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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Wednesday, November 4th, 2009

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

      Report: Amen to that! The last time I was there was in May 09. The guy DID NOT EVEN CHECK. He just jacked the money and handed us a Sticker. Some big name tackle shop on REDBUD!!
      City: sacto

      Tips: Face it, It's just a MONEY GRAB!!! Kinda like the Delta Enhancement Stamp. Waste!!!

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      Water Temp: 63-65

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: I wanted to see if Friday's trip was a fluke, so a friend and I hit the lake again last night about 5:30 pm. Bite before dark was terrible - but no so after dark. I didn't think the fish were as active as last Fri night, but the quality was excellent! The bass continued to welcome me back as an 8-3 (brush hog) and a 7-1 (D&M swim jig) forgot to keep their mouths closed. We boated 34 bass total and my limit was 30 3/4 lbs. Our best 10 were in the 52 lb range. Unfortunately he lost a big one at the boat - but he did catch the most! Can't rush those big ones! Could I buy any cloud cover - not a chance. You can read a book out there in the winter high moon.
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: I remember Nov 4 several years ago when I found 63 degree water. Beat that last night - found 65 degree water! We fished any shadows we could find as the moon was was getting higher. One of the shadows produced the 8-3 - she was only in 15 feet of water. After 11 pm the bite started to slow as the moon was nearly overhead. Though we land a lot of bass, we missed a lot also. As the water cools more they should commit more. It was fun to catch a few on a Gator Tail worm (black/chartreuse), a bait I haven't used in years! The Berkley Power worm (black) worked well last night and produced a near 6 lb bass. My partner was using jigs a lot and they worked well, but they didn't seem to produce good quality bass. Weird.

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      Water Temp: 61-63

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: The bite is really subtle. If you are not watching your line you will not even know they were there. Fished with my friend from Pacific Grove. Caught 22 fish. Best 5, 14 lbs with the largest 3.8 Had 35+ bites, but missed alot of fish and could not keep a few buttoned. 6 fish before noon, 16 between 1 and 5:30pm No kicker fish today
      City: Madera Ranchos

      Tips: Same patterns as listed in previous posts. You have to read your electronics and position your boat correctly. Look for structure or flats in 8-15ft that have deep adjacent water. Present the bait so that it comes down the fall line. They will eat it on the fall. If not, let it sit for 30 seconds+ deadsticking it. Twitch it and they will eat it. Watch your line for anything abnormal. They are not hammering the bait. Switch from offset wide gap hooks to straight shank. You will have better hook ups.

Monday, November 2nd, 2009

  • Sacramento County
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      Water Temp: Warm

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: To Jim,,,,, WOLF!!! WolF!!
      City: Antelope

      Tips: Wolf!!! Wolf!!Wolf!!! Wolf!!

Sunday, November 1st, 2009

  • Santa Barbara County
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      Water Temp: 65-68

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Hit the lake after the preliminary washing and inspection since Lopez. Caught between 9-10 fish. Most on a jig (grn pumpkin), one on swim bait (blue trout), 1 on drop shot (oxblood red flake)and a healthy 6 pound catfish on a jig??? 2-3 on a silver spoon. Only one fish not a keeper, biggest was about 3 lbs, fun day no large bag, but fun. Didn't meter very many shad balls so I could spoon more, but it worked a couple of times

      Tips: Don't throw your jig next to a stump in the water...probably a catfish there waiting to eat it. LOL

