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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Thursday, March 5th, 2009

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      Water Temp: cold

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished the north side and threw everything from dropshot to big swimbaits and jigs. Nothing going on. Thought I might find some fish on deeper points near coves but I couldn't get anything going. Had 1 peck on a football head jig but that was it for bass. I did manage 8 trout on 1/2 oz redeye shad...largest was 19" and the rest were the size of the Rago swimbait I was tossing.
      City: Antioch

      Tips: Need some consistent sunshine to get the fish thinking about moving up shallow. I will keep at it in between trips to Contra Loma where the bass have at least staged on areas just off spawning areas.

  • Mariposa County
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      Water Temp: 52-55

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished from 1-5pm. Weather was windy...comming from the NNW to SE. Caught fish on crankbaits..only 15" each, but aggressive in about 8-15' of water.
      City: Atwater

      Tips: The Mike Van Guilder Sr. Memorial tournament is comming up in April 26, 2009 and will be my first tournament. My 25hp boat and I are hoping to save face and boat a 5 fish limit so I'm keeping more to myself...sorry.

Wednesday, March 4th, 2009

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 54-56

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: I haven't made a report in about a year...I doing this to help the individual that can't seem to do well at the moment. Im fishing small area's NEAR spawning area (Known) that have deep water nearby. What I recommend is put your head down and flip a jig. Trick is, SLOWDOWN, think your not slowin down enough. Slow some more. Watch youpr boat depth is another key to big fish. I try and keep my boat in 5-6ft of water with a long pitch if necessary. Im using a Bobby D's 1/2oz Black/Blue with a Netbait Baby Bama trailer.

      Area's that Im fishing alot right know is Franks, Washington Cut, Connection, Big Break somewhat and Taylor with some upper parts of piper (deep section). You don't have to run all over hell to catch quality fish. I've been using 3 rods. Jig, swimbait and a Texas Rig. With this you can cover all depths. You may change the above to meet your confidence level, everyone is different in approach.

      In the last 8-10 days there has been movement of big fish looking for a place to spawn. In about 1-2 weeks this place is going to be wide open. At the moment I've put in a 8lb 3oz, a 10.73 and a 9.06 today, all have been verified. Im going for a 50+ limit consisting the best 5 for 09. Counting fish over 7lbs. My Profile will show it and will update has I catch them.

      Good luck and hope this will help someone.
      Rich Thiel
      City: Bethel Island

      Tips: Deep channel's near Spawning flats or area's. Current is another option near flats. Fish slow, with a warm weather coming in the shallow water bite will be wide open. Look for grass in 5-6ft of water and work it with a swimbait or something that you can crawl.

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      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: you guys need to stop crying about the dogs. I'm a fisherman there too and I personally could care less if the dogs are there or not. Ya the dogs stir up the water and scare the fish away. So what, the areas the dogs are in anyways suck and concentrate the fish elsewhere. To me the fishing is just as good if the dogs are there or not, just find another spot to fish.

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

      Report: What is high pool Elevation ?
      City: Salinas

Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009

  • Sacramento County
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      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Dealt with the weather and caught a couple last couple hours today. Figured it out kind of but paid the price with wetness.
      City: Cameron Park

      Tips: heavy jigs 30'+ deep. I had to raise the rod at the bottom of the waves and drop the rod at the top of the waves. If I couldn't feel the bait, I swing (batting avg .002)

  • Butte County
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      Water Temp: 46-54

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: I took out a seasoned fisherman yesterday for a great Sring Bite on the lake. After all of the low water, one ramp, fast rising, cold muddy water conditions we've had this year, I'ts great to see the conditions ideal. The males are preping the beds and the females are deeper waiting to start spawning. Some have allready started. Just about anything is working depending on when and where you are useing it. Tubes,worms,drop-shot,split shot,senkos are working shallow and drop-shot, swim bait, jigs and worms are working deep. I have found the bass at 1-2ft. down to 5-10ft. and down to 30ft. I noticed in my journals that the water is about 25ft. higher now than last year at this time. We are now 120ft. up from the first of the year and at 780ft. elev. This year is looking to be much brighter than predicted at the begining of the year.
      City: Paradise

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

      Report: Any body have any info on how the fishing has been and what the current conditions are
      City: Eureka

Monday, March 2nd, 2009

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

      Report: <a href="http://tinypic.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i42.tinypic.com/9i5pi9.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>

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      Water Temp: 55

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Caught 18 Two 3pounders
      City: Fresno

      Tips: fish fast,got to have good presentation.or wont catch nothing,got to work it boys.

