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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Monday, November 21st, 2011

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 53*f

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Launched from ladds @ 630 fished shallow flats adjacent to drop offs and inlets and did great tossing white jerkbaits and caught 17 stripers and 2 bass. Almost all stripers measured 23 to 26 inches. I tossed topwater for a search bait and looked for short strikes or swirls and then tossed a follow up bait to catch em. Only one on a punker. Then threw just a jerkbait around 9 o'clock on.
      City: stockton

      Tips: THERE HERE!!!!!!

    • By

      Water Temp: 61.9 to 62.4

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Bass are holding in 18 to 40 feet of water and rocky structure and small isolated rock piles seem to be holding the better fish from 1 1/2 to 3 1/2 pounds. Jigs in 1/4oz. 3/8oz. & 1/2oz. Arkie or football head & 1/4oz. bullet head are all working. Also drop shot rig in pro gold red flake 6" worms are also working. Traffic is on the lite side and water release is slow lake is at or around 73% trout were planted last week and i just got word they may plant again this week also. For more info on the lake 559-689-3255 559-292-3474
      City: madera ca

      Tips: vertical jigging and fish slow work target areas bass will go if you have patience.

Saturday, November 19th, 2011

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 51-56

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: The Basin Bassmasters had their TOC out of Clear Lake Oaks. What a cold morning but very light winds. The winners Joe Miller and Bonner Veasman came in with 25.90 using jigs, crank baits and drop shot. Second place Lou and Tom Erickson bag was 23.50 lbs and Ron Robinson and John Cooper came in with a bag of 21.60 lbs. Most of the fish were cought early near Redbud aera, some went north and used swim baits.
      City: Rocklin

Friday, November 18th, 2011

  • Mason County
    • By

      Water Temp: 60's

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Got on the water by 1pm and was off at 4pm. Ran to the left most end of the lake to hit up some rocky points and work some structure. My buddy picked up the first one pounder on a silver and blue Ratl-trap. I switched to a shad color clackin-rap and tied into the next 1 lber. Seemed they would not get any bigger either. A couple more off the points and a final one working submerged trees. A little rain, 2 hours of no wind, tons of wildlife, pretty good 3 hours of fishing...
      City: Sunnyvale

      Tips: Shad or silver Ratl-trap or similar was key. Work points in about 4-6 feet of water. On muddy banks, work structure for hookups.

Thursday, November 17th, 2011

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 56

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Went there on thurs and was greeted by 39 degree temps and down to water fog. Fished from 7:30-1:30 and hooked mostly trout with a few bass up to 3#. Caught the fish in various areas on different baits.Probably hooked about14 fish and boated maybe 10. With the amount of positive activity I saw, I felt I should've gotten more bites, but couldn't figure out the magic bait. It was great to see the lake alive with so much bird and surface action.
      City: orinda

      Tips: Caught them on castmasters, small grubs and minnow type lures. Even tho I don't like trolling, that seemed to be the easiest way to catch them. Made 6 areas and 4 of them had surface activity as well as a lot fish on the graph from 15' to 40, although I couldn't get those fish to play. I can't remember the last time I saw this much activity on the surface and below. Talked to a couple of bassers who did pretty well on the trout using small cranks.

      good luck..if you're going early, dress warm

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 56

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Just got back from Clear Lake a little bit ago. Mike Sperbeck and I tried to make a go of it before the cold front moved in but only got 3 hours of safe boating. It got nasty out there! We fished from 4:30 to 7:30 pm - boating 7 nice ones up to 6 lbs 2 oz - best five around 20 1/2 lbs. Caught several dinks. I got the 6 on a Piranha swim jig, but lost 2 more good ones on that bait. Brush hogs worked but jigs did not! Some bass were very shallow - probably because of the heavy wind.
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: Not much help here. Bite was fair before and just after dark, but died as the cold wind increased. The 6 pounder was at least 20 feet deep. Most, as I said, were 10 feet or less - all on or near rock.

