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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Friday, September 23rd, 2011

  • Mason County
    • By

      Water Temp: 74

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Very hot WX. Calm winds made the fishing tough. Fished from 10-2 and only caught 12 bass. Caught 7 on crank bait and 5 on drop shot 4" robo worm. All fish were shallow. Cranking at 6-8 ft along rocky shore and mud lines. Same with drop shot. Nice to get a reaction bite finally. Reaction bite should really turn on when the water starts to cool. I was suprised to get bit on crank with the clear calm condtions.
      City: Foster City

      Tips: Fish crank bait and drop shot shallow from 1-10 ft along mud lines.

  • Alameda County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished Thursday and Friday, getting 3 bites and landing 2 each day on Texas rigged plastic worms. All were shallow in/around weeds. Biggest only 2.5#. Water was much clearer in the normal areas I fish. Tried swimbaits, cranks, senko and dropshot from Swallow Bay to south end.

      Tips: If you can stand it and feel you are where the fish are at, let your bait sit for awhile before moving on. I found one on after picking out a backlash and another after leaving the worm sit an inordinate amount of time.

  • Trinity County
    • By

      Water Temp: 72

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I was at trinity wknd of sept 23rd, fished north end rock piles..startd off with boat problems so couldnt fish friday evening bite..did fish aftr dark and managed 1 2lb smallie and only one other bite. coaxed the boat to run saturday and fished rock piles and caught nothing but small largemouth on drop shot and some topwater..I ran out of time I wish I wouldve tried some deep water rock piles in 30+ ft if they arent shallow yet then they have to be deep..there is a ton of largmouth in the 5 to 6inch range which could be a great source of food

      Tips: try deep rock piles or main lake points

Thursday, September 22nd, 2011

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 76-78

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Alge bloom starting on the lake...caught 5 spots, 1 largemouth and 1 smallie...best five fish 14.25 lbs. tried some new techniques and forced myself to fish in "new" areas rather than the same old spots. Turned out to be productive and I found some new areas that I will keep my eye on in the future. Caught the smallie while "bugging" fist time I tried tis technique. Caught the others on either a sweet-beaver as a trailer on a jig, a jig with a swimming senko as a trailer and drop-shot with Keeper 6" worm.
      City: Sactramento

      Tips: Force yourself to try new techniques and seek out new areas to fish rather than the old stand-by's...you might surprise yourself and you will give yourself some new opportunities and broaden your knowledge.

Wednesday, September 21st, 2011

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 77

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished Sun - Weds (9/18-9/20) It was pretty crazy. Fished south on riprap & rockpiles. You had to keep moving but once you found fish & were throwing what they wanted, fishing was really good. Our most successful pattern were plastics in red-brown + my partner did well with wacky rigged 6" watermelon Senkos. No reaction bites until Tuesday night but caught 6 fish in 30 minutes on a red double willow blade spinnerbait on the way in Tues. evening. I even caught a 16 lb catfish on the spinnerbait & that was a 1st for me. We caught alot of 2.5 - 4.0 blacks. Big fish were 9.7, 8.1, 7.5 with four fish in the 5-6 lb range over the three days.
      City: Visalia

      Tips: Keep moving & when you graph fish, keep throwing different baits until they bite. Seems to me if you find out what they're willing to bite that day, you will do well, but the pattern changed everyday. I'm by no means a pro but this is what we ran into.

    • By

      Water Temp: warm

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I've heard all the same reports for this lake all summer long and for the past three seasons. For all of those wondering why the past several years have been tough... The fish have plenty to eat, therefore, I don't believe it has much to do with fishing preasure. Clear Lake will always be a tough place to fish, especially when bait fish are plentiful (which is every year). Remember, your artificial lure is competing with the "cesspool" of life... that Clear Lake has to offer.
      City: Clear Lake

      Tips: You can always slow fish with a senko, but you may develop attention deficit disorder (ADD). Otherwise, use bad language...

Tuesday, September 20th, 2011

  • Shasta County
    • By

      Water Temp: mid 70's

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: the lake is 42 ft down, mid 70's temps, water very clear in most areas, some small fish being caught, nothing much with the 2+ lb fish, most cannot get a limit, need some cooler weather, temps in high 90's most days, baliey cove will be out of the water in a week or so, go up into the upper arms and look for cooler water, ramps are pretty mcuh deserted these days, mid lake humps producing best with main lake points coming in a close second.
      City: redding

    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Is anyone fishing shasta? I don't think the lake closes in July.

