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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Thursday, September 12th, 2019

  • Tuolumne County
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      Water Temp: 76.4

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: A quick trip, fished from 5 pm to 9:30 pm. Fishing was slow overall. I caught about 7 small fish 12" and smaller on jigs, worms, and spinnerbaits from the bank out to 20' depths. Maybe the fishing will pick up when cooler weather arrives.

Wednesday, September 11th, 2019

  • Solano County
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      Report: by ElGuapo » Wed Sep 11, 2019 3:09 pm

      Launched out of Russo's at 7 and started a low tide milk run. Water temps were in the low 70's and never got above 77 throughout the day. Air temps were comfortable all day, in the 80's. Wind around Franks Tract got into the low teens in by mid-morning which made boat positioning a challenge.

      Thankfully recreational boat traffic was significantly down from the previous holiday weekend and water has cleared up a bit in some of the areas where ski/wake boats had muddied the water.

      Caught a lot of fish throughout the morning on the punch rig but they were all smaller fish. Also had a ton of short strikes tearing the tails off the baits. Started getting more quality bites as the water warmed and we were further south. Here's the best bites:

    • By

      Report: by jeffrm20 » Wed Sep 11, 2019 11:15 pm

      My son and I launched out of Tiki around 4pm and headed towards Mildred Island. Picked off a bunch of dink bass wacky rigging a 222 Senko along rocky banks and tule pockets. Found an open water flat and fished jerkbaits and lipless cranks. Found some dink striker and picked off a little better bass before having to call it a night.

Monday, September 9th, 2019

  • Lake County
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      Report: by Bjrano » Mon Sep 09, 2019 2:03 pm

      This was Labor Day weekend. No one was fishing but I was surprised at the location for my catch. It was right next to the walking foot path not 40 feet from our tent. I will give credit. It seemed as though there were multiple casting lanes along that trail. I I only fished about 50 yards of the path but got multiple strikes in my frog. Near campsite number 41 I dont recall the name of the slough.My son in law caught this one from the boat on a Ned rig.y Bjrano » Mon Sep 09, 2019 2:03 pm

      This was Labor Day weekend. No one was fishing but I was surprised at the location for my catch. It was right next to the walking foot path not 40 feet from our tent. I will give credit. It seemed as though there were multiple casting lanes along that trail. I I only fished about 50 yards of the path but got multiple strikes in my frog. Near campsite number 41 I dont recall the name of the slough.My son in law caught this one from the boat on a Ned rig.

Saturday, September 7th, 2019

  • Shasta County
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      Water Temp: 80

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Some top water very early or late on Berkley Choppo. Bass are heavily feeding on shad and most are on points. Favorite plastic or jig in 10-30 feet on points will get fish. Although it’s past Labor Day weekend, there are still a lot of boats on the lake.

      Tips: If not fishing top water then be sure your jig is in contact with bottom.

Tuesday, September 3rd, 2019

  • Solano County
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      Report: by DBbass » Tue Sep 03, 2019 7:48 am

      Fished around Discovery Bay on Friday and Monday. Caught a lot of fish, but nothing with any size. The highlights were watching the sheriff marine patrol pulling over multiple bad actors around the west entrance into Discovery Bay. Great people watching for sure. Very happy to have law enforcement out on the water.

  • Lake County
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      Report: by coyote268 » Tue Sep 03, 2019 6:30 am

      Daughter Sandi came up as I live in Lakeport. We fished Saturday and Sunday and it was a zoo. Saturday we had a good day with around 15 in boat drop shotting north end with the best a 6.4 on a puff ball jig. Trying to get out of the water at 5th street was impossible so finally lucked out at third street. Sunday launched at state park and ran south and did good with smaller fish around Rattlesnake. Again mostly drop shotting. Sandi was on fire and had 3 over three but not quite four. Pulling out was easier at the park. A lot of nut cases out there and very rude boaters. Had to have a Danhatten Sunday night to calm down.

  • Calaveras County
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      Report: by JLew.fishnski » Tue Sep 03, 2019 8:43 am

      I fished the river arm on Lake Tulloch on Sunday.
      The circus had come to town, but the river is all 5mph, so didn't have any traffic to speak of. Caught a few smallmouth, and a couple spots. Colder water made for one of the better fishing days this year for me.
      The trip back to load the boat reminded me of why I never fish these crazy holiday weekends.