Monday, November 14th, 2011

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 60

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: This past weekend had all the ingredients for great fishing. The weather couldn't have been better, the water was calm and the trout were everywhere. I went out on Saturday with Albert and Kevin and decided to start out in Willie's Ski School (I still call it that). We all used crankbait which dived down from 4 to 6 feet. All I can say is from the moment we threw out the first cast it was non stop hook ups. We had double and triple hook ups (see photos). The trout were chasing the bait fish and no matter what color lure we used it worked. The only problem we had is that we limited out pretty early. It was really a fun filled few hours. Some other fishermen I spoke to fished as deep as 20 feet and were moving 1.3 miles an hour with excellent results. It seems the trout have taken over Berryessa and whether you're on a boat or fishing from shore you have a great chance of limiting out. My son Henry, his wife Sarah and my wife Ester went out on his boat and had the same results with a bonus Sarah landed a 3+ pound small mouth bass. It was a great day for all of us. Later in the day my friend Travis asked me if I could take his family out for a little while and give them some pointers on catching trout. I promised his son Alejandro that he would catch a fish. I headed over to the hottest spot of the lake (in my opinion) and nothing happened in the first few moments so I headed back to the ski school and sure enough Bianca hooked one and then Alejandro landed his first trout (see photo). It was starting to get dark and the trout were jumping all around us it was hard to leave but we did. My friend Jory who had been fishing from the shore caught a limit of trout and landed a 6 pound bass. My friend who doesn't want his name used landed a 3.5 pound salmon on a silver castmaster from shore right in front of me. I met Chad and Kelly at the dock and they said they had limited out too. (see photo). Travis called me and said he limited out on trout the next morning.
      'til next time...................................................................................good fishing!!!!
      www.fishingconnection.net If you have any questions or have stories to share please email me at bestguide@hotmail.com or call me at 650-583-3333.
      City: Napa

      Tips: this is what all fisherman wait for,any color,any type,any depth,ant speed for trout,but bass loading up for the cold winter.

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 53 - 58 degrees

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Luanched the Custom Valco "BASSBUSTER1" out of Ladd's at 8:30 a.m. and was off the water by 5:00 p.m. A very nice day to start out my vacation fishing, went to the turning basin first, but only managed a cuople small bass on white tubes. Went to Atherton Cove and cuaght a cuople stripers on the Robo worm EasyShad swimbait rigged on a 5/0 gammi weighted hook. next tried the mouth of the Calaveris River, but no bites. Went to 14 Mile Slough starting at the pump house towards LVW marina to get out of the wind. Cuaght a few largemouths and stripers here. I used the California Swimming Jig as a search pattern and anticipating a big bite. When I go short striked (tail shot) by a largemouth I switched to the white tube on my spinning rod to hook up the bass. The stripers were hitting my swimming jig really well. I ended up with 10 fish total today.
      City: Stockton

      Tips: Use a primary and a secondary technique incase you are missing strikes.

  • Merced County
    • By

      Water Temp: 63

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: If your headed to San Luis make sure you don't have any moisture anywhere on the boat,inside the prop'on the trailer,under the batteries etc or the rangers will fail you and not let you in. They almost failed me because of condensation under the battery.Only caught 2 stripers to 26in on jerkbaits in Clown or Perch

      Tips: Don't do what I did I only caught 2 15 years ago we would have caught 40.Talked to one guy who said they caught 8 on cotton cordell.He caught 1 from the dock while we were talking to him

  • Shasta County
    • By

      Water Temp: mid 50's / low

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Shasta Lake is 51' feet down. Surface temps are from the mid 50's in the morning to the low 60's in the afternoon. If you're into trout fishing right now is the time to go, they are up chasing the shad schools. Spoons and small shad imitating plugs have been the ticket for trout limits. The bass fishing is still a little hit and miss. there have been some top water, ripbait and spinnerbait fish in the mornings and evenings but most of the fish being caught thoughout the day have been a little deeper on dropshot rigs and dartheaded worms
      City: Shasta Lake