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

      Report: We launch out of Red Bud Park, at the south end of Clear Lake, at around 9 am. The water is much clearer compared to last week, with the algae bloom being a little less intense. We start off fishing jigs shallow on rocky banks in Jago Bay. By 10 am we each get a couple bass, but nothing larger than 2.5 pounds. We then fish some deeper rock (10-20) around Wheeler, Gooseneck, and Frasier Points. We caught a few more bass a drop shot and shaky head, but still smaller fish (1-2 lbs). Decided to put down the slower lures, and start fishing reaction baits. There was absolutely no wind, but the algae bloom was increasing, so we had about two feet of water clarity. Throwing a black/red Norman DD 22 crankbait, I catch one just over six pounds. We were fishing a ledge near Shag Rock that broke off from 10 to 20 feet. Charlie tied on a brown/orange Rapala DT 14 and he caught a few more bass in the three-pound range. Moving around to similar areas in the Horseshoe and Soda Bay area, we continue to catch a bass about every half an hour (2-4 lbs). There was quite a bit of baitfish in the area. Silversides were all over the surface, and the grebes were catching the hell out of the shad. Every time the bird would dive down, they would come back up with a healthy three-inch shad. Surprisingly the crawdad colored crankbaits seemed to be working the best. All the shad and chartreuse colored crankbaits we tried fishing, didn

      Tips: Please visit www.russnyders.com for more fishing reports, videos, and info on Northern California Guide Trips.

      <a href="http://www.russnyders.com/">Rus Snyders Guide Service</a>

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      Water Temp: 62

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: In at county park at 9:AM and ran to the narrows to fish one of my favorite rock piles. I observed the area was covered with fish, We cranked, jigged, Carolina rigged and covered the water column from 6" to 35' with no bites. We fished several other areas with the same luck. I even tried the rip-bait and went through the tackle box pretty good. Finally in a very shallow area near Rocky Point I got a half hearted blow up on a bronze eye frog. That was it. Off the lake with out heads held low at 4:PM. Don't these fish know I own this lake. Guess not! We tried em shallow, deep, on the cover on the structure, docks, flats we flipped a slough. We tried em on top on the bottom and cranked em in the column. I guess even the bass fishing mecca of the world has a bad day. On the bright side, our next trip has got to be better.
      City: Redwood Valley

      Tips: This was a maiden voyage from my friend Don's new Triton. We dinged the prop near Lakeport. I have never seen the lake this low. Be really careful there are areas with rocks sticking up that I am used to running over. These rocks seem to jump up and bite you when you least expect it when we took off we were in 7' of water and then unexpectedly 1.5', ouch..... WATCH OUT FOR ROCKS all along the North end.

Saturday, October 31st, 2009

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 60

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished out of B&W, stayed in 25ft of water jiggin a Duh spoon in white. Let the line slack when dropping the spoon. We also used pencel poppers, fish traps and white spinner baits. Ended up with 30 plus stripers and four keepers. Travel around looking for the birds diving for the bait, stay with the birds all over the delta.
      City: Rocklin

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: 63-64

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: After missing from Clear Lake for about 5 weeks, the bass were so happy to see me that they forgot to close their mouths! I fished the hour before dark and up to about midnight. I got two before dark on a crankbait and broke off one using a jig. She was over 5 or 6, but shouldn't have broken my line. Weird! After dark, a slight breeze was blowing which I think help off-set the bright moon. I fished docks and rocks that would create some shadows and that seemed to be a good game plan. I found the quality and quantity to be better than I expected. I'm not sure how many I caught in 6 1/2 hrs - close to 25. Though I lost some quality fish, my 5 best were about 26 1/2 lbs - a 7.0 was the biggest. I was fishing fairly deep, about 15 to 35 feet. When the breeze stopped, the fishing slowed. When it picked up again about 11 pm, the bite resumed. Beautiful night at Clear Lake - weather and bigger bass than Oroville - but not as big as New Melones!!
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: I spend most of my time around the narrows and the Rattlesnake arm. I caught several on a black/red brush hog. I found the D&M Piranha swim jig to be very effective with the cooling water. I caught my 7 on that bait (black/blue). The Power worm bite was pretty good too (black). Most of the bites were still pretty subtle - but I landed most of them. The real good bites I had - lost most of them. Strange how that happens. With the water still fairly warm, I was fishing my baits pretty aggressively - lots of action with the tip of the rod.

  • Alameda County
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      Water Temp: 62

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Early on the water...caught on LMB on the dam using crank. Moved to badger cove were I caught 4 more LMB on combo crank and drop-shot. To my suprise, trout were nailing my crank bait as well. Big fish for LMB was 2 lbs and for trout 2 1/2 lbs. Over all, a good day on the water.

