Northern California Lake Fishing Report

Limit:

Friday, May 22nd, 2009

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      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished mostly topwater flies out of a float-tube just W of Nice. Fast action on frog flies 2-3" long, with maybe 10 bass over 45 min in the evening. No big fish but all nice at 2-3.5#. Met two guys in a bass-boat w just 2 fish - I love the irony - me in an inner tube w flippers and them in an 18fter w 250hp - but, I admit I would trade in an instant!
      City: Eureka

      Tips: The guys in the bass boat switched to smaller lures after we left-maybe that was the difference (and the flippers!)

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      Water Temp: 70-75

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: LMB still on the weed beds.give about a week for females to start biting for the spawn is over now...trout was jumping but it seemed like the water was on the warmer side...stripers are very tricky to find...all bass are in the south end of the lake.. dont fish the north end for bass
      City: fremont

      Tips: plastic worms in any weed areas in about 10ft of water..

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      Water Temp: 66-73

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Saturday, took a couple a great guys out to learn a little about fishing and the lake. Again we started with some top water. One of them did pretty well with walking the dog with a vixon, as his presentation was very good. After a bit we went to dart head worms, tubes and senko's. The guys did pretty good learning the new methods and ended up with around 30+ and 4 over for a half day.
      City: Paradise

      Tips: Best method for the morning for the guys was the tube.

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      Water Temp: 71.4

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: got in the water @6:00pm.brother in law caught the first fish on a senko..across from the boat launch.3 of us caught 11 smallmouth and 9 largemouth bass.biggest largemouth went 4lb and smallmouth 2lb..out of the water at 11:00 pm.
      City: Castro Valley

      Tips: use reaction bait for smallmouth and smoke senko for largemouth using wacky style..

Thursday, May 21st, 2009

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      Water Temp: 71

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Did not start fishing till 9am due to a TM malfunction. Still had a great day. Got 60 largies to go. All on plastics. Lots of 2-5Lbers but no pigs today. Best 5 went 22.6 Good day.

      Got a large bluegill on a 4" plastic. Also a solid striper.
      City: Madera

      Tips: Fish the sides where the wind is blowing into.

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      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Started first light out of Rivers end Marina. Went into Victoria with a Punker.First fish was a 10lb Striper. Then hit 3 largemouth that went about 5-6lbs each. The action died quick. moved to another point and hit 2 more bass. The fish wereall near bait balls on points. The pattern lasted the rest of the day.The bigger baits worked best. excellent day
      City: Oakley

      Tips: Throw across the points with submerged grass.The bait fish seem to be holding in and around the grass. With the bass very near by.

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      Water Temp: 72-79

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: 2nd time fishing new melones caught 100+ fish mostly dinks a couple nice spots and largies. caught most on darthead,carolina rig,drop shot & crankin.
      ribpait worked real good in the morning caught fish all day on spook also most plus sized fish came on cranks.
      City: elk grove

      Tips: watch for the bait fish, dont cast right on the action cast just short of it or just past it, the deeper the better

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      Water Temp: 66-73

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I took a couple of great fisherman out Thursday as they were working there way up to Eagle Lake for the opening day this Sat. I picked them up at the hotel and we were in the water by 6am and started to to top water fish right away. Action was mixed but good to see it back like it was the end of April. We fished the West Branch, Main Body, and North Fork. They each had 40-50 bass with 8 over. Needless to say, they had a great day.
      City: Paradise

Wednesday, May 20th, 2009

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      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: hey frankc yep you can get them to hit the spook from bank, I like to the bullfrog pattern, yellow belly dark green back....... or silver with blue back pencil popper is great shood be a good top water bite any time now......good luck dont forget to throw the white flukes if you can...................laters
      City: salinas

      Tips: catch and release unless your really hungry.......................llet them grow

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      Water Temp: 67....with wide

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: May 19th thru may 22,2009
      Mcloud arm, camping at ellery creek. Active bite for small 6-12" spotted bass in less than 15' of water. roostertails and spinnerbaits worked best. tried senko's and failed. I couldn't find anything larger. FIshed from the inlet of the mcloud arm and fished as far as Hirtz bay. Saw rainbows above ellery creek, but they wouldn't bite on lure or bait or trolling. decided to avoid the pit arm, save it for another day.
      City: Atwater

      Tips: try the pitt.

Tuesday, May 19th, 2009

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      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: SAL: Horseshoe lake has some bluegill but not a healthy population and most of them are pretty small. I did once catch a 1 pounder here, but those are pretty rare. If you want a good local spot to fish for bluegill try the Niles Community Park. There are two small ponds there, go to the one with the two fishing docks off of School Street. Go to where there are some big submerged trees in the water, right in front of the island. On hot days the bluegill will be chillin right by the shore. There is also some good sized bass at this pond, but they are finicky as hell. Shinn Pond (which also has a lot of sunfish) is right next to this pond, walk on the trail to the right side of the parking lot on School St and it will be on your right side.
      City: Fremont

      Tips: I would wait for the water to heat up a little more for the sunnies to come out. Crappie nibbles on a small treble hook with a bobber work well, in white or pink. Feel free to email me if you have any questions and good luck :)

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      Water Temp: 75

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Up the Pit for a week. Hundreds of clones in 15 feet of water.One nice largemounth 6.5lbs.off the bank, the other larger spots all came off the trees with senkos and spinbaits some 3-4lbs. the spawn was going on big time.One night spooks were the ticket.A good time was had by all. Oh just anote for all of the rude skiers KISS MY A...
      City: Lakeview Ore.