Sunday, November 13th, 2011

  • Butte County
    • By

      Water Temp: 60-61

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: A dad and his 21 and 17 yr old sons asked me to show them how to better fish Oroville since they had struggled catching more than a few bass each trip. We started a little before 7 am and found the bite to be very tough early - fishing the main body. In spite of the previous report, I chose the middle fork to produce some fish and to be used as a learning experience. The sun was peeking through the clouds and the lake went flat and I thought we were dead! Well, more clouds came - bring a breeze - and the fish decided this was good!! I showed the guys many good areas and how to fish them and we had good success. Quality was excellent with a best limit well over 11 lbs - 6 over the slot. The big surprise was the 21 yr old (who was the hot stik!) landed a 2 1/2 lb largemouth way up the middle fork. THAT was a shock! They all caught bass - 13 1/2 of them (the 1/2 was a 4 incher!) and I caught 4, trying to find the best color Robo worms. Bass were fairly deep - from 20 to 40 feet.
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: With 4 in the boat, we didn't do any topwater or cranks. Drop-shotting seemed to outproduce split-shotting. We did catch some with a shakey-head. most of the time I had them fish a 6" worm with an inch or so bitten off. I like a thicker, shorter bait when the water cools. I was surprised that only one bass spit up any bait. I think the best lesson they learned was not to fish the boulder sections so much, but stay with the balder - chunk rock banks. Fun day on the water!!

Saturday, November 12th, 2011

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 55

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Brother and I launched at H&H and stayed local working rock wall and weed patches in Connection Slough; cranks weren't working so went to senkos; managed a few barely keepers in the weed patches in 6'-10'. Sun came out for short while and started working the floating hyacinth islands and picked up a 5-11 on flick-shake rigged senko. Mostly barely keepers all day with the fiver.
      City: folsom

      Tips: None...cept maybe slow it down if you can stand it.

Friday, November 11th, 2011

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: cold

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: hello diehard This batch of trout were mostly clean. I was told by Fish & Game two years ago that the trout were safe to eat and if you go into the archives of the Lake Berryessa News there is an article explaining what causes the spots on the trout only. Feel free to call me at 650-583-3333 or email me at bestguide@hotmail if you have any further questions in the future.
      City: Napa

      Tips: Name: diehard

      Date: 2011-11-08



      Location: san mateo

      E-Mail:



      Water Teamp:

      Water Clarity: 1



      Report: Hey Sid, aren't those trout you guys caught full of crap all over the body? Its pretty nasty looking, at least the ones I caught lately and in the past. Are they even safe to eat? I don't think its even worth catching if they all look like that.

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 53 - 56 degrees

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Luanched the Custom Valco "BASSBUSTER1" out of Ladd's at 9:30 a.m. and fished until the rain started around 12:30 p.m. in the Turning Basin today. The bite was wide open, 25 fish, bass and stripers. Today I used a white sparkle tube, chrome/blue jerkbait, and a jigging spoon. Largest bass went 4 lbs. and the largest striper around 5 lbs.
      City: Stockton

      Tips: Fish frontal conditions prior before the rain starts, just wish I was able to get back to the luanch ramp before it did start. I came prepared with my rain gear though.

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 57-60

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: I was part of one of the most amazing changes in bass activity I have see in awhile! Mike Sperbeck and I fished the lake together in his new Ranger 520 and found the bite to be off the charts!! We started about 4:30 pm (now - an hour before dark!) and ran into a big school of bass, up to 5 1/2 lbs. After a small after-dark lull, bite resumed with bigger fish including my 7 pounder and his 6 lb 13 oz bass. Naturally I lost the monster (10 lb range - saw her), snapped my 14 lb test. 30 lb Fireline on a big spinning reel from now on! We fished from Indian Island to Frazier Point and boated 32 from 2 to 7 lbs (5 best a shade over 30 lbs) and only 5 dinks. We fished until 11 pm. Last night I guided 3 clients - starting at the same place Mike and I started - couldn't BUY a bite!!! I could not believe it! Finally they started catching some small ones with bigger ones soon to follow. One of the fellows (the back seater - of course!) biggest 3 weighed almost 15 lbs! I fished a little, trying to figure out something that would work and did stick a 6 1/4 on a brush hog. We had 6 or 7 good bass with a best limit of over 24 lbs. I thought we would have a lot of cloud cover but it didn't happen. Bright moon both nights. First night had a breeze - second night - flat! I'm sure that made it tougher. A nice ending to the trip - I showed them 'No-name reef' and told them they were on the 4000th boat to fish that spot in the last 2 months! Guess what! The guy in the back landed his biggest bass of the trip - 5 1/4 lbs - in bright moonlight and 10 feet of water. Weird!! Great way to end the trip - about 15 or 16 bass total with lots of missed bites. They had a good time and hopefully learned a lot!
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: Obviously, the fish are still moving a lot. What's good today (or tonight!) might not be tomorrow!! I tried jigs on the first evening and caught a few. First night there were many shallow fish - next night - none shallower than 10 feet. I also fished the 10" Berkley power worm Wed night and found it to work well. Last night they didn't want it. The guys brought a lot of their own baits so I didn't see everything they were using. They will have more success when they work on that hookset. Fun night!!