Monday, September 19th, 2011

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 68

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Decent day in White Slough. Got a great reaction bite on cranks and spinners. Black and red colors. Bounced back n forth between the rip rap and tule islands and got fish in typical areas like points, flats with weed beds and off of structre like pilings and trees. Pretty much every where that should hold a fish, had a fish. Most fish were between 1-4 pounds with a 5 pounder being the big one. All fish gave great fights. Very aggressive. You knew when you were getting bit.
      City: Oakley

      Tips: The bite was steady but really turned on at moonset. Believe that was around 1:30pm

    • By

      Water Temp: 70 - 73 degrees

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Left the custom Valco "BASSBUSTER1" in the garage today and went out with a friend/co-worker in his bass boat. Basically it was a dink day today with just a cuople keepers. Worked around and inside the mouth of 14 Mile Slough with shad pattern cranks in the morning and buuzz baits. Theb cranks were producing. As the sun rose higher tried some punchin' beavers with no success. Decided to go back to the main channel and piont hop out and then back towards Ladd's. Senko bite was pretty good using black and also red color patterns.
      City: Stockton

      Tips: Should have brought a spinning rod for the back of the boat. I believe today was more of a finesse bite type of day. Oh well, wacky senkos were producing for me and shad pattern cranks, but just no quality today.

Sunday, September 18th, 2011

  • Mason County
    • By

      Water Temp: 74

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished from 2:30 to 5:00 Sunday. Lots of ski boats on the water. Teaching an 8yr old how to bass fish. Caught 14 bass all under 2 lbs. All caught on drop shot 4" robo worm in 3-10 ft of water along rocky shoreline. My 8yr old back seater hooked several on his own - 1st fish on his new Zebco 202 from BPS. He got to reel in all fish and lipped them on his own. He caught the biggest fish. Boat wakes seemed to turn the bite on.
      City: Foster City

      Tips: Fish drop shot along mud lines shallow.

  • Alameda County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished Sunday and Monday experimenting with 8 to 13 inch worms. Got more excited seeing the gals in the shop than the fishing action on the lake. Caught a 3# on an 8 inch worm in 14 feet of water and a 2.5# on the 13 inch worm fishing shallow on Sunday. Missed 3 others. I had a 5 or 6# fish that jumped a couple times and had it next to the boat but it dove into some wood on the bottom. My bait retriever brought up part of the branch...Monday I caught 2 around 2# each in the weeds on the 11 inch worm, one shallow and one at 13 feet. Had a good one on that came off shortly after the hookset.

      Tips: Measure your worms. I measure them as I imagine they would look while being worked. Some brands are around 1.5 inches shorter or longer than they advertise this way and it shows when you have 2 side by side.

  • Sonoma County
    • By

      Water Temp: 71-74

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I didn't catch as many fish today as usual, but the quality was much better than previous trips. Caught at least a dozen fish, seven of them over two pounds. Biggest fish was a five pound largemouth and also landed two in the three-and-a-half to four pound range. Lost a nice smallmouth just as I reached in to grab it. Was at least three pounds.
      City: Santa Rosa

      Tips: Every fish was ridiculously FAT! These fish weren't eating because they were hungry. I diligently tried drop shop and wacky with Senkos, but every fish I caught was on crankbaits with a quick retrieve - classic reaction bite. Although I tried quite a few Lucky Craft minnow-type lures in several colors and sizes, all of my success was on a large KVD Tennessee Shad and a small KVD Bluegill, both square bill with rattlers. The fish were spread out and casting cranks enabled me to cover way more territory. Also, don't be concerned about fishing early morning and late evening. I only caught fish between 9:00am and 6:00pm.

Saturday, September 17th, 2011

  • Butte County
    • By

      Water Temp: 70-75

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: This last week has been outstanding. The top water bite is getting better and better using spooks or vixons or whatever. Lots of 2 and 1/2 to 3+ coming from spooks, swim jigs, jigs, worm and worm/jigs and tubes and drop shots. The traffic has finally slowed down and the bass are feeding. Mud lines are producing with blades and crank baits. Numbers are up and so are to sizes.
      City: Paradise

      Tips: This is a great time to be on the water.