Monday, May 18th, 2009

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      Water Temp: 75+

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Slow in numbers, but good day in size and weight. Largest went 9.4 lbs. Fish all caught in shallow water near shoreline. Senkos....
      City: Morgan Hill

      Tips: Last weekend lake was crowded and it received overflow from Anderson when Anderson closed because it reached it's limit of boats. Fish early or weekdays to avoid pleasure boats & jet skis.

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      Water Temp: 70-75

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: fished from 5:50 to 1:30 pm. in the badge packers tourny. shot up to woods creek and spent the first 5 hours there. lots of debris, no bites on top water. saw tons of carp. as we worked our way out got one on a jerk bait and one on spinner bait. picked a cove off the main lake and got two more using the above lures. nothing else all day. we used almost every lure possible and nothing was biting. talked to some others that went to the river mouth and hammered out a number of small fish. Last year we pulled 12 lbs out of woods creek. this year only about 3 lbs. disappointing trip.
      City: modesto

      Tips: Not tips from me.... anyone else have any ideas on what to use and where.

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      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Lots of fish on beds, and up shallow. normal spring patterns worms, senkos,jigs,tubes. I got the bigger bites on a crawfish crankbait fished right on the bottom, fish were aggressive and just crushing it. I also started fishing shoreline timber and stuck a few on main lake points. if you want the big dogs throw the swimbait,anything that looks like a kokanee salmon,they love em good luck. trinity alps was a shady ramp out way on the point check out minersville or trinity center.
      City: eureka,ca

Sunday, May 17th, 2009

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      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: does anyone know if night fishing is allowed on berryessaS

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      Water Temp: 70-74 +

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished Fri,Sat,& Sun. most were caught on a drop shot,mix of LMB and SMB 1 to 4 1/2 lbs. also one trout that we had to keep (umm good). 75+ between four of us all released.Did get a few on Crawdad colored crank baits after seeing alot of red in the live well.
      City: Long Beach

      Tips: The wind is your friend use it !!! wolf packs running along any muddy off colored water we could find.

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      Water Temp: 72.5

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: started off sunday morning by launching out of orwood went up around holland tract one miss on a sammy and another miss on a frog. then went into a dry spell with no bites. then got a 4 pounder on a white frog. released it and next cast hook into a 2 pounder. then decided to make a run up to little mandiville. within 5 casts i got a massive strike on tuli point with a sammy seemed like a striper blow up. made 10more casts to another tuli point and get a 2 pounder. last fish of the day got to hot and headed home.
      City: brentwood

      Tips: the seemed to like white frogs and sammys. tryed to flip but too much vegetation. all fish were in or next to weed mats.

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      Water Temp: 72

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Hot ! started at 8am Caught one fish 3.9 lbs on a drop shot , tried every thing I could think of , left franks at 2pm
      City: DIXON

      Tips: maybe start earlier

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      Water Temp: 61-66

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I did my double duty again Friday - 1st trip at 7 am and 2nd at 7 pm - no nap in between - couldn't sleep! The day trip was really fun with a talented lady angler and her "I like hunting better" husband. This was her birthday present trip from him - to learn the lake. One can't tell the difference between Fridays and weekends now - bass boats everywhere!! We spent a lot of time running to spots and did work some on off-shore structure so they can learn how to do that when summer and fall come. The fishing part was very slow - she caught the only bass - a 4 pounder. I broke off a big bass to start the day using 10lb test - that is the end of 10 test for me! Don't even know why I used it. She missed 3 or 4 others too. She had a good hookset too. Great people!! The night was much slower that those of last week. Another great client - first time night fishing with the black light. Again, we missed several, probably spawners moving the bait. We did land 6 bass to 4 1/4 lbs but did not hook any big ones. Limit was only 15-16 lbs. Highlight of the trip was that he DID NOT hook the same tree as others did last week!!! I warned him not to be number 3! We fished the west side of the Oaks arm and the lower lake arm. Baits used during both trips were plastics, Yamamoto Kreature baits (#301) and green pumpkin Power worms during the day, along with a few beavers. Brush hogs and dead ringer worms at night. Tried topwater a bit - no takers. Overall, slower than last week.
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: Sometimes I stop and think about the pressure this lake receives during the spawn - I hope the lake can sustain it. Towing back to Yuba City the last 2 Sat mornings (about 4 am) on hwy 20, every second or third vehicle heading west was towing a bass boat. Granted, there is not a lot of traffic, but really amazing. I know the Future Pro tourney was last weekend, but I was still amazingly amazed!! Looks like a battle brewing again this summer with weed growth and the sprayers trying to slow it. With the lake down 2 to 3 feet from last year, frog fishing and Senkos could take center stage. We'll see!!