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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Wednesday, April 4th, 2012

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: mid to upper 50

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Took my son to Berryessa for the first time for prespawn bass fishing.

      Fished the shore at Smittle Creek and Capell Cove

      Caught 3 fish (2 smallies and 1 largemouth)

      Two were females 1.5 lbs and 1 was male 1.5 lbs.

      Water in Smittle Creek is stained but still visible down 3 feet. Water in Capell was muddy with 0 feet visibility.

      All fish taken on night crawlers (weightless) within 10 feet of shore.
      City: Moraga CA

      Tips: Fish have not started staging yet. It seems as though they are just starting to move up. Late spawn this year due to late storms?

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 58 ?

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished dead end slough for a 6 and a 5 between my brother and I. A few other fish that barely kept mixed in. Got the 6 on a crankbait. The rest on wacky senko, black and blue. Crankbait on falling tide. Show some love to fishermen in tubes. Don't cut off people in inflatables-we're here for the same reason.
      City: Concord

      Tips: Senko and crankbait

    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Hey CBoat - It sure would be helpful if the more skilled anglers like you could share a little more information with those of us trying to learn. You don't have to give away your location or super secret techniques but what about the types of lures that were most productive, where the fish were (i.e. rocky banks, near tules, outside the weed line, etc.), the general vicinity (i.e. east Delta), the technique used (flipping). Well you get the idea – it’s really nice to hear how well you did but it would be even better to learn more about how you did it. You weren’t on the bank with minnows were you?

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: 49-51

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Took my boy's to the lake for our annual Spring Break Trip, fished Tuesday & Wednesday. Tues. was gray sky's and cold, started out at Rodman's slough, too muddy moved north towards Nice and caught a 3.5lb with a Chrt/Wht spinner bait in the clumps of tules on a tule point. Moved to lakeport and started fishing the docks, Sean picked up a 3lb'r on the spinnerbait, then he switched to a Jerkbait and nailed 2 more fish, a 3 & a 4lb'r. Went in due to rain and wind, went out Weds early to sunny skies but it was tough with the COLD wind blowing, picked up 1 more on the spinnerbait, lost a couple went in because of the wind. Still a good trip.
      City: Pacifica

      Tips: water's still cold & dirty, but we found fish shallow (3')

  • Butte County
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      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: the bite is picking up, took my kid for an evening trip caught 5 in like two hours fishing off the shore. we started throwing spinners he landed one small one. switched to Texas rig landed the rest only one was over the slot but all had good fight and bellys full of eggs. cant wait for the weekend!
      City: paradise

Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: not sure - didn

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: 3.5,3.5,4.0,4.50,5.1, and 6.25. Caught a number of smaller fish too. Lost a couple of nice ones. All caught on two stretches of water. Fished from 12 to 5 this afternoon. No double digit today but real nice fish...

  • Yuba County
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      Water Temp: 53-57

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: My brother and I fished this lake for the first time. The lake is full and up into the trees. The wind blew us around so we started with rip baits and LV500's in the morning. We kept getting trout on the LV500 in 15 feet. We moved off but did not get anything. When the wind became more manageable we tossed worms and 6 inch Senkos into the trees from 4 ft to about 20 feet. There we started picking up fish and ended up with several in the 13 - 15 inch length. About three the wind got worse so we took a couple trout we had caught home for dinner.
      City: Georgetown

  • Sonoma County
    • By

      Water Temp: around 50

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: went out today with my dad in are kyaks we fished from 10am to 2pm i didnt get any bites but my dad caught two a 3 and a 4 lb LM he also lost a couple so they are around all bites today were on soft plastics texas and wacky .We fished YC
      City: Healdsburg

      Tips: The water was pretty murkey but fishable. The lake was about 4 feet lower then usual for this time of year. the bite should realy pick up if we can ever get a couple weeks of steady weather.

Monday, April 2nd, 2012

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 56 - 59 degrees

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Luanched the Custom Valco "BASSBUSTER1" out of Ladd's today at 8:30 a.m. and was off the water by 2:30 p.m. My focus today to fish was Big Al's area (light 19). 7 bass today on a reaction bite first three hours. I believe I made the mistake of leaving when I got tired of the windy conditions. I used spinnerbaits, crankbaits, and my california swim jig. I also cuaght my first bass on a lunker punker 5"(modified). Big fish of the day was a 6 pounder that came off at the boat when I tried to grab her(firetiger rapala). All my fish were cuaght on or near tules. No fish were cuaght along the rock wall today. I circled around the big island and small island twice, the fish were holding on the windy sides on the out side edge of the weed beds during the incoming tide.
      City: Stockton

      Tips: Tough it out on those windy days as best you can, it can be rewarding.

    • By

      Water Temp: 50s

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: the bite is picking up. was on water for 2 hours and got 4 in 1-2lb range. the bite was really really light, no tap tap tap just the line starts getting heavy. was throwin t-rig grubs and wacky rig senkos, all fish were on wacky rig. spawn is coming soon, just need water temp to rise a little more
      City: livermore

      Tips: slow it down to get bit. be patient 1-2 more weeks before they take bigger baits/faster retreive

    • By

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: the weather conditions were right for a good day of fishing and indeed it was. arrived at about 7:00 and hit the back ponds. no bites early but about 8:30 or so when the sun got higher the action picked up. saw at least 20 fish all very close to shore on their beds. they roll in pairs with a lot of 2-4 pound males and a lot of big females anywhere from 3-9 pounds. got 2 males to eat my jig both about 3 pounds. the females are a little difficult to entice because the males will block them from eating your bait. anyways sight fishing is a good way to hook up right now.
      City: daly city

      Tips: use any bait that resembles cray fish. worms got us a few looks but as soon as they see a cray figure on the bottom almost everytime males and females swam up and gave it a chomp. please catch and release there are quite a few very large fish in these waters

  • Shasta County
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      Water Temp: 48.5 - 50.3

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: If that was the Jerry posting from past years, good to hear from you. It would be great to see a post from you again on the Shasta happenings.

