Submit
Report

Northern California Lake Fishing Report

Limit:

Tuesday, July 20th, 2010

  • Ventura County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: havent been up here in over a month. Water seemed to drop and the weeds have come in force. Spent most of the day fishing around the weeds for a steady pick on the 1-3 lbers. Pretty much caught most on a senko or a sweet beaver. I ended the day with 6 fish and my buddy ended with 8.
      City: VC

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: To everyone fishing this lake by boat, FIY - FLUSH OUT YOUR ENGINE A.S.A.P. IF NOT, PLEASE DRAIN YOUR LOWER UNIT. THIS CRUD IN THE WATER COULD CAUSE SOME SERIOUS DAMAGE TO YOUR ENGINE! To heck with the $10 annaul Quagga Sticker, HOW ABOUT THE $10 GOING FOR FREE BOAT WASH AND ENGINE FLUSH AFTER YOU GET OFF THE LAKE!
      City: pleasant hill

      Tips: I love this lake, but, time to let it go through it's cycle, besides, its has been sprayed with toxins to try and clear it up (BIG MISTAKE) it is killing off the fish!

  • Sacramento County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Started around 6am and tried the top water along north fork in coves and the main body didn't get a bite! tried the Zara Spook and some buzz baits and no hits. Tried some shallower waters (8-10ft) with some small storm swim baits and got one then went to the spinner bait along some brush (still Shallow) and hooked a nice one unfortunately i lost it.
      City: Sacramento

      Tips: Try somethin new. the trick is to find the fish!

    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Thanks dfg for closing the back lakes. Fishing for bass back there WAS one of my favorite summer activities. Its the closest and best lake around. It being closed does more harm then good to the many fishermen who rely on spending time back there, because many just stopped fishing in general, like me and my buddies.
      City: p-town

      Tips: If you ever have seen a steelhead in the back lakes please report on this page. Anyways how could catch and release BASS fishing affect the supposed steelhead fishery??

Monday, July 19th, 2010

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 78-79

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: I read these reports often so I guess I better contribute. Went out today and started early at low tide punching mats. Had the best luck with hyacinth hydrilla combo on the edge of the hyacinth. Got 4 in the 3-4 lbs range with a few dinks in the mix. Tide came in and wind picked up so I started cranking wind blown rip rap banks with tule clumps. Got a couple more 3 lb fish with a lot of dinks in the mix. Prob around 16 lbs for best 5. Good day for me.
      City: modesto

      Tips: 1 1/4 oz punch rig with sprayed grass beaver and punch skirt and delta craw speed trap did it for me. Good luck.

    • By

      Water Temp: Pretty warm

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Hey T and Ky haven't seen you guys in awhile!! Seems like finally the big gals are starting to hit again, hit two last week one about 11 the other about 13 (no scale or camera LOL). Water is all the way up and they are pretty shallow by the tule's. I'd mention the spots but that would be silly since I did do the C & R thing!! I 'm using what I always use and they sucked it up really gently, after one "lift" all I saw was the line move!! I didn't hit anything else smaller, so I am wondering where all those smaller guys went?? Other than that the cats have been supplying the rest of the action. Hope to see you guys someday soon!!
      City: Antioch

    • By

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: 2010 UPDATE...Recent meeting of San Benito County Water District with DFG affirmed that DFG's goal is total eradication of the zebra mussels in San Justo Reservoir, since it's the only lake in California with an infestation of zebra mussels. Now the timeline is that the necessary permits will hopefully be obtained by early 2011 (BUT, must be approved by Cal EPA which is currently under-staffed), a contractor (for the dosing) should be selected in Sep 2011, dosing with potash should occur in Oct 2011, confirmation of eradication would be in Feb 2012, and the lake could be re-opened for recreational use in spring of 2012.
      City: Monterey

      Tips: Don't hold your breath while waiting for the permit approvals...you'll turn blue!

    • By

      Water Temp: Warm

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: First time fishing shadow cliffs...man is that lake clear. Fished out of the kayak for nada. Saw one bass that was probably 1.5 lbs or so and a ton of small 2" fish.....
      City: Livermore

Sunday, July 18th, 2010

  • Ventura County
    • By

      Water Temp: 76-80

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Best luck early am at daybreak and throwing wack as the day got warmer. Green Pumpkin also Watermelon flake. No lunkers mostly 2-3 lb range.
      City: Ventura

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: I AGREE WITH DAVID! I have been fishing this lake for 32 years and this is the second time they have SPRAYED THIS LAKE WITH TOXINS and now all the bait fish and bluegill are GONE! This lake is a ghost-town. I use to catch 90-200 bass out of here and any given weekend. The County/F&G poisend this lake again (they did this back in the 80's and IT TOOK YEARS for the fish lake to recover. When you spray to kill the Algae, you also kill of the plankton which the BASS FRY, BLUEGILL FRY, BAITFISH, NEED THE PLANKTON TO SURVIVE AND GROW. Thank you Clearlake for killing of this lake AGAIN! Please leave this lake alone and let it go through it's natural cycle (no wonder this lake is a ghost-town)
      City: PH

      Tips: **TOO ALL GUIDES AND LOCALS, PLEASE TELL THE TRUTH ON FISHING REPORTS, THE TOILET CONDITIONS AND TELL YOUR CLIENTS THE TRUTH ALSO! THANK YOU!