Monday, September 2nd, 2019

  • Solano County
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      Report: by JF209 » Mon Sep 02, 2019 2:10 pm

      I fished on Friday from first light to 2pm. Best day of the year for me, so far. Caught several 3 and 4 pounders on a variety of techniques on the main river as well as back water.

Thursday, August 29th, 2019

  • Tuolumne County
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      Water Temp: 79.5-80.5

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Launched out of Glory Hole around 4:30 pm. Since only my 2nd time to this lake, I scouted a few miles of shoreline, saw some amazing structure, and noted some fish were busting shad in one cove. After I finished scouting, I returned to the topwater action cove and found they were small fish, so switched to other baits. Fishing was very slow until dusk, I picked up a dink on a crankbait, then I got a 2.5 pound LM on a 6" worm (I think was an old Magic Worms summer moss color). That was it for daytime. After dark, I motored over to a rocky point inside a cove and found the action good (though size only about 1-2 pounds) black/blue jigs and the 5" fat ribbed Power Worm in dark grape. Around 9:30 pm, I was working my way along the bank out of the cove to the main body and found waves and wind. So, I called it a night and headed back across the whitecaps to the ramp, caught a lot of spray on the way back. I think I would have found some heavier fish if I had been able to stay out later.

      Tips: Main and secondary rocky points were the best.

Monday, August 26th, 2019

  • Solano County
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      Report: by ElGuapo » Mon Aug 26, 2019 3:55 pm

      Was still down in the dumps after hearing a friend passed away earlier in the week. Wanted to get out on the water clear my mind. Glad I did.

      Launched at 7AM, about an hour before low tide. Water was 73 degrees at the ramp and seemed to stay in the mid 70's throughout the day, multiple locations.

      Threw a plopper for the hour or so but no takers. Started punching grass around 8:45 and had 17+ lbs in the boat by just after 9:15. Punch bite continued throughout the day, multiple locations, but no big kicker fish after that morning melee. Here's the highlights: https://www.westernbass.com/forum/delta-report-lbs-mins-video-t123269.html

Thursday, August 22nd, 2019

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 75

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Got to Paradise early about 5am, no one around so took our time getting prepped; one other bass boat pulled up and launched; as soon as I hit the switch to tilt the motor up and remove the transom saver/tilt brace, I could hear the weakness in the hydraulic motor. I knew the battery was likely weak because my front electronics had been on and I hadn't realized it til morning. Decided to still try and launch and buddy echoed battery was weak and motor wouldn't turn. Here's where I wanna thank the fellow basser who launched his boat just ahead of me. He came over after parking his truck and offered a jump. I declined as I keep a Jump N Carry power pack. He offered other tips (like get it started and run up and down Disappointment a few times to recharge it) and after some misc chat, he went on his way. THANK YOU to the friendly bass guy, I appreciate it very much! (reminded me of when I gave another bass boat my half jug of oil as he had run empty, he insisted on giving me $$ which I kept refusing so he forced it into my buddy's hand ...positive karma I guess) Anyways, got the boat started and ran down Disappointment, turned left on the San Joaquin and ran down to 14mile and Buckley, then turned back and ran up to the San Joaquin side of the Delta Yacht Club. Tested shutting off and starting, good to go. Started fishing there with a jerkbait and squarebill for me, dropshot and neko rig for buddy. We caught a few 10-12 inchers; continued to work the flat, changing to a whopper plopper that brought up a 4lber. Then more 12"ers. Ran up to St Francis entrance and picked up more 10-12"ers on same offerings. Moved to Little Connection inlet and caught some 1 and 2lbers on 5" Berkley Generals in Junebug. Since we were only staying half day, ran to White Slough at 10:30 to finish out our morning through noon and that's where we started getting 1, 2, and 3lbers, dropshot, shakey head stick worms (Generals), and neko rigs, junebug and houdini colors. Fish were pretty aggressive; at least 3 of them didn't just do the usual 'tick tick', they grabbed and pulled my rod down hard, I thought they were striper hits on a crankbait but they were on my shakey head (owner ultra finesse ball head). Headed in at 12:15pm, decent half day.

