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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Tuesday, June 16th, 2020

  • Santa Clara County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Caught a decent amount of fish today, mainly in coves where the wind isn't too bad.

      Tips: Use spinnerbait when its windy off main points and over vegetation. Drop shot and ned rig also seems like a guaranteed catch, used pb&j or dark finesse worm.

  • Lake County
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      Report: by Bassdrool » Tue Jun 16, 2020 12:06 pm

      If you have been wondering how the bite at Clearlake has been since re-opening check this video out. We have been on the lake 3 separate trips since re-opening and it does not disappoint. Fish can be caught on anything you want to throw but to me nothing beats catching 30 fish a day on a glide bait. This is only half of the days footage as the Go Pro battery died but it shows you just how good this lake can be. For more videos like this in the future please subscribe to The Bass Hookup on YouTube. Our passion is fishing and sharing knowledge with others, we do not hide baits, spots, or anything thing else in the hopes of making everyone's time on the water more successful.

      VIDEO here: https://www.westernbass.com/forum/new-clearlake-swimbait-video-t127874.html

Monday, June 15th, 2020

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 73-76

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Got to berryessa at about 6:30 and we launched out of Markley. Stayed in the narrows as it was pretty windy and hopped from point to point. Had about 30 fish on darter heads and crankbaits. Most of our fish were all largemouth which was surprising. Our big fish went about 3.5 and was a spot.

      Tips: Wherever there was wind we could usually pick 1-2 off a point within the first couple casts. We would move pretty quickly if it wasn’t “happening”

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 69.6

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Just a quick follow up, after taking a few nights off, we were back at it Sat & Sun evening. What a difference between two nights! Sat was stellar as we caught both quality & quantity! Our limit went 31 lbs 15 oz anchored by an 8 lber & 7 lb 3 oz & we boated a literal plethora of fish! Sun was a different story as we fought the wind all night but Matt Guyot managed to snag his pb, a 6 lb 15 oz toad! Congrats Matt! We managed 17 fish with our limit just a tad under 25 lbs. pattern was pretty much the same as the last.

      Tips: I recommend trying crawfish style baits. A lot of the fish we caught looked like they had red lipstick on as the have obviously been eating them! Red in the bait seems to help. We had to ratchet up weights on Sun night to buck the wind, I really hope it eases up soon! They were even hitting this forgotten Texas rig craw plastic I bought probably 10 years ago from some bulk bin & found in a drawer in the garage. We used them all up & I have no idea where to get more! (They were red!) Stay on the Texas & jig for now & you’ll get strikes! We managed a few crank fish but found few areas to throw them in the wind. Stay safe & have fun when you’re out there.

Thursday, June 11th, 2020

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 69.6

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fishing here is still fantastic! Manny Frias & I have been on the water these past two nights fishing through to morning. They’ve been on a jig, Texas rig & crankbait bite with a few blade fish thrown in for good measure. We found them in shallower water & I think they are cruisin’ for forage. We fished south & found them schooled up in many spots. Brushhogs in green pumpkin, double wide beavers in California 420, & 6th sense C15 cranks have worked best so far. Will hit the water for a few more nights. Manny caught his personal best with a nice 10 lb 6 oz beauty this morning. Our limits went 26 lbs 8 oz the 1st night & 34 lbs 3 oz the second. They were on rock structure for us & were hitting the Texas & jig on the fall a lot. We’d pick up the slack & they were there. I was surprised that the water temp was below 70 but really helped the stellar crank bite we experienced. We boated around 45 fish each night & have been having a ball!

      Tips: Slow presentation with the crank & other baits were working for us! They really seemed to like browns, greens & if it had red flakes, even better. They were very aggressive so you have to pay attention at all times. Stick to rock structure and humps & you will get bit! They likes dark colored cranks at night & shad pattern when it started breaking dawn. If you’re planning fishing here, I suggest soon as it’s been the best I’ve seen in a few years! Stay safe & have fun! (Hint: They’ve been crushing the jig at dawn!)

