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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Wednesday, November 7th, 2018

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

      Report: Mark you calendars for the annual Redwood Empire Bass Club open tournament to be held on December 8th at Lake Sonoma. Blast off at safe light and weigh in begins at 3:00. Entry fee is $100 per team which includes big fish option. Sign up in advance by downloading the entry form at www.rebc.net or enter the day of the event. See you there.

Sunday, November 4th, 2018

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 63

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: On the water at 7AM out of Frank's Tract. Water temperature around 63 degrees, no wind, low tide, fished until 1PM. Caught 3-4 striped bass in the main channel, biggest around 4 pounds (two keepers). All were caught on jerk baits against the rip rap. Switched to fishing for large mouth bass outside of Little Frank's and caught one on top water, then a few more on wacky worm, biggest to 2 pounds. Beautiful day on the water.

  • Tuolumne County
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      Water Temp: 63

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fishing was still slow but the bites were bigger. My best 5 went 18 lbs. Most caught off a shaky head. Heard they're eating jigs but I never threw any. Evening time I caught a few on a jerkbait and missed one on a Pop-R.

Friday, November 2nd, 2018

  • Napa County
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      Water Temp: 67-70

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Spoonmeister Rick Tietz (Blade Runner Tackle) and I finally got to Berryessa yesterday for a great day of spooning for bass. That's all you are allowed to do when you fish with him - LOL!! I did drop-shot a bit, but most mostly spooned all day. I still have feeling in my fishing arm after 7 hours of spooning!! You don't count the number of spoon fish when you fish with Rick - he will catch a million and I am only in the thousands!! What a day! We covered the whole lake - even into Putah Creek some. There were a few slow areas, but when you found the feeding schools of bass - WOW! One doesn't keep count on a day like that - but at least 80 plus. AND - my 9 lb catfish hooked at 50 feet which took several minutes out of my day. Who knew they would take a spoon! As Rick would say - we saw massive schools of bait in the main body - and the bass were eatin'!! Our best five - about 16+ pounds. Since we were in short sleeves on a November 1st day, I guess the bass felt a need to feed as winter is in doubt! By the way, the 7th out of 8 trips at Berryessa with totally flat water - not a HINT of a breeze all day - even into evening. This on the main body - there was some breeze in the narrows.

      Tips: Some days when a spoon bite like that is on, it seems any color will work. Rick and I do have our favorites - he was using his UV Morning Dawn most of the day and I went with my favorite Black Shad. He even makes a UV Black Shad, but I was using the old fashioned plain Black Shad. He tells me after the trip - "Oh, I have a UV Black Shad!" He tells me that after he is assured that he caught the most - LOL!!! We only use the 1 3/4 oz size as one wants to get down to the "eatin zone" quickly - where the action is!! The bait balls were always near the bottom but later in the afternoon moved up to the 25-30 foot depth. Remember, don't spoon below their feeding depth because fish can't see down, only level and up. Fishing for suspended bass is always a little more tricky. That is why you always see fish in an aquarium feeding on the bottom at a 45 degree angle. If their food source is at their level or above, fish will always be horizontal or head raised. That is why they spook so easy when you approach them from above - on a bank or on a dock. The vibration will do it too - why do our boats have carpet? Anyway - great day with a great and talented friend. If I could just get him out of the shop more often.....!

Thursday, November 1st, 2018

  • Napa County
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      Water Temp: 67

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Got in a little late this morning and the fall bite is here! Millions of bait fish right at the doc at Merkley Cove. Used rattle trap, deep dive swim bait, Ned rig, drop shot and Senko. Cought some nice fish.

      Tips: Always keep your eyes open... lots of birds usually means bait fish which equals big bass

  • Butte County
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      Water Temp: Never looked!!

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Another rough launch at Bidwell at 6:30 am, but no water into the boat this time. Decent bite, found a place that kept me out of the winds, fishing about 75-100 foot of shoreline the entire trip. Caught 14 spots, a couple 15", couple 14 1/2, couple 14" and none less then 13". Most fish caught at 30-35 foot mark, none deeper today. Every time the sun pokes through the clouds, the bite picked up, then slowed as clouds came back. Anything with chartreuse worked best today, mixed with browns. Gave up fishing at 9:45 am, as the winds seemed to pick up again. Steep rubble rock like banks did the trick today. Sure has been good fishing the last three or more weeks, always better sized fish end of Sept, through Oct. like most years. Pictures in fishing forum.

Tuesday, October 30th, 2018

  • Mariposa County
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      Water Temp: 66-68

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Glad to be back in a bass boat. Purchased a new to me Champion last week and finally got to take her out. Got on the water at 7am launched out of Barrett Cove south ramp. Weather was clear w/about 5 mph wind. Stopped at a point on the main lake working my way back into a cove. Fished a little of everything poppers,spinner bait, jigs, and crankbait. Caught fish on all of them. Got a lot of action on topwater but the fish were not committing to biting only landed 3 out of the 15+ strikes I had on the popper. Fish were caught from 3 ft of water to 30ft. Bigger fish came on jigs several close to 3lbs. Moved to several different areas and caught fish at all of them. Fished until about 1pm(had to leave early) all and all caught over 20 total(stopped counting at 15).