      Tips: Not qualified to give tips, but what I mentioned above is what worked for us. I used the 1/8 or 3/16oz owner ultra finesse ball head jig with a junebug general as my dropshot weight (to double up chances and it works) with a standard size 1 or 1/0 for my dropshot hook 16-18" up (MMIII 6" dropshot offering). I caught several on either one, sometimes bottom shakey head, sometimes dropshot. No doubles this time out but it's happened before. Buddy hit majority of his on the neko rig. btw, if I may offer up, per Shin Fukae, "neko" is pronounced "necko", not neeko. Just thought I'd offer that up. Anyway, tight lines, bent rods, and THANX HUGE, AGAIN to the friendly bass guy at the ramp!

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: 79.8

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Came up on Sunday & fished Sun, Mon & Tues evenings. The bite was decent & we ran into a decent crankbait bite. We didn’t catch anything big like last time with Rufino nailing the largest coming in at 4 lb 9 oz. on a crankbait. The Texas rig bite was all over the place, good in some areas & non existent in others. The most popular was the Yamamoto lg flapping hog in a weird color that was copper red on top & orange on the bottom. Double wide beavers & 10” power worms worked also. The jig bite was also sporadic but we caught some on it. Black red jigs were working the best with trailers with red in them. One thing, we had a lot of strikes on Texas rig & jigs that were dropped by the fish. I think they were from smaller fish! We averaged 15 fish per night and the limits were around 17-18 lbs. I think the day bite might be better but my boat’s fuel pump took a dive on Tues night so we couldn’t give it a try. We decided to catfish off our dock Weds night, what else could we do right? Not being much of a cat fisherman, the ones I catch are incidental bass fishing, but Rufino knew the ins & outs. So there we were, two frustrated bass fisherman stuck on a dock at midnight! Man it was crazy! Ended up with a five fish limit of 68lbs! I didn’t know a 20+ lb cat could fight that hard! Thank goodness I was using 65lb braid. I might have to rethink my position on catfishing. Lol

      Tips: We fished south again & used dark colors when the moon was up. They preferred a slower presentation both in reaction & plastics. A lot of the strikes were the fish just picking up the bait & swimming with it so be on your guard. Some were stacked so stick around a spot if you get bit. Well, that’s all folks, stay safe & have fun out there! Also, if your boat breaks, go catfishing!

Sunday, August 18th, 2019

  • Amador County
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      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: by StanL » Sun Aug 18, 2019 9:20 pm

      Fishing Lake Camanche August 17.jpg


      Fishing Lake Camanche August 17

      When we got to Camanche the surface temperature was 79° and everywhere we looked the water was pretty clear.

      The lake had about 6 to 10 foot visibility ,so we started off fishing the north side of lake.

      We began by throwing a Rico and a Berkeley J-Walker with no luck.

      As the sun came up we moved out to Island tops in 15nto 25 feet of water, so we started concentrating on down baits. We tried everything plus the kitchen sink at them. The only bates that worked for us was a dropshot With a Strike King Dream Shot worm and a Frenzy Nail with a Zoom Trick Worm.

      We ended up fishing until about noon. We only caught seven fish. It’s still beats staying home and mowing the lawn.

      I hope this helps good luck fishing!

      Stan

Saturday, August 17th, 2019

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: 80

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Got off of work at 1:30 and got up to the lake by 5. I took my girlfriend with me this trip so I spent a majority of the evening driving around and showing her all of the cool spots on the lake. Fished for a couple of hours here and there and missed 4 and only got one in the boat. (How do you only get one fish in the boat at Clearlake? lol) Planned on fishing all day Sunday but because of family stuff that came up I had to drive home early in the morning. Anyway.... the lake didn't look to bad in any of the spots. There are definitely a lot of bigger mats showing up in the Northern end of the lake. The wind was blowing so the algae was not built up thick anywhere except for the bottom by Redbud. The water clarity from Lakeport to Nice was pretty bad, from Lakeside Park down to the south end of the lake looked pretty good. I missed all of the fish on topwater and one on a senko. I got one at the very end of the night on a square bill right before heading back to the ramp. Throw buzz baits, whopper poppers, and frogs when the sun is barely coming up or setting. Im talking like I caught a lot of fish this trip but I didn't because I was showing my girlfriend the whole lake. But, based on the conditions of the water and the weather, top water should be dead on right now and the reaction bite seemed to be picking up for crank baits compared to how its been the rest of the year (again, 1 fish) Even though I only got the one fish in the boat I still got it on camera. Checkout my youtube video to see my trip from this last weekend. Good Luck! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8q3YtC1Cujg&t=15s