Saturday, July 17th, 2010

  • Ventura County
    • By

      Water Temp: mid 70's

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Thanks to Ranger Rob for getting us on the water. $ 30.00 bucks check your vests / lights / fire extinguisher you get your ribbon for your anchor light and full plane until 8:30. They started at 3:00 and I got there at 5:00. I had immediate results on swimbaits and stuck with them until 7 ish. I had 4 3-4 pounders and pulled out a senko and stuck a four on the first cast...Hmm... woot.. I wasn't really ready for the evening thing so I tied up a dropshot/carolina rig/bubba dropshot/and big a$$ black and blue senko and went back to fishing I stayed with the swimbait but no go and I cranked for a solid hour and it got dark so I went fishing with my plastics fork...Not a tap in an hour and a half...So screw this I put down the hammer and started tossing buzzbaits. I was to lazy to find a black one so I just fished the white dbl. buzz I had tied on. I kept to the shadows throwing into spots that were frankly to dark to see.. unsure. Sometimes you'd get hung up immediately in grass but surprisingly enough I got along just fine huck'n and winding for about a mile. I made a cast and heard the bait bounce on the bank so not knowing what I'd cast into I just reeled down until I felt tension and popped it off the bank. Two cranks of the handle and BOOM. Missed her. But I said out-loud to nobody....Well that was fun! Rock2...So I kept doing the same routine of getting around corners and getting the light behind me and running the bank. You had to run the bait s l o w , s l o w, s l o w w e r. Boom! missed another.. Hilarius...Okay regroup and retie and keep go'n at 10:45 I stuck an 8 in an epic battle one point over from another boat. I put her in the livewell and got out my camera...Nope she's not going to work so I had drifted by these nice guys so we got to talking and they had just caught one on a black worm. I pulled out the fish since I couldn't take her picture and they thought she was a beauty. I went 20 feet past them and they caught a 4 pounder on the black worm....Hmmm? Na I kept going. A half mile farther down the bank i got sucked down like a little bluegill had it.... CENSORED...Those are always the BIG ones but in the ensuing hook set I failed to get enough in her when she went ape$hit and gone. Darn.. HammerHead..Back at it with 30 minutes to go I got cutoff by another boat so I dbl reversed the person unsure and they ended up beating me to where I had no intention of fishing while I continued down the bank by leapfrogging the cove. Wham! 6 pounder and time to go in. Felt sorry for the two guys whose truck didn't have the cajones to get them up the ramp...they might still be there CENSORED. Sure wish folks understood about headlights but we all got out and there were no fatalities so maybe I'll get out there again.

      August 14th
      September 18th

      are the next dates.

      Rip
      City: Ojai

      Tips: just go do what you want where you want.

  • Tuolumne County
    • By

      Water Temp: 81

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Christian Bass League (CBL) headed out for a dusk tourney 4-10pm. It was hot and the water was rough. Most teams were able to bring in at least 1 fish. The top team was Sexton and McGee bringing 14#8oz to the scale. They caught them on topwater- buzzers and poppers. Most everyone else found them on dropshoting purple worms, senkos or brushhogs. Join us for our next tourney at the delta(Sept) and then back to Pedro(Oct). Check-us out on Facebook or call me 209-988-5818
      City: Turlock

      Tips: Keep your fish cool. We put a bag of ice in the livewell with Rejuvenade and a little water until we had fish. Later I added a frozen 1gl bottle mixed with Rejuvenade and took the lid off so it could melt. After 6 hrs the water was still cool and the fish feisty.

  • Sacramento County
    • By

      Water Temp: 81

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: nothing. not even a bite. on the water at 6am fished till 10am- fished south fork. trees, drug tubes, cranked, topwater in am, senkos, roboworms, splitshot, darter head, spinnerbaits, there were 4 of us and not one bite
      City: auburn

      Tips: wish i had some.... what happen my last few trips to folsom were great.

Friday, July 16th, 2010

  • Amador County
    • By

      Water Temp: 85-88

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Went fishing with Gill, from GILL's GUIDE SERVICE on Friday Night from 7 PM to 2 AM. Had a great time and Gill really set me up on some fish. He pulled out some kind of new "creature bait" that I had never seen before. He said the fish would like it... and they did !!! I caught 8 fish... biggest was a 5 lb 13 oz. Gill had a really Big Fish on but lost it at the boat.
      City: Shasta Lake

      Tips: I'd find out what new bait Gill had and head to the lake !!!