Monday, June 8th, 2020

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 76

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fwd: Fishing with Sid. Ok

      Date: June 10, 2020 at 10:41:21 AM PDT
      To: "bestguide@hotmail.comi" <bestguide@hotmail.comi>, The Lake Berryessa News <pkilkus@gmail.com>
      Subject: Fishing with Sid

      This past Monday I took out Scott and Mark. My game plan was to start on the east side near the ranch house but that quickly changed as we headed out and encountered white caps. I decided to go to the back of the Monticello ski school to be sheltered from the wind. We were in calm water but no fish action. After a while I headed out to the Narrows the wind was still a factor but I tried the first cove by the ranch house and we landed the first bass of the day. We changed from crank bait to worming at that point but no bites. I continued on to the vineyards and still no bites. After about a half hour I headed towards big island hoping our luck would change and it did. Went back to crank bait and Mark caught a nice bass and this began the catching part of the trip. From that point on both Scott and Mark were busy bringing in some nice bass from 2 to 4 pounds. We ended the day with limits and two happy fishermen.

      'til next time...………………………………………………………….good fishing!!!

      If you have any questions or stories you would like to share or are interested in booking a guided fishing trip please email me at bestguide@hotmail,com or call me at 650-583-3333.

      Tips: hard to fish in white caps and wind so we went where we were sheltered good idea but no fish back of ski school near the narrows. we went up the east side to the vineyards with no signs of life and no fish. we went thru white caps until we reached big island water was quitter and we started to catch fish ,call me will tell you the rest of fishing story

Thursday, June 4th, 2020

  • Amador County
    • By

      Report: by StanL » Thu Jun 04, 2020 9:59 pm

      Camanche Fishing Report 6-4-20

      Today I got the chance to fish with my old buddy Ed Austin. Ed is the most knowledgeable person I know when it comes to Lake Camanche. He grew up at the town of Camanche before they flooded it and turn it in to a reservoir.

      After 20 years of fishing with Ed on this lake, he still points out things to me that I am amazed by.

      Okay let’s get to the fishing report. We fished from about 7:00 am-1:00 pm because it was HOT! Even though it was a shorter day, we still ended up catching 16 fish. Nothing big but a lot of fun!

      The surface temperature was 75° and the clarity was around 7 feet.

      When we got there, I caught two fish on a Spook and all the rest came on a 1/4 oz Frenzy Nail with a watermelon purple flake Trick Worm and a NED head with a big TRD in mud bug color. Thanks again to Jay at Hook’d in Ione for recommending that color to me. It has been a fish catcher for sure!

      We caught mostly largemouth in the morning and spots later in the afternoon. They were all in 10’ to 20’feet of water on points and island tops.

      I think if you get there early you can probably get on a good topwater bite. One more thing I need to mention is that I’m using 20# braid with a 8# Gamma Edge Fluoro leader. Not only is it the strongest fluorocarbon, I have ever used but I think it is essential to get more bites. Please try to support your local tackle shops. They need support more than ever right now. I hope this helps. Good luck fishing!!

Wednesday, June 3rd, 2020

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 74-77

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: I took two very nice people to Berryessa yesterday (Tues) and found the fishing to be pretty good for a bluebird, HOT summer day. Luckily, though the water was flat without a hint of a breeze all day, it did have some color to it which I think helped the bite. One of my guests was Clara Ricabal, world record holder (female) for the 7-2 lb spotted bass she caught with me last year at Bullards.Bar. The other was recent Shasta Lake tournament winner Alex Niapas who single handedly put Shasta on the map with his 13+ lb largemouth and 8 lb spotted bass. Yea - everyday stuff at Shasta!!
      I think the two good friends had a nice day with me as we each caught 5 nice bass with Alex spoiling our record with the only dink - LOL!!!

      Alex and I shared the sort-of big fish honors with a spot and largemouth that were just under 3 lbs. If Clara would have just stop catching smallmouth early in the trip - we would have had a bigger limit! But she saved herself at the end of the trip, in the narrows, by catching a really nice,
      quality smallie - a least 2 1/2 lbs. Considering the brutal weather conditions, I was happy with some good action and our best five pushing 14 lbs.

