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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Monday, April 20th, 2009

  • Sacramento County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Pre fishing is and will be a problem since anglers that want to fish tournaments dont know how to PRE FISH they rip 10-20 lips all week long and then try to catch the same fish or one angler I found and spoke to boxed 10 fish and tried to re locate them to a spot where he could go back on tournament day and catch them Learn to pre fish and these big tournaments will do better
      Next Item I have to grip about is how the fish were treated We have been working to catch and release Bass but when you get to weigh in and the tournament director dosen't have a live well to hold fish in while your waiting to weigh in is killin fish or after you weigh in. then you get a dry bag of fish back did anyone see how many fish were floating after this tournament lots !!

      Future pro needs to spend some money on getting the right things to help the lakes keep the fish alive instead of fishing them to death and then throwing dead fish back the seminars they have prior to tournaments should include how to pre fish a lake not just where they are bitting
      `
      City: Roseville

      Tips: Before you take the time spend the money to fish tournaments learn the basic Pre fish is mostly finding a pattern useing your finder to locate fish then fish it hard on game day aerate those live wells and keep your fish alive thats the only way we will keep our lakes going good when you have 160 boats ripping lips

      And yes I have emailed Vince to voice my concerns

  • Mariposa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 68-71

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Launched at the ramp by the damn. headed down past the damn and hit a few coves. we hit the water at about 0730hrs and was fishing by 0800hrs. the fish were coming up and hitting bugs on top of the water. I decided to throw a suspending jerk bait. the bite was very active. they were all small (about 1/2lb) but it was still fun. once it got hot though, the bite died
      City: Newman

  • Amador County
    • By

      Water Temp: 60

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Hey Shawn if you want to know more about smallies at Pardee, send me a email, Matt
      City: El Dorado Hills

Sunday, April 19th, 2009

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 67-71

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Sorry this is a week late..been kinda busy. Wife and I hit the lake late in afternoon on sunday, the place was slammed!!! Fished south end only. Found fish on beds behind weed lines. The boat traffic had the shored lines stirred up, so no sight fishing, but they were still there, boated 7 keepers, after hooking 10. Best going about 4lbs. Fished senkos wacky rigged. Kept changing colors to see if they liked one over other, natural tones seemed to be getting most attention.
      City: vacaville

      Tips: Fish it slow, they are just picking the bait up and moving it usually..and watch that line.

  • Santa Clara County
    • By

      Water Temp: 65-70

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Slow. Fred and I caught 7 fishing from 8am-4pm, largest 2.5. One on a senko the rest on C-Rigged BBrushHogs and worms. No spin, crank or swimbait action.

      Lots of dead crappie floating on the lake. An osprey and an eagle and of course the vultures seemed to be taking advantage of the free meals.

      Just fisherman till around 11:00 then the wakeboarders and jetskiers came out pretty thick.

      While fishing the shallow east end, saw lots of dead fry floating on the surface.
      City: Monterey

      Tips: C-Rigged Baby Brushhogs in watermelon on main lake banks seemed to provide the best results.

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 62 to 68

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Launched at Redbud at 9:30 am for four hours my wife and I fished the rocky bank and docks to the left as you leave the launch and hit open water. the bite was hard we only Caught 6 fish running 2 to 4 pounds...talked to a few others and the same thing for them as well...
      Then pulled out and went to Lakeport where we staying at Skylark...got our room and headed back out on the water for a couple hours of fishing, and caught a 4 more males on MMII worms.
      went back to the room and takled with a few people that were there from Wyo. and Oregon...they too were having a bad day as well. I figured with the weather warming over the next couple days the bite should really turn on...
      Monday hit the water at 6am headed to the tules...(I love fishing them)...Started throwing a FatFree Shad in the fry size and third cast put a 10.11 in the boat. As the wife was lipping the fish the crankbait came lose and slammed into her hand...that was a first for her, you talk about someone going ghostly white...
      We only pulled 5 fish out of the tulies..so we cruised on down to the rock pile and fished that for a bit and the wife caught 4 fish on 7" purple worms. She was fishing it super slow...
      Tuesday was a much better day...we cruised over to Niece, Luceren and then over to Soda bay and found all kinds of fish on beds...we fished every thing from white grubs with blue pearl to senkos to pyrple worms and ended up with 122 fish for the day...nothing huge all 3 to 5 pounds..we got back to the room and the wife made a comment that her thumbs were so tore up and sore from lipping so many fish....
      City: Roseville

      Tips: Overall once again Clearlake is the best CA lake to fish...the weather was very warm and the fish were really moving up on the beds...everywhere you looked there were fish...
      When you tossed something at em they would split..found out that you really had to agitate and piss them off to get them to bite...unless you backed off and tossed that worm or grub 20-25 feet and slowly worked it back in and with every cast you got a fish...
      The best numbers of fish came from inside of coves fishing open water in 4 to 7 feet...
      I love this lake, and it has produced my two biggest bass...the 10.11 is my biggest ever...
      I have stayed at Skylark prior to this time and I don't know what has gone wrong with the place but the service has really gone to the crapper...
      We stayed there Sunday through Wednesday and had to call the front desk for towels, coffee every single day we were there. Then on Tuesday late afternoon we tried to get into our room and we had to go get our card keys reactivated...
      The only good thing about staying there was we launched from the launch ramp at the motel and the size of the rooms that were on the water...

