3:00 p.m. Ran out to Big Al's (light 19) to start a topwater bite lasted untill 11:00 a.m. during the start of the incoming tide. A total of 3 bass and 3 stripers today. All three bass were cuaght on a Zara Sook and the three stripers were cuaght on Rat-L-Traps and jigging spoons (18 - 20").
      City: Stockton

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: 74

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Night fished for three days & found the fishing on the slow side. Mostly a reaction bite with the larger fish coming on cranks, & blades. Could not muster a Texas rig bite at all. Tried Power Worms, & all kinds of creature baits. Large fish were 7.1, 6.8, 5.2, & 4 in the 4-4.5 range, but were widely spaced apart. Fished south in the Redbud area, Honeymoon Cove, & Konocti. Highlight of the trip were two catfish caught on crankbaits going 12.2 & 20.0! Thought I had a record bass until the 20 lber rolled on the surface!

      Tips: Keep moving. The lake is covered with silversides! All the fish we caught had huge bellies. You have to be lucky enough to throw your bait on a fish's head to get bit!

    • By

      Water Temp: 70-75

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Weather: cool nights warm days no wind
      Lake Level: 1.65 above rumsey\Best Depths: 2-25
      Fishing has been tuff this week, but some guys are wacking them!!
      Big Bass: 2-2509/21/2012
      there was a 9 caught in the state bass fed championship part of a 30 pound limit
      Events: scbbc open this coming weekend at county park also this weekend be careful the sea plane fly in will be here also
      Guide Information: Clearlake Outdoors\Name & Number: 707-262-5852

      Tips: lots of silversides everywhere, LV 500 still my bait of choice, fish your confidence baits and move around till you find them

Sunday, September 23rd, 2012

    • By

      Water Temp: 70s

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished back ponds from 8am-10am in the float tube. Managed 3 with biggest at 3.5 lbs. Lots of weeds in back ponds now, had to fish deeper water off of the weeds that's where I found the fish. Lots of fry swimming about, literally thousands. I think the big bass are feeding on them
      City: Livermore

      Tips: Dropshot deeper water

Saturday, September 22nd, 2012

  • Napa County
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      Water Temp: 72-75

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Basin Bassmasters fished their tournament on Saturday. The top water was very slow, just a few bass all over the lake. Most of the bass first thing before the sun hit the water came on crankin, ripin and pop r lures. As the sun came up move off into 15-30 ft with a worm, Jig. Use a darter head, split shot, drop shot or drag a jig in brown colors. Most of the bass are after the bait fish. Fish under the bait balls and stay on the points all over the lake.
      City: Rocklin

      Tips: Work your bait slow and stay on points.

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: 70-74

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: I guided a father/son team Friday afternoon/night. It was a fun trip and we spend most of our time in the Oaks arm. Dad was visiting from Ohio and for both of them - their first trip to Clear Lake. I showed them how bass used various structure and we fished a lot of different types of areas. Fishing was slower than I expected, but what IS slow at Clear Lake? The son landed the big bass of the trip at 6 lbs 2 oz, using a Berkely Power worm. Near the end of the trip, dad did his best to match it, but she only went 4 lbs 13 oz. We did have a 23 lb limit - but I expected better. The bite for us was totally worms - 6 to 10 inch - about 10 to 20 feet, mostly black grape color. We spent most of our time this trip in the Rattlesnake arm.
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: I guess most of you know the silversides population is huge this year. They got off to a late start - but wow! It is so cool to hear them at night - sounds just like being in a rainstorm! If any of you attended the Fisherman's Warehoure seminar Thurs evening that Rick Tietz and I presented - thank you! It was a fun evening!

    • By

      Water Temp: 72 F

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: On the water at 7:30AM, off by 1:30PM (due to trolling motor issue; since resolved).
      Wife caught 5 and I caught 2...all in the 1 to 1.5 lb. class; deeper rock piles and drop-offs.
      We were using 5" lizards & brush hogs, of the green variety.
      City: Fresno

  • Butte County
    • By

      Water Temp: 63-75

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Pre-fished for a tournament on Friday and managed a good limit around 10 pounds. Fished up the Middle Fork and found some quality in the 2-3 pound range on PB&J football heads, 3/8 ounce smoke and purple dart head jigs from Atomic Custom Baits and a few drop-shot fish. Also caught a few on a Bass Buster Jig in 1/2 ounce and same color schemes.

