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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Saturday, December 5th, 2009

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: 52-54

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I was able to guide a wonderful client from Missouri last night for his first Clear Lake venture! He and his wife own a resort on Table Rock lake - how tough is that?! His bass boat is always ready to go!! His goal for Clear Lake was a 6-11 which would have been his PB, but we fell a few ounces short - he could only muster a 6-3! He missed a lot of fish early in the trip but got better as the night went on and did get a limit over 17 lbs. Our combined limit was over 24 lbs - I had a small 6 lber also - 6-5. We landed 18 bass total using a variety of soft plastics with Smelly Jelly. The big Brush Hog wasn't as effective as normal - they wanted a smaller, compact bait. Most of our bass were quite shallow - some on the bank as the moon was covered with clouds early on. When the moon came out, I expected the bite to die - it got better! Oh well!!!!
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: With the cloud cover early, the night air temp was nice for Dec. About 10 PM when the clouds left - it dropped like a rock! Very cold days (and nights) are coming up. Dress warmly out there! We fished rock from Wheeler Point to Pirate Island and found no concentrations of bass - one here and one there! I have been hearing a few carp work at night while the bite was good. Last night a few became active as the moon got brighter - and so did the bass become a little more active. As some of you know - I always find that relationship interesting while night fishing!

  • Sacramento County
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      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Jim, yeah right, "eyes" were on you today ROFL. As if anyone cared where you go on the lake. We know where all your "minnow fishing" spots are buddy. The only thing you need to protect is your reputation...oh WAIT, my bad, you don't HAVE a reputation anymore.

      Tips: Watch for Jim's boat, then watch him minnow fish his favorite spots. More fun than a B-grade movie with popcorn.

    • By

      Water Temp: 55

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Too many eyes on me, could not fish my better spots. Still managed a good limit of blcks with a five pound kicker. All fish on one tons, watermelon, 45ft.

      Tips: Stay off good spots when you are being watched.

  • Mariposa County
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      Water Temp: 53 to56

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Not much talk about fishing this lake.It is tough for good fish 1.5 to 2.0 lbs but you can get one or two a day in between 20 to 25 small fish.Fish where you find the most concentration of fish and work thru them.Slow is good.Mostly plastics.
      City: madera

      Tips: Slow,slow,and slower mostly presure bites be on your A game

  • Tuolumne County
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      Water Temp: 56

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Caught fish on jigs in the morning then the bite died as the sun came up. The best jig fish was 2 lbs and we caught 6 .Then fished dropshot, darter head, and senkos. The senko fished very slow worked , caught 5 more with a four pounder being the best fish.Probably had 11 lbs for best five
      City: Granite Bay

  • Butte County
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      Water Temp: 51-53

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Bass Busters of Yuba city had it's second tourney of the year out of the Spillway, after finding out the DPR had closed Bidwell on Friday. I ended up with 5 fish for 10.16 lbs, good for second place. First place had a weight of 10.33, with the BF of the day, a 3.18. I got all my fish on cranks, caught over twenty fish, with 12 of those over the slot. First place boat reported catching over 70 fish between the two of them, mostly on jigs. Rippin produced a few fish as well. Seven anglers brought 5 fish limits in, over 15 inches. Crank fish were on flat points, right on the tip or on the deeper side. Fish were in 3-12 ft, but had to be deep water near by.
      City: Plumas Lake

      Tips: Bass Busters of Yuba City is looking for new members, especially boaters. The club is a good way to meet some new people, learn from other anglers and fish while sharing expenses with someone who loves bass fishing as much as you.
      We meet the first Thursday of each month at the Peach Tree restraunt in Linda/Maryville. Or, e-mail me at the address above with any questions.

    • By

      Water Temp: 54-56

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished Oroville on Saturday. I was amazed at the size of the spotted bass we caught. We landed 20+ fish with 15 over the slot. Biggest fish went 3LBS. All of our fish came on Oxblood red flake robo worms. Early bite was solid on the shakey head then moved to a drop shot later in the day.
      City: Hollister

      Tips: The bidwell ramp is closed again, the ramp at the spillway is open, but no dock and a long dirt road to get to the water. Let is snow let it snow, we need some serious water this spring!

    • By

      Water Temp: 52

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: yuba city bass busters had 2nd tourney of year on sat the 5th.good fishing for me pre fishing all cranking. winner big daddy had a3.18 kicker for first 10.34. dont know what he used. most fish came trowing cranks and jigs
      City: plumas lake

      Tips: crank windy banks near deep water. if interested in fishing in our club e mail me and ill give you the detail

    • By

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Did pretty good on drop shot in the morning but once the sun got higher in the sky, the bite turned off.
      City: Bay Area, CA

      Tips: Rocks and boulders are the only places i found the fish

Friday, December 4th, 2009

  • Napa County
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      Water Temp: 55

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I took a friend out and we have a good time. Drop line at 9am over some fish in 80 feet of water but no takers. Moved toward the Dam and found a good bite at 40ft in a cove. Tried some other areas ( that had bait balls) and have some bites but I miss them (I can only blame myself). The cold and the wind made it real hard to stay over the fish. The fishing is still good however you dont always notice the bite. My main bait was a drop shot, 4 1/2 roboworm, light line and 3/8 sinker. I notice alot of upset bass angles on the water. If the weather is to bad stay home (I Do)and if the bite is tuff, then be happy your on a bass boat, do you want to go back to bank fishing? Overall Its time to give this lake a rest and fish true winter lakes like New Hogan, Pardee, Camache, New Melones and theres others. I will back to this wonderfull lake next year. I have only fished this lake for a short time and it a very simple and fun lake. When I fishing any new lake do look for SPOTS, LOOK FOR BAIT!
      City: Ca, Delta

      Tips: A bass is a bass, Any time you have deep water your going to hook into spots and smallies year round. In spring the fish move up to spawn but not all at the same time and they dont got back to the deep all at the same time. Dont make this fishing hard, you can use the same tackle in any deep water lake in california. Keep fishing fun and God Bless.

