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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Saturday, October 10th, 2009

  • Yuba County
    • By

      Water Temp: 65

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Was told the fish have finally grown up so decided to give it a shot and Fred was right! On my second cast of the morning I hooked one of the largest spots I ever caught at this place but it only got better as the morning went on. It had been years since I fished here but the quality was amazing as they are feeding like crazy and fat as footballs with plenty of fight. Launching is easy at Emerald Bay at the dam and scenery is breathtaking as I saw 2 bald eagles in a death spiral, talons hooked together spinning wildly until they finally broke off before hitting the ground. Only wish a cameraman was available as that would have gone on the web. Always knew this was a late bite lake and now seems to be the time so give it a shot and you won't be disappointed.
      City: Wheatland

      Tips: Cranks, ie Speed Traps and Rattletraps in red or craw colors. I would alternate the speedtrap speed and many times when I stopped the retrieve and it started to fall....BAM there they were. Caught many in the 2-3 lb class and my largest was over 4 and looked like a Clearlake largie. Hitting the shady laydown areas produced the best action and the jig (brown and purple) on large rock dropoffs nailed the largest fish of the day.

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: 63

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished both Sat and Sun, caught fish early and then bite slowed down after sun hit water.
      Had several good fish(good quality, no quantity) each day drop shotting 6'MM against walls and pilings.
      Picked up two better fish 5lb range on jigs(grn/pkn)under docks; slow, slow, slow.
      City: Hilmar

      Tips: Drop Shot MM worms against pilings and against walls; slow, slow, slow.

Friday, October 9th, 2009

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

      Report: Launched out of Granite Bay & met the Ranger at the ramp. They really increased the outflow this morning big time, so he said he would probably close that ramp today or this weekend. 5mph wasn't in effect yet, but he said it would most likely be tomorrow or Sunday. Fished all over from 10am-1pm & the only bite all day was a FAT 5.0lb spot in the south arm.

      Tips: Tried everything. C-rigs, tubes, swimbaits. The fatty came on a deep crankbait but no other hits on it.

    • By

      Water Temp: 63

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: So a few weeks ago, this lake was at 73 degrees and now all the way down to 63. The lake has also lowered very quickly, so rain is needed.

      Most of the fish are schooled in the deep holes but I did find one keeper off a point but that was my only bite and fish for the day.

      Again, better than working.
      City: Santa Rosa

      Tips: Crank Away!!!

Thursday, October 8th, 2009

  • Plumas County
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      Water Temp: 60-63

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Well the NorCal Bass Ratz Junior BASS Club from Rocklin did their TOC today. With a cold front that came in making the bass lock jaw the young anglers did well. We had 6 boaters that volunteered from Basin Bassmasters that gave their Sunday to help these anglers. We had a three fish limit, three Juniors came in with limits. 4.06 big fish was caught by Andrew Loberg and he also had big bag of 7.86 lbs. Second place was Travis Bound with 5.30 lbs for three bass and third place was George Corp with three bass 3.88 lbs. Some bass were caught on Senkos, rip bats and crankin.
      City: Rocklin

      Tips: fish shallow in main body

  • Yuba County
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      Water Temp: 68-69

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished the last three hours of daylight today and found the bite to still be tough. Typical fall day - no wind, clear water, no clouds. Next week may be what the doctor ordered - some wind and maybe some rain. Most bait and bass seem to be 40 feet and deeper. There was no bait or fish activity at dusk. I tried topwater anyway - nothing. I did spoon a nice 2 lb spot in the middle of the lake, and missed another.
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: Look for long points and deep drop-offs. They will start to hit topwater - soon I hope!