      Tournament day was Saturday and the Middle Fork bite was dead for us, so we headed all the way up the North Fork into the running river water. Managed to win the tournament up there after not finding any fish until 11:00 am. Caught 4 nice keepers holding to the walls and in the current breaks. Also throwing jigs exclusively. They really liked the twin tail Yamamoto grubs in either purple or smoke as trailers on the jigs.
      City: Reno, NV

      Tips: They are still busting bait fish and a few club members found balls for topwater in the morning. I found the key was that smoke/purple/pb&j color. Seemed to really like that. Tried not to give them too much action, but let them drag on the bottom or go with the current.

Friday, September 21st, 2012

  • Alameda County
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      Water Temp: 72 south end

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished 5 hours Thurs. afternoon and caught a 1#and a 3# largemouth on back to back casts on a crank on a windblown bank. Landed a 4# lm on a softplastic in a weedbed later. Fri. fished a.m. and only got a 1# lm on a big Senko in weeds. No other bites except the bold 4 inchers thinking big.

      Tips: I had a hard time of it generally. Going to my 1st spot Thurs. I graphed fish holding in 20ft. of water and is why I opted for the crankbait. Stuck to south end only. Worms, spinnerbait and topwater no good for me.

Thursday, September 20th, 2012

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 73

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished friday and it was a good bite for the big smallmouth. Fish on points in 15-25 feet. shakey heads with flukes did the trick for me. bait and fish are everywhere and no boat traffic. jigging spoon bite nor a-rig bite were going for me but it will not be long.
      City: San Lorenzo

      Tips: take your time and cover the points from all angles and make sure to check the sides of the points

Tuesday, September 18th, 2012

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 75

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Wow, We have all fished this lake with wind, but man was it tough today. Bite DIED before 8 AM. Baitfish everywhere (In between the dying, stinky out house smelling algae) I fished North, and central. 2 small fish (I mean small like folsom small)
      Lots of pressure. T after T coming up here.
      12 pounds would have been a feat today.
      City: Aub

      Tips: No clue

Monday, September 17th, 2012

  • Mason County
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      Water Temp: 72-74

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fab4 Derby was held on Monday, Sept 17th. Was on the water at 8:30 and off by 5:00. Right away caught 2 keepers around the ramp area on Carolina rig using 5" green weenie(20-25 feet deep). Caught another bass using the same technique on the east shore inside one of the coves. Also picked up a Crappie on a crappie jig inside the weeds. In the afternoon, picked up 3 more keepers on C-rig with green weenies. Tried cranking alot of the day but did not pick up any fish.
      City: San Jose

      Tips: The lake looks perfect for cranking or jerkbaits but they did not produce a single bite. For us, the active fish were all in the 18-22 ft depth. The bite was extremely soft. No tap, just a little heavier.

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 72 - 75 degrees

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Launched the Custom Valco "BASSBUSTER1" out of ladd's today about 9:00 a.m. and was out about 2:30 p.m. Junk fished today for LM bass and stripers starting at the Turning basin and spent most of my time fishing the Calaveris River. Mojo Shotting the bass with zoom trick worms and there was also a white senko bite. Using Rat-L-Traps as a seach lure cuaght bass and undersized stripers up to 18". Small jigging spoons was the ticket for catching mutiple stripers deep between 15 - 30 feet. The key was finding a good concentration of shad and thuroughly work the area.

      Tips: Have have your rods rigged for LM bass and the other half rigged for stripers to be ready for any opportunity that arises.