      Tips: I saw little or no bait on the meter which can be common during the post-spawn. We found one big area of bait and small fish that were scattered all over the screen - typical for post-spawn time. I found my best bite on the smaller Yamamoto Chigger Craw (green pumpkin). They were using Senkos and other jig-like baits. As typical post-spawn bites, we found fish at all depths - very shallow to around 25 feet. Talk about scattered!! Makes the guide work too hard!!!

      I guess part of the fun of post-spawn fishing is finding the recovering active feeders and their location (depth). I guess that's fun??

      Good day yesterday - except taking the boat out when it is 100 degrees!!

Tuesday, June 2nd, 2020

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 74-80F

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Got out first thing monday morning to break in the new Ghost trollingmotor. We found them quick by positioning the boat in 14 ft of water on gradually tapered banks near the main lake. We used chatter baits, underspins, and texas rigs to produce the majority of our fish. Chatter bite died as soon as sun got higher and wind simmered down. We moved offshore in the afternoon and continued to catch them on the T-rig and dropshot.

      Tips: It seemed like if we were not around grass or deeper water we would not get bit. The combination of submerged trees, grass, and chunk rock provided the best results. The afternoon fish came in about the same depth however the fish positioned themselves closer to the deeper water or ends of points.

Saturday, May 30th, 2020

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 70

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: My son and I fished out of Russo's Marina while the wind had dropped off for a few hours. We did get caught in the rain but that just fired up the bite. We headed to the back of Franks track, found an area out of the wind and started tossing a Green Shaky Head with a watermelon or Green Pumpkin 6 inch senko with a tail. We caught 22 decent sized fish with the biggest just under 3lbs. So much fun and so happy to be back on the water.

Thursday, May 28th, 2020

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 66.6-70.4

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: We fished for 6 night’s starting Thurs. Weather was windy on the first night, calm for 4 nights then windy last night. We were boating around 30 fish an evening except Tues we had 45 & Weds 24. Our limits ranged 25-30lbs except last night when our limit was a little over 34 lbs. Last night, Ted drew a pair of queens! They went 7 lbs 11 oz & 9 lbs even! The patterns were scattered, what they would hit one night, they wouldn’t touch the next! They were fairly consistent with the Texas rig & jigs, however. The best baits had red flake in them. The blade & crank bite was hit & miss & We couldn’t buy a Senko or swim bait bite at all. They were deep & seemed to prefer a slow presentation. We also managed an 8 lb 9 oz on Tues night with a lot of fish in the 4-61/2 range so size has been good! There were some spots where they were stacked. Tues we were on one spot for over an hour & boated 20 fish! We even had a pair of ducks jump in the boat to say hello! We fished south & fishing right now is really good!

      Tips: A slow & short presentation worked best for us. Browns & greens with red flakes seemed best. Our best two Texas baits were brushhogs & double wide beavers, the best jig trailer was the sweet beaver. When we got into a blade bite, we were rolling it slowly to where you could just feel the blades thump. When they hit it, POW! We don’t know how good the bite is north as we didn’t have to venture up there, but it should be good as well. If you feel a little heaviness or pressure on your line while jigging or Texas rigging, be careful as they were picking up the baits & swimming with them. Ted’s 9 deadweighted until she saw the boat, then it was on! He at first thought he’d snagged some submerged wood! Anyway, fish is great right now if you get the chance to get out. Stay safe & have fun!

Tuesday, May 26th, 2020

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 68 thru 72

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fishing with Sid

      Subject: Fishing with Sid




      
      After many months of waiting to get back on the lake and fish this Memorial Day Weekend was perfect. The weather was ideal the fishing conditions great and just being outdoors was wonderful. With having to be house bound for so long I was eager to get back to what I love to do. I took out my son’s friend Spo (who is like a son to me) the first day out. We had a good time and he limited out with five nice bass. The next day I took Roxanne and Andrew out. It was their twentieth wedding anniversary and they wanted to go for a day of bass fishing. Besides the bass they landed they caught a good size trout (see photo). I think they will do this trip with me yearly they had a great day. My son Henry landed a six pound bass (see photo). I got to take my buddy Albert and his grandson Daniel out on Sunday afternoon and we stayed out till dark. We fished all over the lake and each one of us caught limits of quality bass from 2 1/2 to 4 pounds. It was a really good weekend for fishing and I hope it’ll continue this way through the summer.
      t’ll next time...............................good fishing!!!