  • Shasta County
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      Water Temp: 68

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: In reference to preceeding report, I called Shasta Rec. Co. & ask about low water launching conditions. They told me that Centmudi, Jones Valley & Sugar Loaf had both docks & out houses.
      Launched at Sugar Loaf & fished down to Elmore Bay.
      Cought lots of Bass in the 12" range on shad Crank & Rip Baits. Caught several larger fish,to 3# on spinner Baits. Trout comming to surface, landed 19" Rainbow trolling Shad Rap.
      City: Redding

      Tips: Docks & outhouses are there. Shad Pattern Baits for both Bass & Trout.

Wednesday, October 7th, 2009

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 64

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Help!I am haveing trouble getting the size and number of ( "punch" fish} I keep reading about on this site. I pretty well have the mechanics down of getting through the grass to present the bait. And I do catch some fish now and again.My biggest problem is finding a good standard bait to present. I have flipped the #420 sweet beaver until I'm blue in the face. Also chigger craw,cover craw,rage craw, etc. I try to fish as many points as possible,and cover with current. As I said I do catch some but nothing like I see posted on this site. Even though "punching" seems to treat me like a step child I do enjoy doing it. I just wish I could come up with some baits I could get confidence in.Thanks
      City: Acampo

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: MID 60S

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: FISHING TOUGH WITH NO WIND OR CLOUDS.HIT A FEW SPOTS WITH MY NEPHEW.WE EACH HAD ABOUT 13 OR 14LBS.AND ONE CATFISH BIGGER THAN MY BASS LIMIT. OH WELL IT WAS FUN.FIRST TIME HELD UNDER 20LBS THIS MONTH WHAT A DRAG#%@#$.

      Tips: JIGS WERE GOOD WITH WIND. NO WIND THROW A SENCO

    • By

      Water Temp: 67

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Water is clearing quickly with colder nights. Low air temps are now reaching the 40's with low to mid 80's for highs.
      Tough bite. Full moon week combined with cooler temps have locked them up a little. Smaller fish overall. Caught 15 with the best 5 going 11 lbs. Fall patterns are starting to kick in. It should get good in the next two weeks as fish will start to gorge for winter.
      City: Madera

      Tips: Threw alot at them, but all fish were taken on baby brushogs except for two which were on 4" worms. 5-12 ft. Once the fish start the pre-winter gorge, you need to have swimbaits, ripbaits, and cranks that imitate baitfish and are 3-5 inches long and suspend. Go even larger for the big girls, but you will get fewer strikes. Look for shallow structure that is adjacent to deep water. Lake is really down. There is not enough room to get my boat at WOT, fully trimmed, and at top speed. I can do about 67 mph tournament loaded and I had to shut it down at 55 mph. Be careful. Lots of shallow areas with rocks. They are marked, but I don't want to see someone lose their lower end.

  • Mariposa County
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      Water Temp: 74

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: fished 6am- noon. 7.5 ft clear water.....before dawn a gentle westerly breeze, switching about 9am to dead calm, then a 10mph wind headed mostly north. Caught a couple dinks on a shad pattern crankbait. substantially less surface activity than last week. Alot of Carp, along bank....in 6-8 in of water....damn things keep breeching. thought they were bass on shad at first, wasted 40 min fishing them.
      City: Atwater

  • Merced County
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      Water Temp: n/a

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: It's been awhile since my last post but the fishing is real good. Lot's of fish but you have go through alot of 17"-19" fish but I did catch 4 26" fish. They have a new gate on a timer so dont get there before 6:15 and fish reaction type lure's.Only saw one small boil but alot fish.
      City: Salinas

      Tips: Real early bite

Monday, October 5th, 2009

  • Mariposa County
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      Water Temp: 70

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: On the water at first light very windy up river, moved to narrows and landed 3 on top water jr spook with many more strikes. on strike on a pop-r. top water bite lasted till 10 am
      City: modesto