  • Butte County
    • By

      Water Temp: 61

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: When did this Lake get so tough?? Fished 4 hours in the Middle Fork with honestly zero action except for a foul hooked 6" chinook. Lake looked perfect!!! Though tubes, grubs, senkos and even tried drop shot. Tought there might have been a rip bite. NOPE! Moved out, slowed down and changed colors. This week I will blame the full moon and use the "fish are gorged" defense. Still, a beautiful day on the lake.
      City: Oroville

      Tips: Try, try again!!!!!! Get back on the horse!
      See y'all back on the lake.

Wednesday, November 9th, 2011

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: In case if all you bass fisherman didn't know, starting July 1st 2012, thet're raising the bridge toll agin. they want our pocketbooks. Single axle trailer will be 15.00 bucks to cross bay bridge, doulble will be 20.00 bucks. those of us who fish berryessa alot will have to pay 30.00 or 40.00 bucks to go to berryessa and back!They're charging 5.00 bucks for axle. We have to cross two bridges to get to berryessa. what a RIPPOFF!!!! Wish we didn't have to cross bridges. Do you guys know if its possible to change or prevent that from happening?
      City: san mateo

      Tips: We may have to start fishing from the shore. Those jackasses are so money hungry!!! Its bad enough the fuel prices are 3.85 per gallon and now this!!! They're targetting us towing or big rigs. I just wish there was a way to prevent that from happening.

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 53 - 56 degrees

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Luanched the custom Valco "BASSBUSTER1" out of Ladd's today about 8:30 a.m. and was out of the water by 2:30 p.m. Ran out to Big Al's stopping at points and at different spots along the rock wall trying cranks, jerkbaits, jigs, and small plastics. Before leaving the spot reworked area with the california swim jig down to 10 - 15 feet in water column. Then went to upper 14 Mile Slough and did the same thing working it back to the main channel. Got a cuople followers on the jerkbaits, got bit a cuople times on the jig, but no hook ups. Every time I switched to my california swim jig is when I got the majority of (and most aggressive) my bites. By the afternoon (after 12 noon) the bites were finally becoming hook ups. Working the swim jig real slow along the outside edge of the weed line down to 10 - 15 ft. I kept telling myself to pick up a spinning rod, but I think that swim jig is starting to become my new confidence lure for now. All the fish were only about two puonds, but when you bring the fish into the boat and you don't see the swim jig (and 5" Easy Shad) sticking out of the mouth that tells me they really want to eat this lure.
      City: Stockton

      Tips: Just keep retieving slower and slower until the bass lets you know when they like it. The credit really goes to Matt Alan Tacticalbassin, Randy Pringles The Fishing Instructor, and Cooche's websites for there instructional videos. I've really been learning alot the last cuople of years

Tuesday, November 8th, 2011

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Hey Sid, aren't those trout you guys caught full of crap all over the body? Its pretty nasty looking, at least the ones I caught lately and in the past. Are they even safe to eat? I don't think its even worth catching if they all look like that.
      City: san mateo

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 53-58

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Launched out of b&w @ 630 tons of fog so fished around ramp for about an hour caught two nice stripers (29&30inch) and caught several more with a red and white pencile Popper. Once fog burned off a lil bit ran out to Franks, not to much happening there then ran to lil Frank's and caught a few on the back side of it, then ran back towards ramp and fished tule islands for bass a lil bit then headed home round 12. All in all a good day, big difference from last outing ( water was cooler by a few degrees everywhere I went) so maybe they are finally starting to filter through. I also saw a huge salmon swimming @ the surface looked kinda nasty covered in some sort of brown film took a few pics of it then let it continue on its way.
      City: stockton