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 75-80

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Weather: CLEAR COOLING SLIGHTLY
      Lake Level: still dropping\Best Depths: 2-25
      topwater picked up, but everything is working. lv 500 would be my choice, the fish are keying on the baitfish more than crawdads
      Big Bass: 2-25see above
      reported to me this week a9.1 on a senko, two 10 + on bait and a14 on a jig
      Events: BASS fed this coming weekend
      Guide Information: Clearlake Outdoors\Name & Number: 707-262-5852\Pricing Specials/Open Dates: 10 % off show ABA card

      Tips: algae still blooming with the warm weather

    • By

      Water Temp: n/a

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: rating it a 5 star it is on up here now and will stay that way right up till the first trout plant in nov then it well get even better for winter months coming up
      City: madera ca

Sunday, September 16th, 2012

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 70 - 74

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Tuesday, 10/16/12, there were only about 5 boats on the whole lake. My buddy and I fished from just inside Putah Creek all the way back to the Big Island. We marked a lot of fish in 15 to 25 feet of water and also a lot of bait balls. Also all during the day, many groups of bass were observed break water chasing shad. First multiple techniques were used to target the fish in deeper water and around bait balls with no success. Because we weren’t catching these fish, we started targeting the smaller fish that were chasing shad. Even though these fish weren’t very large we had a lot of fun catching them. We found one cove where there were hundreds of these small fish. They attacked top water poppers, and any small worm that looked like a shad. We found that by twitching a small weightless worm, a fish could be caught on almost every cast. We ended with over 40 fish in the 8 to 12 inch range. We only quit fishing because the air temperature went above 90º.
      City: Pinole

      Tips: If you can’t catch large fish have some fun catching a lot of small fish.

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 71

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Another great day on the delta! Throwing the Berserk Baits Mad Shad in the crystal green and crystal red and the Light smoke holographic colors. All thes can be purchased at baitbarn.net http://baitbarn.net/berkleybaits.aspx

      Tips: fish were holding in moving water and tight to the cover

Saturday, September 15th, 2012

  • Mason County
    • By

      Water Temp: 72'-75'

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Started straight across from ramp in the weed patch. Picked up two dropshot fish, both around 1 1/2lbs.. Continued North along east bank picking up a few dinks. Boat traffic was minimal at that time. Wind and boat traffic picked up so we switched to cranking. Worked our way back toward the ramp picking up six fish between 1 3/4-2 1/2lbs. Top 5 around 10lbs.
      City: Santa Clara

      Tips: Fish are feeding mainly on shad. Most fish were caught in the chocolate water between 3ft. to 12ft. Strikes are violent. Very fun! Dropshot slow, crank fast. Tight Lines

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 73 - 78

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Saturday 9-25-12, my buddy and I launched from Rivers End Marina at high tide (6:30 AM) and fished Coney Island. Before the sun got on the water, we tried top-water baits with one fish and several boil ups. Once the sun was on the water, we switched to drop-shotting RoboWorms and wacky-rig Senko’s. The water was really moving fast during the outgoing tide so we needed to use heavier drop-shot sinkers to keep our bait on the target. During this period most of the fish were caught on 6-inch Roboworms on the inside of the weed line. In the periods just before low tide, slack tide and the start of incoming tide, we had good success using weightless Texas-hooked Senkos. We were almost dead sticking the Senkos in openings between the weeds along a long straight levee including a large turn at the end of the straightaway. The bite turned off, as the tide started to move real fast again. We ended the day at 3:30 PM with about 20 plus fish with the biggest going only 2 lb 8 oz. Most of them were in the 1 -2 lbs range with several dinks. We did see multiple large schools of what I presumed to be 3-inch shad.
      City: Pinole

      Tips: To save Senkos hooked Texas style, I tried the method recommended by “Fresnobassman” (Delta report 7-26-12). In this method your hook is pushed through a ¼ inch section of 3/8 shrink tubing that has been pulled onto the middle of the Senko. It really works. I did not break one Senko through five fish. Now, does anybody have a suggestion on now to prevent the tip of the Senko from splitting where the hook is inserted? After having to reinsert the hook several times in the split Senko, I resorted to cutting off about a ¼ inch.

Friday, September 14th, 2012

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 68.4 to 71.5

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Two weeks ago I found a new area for me. It produced 40+ fish, best 5 at 18+# with a 7.43 kicker. Today I got to the area at safe light, fished the area a little with good results. Them expanded the area and found more fish. Best 5 15+. Less fish in the morning but better fish. About 11:00 it went the other way, alot of fish in the 6" to 10" range with an occassional 2-1/2#.

      I had good luck on brown chatterbait, sexy shad speed trap, a small spinnerbait and green pumpkin Senkos.
      City: Antioch