    • By

      Water Temp: 60-64

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Sorry for the late post. It was a good weekend for me at Clear lake. Fished hard in the Keys for 8 fish up to 2 lbs on senkos and beavers. Moved to redbud area and things picked up. Started getting bit on white blades with double gold colorado blades. I tried other combos, but this one worked the best. Picked up another 8 fish, but the quality was better. All 2-3 lbs. Tried Rattlesnake and got nothing shallow or deep. Not sure what is going on there because I usually get them at that spot. Went to a couple of places in the north end and fished swimbaits in the tulles. Big fish was 7+ and 4 5lb ers. Nothing smaller than a 3 on the basstricks.

      Will be back there this weekend up north going for a 10!!!
      City: Sac

      Tips: fish slow with blades and swimbaits

  • Sacramento County
    • By

      Water Temp: 59-61

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I had a trip on Sunday with two guys learning the lake. They caught 12 nice fish up to 3 lbs. Most were on a Carolina rigged robo worm, the rest on a smoke grub with 1/8oz. dart head and a 4 inch senko on a Pag rig. Most every boat in the greater Sacramento area was out that day which made for rough water afternoon. Stayed in the North fork all day. Ripped one fish in the morning on a Lucky Craft Pointer 110 Ghost.
      City: Sacramento

      Tips: To get those suspended fish in the trees try swimming a grub through it or a 4 inch slim senko Pag rigged. (Weedless Wacky)

  • Fresno County
    • By

      Water Temp: 62

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished main lake flats with topwater in the morning and caught 2 2.5-3#. When the sun came out I started to look for beds. I found 6 fish locked on and 8 or 9 up getting some sun. 3 of the fish i caught one was a 5 pounder. I then went upriver and caught about 10 throwing at the bank with a fluke, lemon shad. They were a little smaller 1-2# i did however catch a black that went 3 1/2. I caught alot on a jig in about 20ft of water with biggest about 2#. Fishing is starting to get real good. By the time the won tourney gets here there should be lots on beds.
      City: Kingsburg

      Tips: Overall a great day. The bed fish are coming!!!
      I can not wait till sat!!!

  • Shasta County
    • By

      Water Temp: 52-55

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: fishing was tough caught a few rippin in the mmorning on river 2 sea fetch minnow an then flipped jigs and brush hawgs in fallen trees for largemouth once the water warms around 2pm we skipped senkos under docks for a couple more bites.
      City: medford

      Tips: fishing is still tough and the water is very clear 12-14 foot visibility in most places be stealthy when you go up on the trees and the docks.

Saturday, April 18th, 2009

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 59-62

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished topwater in the morning around 7:00 AM and landed a couple on a spook and buzz bait...Best going a 3.5 lb. Tide sucked and slowly changed and didn't get bit again until about noon, middle of the incoming tide. Flipping red flaked senkos and beavers in sparsed tullies...Absolutely hammered them in Franks tract, fish the tullies along Sugar Barge, next to the wall. Slow your roll and fish in the middle of the tullie clumps and you will nail them...a lot of pre-spawn fish moving up...
      City: Bay Area

      Tips: slow fall and dead stick...fish are willing to bite....

    • By

      Water Temp: 63

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished Fourteen Mile Slough, Disappointment slough and the Tract. Far from exciting 5 @ 1-2.5 all day. One one tight to the tullies on a tube. The rest were caught on cranking inside the weedline / drop off.
      City: Sac

      Tips: Cranking shad and crawdad colors got a few.

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 59

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Slow but consistent with what they were biting on. Mainly Senko's and Sweet Beavers (Dirty Sanchez). All in Lower Lake near docks. 9 fish total with an average weight of 3 lbs ea.
      City: Livermore

    • By

      Water Temp: 53-59'

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished Friday and Sat. with my friend Ben. Still tuff fishing all the South end haunts. Rock piles, points, docks, etc. managed 8 fish total, with a 7.34 toad at 3 pm on the pipeline near Redbud. All fish were caught on an MGM 5" senko, weighted wacky style. Christmas Tree in color. Threw many baits, just couldn't get bit.
      City: Redding

      Tips: The water is warming, I'd like to go back later this week. I'll bet the bite will really turn on.