Sunday, October 4th, 2009

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 63 deg

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: went out of rio vista to do some striper fishing so here is my report for you guys doing the striper derby this weekend Went to decker island sacramento side fish for a few hour and the water temp a little warm for fish to move in with the cold front and winter approaching looking good for striper fishing caught 9 stripers today all were shakers with a couple 8 pounders was fishing mudsuckers with no success stripers were all over the fresh shad i only bought 1/2 pnd of shad and ran out. today I tried something differant than the ol fillet shad with the double half hitch on the tail standard stripper rig I tried some thing i learned in mexico that i saw fishing the baja last month. Used a 1/0 gamagatzu and used 3 ft 20lb leader with sliding weight kinda the same rig.but much smaller hook , run the hook right through both eyes and toss behind boat the stripers were all over it compared to the old rig . i lost some fish but caught most of them. fished both stles side by side and the small hook out caught the large hook, fillet of shad. I think you spend some time on the water and have patience you should produce some nice fish. lots of moss in the water keep checking bait frquently and keep fresh bait on its a lot of work keeping moss off the line but worth it .
      City: Elmira

      Tips: fishing should get better with weather coming in and cooling water. If wind is a problem lay up along sandy beach and south of it on the west side good fishing and out of that nasty north wind C YA on the water PLASTICMAN1

  • Tuolumne County
    • By

      Water Temp: 71-68

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fish Sunday all 8 hrs catch 1 legal about 1 1/2 lbs lots of small bass 1000"s schooling all over bubbling on the surface very tough bite nice weather any ideas
      City: modesto

      Tips: none

Saturday, October 3rd, 2009

  • Alameda County
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      Water Temp: 69

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: On the lake at 0800 and started on the south end. Caught two dinks on a drop shot near wood structure. Missed 2 on crank bait. Moved to Badger Cove were I caught 2 LM on drop shot. Largest was 2 lbs. Wind picked up and moved to Tarantula Cove with no luck. Over all, a good day on the water.

      Tips: Drop shot is working well. Water and weather conditions dictate color so try different colors. Reation bite was there but not strong.

    • By

      Water Temp: 71

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: 1-2#, 4-dinks. All caught on split-shot'd 4" black roboworms and 1 on a small Yoziri lipless crank (shad) and 1 on a Smithwick Ratl-n Rogue.

      How small were they? The rogue was bigger than the bass it caught.

      Windy early in the morning 8am the gradually died
      throughout the day.

      Tried without success: frogs, buzzbaits, cranks and jigs.
      City: Monterey

  • Mariposa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 74

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: 4pm- 7pm. Shad surface activity reduced from yesterday. Had lots of bites from smaller fish, but nothing got in the boat. another boater got two on a shad rap by trolling it.
      City: Atwater

Friday, October 2nd, 2009

  • Napa County
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      Water Temp: 72-73

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I had a great time with 2 clients today - one from Chicago. We fished for about 6 1/2 hrs - they got lost and were an hour late. We missed the early bite and fishing was slow by the time we got started. Another bluebird day with no clouds - but, a slight breeze. I was happy that the man from Chicago caught the first bass drop-shotting a Robo worm - since he had just found out that his city had lost their Olympic bid. I got a spoon fish and that was it for awhile. About noon, near Big Island - we found some bait and willing bass and the other client caught his first spoon bass. The 'sexy shad' Robo was a hit for my drop-shot client - he caught the biggest and the most - a smallie almost 3 lbs. Most bass were 25 to 45 feet. It was had to catch any bass mid-day in flat calm water. Chase the breezes! We wound up with 16-17 bass - 6 nice ones.
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: Keep looking for bait - it is still really scattered. The spoon bite will just get better as the water cools and the bait starts "balling" up. I threw jigs a little but no takers.

  • Shasta County
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      Water Temp: Cold

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fishing is great, I went today caught 3 over 2.5 lbs. I received a pay stub on my windshield today for not paying launching fee. They can kiss my u know what for lauching fee. How can u charge for something that is so far off the beaten path, how do they justify even charging when there is no restroom, no paved access, no ramp. I aint paying a dime.
      City: Redding

      Tips: Launch at bridge bay from now on. That way the Shasta Lake Recreation doesnt get a dime.