Friday, September 16th, 2011

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 70

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Caught around 20 fish to 4.5 lbs. in Potato and Little Potato Sloughs. Early bite was primarily on a small buzz bait, a red lipless crank and a dark custom Senko style worm. It was hit and miss during the mid-day but the bite turned on again big time in the afternoon. Starting at the bottom of low tide (around 3:30pm) I caught 5 in about 20 minutes including the 4.5. Three consecutive casts resulted in hook ups, all on the lipless crank. I guess it was the right place, right time and right bait. I fished the same stretch earlier in the day with limited results.
      City: Stockton

      Tips: It doesn’t hurt to revisit a good looking location.

Tuesday, September 13th, 2011

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 77-79

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Escaped to the upper Blue Lakes.Got away from all the noise and crazy folks out on the waterways right now. Fished the evening. 6:30 - 8:30 pm. The narrows area was holding bass. Most were in 20 - 25 ft. of water. My wife Teresa, schooled me on the dropshot. Boy did she have a "HUM-DINGER" on. Real nice bass, it really peeled the line off! Too bad she lost it.... Also, several trout came to the surface feeding right @ dark-ish. They were jumping everywhere ! We will be ready for them next out.
      GREAT relaxing time on the lake with my wife. Thanks Don --------> www.4reelfishin.com
      City: UKIAH

      Tips: Scented worms worked the best for us. Bring your trout pole with you. PRACTICE CATCH & RELEASE

Monday, September 12th, 2011

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 71

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Thanks for posting, I thought I was the only one having a tough time. I threw everything on Monday, broke off a 6 and the rest a dinkfest> I came to the Delta with hopes of reaction, topwater, etc. Mostly on senkos, plastics. Tuesday was a little better had a couple of bigger ones but still lots of small ones.
      City: madera

      Tips: go very slow

    • By

      Water Temp: 70 - 73 degrees

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Luanched the Custom Valco "BASSBUSTER1" out of Ladd's today a little after 7:30 a.m. and was out by 1:30 p.m. It was a tough 5 fish limit today, no pattern found and no preferred lure. According to Pringle (LOL)it was a junk fishing day today. Just inside the mouth of 14 Mile Slough cuaght/released a 5 lber on a double buzzbait. Moved to my cut along the flat and managed a 2.5 lb bass punchin sweet beavers. Decided to run to a cuople islands in the Disappointment Slough area and another 2 pounder on a wacky red senko and moved again to an area with 15 feet of water even though low tide and one bass on a white spinner bait and the last bass about 3 lbs on a black jig with the small black sweet beaver as a jig trailer.
      City: Stockton

      Tips: Look for the calmest water you can find to get out of the wind. Keep changing lures and techniques until Mr. Bass lets you know what he wants.

Sunday, September 11th, 2011

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 71-73

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Launched at New Hope just after high-tide peaked; wind was howlin'. Went to corner island before Sycamore..picked up 1.5lber crankin' KVD 2.5 in Sexy Shad. Moved into Sycamore; bro and me picked up around 9-10, mostly smaller keepers and a few dinks on KVD crank and junebug senkos. Moved into Hog after whitecaps came up in Sycamore and picked up 2-3 more keepers and dinks til wind just blew us around too much. Went to Beaver next but decided to just call it a day at 1pm..wind and front changed the bite considerably.
      City: folsom

      Tips: Worked the weedline edges with the crank and then went back and worked 'em again with senkos, both weigtless, shaky and wacky rigged and dropshot. As shallow as 3-4ft out to about 10-12ft. Front moving in had us changing up but senkos and KVD came through. Hard fishing today but at least we boated a few.

  • Amador County
    • By

      Water Temp: 80

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Really tough bite. No top water am or pm with one brief 1 hr exception between 7-8 Sat evening. Caught about 20 total fish largest 2.5lbs on top water. All fish caught on drop shot or popR shallow less than 10 ft. Mud lines and weed lines were the only pattern. Should get better when the water temp drops. Slow bite probably due to lake draw down.
      City: Foster City

      Tips: Drop shot along weed lines or mud lines shallow.