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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Friday, May 29th, 2009

  • Napa County
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      Water Temp: 74

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Took a trip out yesterday and on our first stop in the narrows we caught fish on topwater baits. The fish were chasing bait and most were small, up to 1 1/2lbs. Then we moved up to the main body and started throwing grubs on a 1/8oz darthead working it out from the weed edge into deeper water. This was the hot deal of the day as they caught about 20 fish up to 3 pounds. Most of the fish were spawned out Largemouth with spotted and smallmouth mixed in. Only saw 4 other bass boats all day.
      City: Sacramento

      Tips: Work those grubs sloooooooooow. The tail will do all the work.

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

      Report: me and a buddy met up with my bro at ladds at about 12:30 afternoon. we started the afternoo off at bullfrog neer the bridge. my first cast of the day landed me a dink. it also tempararily gave me bragging rights. we soon moved to victoria where my bro smashed a 6 lber. it was windy as all heck, but i managed to boat one at 1 1/2 lbs. was getting late so we ran to old river where i hit a 3.7 our buddy caught 1 dink. not alot of fish but still fun
      City: modesto

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      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished with my partner Floor Guy and we had a blast. Caught fish on every reaction bait we threw at them. Fished off wall, tullies and outside weed line. The larger fish were 3+lbs. Expected the top water bite to be better. Caught 30 fish in 4 hours. Caught fish every where we went.
      City: San Ramon

      Tips: Reaction bite is on and tone down the colors as the water clears. If you have a go to bait throw it.

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      Water Temp: ?

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: caught 14 spots in about 3hrs
      City: fremont

      Tips: use plastic worms..fished bottom at near rocky points... stay away from boat lauch area.. to much activity there..

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      Water Temp: 70

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Would never had made this trip, except that a bunch of family and friends gathered for an extended holiday camping trip. Sorry to say, our kill rate on rattlesnakes was much higher than our catch rate on bass: Smallmouth C & R = 1
      Rattlesnake kill = 6
      Water in the North end "at least" a mile down. We were throwing buzz baits in areas that normaly would be 25-30 feet underwater. Did manage to GPS some nice rock ledges and drop offs should the water level ever reach previous levels in my lifetime.
      City: Sebastopol

      Tips: Go somewhere that you are not required to side mount a 357 or 45 everywhere you go due to rattlesnake infestation......

  • Butte County
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      Water Temp: 65-78

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Took a great guy out to the After Bay today. The bite was a bit slow but he managed to boat 13 largies the biggest at about 4lbs. The best pattern was throwing senko's on the reeds.
      City: Paradise

      Tips: Natural shad and baby bass senko's were the best colors.

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      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Tubed in one of the back ponds for an hour or two in the late afternoon. Landed 3 bass, each were about a pound. All the strikes came from soft plastics.

Thursday, May 28th, 2009

  • Amador County
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      Water Temp: 78-83

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: This is not much of a report because of the weather conditions. The Sierra Thunderstorm clouds drifted west over Amador and beyond, totally shuting off the bite. I have seen this many times at Amador and other lakes with these conditions. Don't know if this is the highly charged air (lightning) or air pressure - but the results are consistant. For example, we threw every type of topwater before dark and didn't have a sniff! That is not normal this time of year. Rick and I have 70+ years of combined experience on this lake - to no avail sometimes!! We caught 5 up to 3 lbs and missed just a few. Power worms provided what little damage we did.
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: One can usually tell when this is happening - all life stops. Only 2 or 3 fish came to the top during the evening. No bait, no fish, no bird activity, few crickets, deathly quiet - except for airplanes coming and going. I don't remember anytime in the past 30 years with this much daily thunderstorm activity with heavy rain. It will keep the fire danger down!

    • By

      Water Temp: 64

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Saw a few small males moving up but no luck....for Bass. Managed some very shallow Catfish, biggest was 16.64 lbs. on a "Redeye Shad".
      City: Antioch

      Tips: A couple more warm days, and we should see more fish up on beds.

Wednesday, May 27th, 2009

  • Amador County
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      Water Temp: 70

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: yes u can catch them off drop shot but not seven inch senko.

  • Butte County
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      Water Temp: 65-73

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I took out a great guy out Wed. who wanted to learn bass fishing. He is a fly fisherman and really had a great time leanring new methods of fishing. The top water action was still on in the morning and the bite was very good. After the Sun was on the water the bite changed to tubes and senko's. With 30 bass on his first time out with around 6 over, he was pretty excited.
      City: Paradise

      Tips: Vixons or spooks for top water and tubes and senko's worked best on walls from 5-30 ft.

