Submit
Report

Northern California Lake Fishing Report

Limit:

Saturday, October 15th, 2011

    • By

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: SHADOW CLIFFS BACK LAKES RE-OPENED!!!!
      I was walking my dog yesterday at the back lakes and saw signs with fishing the regulations! They took out the old signs that said no fishing. Saw a few bank fisherman so I figured I'd run home and grab my tube. Weather was around 80 degrees and water was warm. Flipped a senko around for 6 fish. Biggest was close to 3 pounds. Made my day to see that place re-opened.
      City: Pleasanton

Friday, October 14th, 2011

  • Plumas County
    • By

      Water Temp: 65

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: 10 trout largest 7lb 2oz on spoons and small minnow jerk baits. Fish were on the west side near the dam.
      City: Pollock Pine

      Tips: Call ahead for stock report.

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 69

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Had a great bite. The fish were really active and gave great fights when hooked. The day before was a a bright, hot, sunny day without an ounce of wind and no moving water. It was the clearest water I've ever seen on the delta. That day I happened to stumble upon a weed bed that was loaded with bass. The water was too clear though. So the next day my buddy and I headed to that weed bed. Similar conditions but there was cloud cover. We were in between tides and the water was rising. I threw 6" black n blue senkos and it was game on. Caught 16 in two hours. All keepers with the smallest weighing 1.10 and biggest went 3lbs. They had a lot of fight in em. I swear I was reeling in 5 pounders. Unfortunately my buddy only hooked into 2 fish. He didn't have proper tackle and was dealing with a set up that hadn't been used in 15 years. We had a blast though and the both of us caught a fish each on our first casts of the day. Gotta love that
      City: Oakley

    • By

      Water Temp: 60 - 65 degrees

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Luanched the custom Valco "BASSBUSTER1" out of Ladd's about 9:00 a.m. and was off the water at 5:30 p.m.(I was late for my own birthday dinner with the family). I started out towards Big Al's, but when I saw the dredger was working in the area I decided to turn around and head for 14 Mile Slough and also fished Disappointment Slough. Confirming Burkes report there was a good spinnerbait bite( first 5 fish limit of the day). With the bright sunny day today the flip/punchen' bite was on in the hyicinth and other floating weed mats (second 5 fish limit). I was all out of my sweet beavers so I used Strike King flippen tubes and the bass were smoking them. My third 5 fish limit today came off of a black/brown jig probing the outside edge of the weed line during the bottom out low tide. My last 5 fish limit came from a crome/blue Rat-L-Trap which I alternated back and forth with the spinnerbait as search patterns. Big fish today was 5.5 lbs. punchin' the flippen tube (2 tone Black/red with red flake).
      City: Stockton

      Tips: Use a search pattern then rework the area with a slower pattern. The larger fish today preffered to be buried up underneath the thick floating mats. I enjoyed catching my first 5 fish limit on the 8 ft. Xheavy action Okuma Swimbait rod which is going to work out being a good puchin rod too.

Wednesday, October 12th, 2011

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: mid 60's

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Launched at Paradise around 8:30A and fished a variety of spots all the way to Frank's Tract. Off the water at 3:00P. The 3 of us probably caught over 30 black bass, but only 6 of them were keeper size. Also caught a shaker striper on a 3/4 oz Rat L Trap off the East Wall in Frank's.
      City: Dixon

      Tips: Most of our fish were caught on a 1/2 oz white spinnerbait with a red trailer in weeds (outside edge, middle, and inside edge). We threw a variety of lures, but the spinnerbait was the lure of choice today. Weather was great today. Most of the day, wind was not a factor.

Tuesday, October 11th, 2011

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Good shore fishing at Berryessa this weekend. We pulled in 10 or so bass and 1 nice sized 2 pounder, about 17 inches (I was very happy with that size) in about 4 hours of fishing. We were also able to nab some feeder trout also but they weren't much of a fight. Bluegill aplenty.
      City: Santa Rosa

      Tips: -We fished Rapala's for the bass. Stuck to minnow imitations and immature trout imitations. Caught the trout on night crawlers (believe it or not. Didn't have a lot of luck with crayfish imitations or plastic worms.
      -The coves were fun to fish. Pretty easy to pull in some small bass. We were having better luck from shore that day than the boaters were from conversations we had.