      Tips: Bass fishing is wide open. Have fun and rip some lips.

Monday, October 29th, 2018

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 64.3-65.3

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished the HL&S tournament yesterday, morning started off gorgeous, hit our first spot and started with top water popper ( silver and black) caught one keeper, Tried chatter baits in white but no luck with that, tried creature baits and the bite felt like they were just playing with the tails,
      fished the main channels with he popper and it continued to produce bites boated another fish, went to fishing boat slips in the marinas and boated 2 more keepers top water, a 12.5 " fish hammered the popper and had the whole thing in its mouth sideways, they were really crushing it,
      the wind played havoc trying to keep the boat in position in the afternoon, tried trowing a small A rig but no bites.
      Good Luck

Sunday, October 28th, 2018

  • Tuolumne County
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      Water Temp: 65

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Tough bite. Slower then it was a month ago. My fish came in 1'-15' of water. Boated around 10 and lost or missed a half dozen more. Most fish were about 12". I did get lucky and caught a largemouth right at 10 lbs. Caught all of my fish on a shaky head.
      Fish are scattered from shallow water out to 40+ deep. You will catch 2-3 real quick in an area and then it shuts down and then you have to find a new spot but when you hit the right spot you will catch another 2-3 in a row and then you have to find another area where they're biting. Lots of dead time in between. I presume a guy could work an area real slow and catch around the same amount of fish as running around but I don't have the patience for that.

Tuesday, October 23rd, 2018

  • Butte County
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      Water Temp: 65 degrees, elevation 698

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Launched at 6:30 and for the first time, 2 other boats launching too, normally just me! Headed to potters cove and fished for 1 1/2 hours, nothing, no bait ball, no nothing. This area seems to be a waste of time, tried 6-8 locations, not a nibble. So headed to the main lake est side and found fish first cast. All decent fish, but not large as we all like. ended up catching three 14 1/2", 2 14" and 6 13 1/2 to just under 14", calling it quits at 10 am with 11 spots. Decent bite for just 1 1/2 hours. Fish were deeper, all caught between 30 and 40 foot mark, one at 45 foot. Fish showing great color, one a deep, deep green, almost looked like a LM. Again, hate that launch time winds!! Pictures in fishing forum.

Monday, October 22nd, 2018

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: 62-65

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished 10/19 through 10/21. Beautiful weather, cool mornings, very comfortable afternoons. Unfortunately the fall bite did not seem to materialize. We came loaded with swimbaits, underspins, squarebills, crankbaits etc. We fished north and south. A rarity at CL, almost no wind!! Slack water. Fished shallow, deep and rock piles. Only producer was Ned rigs, Drop shot, and did get a few fish on blades and the Damiki Axe Blade tail spinner which was a perfect match to the Shad in the water. Bait was everywhere. More luck when we found areas that had less bait. Only ended up with a few fish per day, 3.1lb being big fish. Fish were super healthy looking and fought well above their weight class.

Sunday, October 21st, 2018

  • Sacramento County
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      Water Temp: 66

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: But continues to be hit and miss... this weather is definitely keeping the bass in a holding pattern. Nothing special to talk about. South fork was really slow today got out for a few hrs... tried too water, jogs and Senko.... lots of fisherman very little bites..

Thursday, October 18th, 2018

  • Napa County
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      Water Temp: 68-72

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I will have to agree with Will about his previous report. The bite is picking up - at least at Berryessa yesterday (Wed). Not sure why - same conditions. Totally flat water again - 5 out of 6 trips - NO breeze even after 3 pm!!! We used the Lowrance again to find bait, and about 1 pm - we did!! Bait that was not in the typical tight baits balls we have seen recently. Drop-shotting and spooning - back at it!! Blade Runner 1 3/4 oz spoons (black shad) were working almost a well as previous years. Finally found bait that were not in tight schools. Average depth was 40 feet. This trip had a special blessing as I had not seen many smallies in my previous trips. It is sort of normal that the 3 species of bass have their ups and downs of activity during the year. We were still fishing morning shadows as one of the clients sticks a good one. As I got a glimpse of her near the boat, I almost freaked! Got the net quickly and soon boated a 3 1/4 lb smallie. Soon I landed a 3 lb even smallie! There're back (maybe)! We didn't catch big numbers of bass, but they were bigger this trip - guessing around 14-15 lbs - best five.

      Tips: Shad color Robo worms were working better on this trip, along with MM111. Even used a blue shad color. Didn't see any bass chasing bait (haven't for the last 3 trips), but would see fish breaking the surface occasionally, with no particular pattern. One here, one there - all off-shore. Didn't seem to be chasing anything. Bass are moving some - areas that had been good last month, dead now. I'm working new areas with my clients now - worked yesterday!!

  • Butte County
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      Water Temp: elevation 701.02

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Got an early launch again right at 6:30 am, so I can be tossing worms at 7 am. Ran the same exact pattern as last week, good fishing but no big schools or larger fish. Hate the pre-dawn winds during launch, my little Klamath gets water coming over the back during launch every single time and eventually soak my feet during the morning fishing. Bite was decent, no large fish, all the fish 13 1/2" to 14 1/2", but nice a solid fish as they generally are this time of year. Landed 10 fish today, lost one. Pictures in fishing forum.