Tuesday, May 26th, 2009

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

      Report: Auldridge- When you launch and go to the left of the lake instead of the right when you caught the beauty there are 2 coves on your right back to back. The second one is rattlesnake. I believe the fish are deeper because the water was so warm. Going to go again Saturday but for a couple hours. The wife is coming along so you know how that is... COngrats again on that awesome fish.
      City: San Jose

  • Ventura County
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      Water Temp: 65-75

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: had a great day out on the water throwing some spro bbz wakebaits in rainbow trout colors. caught a 4 pounder. 6 pounder and a 3 and a half pounder on it. then once the sun got high went to my fast sink and caught a 4 and a half and an 8.5. every fish came off points

      Tips: fish steep deep points with chunk rock

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

      Report: Fished Thursday through Sunday and got them on senkos, drop shots, buzz baits and Mikey's. Best day was Sunday - we had a 20 lb sack after 2.5 hours of fishing in the morning. No giant fish but still a good time.
      City: Brentwood

      Tips: Don't move in on someone else's water.

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      Water Temp: war,

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished Sunday and Monday. Sunday morning I caught a six pounder with a black/red buzzbait off the tules before sunrise. During the day I caught 4 2-3 pounders on Senkos. The next morning I caught a small one on a black/red Snagproof frog.
      City: Corte Madera, CA

      Tips: Buzzbaits and frogs seem to be working in the morning in black/red. During the day a whacky rigged watermelon/creme laminate Senko worked well.

  • Riverside County
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      Water Temp: 72

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Water level was nearly 100 feet below normal. Saw islands, rock piles and long points that I had no idea were there. Rental boat was a step down from the Champion (LOL), but we had a great time. Got a tour of the lake with Mike Guitsi, one of the guys who designed this lake. Great bite! Couple good fish on top water, and a bunch of nice fish on Texas worms, Brush Hogs, and the DVL favorite DS. About 20 fish caught, 3.5 pound average, biggest was 5 pounds.
      City: Sun city

      Tips: No change here. Fish points and islands in about 25 - 35 feet of water. Big brown worms, Watermelonseed Brush Hogs, and that little pink worm still gets big bites.

  • Sacramento County
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      Water Temp: 71-73

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Worked lower N Fork today until 1pm. Caught 8 today, biggest was 2 lb LM, the rest were smaller spots. Didn't get any reaction bite (tried crankin', rippin', and swimbaits). No go on jigs either. Dartheading/4" worms and dropshotting worked.

      Also caught a nice 16" trout ("dinner") on a DS rig + shad-colored grub. Go figure...

      Tips: Throw your baits on and around submerged rockpiles off rocky dropoffs and points, then drag slow. Trees didn't work--today was all about rockpiles.

Monday, May 25th, 2009

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 70

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Started at first light throwing spinnerbait around woodward. Caught 2 right off the bat one about 3 and the other closer to 2 lbs. Both solid fish. Picked up a money minnow and wow do those work! Between 6 and 645 I boated seven fish and they where a 5.13, 7.03, 7.09, 5.01, and a 4.10. The other 2 where a little over 3lbs. Caught a few more fish down by victoria, but nothing that compared. I thought woodward might not have been a good choice with the last few days of boat traffic but they where. Great day. Pics will be posted soon.
      City: Tracy

      Tips: 5" or 6" money minow, black pearl color (i think). Fish seemed to be in tulle cuts and Islands with heavy weeds. My partner Caught two back to back in 9ft as soon as he began reeling. Water was clear on the outside of the weeds and murky behind. Hope this holds up till next weekend.

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: 65-68

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: No reports for 8 days? Never seen that before. Mine is a few days old - last Thurs night I took two gentlemen for their first ever night trip. The bite was slow but topwater started to happen!! While I had them fishing plastics before dark, I tried a Chug Bug to see if anything was happening on top. Near Sea Breeze, the bug just disappeared as a big one inhaled it. She was real big, but lost her after a half minute. The next one did stay on and she weighted 4 lbs. I quickly put the rod in one of the guys hands and taught hime how to fish it. By the time he was working it properly - with lots of "spit", it was dark - no luck. After dark the bite was ok as we caught 9 or 10 - one 4 1/4 that looked about 16" long - a true "football!" Brush hogs were the best bait with one or two on Power worms. Tulle/rock areas produced most of the fish - down to the 10 foot level.
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: I got the feeling that some of the early spawning females are roaming around now, starting to feed. They really nailed the topwater bait. They should hit shallow rip baits in the morning and evening too. Folks don't think about that much in post-spawn. Nose-hooked Senkos are great in the weeds. Remember, we used to catch 'em that way before Wacky became popular. Blade Runner Tackle (Rick Tietz) makes a weedless jig called a "Paddle Head". Add your favorite trailer - it should be good this summer!

  • Nevada County
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      Water Temp: 75

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: 9 fish in 5 hours night fishing. The lake received more pressure this holiday weekend than it has in a year, plus they poisoned the lake for weeds last week. most fish came on a ramon big o... or C.B.
      My buddy broke off big fish like they were 1 night stands. The fishing got great in spurts, and sections. big 5 went 20#
      City: auburn

      Tips: If your going to fish here, bring at least 12# line... unless you don't want them in the boat.
      If your night fishing why not throw 20?... they cant see it.
      where we could find deep water next to shallow the fish were stacked, and we had doubles twice.