      If you have any questions or stories you would like to share or are interested in booking a guided fishing trip please email me at bestguide@hotmail.com or call me at 650-583-3333.

      Thanks,
      Sid

      Tips: knowledge of the lake helps in finding the good spots
      using scents on your bait attracts more fish, I use Pro-Cure scents

  • Butte County
    • By

      Report: by Joe daddy » Tue May 26, 2020 4:05 am

      So just been laying low lately. Some how I got my hands on a picture worthy fish from oroville awhile back. I believe enough time has passed so I’m going to post it.
      The fishing story-
      So, jitterbug and I were out beating the banks up like we do. On our way back up we run into a guy with his girlfriend walking down the ramp. We start b s ing with them and dude is like ‘yeah my buddy caught an 8 pounder the other day.’ So we were like ‘oh that’s cool take it easy’ and proceeded on our walk up. After that of course we were joking back and forth yeah I caught a 5 pounder, yeah I had a 6 pounder on but she broke me off.
      So, the next day by chance jb runs into one of his old high school buddys. They shortly got to talking about fishing when jbs buddy says one of the kids he coaches caught an 8 pounder at oroville and sent him this picture.
      All this transpired in early April.

Friday, May 22nd, 2020

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 68 to 72

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I took a friend from Church and his 9 year old son to Berryessa today. Neither had fished before. I found the bite very spotty and we really had to work to get bites. The boy did very well considering and landed three fish by himself with two of those fish being our biggest fish of the day at about 16 1/2 inches. It was well after lunch before Dad got his only fish and it was the smallest of the day. I spent a lot of time helping, un-sticking, and coaching but I still ended up with somewhere around 15 fish for the day. Good day and we all came home happy! I was there the last time the day before the lake was closed down and water clarity was near 15 ft visibility. Today it was much less clear but very fishable. All fish on soft plastics,.

Thursday, May 21st, 2020

  • Amador County
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      Report: by kporter » Thu May 21, 2020 8:55 am

      Fishing is pretty awesome right now. I was up this past weekend with my wife and kids. The kids had a blast catching a few! Ned rigs and 6” worms on a shaky head will get lots of bites. Our bites came in 5-15’ on rocky flats. Hope this helps

Saturday, May 16th, 2020

  • Tuolumne County
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      Report: Many of the Motherlode lakes that I regularly fish and guide on, are opening back up. Don Pedro was one of the first to do so, giving me an opportunity to dust the cobwebs off the rods and reels and uncover the boat.

      We launched out of Moccasin Point in the mid-morning and it felt amazing to be back on the water. We chose to start close by in the river arm and focused our efforts on grassy cuts and shade lines. Instantly we were hooking up wtih many smaller fish, and with a few nice ones thrown in the mix. After exhausting that bite and with our curiosity of other areas, we decided to leave them biting.

      For years now, I have capitalized on a May jerkbait/crankbait bite and wanted to see if they were willing to chase. Our move proved to be a good one and the action improved with some better than average spotted bass and largemouth bass coming to the boat.

      I know the bite was exceptionally good due to the recent lack of fishing pressure, however during the midst of a normal year, I’ve seen this same pattern fish even better. The key is to find areas with water movement. Wind-blown banks that have a combination of dirt and chunk rock are perfect.

      We dabbled with topwater in the same locations with some success, but found that going subsurface was far more productive. Many lakes are open now and we are all itching to get out and enjoy them. Be respectful to others, the fish and our beautiful Mother Nature to ensure a pleasurable Xperience fishing.

      John Liechty

Friday, May 15th, 2020

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 69

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Went out to fish incoming tide got on about 8am, wind was steady most of day 8-10 mp, water was clear but wind helped provide cover. Not the best day but found a solid spinnerbait bite around noon fishing over tall grass an cover. Had a couple bites on the senko fishing tooley edges. Frog but should be picking up

      Tips: Launches are busy almost everyday, plan accordingly

Wednesday, May 13th, 2020

  • Amador County
    • By

      Report: by StanL » Wed May 13, 2020 9:12 pm

      Okay, here we go.