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 65

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Had 2 great days of fishing on clear lake. We fished 8 hrs each day. Caught over 100 between the 2 of us but many small undersized fish until we figured out a solid pattern that got the big ones to go. Monday was 22 lbs and Tuesday was 26lbs. Biggest was a 7 then a 6 and 5s many big 4lbrs and a ton of 3s . There is shad all over the lake and the bass are really starting to load up on them . We are ready for the big tourney this weekend . It's going to take more than you think to take it because this pattern is rock solid
      City: lakeport

Monday, October 10th, 2011

    • By

      Water Temp: 68

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Guess I'm the only one willing to report.
      Found out the Lake is closing for the season 14 Oct so thought I'd try it one more time this year.
      Day started slow. Got 4 in the morning on a spinner. 3 dinks and and 1 3.12#.
      They definitely wanted something moving. In the afteroon headed slowly back to the ramp on the hwy 17 side pitching a brown jig and picked up 4 more. Biggest ~ 2#.
      Spoke to a couple of float tubers on the lake.
      One said he had 4 on a C-rigged Baby Brush Hog in green pumpkin. The other had a similar reaction pattern to mine, spinner in the morning and small swimbait in the afternoon. He got about 8 as well biggest also around 4#.

      Los Banos Creek, Calero and Anderson is all us Monterey/Salinas folks have till April 14.
      City: Monterey

      Tips: Not too many days left this year. Try pitching to laydowns or spinners through the stickups.

  • Trinity County
    • By

      Water Temp: 63.2

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: On the water at 7:30am and off the water at noon. Heavy rain, no wind, and warm. Caught two small largmouth and a trout on Zora Spook. My buddy caught one small mouth on a gitzit. all the fish wer dinks but the largmouth had large bellies, they are feeding well.
      City: Weaverville

Sunday, October 9th, 2011

  • Mason County
    • By

      Water Temp: 69

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished 9-12. Overcast and thought it would be a good top water or crank bait day. Neither worked for me. Caught 9 bass all under 2 lbs and all on drop shot 4 "robo. Another guy said he caught a couple of nice bass on top water. Tried spinner bait and carolina rig and nothing.

      Fish were 10-12 ft off steep drops and rocky shoreline.
      City: Foster City

      Tips: Drop shot 10-12 feet off vertical cover.

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 61 - 65 degrees

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Launched the Custom Valco "BASSBUSTER1" around 2 p.m. at Ladd's and fished until 6:30 p.m. Started out first looking for stripers around mouth of the Calaveris River then moved to the Dad's Point area. With all the weekend boat traffic in the main channel I decided to head for 14 Mile Slough and check out the pump house area fishing for LM Bass along the way. A few small bass grabbed my Rat-L-Traps I used as a search pattern, but the larger bass and big fish (4.2 Lbs.) were nailing my black jigs. I found the fish were preferring to hang out along the rock walls now. Punching the hyicinth at some spots turn out to be a bust so concentrated back on the rock walls until the sun started to go down. 10 bass and zero stripers today.
      City: Stockton

      Tips: bass were holding 5 to 10 feet of water inside and out side edge of weed lines along the rock walls. Started by banging the jig on the rocks while jig sank. Nearly all the paint came off the lead head today. When jig came off the rocks and into the weeds is when it was getting slammed.

  • Butte County
    • By

      Water Temp: 69

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Slow fishing but the fish I found seemed to be active. I found most fish on grey rock in aroun 20-35ft of water. I caught my biggest of the day a 2.5 lb lg mouth on a crankbait,and the second biggest on top water. The rest of the dinks caught on a d-shot.
      City: Plumas Lake

      Tips: Small curly tail worms worked for a sure bite, bigger fish like reaction baits.

  • Ventura County
    • By

      Water Temp: 71.2

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Caught fish off deeper ledges and main lake points. Working in 20+ feet.
      City: Ainokea

      Tips: Deadstick....