      Tips: Cranks are producing.

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      Water Temp: 61

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished Sat 31st and Sunday Nov 1. Had to work super hard to catch anything. Caught 3 on Sat, all 3lbs, 2 at the exact same time Sun, one went 3.0 and the other 1.5. Fished damn area, some coves. One cove was full of fish but couldnt get any takers. Go every weekend and this was about the worst and Sunday, i havent seen that many boats on the water since we have been going there, every point, cove and inch of the damn was occupied. Not to mention the shore fisherman...without their licenses...where is the rangers????
      City: Clovis

      Tips: Took all on pink 7" worms and a weightless brown senko. Think the water is so cold, gonna have to land it right on their head and make em mad to bite. Threw swim baits, spinners, lots of cranks and every color plastic imaginable. Got most on drifting in open water, a few near the damn opposite swimming area.

  • Sonoma County
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      Water Temp: 61

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Went for a pleasure cruse on saturday, the lake was quiet with only a few boats out. I decided to cast a line out with a silver cast master on the main lake. The second the lure hit the water 4-6 small bass immediatly went for it an practically fought to be the one on the hook. I had kids with me so for the next couple of minutes they cought a bunch of the little shakers. When it got quiet I moved to the front of the boat & cast into a submerged weed pile. This time the rod went off with a strong bite. As I reeled the fish in, I thought it was a steele head but when I got him on the boat I realized it was a Shad. At this point I could not stop there, on the nextcast it happened again this time I pulled in a 1-1/2 Lb Black Crappie. ....
      City: Santa Rosa

      Tips: Go fishing you dont know what you might catch.

Friday, October 30th, 2009

    • By

      Water Temp: 61 - 64

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Targeted largemouth and smallmouth with little success. Came across a striper boil around 1130 and caught two using a rip bait and crankbait. Largest was 2lbs/22in. Boil lasted about 2 minutes. Another boat hooked into a quality fish to about 6 pounds (also stumbled onto the boil).

      Caught two largemouth to 3# on dropshot at the mouth of coves in 15ft of water. Bites were VERY light and I missed a few more fish with the same setup above. The water is cold and the bites are few. Also caught a couple small largemouth 8in or so. Missed a few bites on crank baits and spinner baits when we first started. We started fishing around 0930 thinking the warmer weather would spark a bite. It's still pretty cold.

      Where are the smallmouth and where are the big fish? Send me an email......
      City: West Sacramento

      Tips: Drop shot the mouths of coves. Let the fish take worm for a moment. Bites are light.

Thursday, October 29th, 2009

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 59

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Great afternoon. Went out for Stripers (landed 7, largest going 17 lbs) in Big Break and the swimbait bite was off the hook. Managed 1 large mouth at 6 lbs on Redeye Shad.
      City: Antioch

      Tips: Move up really shallow during low light at either sunrise or sunset, fish tulie edges.

Wednesday, October 28th, 2009

  • Santa Barbara County
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      Water Temp: 62

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Brought the 'Scalper out of mothballs, hooked 'er up to the El Camino and ran over the hill to the Queen for some bassin'. Filled up on propane at U-Haul, scored a cinnamon roll et Eller's and it was off to the lake. The checkpoint at the gate is pretty tough. Be prepared to get a full inspection. I scoured the hull for an hour or so with SoftScrub beofre getting up there and they still hassled me. Eventually got through and put her in the water. Oops, forgot the plug. Ran the bilge on full boar and hussled up the hill to retrieve the rig. Got it squared away without sinking in the harbor. Finally got out on to the water about 11. So much for my fog bite.

      Ran the narrows for an hour or so with only a couyple of hits on the spinner. Decided to switch it up a bit and ran up to Clarks. Cranked some chunk rock for a couple dinks. Wound up losing 3 cranks on about 5 casts including my prized Norman faded shad.

      Spent the rest of the day working spoons and jigs in deeper water. Picked up a jumbo cat I'd rate at 14-15 pounds along with a few small bass. Best deal was the Duh spoon in gold.