      Fished 3-27 thru 3-31. We got 8" of rain and hail, lake rose 11 ft while we were on it. Some crazy winds like I have not seen on the lake before, waterspouts and all. We found fish in the Pit mostly on long shallow points darterhead worms 4-6" of almost any color, 10 to 45 ft. The evening bite was hot on worms with brite chartreuse tails steep rock rite at the bank. We moved up the Mcloud and got on fish on the same long points but also foudn fish in "any" incoming water. slow rolling white spinnerbaits took the bigger fish. Found my best fishing at Shasta ever for numbers and quality mid day in a river channel, grassy sloping points toward running water. 2 of us caught over 60 fish in 4 hours 30 of them between 2 and 3 lbs. what a final day. Nothing at this lake is ever the same for me.
      City: California Delta

      Tips: Typical worms. oxblood, aarons magic, green weinies, salt and pepper, white blades. All slow.

Saturday, March 31st, 2012

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 58-60

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Launched outta tracy headed for coney,caught five keepers on wackey rig senco. Went to victoria and fished it for an haour with no bites, heade back to coney and bottom of tide picked up the frog caught one and missed two more.
      City: modesto

      Tips: Even though we had no size to our fish, the better pattern was grass with wood.

  • Nevada County
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      Water Temp: 53

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Cloudy with a slight breeze, and the fish were back in the coves with their eyelids hanging outta the water. 23 fish. the biggest 5 went close to #35 anchored by a beautiful fish over #8. We have about half a dozen over #6. Most came on dark blades, but a few came on creatures and power worms.
      City: grass valley

  • Tuolumne County
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      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: some spots were nailed by trouters trolling crawlers. Local legend Willy targeted cats with whole troutheads and nailed a 20#er.
      City: Twain Fart

      Tips: If willy approaches you act like you def of he'll talk till your ears bleed.

    • By

      Water Temp: 55

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Went out for a few hours this evening. Fishing was slow despite the good conditions. Saw a couple beds but no fish on them. Had a few bites but couldn't get a good hook set. I'm thinking it's going to be on fire in a few weeks. Good luck.
      City: Pleasanton

      Tips: I'll try to catch some fish first and then I'll let you know.

Friday, March 30th, 2012

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 55 - 56

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Friday, 3/30/12. Except for a period from about 11:00 to 2:00, the day was windy. The sky was heavily overcast all day. The water temperature is now up to 55°. In spite of the wind, my buddy and I caught 13 fish for the day. The biggest was a nice 6 lb 11 oz. Our best five also included a 4:12, 3:14, 3:11, and a 3:3 fish for a total of 22 lbs. 3 oz. Four of these five were female large mouths. The fifth was a 3:3 lb female small mouth. Their tails were all normal color with no sign of bed preparation. All were caught in 10 – 15 ft of water. The largest fish was caught on jig. The rest were caught casting and slowly working a drop-shot setup with 4½ and 6 inch Roboworms. We also tried fishing shallow with no success. A 4-inch swim bait and a wacky Senko were tried with no success.
      City: Pinole

      Tips: The fish appeared to be in the pre-spawn stage and are ready to move up to the bedding areas when the water temperature warms up a couple of more degrees.

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 55

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished on my birthday for 3 hours. The fish gods smiled upon me. I had three in the boat in a little over an hour, including one 4 pounder. I caught them all on crank baits close to B&W. Nothing else worked. Tried: Senkos, Drop-Shot, and Spinner Bait.

      Note to Tourney anglers, you don't own the water. Attempting to shoo me off a spot with hand signals will only result in a well casted crankbait up-side yo head Lol!!
      City: W.Sac

      Tips: Prior to launching, the dock talk recommended: Chatter Baits, Buzz Baits, and Rattle traps. Being the contraian that I am; I did not throw any of them...I caught my fish on muddy exposed levees with trees. I really got geeked if I saw crawdad holes on the side of the levee. All my fish spit up Crawdad shells in my live-well.

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 50-51

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: I'm sorry that there aren't more reports lately - good or bad. I don't understand why. Anyway, Mike Sperbeck and I hit the lake with good intentions in spite of the latest weather patterns. We started out of the Oaks about 4 pm and worked several areas on the east shore. The Senko bite was good for him while I couldn't manage a bite before dark. He had me 8 to 0! I hoped to change that after dark and I did - sort of, 6 to 1 after dark!!! We wound up having a nice trip with five of our bass from 5 lbs 2 oz to 5 lbs 13 oz. We caught 15 bass total for an approx 26 1/2 lb best five limit. Other than one 2 lber, the rest were 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 lbs. We could not break 6 lbs! Our night baits were on the new Berkley Havoc "Pit Boss" (Skeet Reese design) and brush hogs. Our day fish were 10 to 15 feet and night fish were 10 to 25 feet. The night bites ranged from absolute nothing bites to major slams (for 50 degree water!) The bass were in fantastic shape and the females were getting "their bellies on"!
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: The lake is rising nicely and still pretty clear down south. Some algae is already forming. The is a little debris floating around, but not much.

  • Shasta County
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      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: the float at Bailey Cove is back in
      City: Redding