      I know some people are going to be a little uneasy about me doing a report about fishing Camanche because only Amador and Calaveras County residents are allowed to BUT I don’t make the rules, I just happen to live there. So after five days of fishing the lake, I am going to share what it was like after the shutdown.

      WOW! Like I said, I was on the water five days and in that time we caught over 300 fish. The largest one was about 8 pounds. Most of the fish were in the 6’ to 12 ‘ depth range, on points, and slow tapering banks. The best baits have been a Frenzy Nail with a Zoom Trick Worm or a NED bait in watermelon or green pumpkin  color.

      The surface temperature is around 72 and the visibility is about 7‘. I have to thank Jay at Hook’d tackle store in Ione for telling me about the Ned bite. Shout out to the mom and pop stores that need our business right now. You can check them out online at hookd4life.com.

      Here are a couple of pictures of a couple of the fish me and my family caught this week.

      I hope this helps, if you are able to go.

      Good luck fishing!
      StanL

Monday, May 11th, 2020

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 68.2

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished for 3 nights in front of this weather system with Manny Frias. Not knowing what to expect, we hit the water a little after midnight the first trip. We pretty much caught fish everywhere we tried. They were hitting Texas rigged Double Wide Beavers, brush hogs, jigs, blades, & crankbaits. Also got a few on swimbaits. We boated around 30 with size ranging from 3 lbs with the biggest at 6 1/2 lbs. The second night was a little more active with the same pattern except for some reason we couldn’t buy a crankbait bite! We did around 40 fish for the night same size range except our biggest came in at 9 1/2 lbs, our limit went 33 1/2. The third night was even better! The fish were really schooled up as we were able to stay in one spot for long amounts of time getting steadily bit. Pattern was the same as some crankbait bites came back but the blade bite suffered. (Go figure?) Manny sticks a very nice 8 1/2 lber & our best five came in at 40lbs 3 oz with our largest going 12 lb 5 oz. It was an incredible night! It’s the best I’ve seen in some time! They were dialed in on Double Wides & jigs & we boated almost 60 fish! At any rate, the fishing’s insane right now. The lake is open only to locals so far but as soon as you get the chance to fish Clear Lake, I’d highly recommend it!

      Tips: We fished south the whole time. We didn’t venture far as we were able to really catch them not far from our ramp. For us they were on rocky structure and fairly deep in the 12-20 ft range. Slow presentation was the key & they were just picking up the baits & running with them instead of mashing them. One 4 3/4 lber picked up my Double Wide & ran with it so fast I had to use my trolling motor to catch up to it so I could set the hook! They seemed to like dark colors with blue in the baits. We didn’t try baits with red this time because frankly we didn’t have to. Anyway, stay safe & have a great time out there!

Saturday, May 9th, 2020

  • Tuolumne County
    • By

      Report: Fished from sun up til after sundown on the day of the opener. Hit Angels first thing and caught 3 decent fish from 2.5-3.75 lbs. I believe we caught all of those on a neko rigged senko. From there headed to the back of Mormon creek. Decent bite there. Caught a few more in the 3 lb class plus a bunch of others from 1/ 2lb to 2 1/2 lbs. We used cranks, blades, senkos, drop shot, etc.
      Sun was up so we fished an island a little south and caught a half dozen dinks. Headed up river past Parrots Ferry Bridge and caught dink after dink. We fished all the way up river to the log jamb and managed a bunch more dinks and a few in the 2 lbs class and a few more that were larger with the biggest weighing a little over 3lbs.
      Got bored and headed into Coyote. Nothing but dinks. It was getting later so we headed back to Angels and caught a few more dinks. There was about an hour more of light so we headed for the Tuttletown ramp. We were going to leave but decided to fish a couple islands around there. The bite picked up considerably. We boated around another 30 fish around those two islands. These fish were healthier up to a little over 2lbs.
      Caught em on the neko rig and after it got dark a white willow leaf spinnerbait was working the best.
      Since the moon is full it made the fishing tough during the day but good in the morning and evening.
      During the day I think we only got bit a couple times deeper then 5 feet. There was nothing biting deeper then that. Shallow fish were biting but they were 10 inchers.
      With this full moon my advice is to show up later in the day and stay til midnight.