      Ended the day on my favorite deep water spot of Jackrabbit. Snagged a couple jigs, pounded a couple of Dews and ran back to the marina after the Ranger blew me out with the bullhorn...again.
      City: IV

      Tips: Bring some food and drink - the snack shack is DOWN. No more killer burgies and fries I guess. What the heck?

      Try fishing really slow. Tiny bear jigs (purple) in deep water. 6 pound test. I got most of my bites on the dead stick.

      Oh yeah - bring a hound dog lure retriever.

    • By

      Water Temp: 62-63

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Water has cooled a few degrees with windy system that just blew through. Still lots of granular algae in the water. Rising barometer and other atmospheric conditions factored into a tough bite. Had to work for them. 10 rigs out on the water. Most I have seen the whole year. Fished from 9:30am to 6 pm. 13 fish with two shorts. Best five went 15 lbs with a 3.65 leading the way.
      City: Madera

      Tips: All fish came on brush hogs. Had to really fish slow to the point of deadsticking and then twitching the bait in place. Only a couple ate it on the move. 10-20 ft either on structure or long sandy flats. Healthy fish. No takers on slow rolling spinnerbaits, swimbaits, crankbaits, or worms of any kind. Next week is back in the stable mid 70's. Bite should improve

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

      Report: why are you talking mess? because you cant catch sh**...fishing from a boat and off shore is the same thing...i go fishing there every week and i catch ATLEAST 5 fish all weighing over 3 pounds...i bet your out there on your boat catching 1 pounders! ha
      City: salinas

      Tips: dont ask for tips if your gonna hate!

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009

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

      Report: I was tired when I did my report. Jason hooked his big bass on a 9" BaitSmith trout swimbait. My error!

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

      Report: Wake up Delta Fisherman: The US Buro of Reclamation is getting ready to put 2 Dams across the Delta at Holland track & Connection Slue. A meeting of all Parties took place in DB and a Q & A sesion lasted 2 hours about the Dams. They admitted the Southern Cal water people contributed $8 Mil for the Dam study which they are calling a tempary study of the Delta Smalt. 3 Years ago they proposed 4 Dams and the CSPA fishing organization stoped them, now is the 2 Gate Dam project, it's all part of the same deal to store water for LA. Get behind your local organizations and contribute before it's to late CSPA , BBAC, www.restorethedelta.org
      City: Discovery Bay

      Tips: The 2 Gate Dam Project info can be found at www.usbr.gov/mp/

Monday, October 26th, 2009

  • Napa County
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      Water Temp: 65

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Jason Kincannon and I met during his first swimbait seminar at Fisherman's Warehouse about 2 month ago. After talking a few times on the phone, we decided to fish Berryessa together in the near future and today was the future! We both love to spoon for bass and I wanted to see his swimbaits in action! We started at dawn throwing Huds, but no action except a few hits on Jason's bait. It didn't take too much convincing that we should try spoons, and so we did. We worked from Steel Park to the former Berryessa marina - and had quite a day!! Jason was hot in the morning with his big spoon (not sure the brand) and I got it going in the afternoon - playing catchup! I used the 1 3/4 oz Duh spoon to start with, but we both found they wanted a slower fall! I went to the 3/4 oz Duh spoon in black shad color and he was basically fishing a white spoon. I did drop-shot a few on a 4" Basstrix flashtrix minnow in the smelt color, my favorite. To sum up the day - excellent bite considering few clouds, pane of glass flat water until 2 pm, and a Monday. We boated between 40 and 45 bass - many, many between 2 1/2 to 3 lbs. Our limit was over 14 lbs. Interesting that he caught mostly spots and I caught mostly smallies. No largemouth until we threw swimbaits again in rough water on our way in. Jason hooked a big bass on his swimbait but lost it after about 5 seconds. Darn!
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: We did fish deep structure - mostly creek channels and humps. Bass were everywhere but often reluctant to hit, probably because of the flat water. Once we had a breeze - and then WIND, things got better. Nearly every bass was hooked from 35 to 50 feet except the swimbait bites. Water has not cooled much!