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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Tuesday, October 30th, 2018

  • Mariposa County
    • By

      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
    • By

      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
    • By

      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
    • By

      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
    • By

      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
    • By

      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
    • By

      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
    • By

      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
    • By

      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
    • By

      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
    • By

      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
    • By

      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
    • By

      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
    • By

      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.

Saturday, October 6th, 2018

  • Yuba County
    • By

      Water Temp: 67-69

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Hit Ballard's Bar for my first time this weekend. Talk about a gorgeous lake!! Caught a ton of small spots on ned rigs, drop shots, shakey heads, and a few on jerk baits and topwater. Wasn't able to hook up on anything larger than 1.25lbs but had a blast. Fished creek inlets, secondary, and main lake points and found the small guys everywhere. Marked a lot of schools in the 20-35ft range.

      Tips: Find the schools in the 20-40ft range and change up presentations to catch numbers. Main colors were white/shad like patterns.

Friday, October 5th, 2018

  • Tuolumne County
    • By

      Water Temp: 70-74

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: September turned out to be yet another excellent month of fishing on New Melones. The summer heat faded and then return throughout the month and the bite seemed to change along with it. Some fish began to transition into fall-like patterns, while others remained in their hot summer haunts. With the fish being spread out we covered a lot of water and fished both deep and shallow. From the main lake into creek channels and rocky bluffs to flat humps and points, you name it, we fished it. The lake has a tremendous amount of forage and the fish were spitting shad, bluegill, crappie, baby bass and crawdads. The topwater bite seemed to slow down as the month progressed. Reaction baits fish deep in the water column proved to be a go-to method. Deep diving crankbaits, rip-baits and underspins produced some quality bites. We also fished plenty of bottom bouncing presentations. The jig bite really picked up and a shakeyhead was hard to beat. Going into fall we can expect some larger fish to move shallow and begin to bulk up for the cold winter months to come. This next few months are my favorite time to fish. The weather will be gorgeous and the fish are generally eager to bite.

      Tips: Xperience Fishing Guide Service
      www.xperiencefishing.net
      xperiencefishing@yahoo.com
      John Liechty (209)743-9932

Wednesday, October 3rd, 2018

  • Butte County
    • By

      Water Temp: 70 degrees, elevation 711.07

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Launched at Bidwell about 6:30 am, even though Lime Saddle was still open as I drove by early. Breezy at launch time, but by 7 am, hardly any breeze. Looked like it was going to be a perfect fishing day, NOT. Tried just about every color I own, fished shallow, fished deep, points, steep points, rocky banks, clay banks, boulders, you name it, tried it all. Fish were not wanting to eat today for some reason, no idea why. Probably my worst day ever on Oroville. Picked up 4 spots, all the basic 13 13 1/2" variety. Probably made 10-15 moves trying to find fish, nothing but one about every hour, gave up at 10 am. All fish looked pretty much the same as the pictured one! Giving it a try next week.

Tuesday, October 2nd, 2018

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 71-75

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: This is two reports - last week and this week, a very rare Monday trip for me. Who would guide on a Monday?? It was very hard to figure out what was going on yesterday (Monday) - not a bite until noon. Was it the result of weekend boat traffic or the weather. Yesterday saw the lake totally covered over with clouds and a cool breeze - not fog but REAL clouds. I mention this because this was the first cloud cover in months! We even got about 20 to 25 drops of rain. About 10 am the breeze died and the lake went TOTALLY flat - even calmer than last week. Not a single fish was seen on the surface for hours! No birds in sight. As the clouds slowly broke up around noon and the sun came out - killed the bite - right? Since there was NO bite, the bass decided they were hungry and started to feed around 1 pm. A big school of medium size bass even started to bust shad on the surface for about 10 minutes. Bass started eating our Robo worms and Yamamoto Cowboys. Once again, the bite on my boat at Berryessa is around 2 pm - weird! We had to leave shortly after, but having caught several bass in the 2 to 3 lb range. I had a father/adult son team. The son ended the trip with 2 back to back bass in the 2 1/2 lb range. I guess patience is a good thing when bass fishing - you never know!!
      The previous week I had a guide trip and found the bite to be the slowest of the year. Wouldn't you know - a client from Australia! Bluebird bright skies and dead calm water as most of the fall has been. We did get a very nice topwater bite early in the morning, but very slow bite after that. He tried to lift one in the boat on his topwater before I could get the net ready. Naturally, he lost her. Of course, it was the biggest at maybe 3 1/2 lbs! Got a few drop-shotting Robo worms - not much else working.