  • Alameda County
    • By

      Water Temp: 59 degrees

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: wow... the water is up and clear. 10 foot visibility. no weedline yet. beautiful weather in the 80's. the lake was busy. a lot of boats and a lot of trout fishermen. two trout on rattletrap. 5 bass on dropshot. caught all the fish before 10am. rescued one kayaker in the middle of the narrows... he was not in his boat. off the water by 1pm. waiting for the water to warm up.
      City: Fremont

      Tips: looks like i'll be trout fishing, until the water warms up.

  • Sacramento County
    • By

      Water Temp: 58-60

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Ok had the future pro tour this weekend and It was fun fished last tuesday in the driving wind out of necessity we found a cove near the marina and hid out of the wind fishing willows what we stumbled on was around twelve pounds of fish on beds then thursday the wind was gone so I went looking for other beds and found tons of them all over the lake except up the north fork did'nt find one so on saturday I ran for the marina and got there first by 7 I had a limit and culled by 7:15 we had 11.44 in the boat all day could'nt cull up none of my bed fish were secrets anywhere else except one three pounder and I had her on then lost her just shy of the net.Took 32nd place out of the 153 boats. Needed that 3 to get in top ten maybe I won't mess up next time but I won't hold my breath.
      City: grass valey

      Tips: The bed fish are up lots of largies check out the marina area I found a ton of spots hanging out under the docks I could'nt get them to bite but maybe you can. senkos in the willows don't give up on it may have to fish the same bush for awhile to get the bites but their in there. watch around you for fish moving out of the brush and on to beds it happened for me all day the hud can produce out there even in the afternoon a 10 plus was caught on the penn around 1pm so give a toss when you think the hens might move on to the beds.

    • By

      Water Temp: 59

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Well my buddy Doug and I fished the Future Pro event here on Folsom. Pre fished Friday and had about 15 lbs. Sat ( tournament day ) only could manage 11.41 for our best 5 fish. The guys in the lead when we left had 19 lbs, but they had an 11.55 lb kicker. The guys in second had a 10.4 kicker and only 18 lbs. If you did not get a kicker fish it was over. We thru swimbaits and spooks in the morning trying to find that kicker fish. Not even a follower. So we switched over to plastics for the rest of the day and got our limit. Culled a few fish, but no size. This is my second Future pro tournament and most contestants including myself do much better on prefish then the tournament. After two events I think I know why. Most tournaments do not allow prefishing after Wendsday. With Friday prefishing the fish are getting too beat up the day before. Even my partner and I caught too many fish the day before. We wanted to see what size fish were biting where. After one fish we would leave the spot only to see two other boats move in the spot, and catch fish. Perhaps Vince should consider no prefishing after thursday. He would have to have someone patrolling the situation, which adds to His costs.
      City: San Francisco

      Tips: The trees and points were the spots in the afternoon. Also ledges 20 feet deep in the morning. Clear ,natural shad, or watermellon plastics were the key colors. Almost no bite. The fish just pick it up and somtimes move with it. Watch Your line. Ray

    • By

      Water Temp: 58-62

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: As I promised from my last post that I would tell you what I used bait wise on that outing. Threw senko's on isolated trees and brush piles. The word quickly got out and there were over 140 boats fishing today's FPT event and everyone were fishing the trees over real well. All week long those trees were hammered but still I believe that today's winner probably caught their fish in the trees. As for me not so well. As a local I am a shame that I don't do very well on this lake. It is very difficult for me to figure out.
      City: EDH

      Tips: Just go out and have fun

    • By

      Water Temp: ?

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Hit the Lex in the afternoon. Been catching them on mission fish here recently. I came across a decent sized cruiser that whacked the pointer 100. No other bites, but I did see a snake eating a dead fish.
      City: los kitty

      Tips: The fish are still here, you just have to be willing to go in after them. How is yote?

  • Mariposa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 51-62

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished from 730-200pm

      Water temp at inlet/bagby arm...51
      water temp at piney creek ......57-58
      water temp at mcclure point ....61-62

      water clarity 7-8ft.(a debris field in bagby arm)

      Active bite from small male bass. Senkos working well. Still no particular reaction bite from crank baits and spinnerbaits. Did so well on Senko's that I never got to drop shot, football jig or shakey.

      I was using a ripbait early on and caught trout on it. Also wife came with me, latter in the day and had trout try to eat small 3" swimbaits.

      I caught bass on a number of different areas, so not really clear what structure they were on as a patern, but they were still deep...15-25ft. most bass were 14in or so.
      City: Atwater

      Tips: soft plastics, little or no weight...deepish