  • Sonoma County
    • By

      Water Temp: 67-70

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Sunny and warm day on the lake. The water was the clearest I've seen this year. Probably ten foot visibility. Didn't start fishing until 10:30am. Tried casting five different colors and styles of crankbaits as well as a Senko drop-shot. Didn't get a single strike for two hours until I switched to a Lucky Craft AT CB BDS 3 Ghost Minnow crankbait. The fish was obese and was spitting up tiny silver minnows. Ended up fishing the rest of the day throughout Cherry Creek, catching nine bass. Largest fish was close to seven pounds, three were around three-and-half pounds, and another three were in the two to two-and-half pound range. The only lure they would strike was the ghost minnow crankbait with a fast retrieve. Talked to a guy who said he fished the lake on Thursday and caught at least 40 bass fishing crankbaits.
      City: Santa Rosa

      Tips: Once again, the fish were very picky about what they would strike. Didn't catch a single fish on any of the lures that have been successful over the past couple of months. If you're not catching fish on Lake Sonoma, switch lures. Even the same lure in a slightly different color could make the difference. All of the fish were caught in eight to twelve feet of water and were holding tight to submerged trees. Metered LOTS of bait throughout the lake, so focus on the reaction bite.

Saturday, October 8th, 2011

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 72

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Pretty tough bite as the preceding posts have reported. We fished Saturday morning out of Red Bud, as we wanted to avoid the tourney blast off. A good number of boats running down south though as we headed up to the Konocti Resort area. To our first area by about 7:15am, we picked up two good fish on buzzbaits in the first hour, and lost another. I say "good fish" because, despite them only being 3+ each, which is cookie cutter size for this lake for a good part of the year, we spent the rest of the day plucking 8" fish out of the lake. No more fish by 10:00am, so we headed farther south and drop-shotted docks and other structure the rest of the day. Couldn't find any big fish, but lots of dinks (and I mean dinks). Beautiful day on the lake, at least.
      City: Windsor

      Tips: I am interested to see the results of the Triton tourney to see if anyone really got into them this weekend.

    • By

      Water Temp: 70

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Caught 4 all at the NE end of the Lake.
      2 dinks and a 2.5 and a 3.8. One on a spinner the rest on Tex Rigged Sweet Beaver.
      City: Monterey

      Tips: Lake closes for the season 14 October.

Friday, October 7th, 2011

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 72--74

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: I went with a gentleman Wed to help him pre-fish for an upcoming tourney. I couldn't imagine any worse post-front conditions, especially after some 6 weeks of steady, nice weather. Cold, wind, and some rain. We fished nearly the whole lake, checking out different areas. Talked to a few guys that have been struggling since the cold front came in. We did ok with the best five around 14 lbs. No real big fish - no surprise. Great to see so many small bass - about time!!
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: All fish were caught on plastic stuff except for one good bass that he lost on a swimbait. Can't say any more. Save a few bass for the guides, har!!!

  • Butte County
    • By

      Water Temp: 70

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Day after big storm and bluebird day. That's my excuse and sticking to it! Very tough bite. Stood in the middle fork and managed only a few small fish.
      Lake looks fantastic. The highlight of the day was a HUGE buck swimming across the widest part of the middle fork. Watched him for 20 minutes. He hit the shore running.
      City: Oroville

      Tips: Bring a camera!
      Caught on tubes, grubs and a few dinks on topwater (Rico).
      Should get better soon.

Wednesday, October 5th, 2011

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 72

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: The upper Blue Lake got stocked this week (1000 trout). I am sure glad . The last fish plant was in April. Also, the rumor is that there is going to be 2 - 3 more during the fall months. I hope so. RIGHT NOW some nice planter trout are being caught . Anglers fishing from the shore or docks are doing well with orange/pink powerbait and salmon eggs and others are using night crawlers. Trollers are doing well with a ford fender or action disc @ 20 -25 feet deep trailing it with a pink plastic worm, night crawler or fly.
      City: UKIAH

      Tips: Don;t forget there are some nice bass in this lake too. Try drop-shottin' . The bass like to hang out in the Narrows area.

Sunday, October 2nd, 2011

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 74 -76

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: There has been a ton huge bass fishing tournaments on the lake the past month. (The WRL had about 150 teams last weekend) Lots of fishing pressure. Here is something I noticed time and time again. I would come to a spot/area that was holding bass, see them on the electronics, throw a marker bouy, and the bass were gone. They are very spooky. So, I would face the shore, turn 180 degrees and then slowly fish my way out from the shore. Being careful not to run the boat into them. The bass were more tight lipped after 10:00am.
      City: UKIAH

      Tips: If all else fails,,,,,,, DROPSHOT


      thanks , Don 4reelfishin.com