      Tips: It seems that the only thing that will cool our lake water is the longer nights. It will happen soon and the bite should take off. Yesterday we saw some big schools of shad on my HDS-12, but very tightly bound together. Only saw one or two with bass in and around them and we did catch a few of those bass in the afternoon. Didn't see many bass on some of my favorite off-shore island tops - maybe because the lake isn't dropping much.

Sunday, September 30th, 2018

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: Water Temp 68 - 71

      Report: by AKBASSFISHING » Sun Sep 30, 2018 8:19 pm

      California Delta 9/30/2018
      Water Temp 68 - 71
      Visibility 1 – 6 feet
      Wind 2 - 12 mph

      Got a late start, launched the boat around 9:30 in the morning. The water was like glass.

      We made a run to our usual weed flat. I started with my good ol’ white swimbait and my father went with a topwater. The bite was very tough with conditions so calm. Lots of short strikes and fish bumping our baits, but not fully committing to them.

      Then our luck changed. Some of the clouds that had been off in the distance, traveled our way. With the sun now blocked, the fish started to feed. Throwing spooks, we found plenty of fish willing to eat. Once we got one to eat, the school would fire up. From there, it was just a matter of how fast you could take them off the hook. This lasted for as long as the clouds would allow. But, once the sun came out, the bite died down.

      With our fill of stripers, we switched tactics and targeted largemouth. It was a grind to be honest. I found a few willing to eat a jig, but the fish were few and far between. Then, the clouds made a grand reappearance. With the low light, I switched to a chatterbat. And just like that, the bite was on. Working the chatterbait along weedlines, adjacent to deep water, the fish were actively feeding. Lots of small fish, but a couple of better two’s and occational three-pounder mixed in.

      We followed the weedline pattern for a while, but the tide started to move too fast, which in turn killed our bite. Knowing the fish couldn’t have moved too far, we moved to the inside of the weedline. Sure enough, the fish had re-positioned themselves in the slower water. The bite turned back on. Lots of small fish and some two’s here and there. Then, I hooked a good one. I thought I hooked a striper by the size of the boil she made when I hooked her. She ran about like a train in the weeds. Fortunately, I was able to pull her out. It felt good to finally get a good bass, its been a while.

      Overall, slow start, but we finally found some fish in the end.

      Tips: Notes

      The cloud cover was key for our bite.

      The bass seemed to be relating to the 3 – 5ft drop-offs.

      If you find a good bite and then it dies on you, don’t be afraid to look around the area. A lot of times they just re-position themselves.

Thursday, September 27th, 2018

  • Butte County
    • By

      Water Temp: 70 degrees, elevation 717.36

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: launched at Lime saddle at about 6:15 am, trailer back in the water at 9 am, probably my last launch at Lime Saddle, as water probably too low next week, so headed to Bidwell next trip. Fished the Lime saddle area, as the winds were blowing a fair amount. Started out great fishing, had 7 spots in the first hour, then, bite died, could not find the fish, or they just didn't want to eat. Ended up with 9 spots and a first for me, a sunfish ate a roboworm, and somehow got lip hooked. Just 10 fish today. Hate these windy days on the water, so left early. Forgot to check water temps, but kind of remember 70 degree range. Picture in fishing forum.