Monday, October 15th, 2018

  • Sacramento County
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      Water Temp: 67

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: The bass bite is heating up... caught some nice large and smalls today inbetween the Smud and rattlesnake bar off of a sned and senko.. others said they killed it on drop shot and jig inbetween Beals point and the damn near the island said they got 15 or so fish... will be even better in a couple weeks

Sunday, October 14th, 2018

  • Napa County
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      Water Temp: 69-74

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I have to agree with the previous report, generally speaking. I did two guide trips this past week at Berryessa and the bass were asking "Where is the fall cool down?" Surface temp was still above 70, even in the early morning. Finally had a breeze on Friday, but it didn't help much. Both trips were about the same - lots of largemouth and spots. Very few smallies lately. Since I had three clients for the last trip on Friday, I didn't fish much. Did make some casts at each new area, trying to get something going as the bite was pretty tough. Near the end of our trip, I threw out the 'ol Robo worm, actually trying to feel the bottom structure as the lake is dropping some. I got hammered!! Good fight which I won - beat a 3 3/4 lb spotted bass! Where did she come from?? She's back in the water to fight another day! Besides a few 4" bass they caught, the quality for my clients on both trips was pretty fair - many up to 2 1/2 lbs. Again, mostly largemouth.

      Tips: After several trips with good surface activity in the morning, that all changed this past week. Almost no surface feeding. Friday we saw GIANT bait balls on my HDS-12, tightly organized, with no bass feeding on them. One of the bait balls covered half the screen! Weird. I have seen this before many times - a real slow period of a week or two before the sudden cool down which gets the fall bite going. I have noticed that other lakes are creating the same problem for anglers. Have faith - it will change!

Saturday, October 13th, 2018

  • Amador County
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      Water Temp: 68

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished from about 730 to 230. Today was brutal. Threw crank bait, Ned rig, Senko, swim bait. We even tried a real worm on a bobber. No good fish to speak of. Heard they are hitting 30ft on Drop shot. There was a tournament today and they had a terrible day too... tried main body a few points on north side and towards river...apparently last couple weeks have been tough.

      Tips: Try a dropshot in 30 ft ... let us know what works.

Wednesday, October 10th, 2018

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: 68.2

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished 10/7 & 10/8 trying to see if the blade bite I ran into last trip had held up. It didn’t. Murphy’s Law hit me this trip. Had battery & trolling motor issues so I didn’t get a good trip in. The times I did get on the water, the bite was slower. Best was a 5.2 taken on a Texas rigged double wide beaver. Caught others on senkos, Texas rigged kreature bait and double willow red 3/4 oz blade. The conditions were light wind and very comfortable weather. I just wish I could have fished more & harder! Majority of the fish were in the 2-2.8 lbs range. Very scrappy right now & fun to catch. Just didn’t run into any bigs.

      Tips: They seemed to like a slow presentation and red was a common denominator in all of the baits that worked for me. The strikes were in the 3-6 ft column, close to rocky structure. There were quite a few senko fish around the shag rock area. I couldn’t buy a crankbait strike and only caught a few jig fish. I’m gonna get all of the boat issues taken care of and try it again in a few weeks. It feels like the bite is just around the corner.

  • Mariposa County
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      Report: by TravisH » Wed Oct 10, 2018 5:58 am

      There’s a decent Topwater bite from sunrise till about 8:30am then the fished pushed out in the 30’ depth range an we caught them on points an island tops throwing the dropshot and Ned rig.. The finesse bite was wide open for average sized spots an I also had a 5lber on a River2sea Rover first thing in the morning along with a good jig fish around mid morning.. I fished the horseshoe bend area an up the river arm..Also while on the water I was recording Sonar logs for upcoming Updates for Navionics so look forward to some new info soon . Hope this helps some, best of Luck!

Tuesday, October 9th, 2018

  • Butte County
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      Water Temp: Temp? never looked, elevation 706.52

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Got launched at Bidwell about 6:30, didn't leave the dock till about 6:45, seems a fuse blew and could not get electronics working, once fixed, on my way. Fished the main lake today, sure glad I did. Worst part was the trolling motor on the blink, so had to idle the motor the whole trip, revers, forward etc to hold in position and found it actually works ok if in a bind. Best trip in a long time, found a giant bait ball, and lots of fish under on my 4th stop. First stop, 2 basic 13" spots, second stop 1 nice 15", third stop a decent 14 1/2", Third stop, amazing fishing, like one hears about buy hardly ever has it happen to them. Spent nearly 2 hours fishing the last location, catching another 12 spots, with none under 14", really, nearly every cast a fish, like taking candy from a baby. Shallow fish too, all taken in 20-30 foot of water. Total 16 spots today, ending the fishing as the sun came over the hill and the bite died. Mostly fat looking fish today, so amazing to catch many fish like this. Trying the same location first next week!!! Funny, never even looked at water temps. Hard to remember but think it was 2 15", 2 14 1/2", many 14". Many picture in fishing forum.