Friday, August 16th, 2019

    • By

      Water Temp: 70

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Water clarity was about 6 feet - wind was nice all day - I did bump a small branch or log with motor - no damage - fished with Ed (from Arizona) & Allen (from California) excellent company in fishing boat - we fished from 10am to about 2:30 pm - bite was slow for smallmouth, trout & salmon until we started strolling 1/16 oz jig heads with 2.5” soft plastic worm - ended up catching about 20 small smallmouth & few trout - fun day with two great guys

Thursday, August 15th, 2019

  • Solano County
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      Report: by ElGuapo » Thu Aug 15, 2019 5:32 pm

      Launched out of Russo's just after 7. Water at the ramp was 73 degrees. Caught a few on top water, frog and drop shot right off the bat at the north end of Franks but nothing to write home about.
      Got to punching around 10 and did that for the next 5 hours or so with some intermittent, unsuccessful froggin'. Had a lot of tentative bites that resulted in high velocity tungsten chipping the side of the boat in one case. :evil:
      DBW is definitely spraying a lot more fish holding weeds both submerged and floating unfortunately. Not sure why they're not spraying all the algae choked hydrilla.

      Highlights in vid here: https://www.westernbass.com/forum/delta-report-t123115.html

Wednesday, August 14th, 2019

  • Solano County
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      Report: by johnabsmith » Wed Aug 14, 2019 11:13 pm

      I was just talking to George at Bay Tackle about how much harder big fish have been able to come by and snuck out right after with my old man. Just before dusk we made casts on my favorite stretch of river, and we swing at the same exact time. On my swing I boat flip a striper on a sweet beaver, which doesn’t happen often. When he swung, something swung back. I PROMISE YOU a whole tullie clump lays over then I hear the braid start ripping off the spool. After what seems an eternity I reach down and grab a lip with both hands. didn’t have a scale but I caught one just shy of 12 on a previous trip and this was EASILY bigger (photo does not justice, almost didn’t want to show it!). It was just his day and as he said, “guess I just been living right.”

      only fished 5pm-dusk all on a 200yd stretch. super hot day, incoming tide, super big waxing gibby. 2nd best was 6# and caught multiple good fish all old school flipping breaking down tullies fishing fast with accuracy. easily one of the best days in life.

Tuesday, August 13th, 2019

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 77

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Left Buckley Cove at 630 and headed west. Started on top water and fish were aggressive until 9 catching fish up to 5lbs. Fish started moving to different positions due to outgoing tide so we switch tactics to Crankbaits and chatterbaits in 6-10 feet of water that produced some bites up to 2 1/2lb fish. Again the bite started to slow so we broke out punching and swing headed jigs with crawfish and that produced a few in the heat the day on slack tide and 100 degree temps. The area was wide open. Only saw 3 other bass boats out cruising.

      Tips: Stay adaptable and move with the fish. Lots of busting bait in the morning take advantage of it by having frogs, buzzbaits and whopper ploppers on deck. Take lots of water and food to grind out the hot day, if you put the work in and go where the fish move it you shouldn’t have a problem.

Monday, August 12th, 2019

  • Sacramento County
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      Water Temp: 78-80

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Went out this morning got to the first spot about 6:25 a.m. Fourth cast had my first fish in the boat. Caught on an isolated grass area just on the inside of a point. Second fish about 30 minutes later on a rock wall. Had one on a jig in some of that suspended weeds in a cove. Then once 10 a. m hit no other bites. Got off the water about 1 p.m.

      Tips: Fish slow and go back through with different baits