    • By

      Water Temp: 80-83

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: The lake wasn't muddy, just a major algae bloom! Yesterday provided one of the most amazing catches in my 29 years of guiding. I was taking a repeat customer - and his 11 year old grandson this time - from Colorado. We started about 5:30 am. After catching 4 up to 3 lbs and losing a few, I took him to a point in the Mountain Spring arm that featured a good drop-off. Near the end of the trip, about 12:40 pm with the temp pushing 100 degrees, he makes a cast with a 4 1/2" custom-made green pumpkin worm that he brought with him. When the bait reached the 20 foot depth, he set the hook and said it felt pretty good. We wern't prepared for a huge bass coming to the surface so we could see her, then diving deep. It took him over 4 minutes to bring her up again - the guide praying all the while that he had good line (he was using his equipment). Finally she jumped again, dove a little more, then came up and dove into the net! A beautiful spawned-out female at about 7 lbs 3 oz. My first reading was over 8, but will check out the scale tonight. Let me put it this way. This is not a normal bite at noon in the heat of summer at most of our lakes. Wow, what a great surprise and congrats to my client that handled the fish like a pro. What made it especially nice for this guide is that he lost a 12 lb class bass with me at Clear Lake about 4 years ago. Redemption is sweet!!!
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: We only boated 5 bass, client's 2 1/2 and near 2 lb bass on Senkos. I have always found the summer jig bite to be fairly good and it paid off with a 3 pounder for me and a 12 incher - wow! We tried many types of lures and not much worked. He missed one on a spook early in the morning. The lake was absolutely dead in the early morning - NO fish activity except for a few dimpling shad. The lake appears to be dropping a little quicker now as a mudline is now showing on the bank. I think that killed the frog bite - I tried that quite a bit. Most fish and bait seem to be above the 30 foot depth right now.

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 72+

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Got to "pink house" near Widdow Island by first light. stayed 30 minutes, threw everything. NO takers. I'm guessing the 6 otters that call this home have something to do with this. Headed to (south) Mildred Island. Fished tight. Nothing to brag about. Went back to Widdow Island and fished the entrance. Lot's of "followers" and even saw some in 5lb range but only aggressive males hit me. Ended up fishing mouth to Italian slough at high tide and got pounded by 1-2 pounders using green worms. Got hot out so i got the boat back on the trailer around noon. Left the marina and the temp outside was 94 degrees. Too hot to have fun.

      Tips: Haven't figured the pattern for low tide yet. High tide is good.

    • By

      Water Temp: unknown

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I've fished here a few more times, and I can now see why boating is such a big deal here. Much (if not most) of the shoreline is nearly impossible to access which means a lot of the lake (shoreline, that is) is effectively off limits without some means for getting out on the water. I'd love to get out there with my inflatable kayak. Anyways, I'm going to complain but I don't expect it to do any good.
      City: Los Gatos

      Tips: I still just catch little ones, but I've talked to a lot of people who claim to have caught good sized ones recently, so it seems they are out there...

  • Mendocino County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: lAKE MENDO IS STILL VERY , VERY FULL. LOTS OF FLOODED TIMBER. WATER TEMP IS WARM 80 - 83 DEGREES. FISH ARE ACTIVE . BEST TIME IS MORNING, EARLY. THE BITE IS PRETTY MUCH DONE BY 10;30 AM. MY WIFE CAUGHT HER 1ST CRAPPIE. NICE FISH. 1 1/2 PONDER. SHE CAUGHT IT ON A CHAD COLORED CLACK'IN-RAP WHILE FISHING FOR BASS. GREAT MORNING ON THE LAKE!!!
      City: UKIAH

      Tips: TRY WATERMELON-CANDY BABY BRUSH HOGS. WHITE SPINNERBAITS. RATTLE TRAPS. SENKOS AND SO ON. HAVE A POLE SET-UP & READY FOR STRIPERS. THEY WILL COME UP BOILING @ ANY TIME RIGHT NEXT TO THE BOAT. AND MOST OF ALL KEEP IT REEL.
      DON

  • Trinity County
    • By

      Water Temp: 78 to 82

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: fished friday thru saturday night, first fish was a 4lb smallmouth on the swimbait...then a 2lb largemouth on swimbait, got a few more smallmouth but nothing real big, only a couple fish after dark one 3.5 largemouth on the brushhog but it was real slow. saturday was a little slow in the morning as I lost my favorite swimbait but once the breeze picked up so did the fishing, caught a bunch of smallmouth on the drop shot with aarons magic, nothing real big but lots of fun 1 to 2 lbrs that fought like crazy. Saturday evening I lost two real big ones on two consecutive casts with an xrap on a submerged rock pile I found that afternoon and went back to...great trip, cant wait to go back.
      City: medford

      Tips: drop shot worked well also the osprey 5" swimbait and xrap in the evening, was surprised that the zara didnt work to well for me.

Wednesday, July 14th, 2010

    • By

      Water Temp: 81.9/82.6

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished from about 0800 until 1330, boated 5 fish. Two on spinnerbaits on weedlines, one on a crank, one spot on a rip bait, and one 4.3lb largemouth flipping a jig into willows. Missed a couple drop shotting and had a couple whacks that I missed on the spinner. Pretty slow, no real consistent bite.
      City: Orland

      Tips: Tons of shad. Tons. Everywhere you go. Fish are gorging themselves on 'em. Lots of suspended fish as well. I couldn't get them to hit though.