  • Westchester County
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      Water Temp: ?

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: was wondering what is considerd a giant, large mouth, at quarry. my best was a 5 lb. a couple years ago.
      City: Elkhorn

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

    • By

      Water Temp: 52

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished with my friend Nathan from 1:30 - 4:45 pm 14 bites/6 boated/3 breakoffs in rocks/5 missed. Water is about to turn over. Still has fine granular algae. 1.5 to 2.5 lbs
      City: Madera Ranchos

      Tips: Fish were 10-25 ft with a few scattered to 30 ft. Brush hogs/creature baits in green pumpkin/watermelon red

      Very light bite. Slow down your presentation. Fish the fall line on drops to adjacent deep water. If they don't eat it on the fall, deadstick it for 30 seconds once it hits the bottom. Once the thermcline hits, everything changes.

  • Sacramento County
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      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Let's please keep the commentary focused on quality and meaningful reports. We all know reports by "Jim" can sometimes be "questionable", but I guess it's like any television show.. can either watch it or turn the channel. I'm really interested in knowing what presentations/patterns generally work this time of year.
      City: Folsom

      Tips: I'm thinkin' just like most everyone else...look for the bait and work the plastics (dropshot or darthead primarily) at the bait...and might need to work them painfully SLOW. Folsom is known as one of the hardest lakes to fish. But when no one else was catching, I've heard guys at the ramp state "twenty +" when asked how'd they do. They're either exaggerating or simply KNOW this lake.

    • By

      Water Temp: 40

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: All I can figure is the water temp is really cold and jim"s pecker is about 2 inches long and he feels as if he needs to act like he catches big fish to overcompensate. Sorry Jim that your pecker is so tiny, but don't keep posting this bogus reports. Please
      City: Roseville

      Tips: Western Bass please pull Jim off of her before his pecker comes out his ass!!!!

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

  • Sacramento County
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      Water Temp: 66

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: South Fork at Salmon Falls Bridge, top water, white chatterbaits and rip baits for larger bites. Downsized with plastics for smaller bites. All fish came from bend to bridge, did not go into creeks.Fish a plenty.
      City: sac

      Tips: Water temp up, reaction action, deadsticking later on.

  • Sonoma County
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      Water Temp: cold

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: no luck. fished for about 4 hours from the shore. no luck with crankbaits, senkos, roboworms, spinnerbaits, and my friend even threw a couple flies with no luck. tried shad colored crankbaits, crawdad colored, tried purple senkos, red senkos, baby bass roboworms on a drop shot, all without even a single bite
      City: rohnert park

Tuesday, December 1st, 2009

  • Shasta County
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      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: i believe the best way to identify spot/largemouth is when the mouth is closed, if it goes beyond the eye then it is a largemouth, if not then its a spot...I am going down this weekend which is the same weekend I went down 2yrs ago and got a 9lb 13oz largemouth at 1am on a spinnerbait as well as a 4.8lb spot and several other nice ones, all at night
      City: medford

      Tips: i will report when i get back

    • By

      Water Temp: NONE

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: OK, here is the deal guys and gals,way back when the lake first put in the dam,they also set up house{dept fish game}they added all the right fish for the lake,back then.and yes there were northern large mouth and small mouth.no spots.well as we all know they drop the lake level every year at spawning session.and after we started using more water down south,the water level would leave the large mouth bass egg's on dry land,so they brought in spoted bass,because they spawn in deeper water ,and river's,I have found them on beds in 15 foot of water,in the river's on shasta lake.and if you fish the right parts of the lake in spring u to can catch a norther large mouth.they dont like mudd or rocks to lay there egg's.look for area's with a sandy look in the back of cove's.. with small stream's they make them sandy area's.The other guy's pass these spots,because they thank rocks all the time.would u like to make a nest to lay your egg;s in rock's.
      City: REDDING

      Tips: I have seen this lake go threw some change's,as i have been here sence the 60's,and alway's have fished for bass .MY dad tought me every thing as he was a great bass fisherman .so i love large mouth bass fishing.now i drive to clear lake.

Monday, November 30th, 2009

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 53

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: started off foggy 6;30am got a 3lb by ramp while waiting for fog to burn off, on a senko. no other bite for 6 hours until shaker striper 16 in. that was it, but a beautiful day outside
      City: pleasanton

      Tips: look for running water

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: 53-55

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I am not on the global warming wagon, but it did hit Clear Lake last night for awhile. Almost 60 degrees at dark! For near December, really amazing! I took a client from Costa Rica and his father-in-law last night in the bright, bright, bright moon!! I told them that the best bite might be right at dark - the last 30 minutes of light. 20 min before dark - within his first hour ever at Clear Lake - he handles a nice bass that we never saw for about 3 minutes, and I soon netted his 6 lb 14 oz bass! I wonder why so many clients have happy memories of Clear Lake?!! Don't know much about his fishing background, but he played her like a pro!! He caught a few more 3 pounders and the "in-law" finally got on the board with a 2 1/4. While they lost several more (it was not a good bite) we headed in around 11 pm. It got real cold real fast, and a stiff breeze didn't help. Still, a real nice trip - and a happy camper!!!!
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: Hard to judge the bite after a 4 day holiday - even saw a boat or two night fishing on Sun night. The big fish was only about 15 feet deep and the rest were on ledges with moon shadows - about 15 to 25 feet deep. Good bite for awhile on Dollar Island because the breeze created a chop on the water.