  • Ventura County
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      Water Temp: N/A

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Second boat on the water. It was cold and rainy, with very little wind. Caught one 2 lb on a dropshot on secondary points in about 20ft. of water. No fish shallow. Went to C-rig later and missed two fish.
      City: Loa Angeles

      Tips: Look for suspending bass. drop shot,c-rig, cranks.

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

      Report: Trinity Lake water surface elvations can be seen at:

      http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/queryF?CLE
      City: Eureka

Sunday, March 1st, 2009

  • Napa County
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      Water Temp: 53-55

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Out with my two sons knew it was going to be a tough bite. When your 4 year old gets up at 6 and the first thing out of his mouth is daddy are we going fishing you have to go. I decided to check out some staging areas. I was throwing a crank and they had brushhogs on a mojo rig. First cast of the morning I get a 2lb LM the kiss of death getting one on the first cast.Worked several more areas woth no results switched to a jig to slow down and had several hits but they just would not eat it. Same thing with the brushhogs even after soaking them with sent. By the end of the day the fish did start eating better after the water warmed a little. Ended the day with 8 fish 5 best at 11lbs thanks to a 4lb SM.
      City: Vacaville

      Tips: The fish have yet to move up in any numbers yet. Started in areas with grass and found they were just not moving. Also very hard for kids to fish. Decided to leave the east shore and move to the west side where there is less grass for the fish to bury up in. That was the key to the day fishing ditches and points with clean bottom in 12-30ft leading into a spawning area with jigs and brushhogs. Did not get a reaction bite other than the first one. You really need to be on your toes because they are giving a very light pressure bite and not really eating.

  • Santa Clara County
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      Water Temp: 51

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: skunked
      City: pv

      Tips: dont listen to pat

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      Water Temp: 51

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: skunked
      City: pv

      Tips: dont listen to pat

  • Butte County
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      Water Temp: 47-49

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Spent Sat. and Sun. on the lake. 6 bites on saturday, 5 in the boat for 10.93 with my big fish right at 2 1/2 lbs. I fished alot of good looking stuff but all my fish came on a very specific kind of bank. Changed up where I was fishing sunday in the rain and got 1 bite all day! Wow! Tough bite!!! Covered a bunch of water too! Sorry, but I won't talk about what I'm doing or where I'm doing it until after the Anglers Choice. After the Pro-Am I will spill the beans and hopefully pay some guys back for all the info I have dredged from these reports. God Bless
      City: hollister

      Tips: Not Yet!! :-)

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      Water Temp: unknown

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Didnt fish this weekend but someone asked about the ramps. The new ramp at Bidwell (and the parking lot) are now entirely submerged. We will have to wait 'til summer to use the new ramp. The two lane cement ramp at the spillway is in the water..in fact, if we get 20 more ft (at the 740 mark), the regular lower ramp(s) of the spillway will be useable. Thats good news! Nice to have multiple launch sites available now!
      City: Oroville

      Tips: Bidwell area is closed still as of Sunday 3/1. Signs send everyone to Spillway.

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      Water Temp: 58

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Tim, I too feel your pain. It's why I've stopped fishing here altogether. I havn't been here since last summer. The dogs are RIDICULOUS. I almost got into a fight over it. It's funny. I've seen DFG tell PEOPLE to stop swimming, but the dogs are allowed to go right in! The EBMUD has lost my money for good. I will never fish at shadow cliffs as long as the dogs allowed rule is in effect. You know, it's funny, Us bass anglers always release our fish, we pay money just for the sport of it, yet the EBMUD let dogs in to disrupt our fishing. They make nothing but money off us. You'd think they would try to support us more than dog walkers. I think you have to pay $3 per dog or something like that, but if you want to fish you have to pay $5, maybe it's more this year, like I said, I havn't been there specifically because of the dogs. Good luck to all that perservere. Hopefully the dogs allowed rule will stop. Untill then I will take my business to other lakes in the region. Note to EBMUD, I used to fish 2-3 times a month at Shadow Cliffs, $5 per day comes out to $100+ a year. I'm sure I'm not the only one to have given up on this lake. You're losing money. Get smart.
      Andy
      City: Hayward

      Tips: Don't fish here, this lake is for the dogs.

  • Shasta County
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      Water Temp: 47-48

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished for 2 days in pouring rain and 20+ wind and rising muddy water. The lake came up 4 feet on Sunday. I threw everything at them and only caught two fish on Sunday. Both were caught on a senko on a bridge piling. I lost one on a spinnerbait and one on a crankbait up the Sac. On Monday more of the same with 4 fish off the same piling. The lake is fishing tough right now or I'm doing something wrong.

      Tips: Stay home till the weather breaks.

  • Trinity County
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      Water Temp: ????????

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Come on John Help us out. Its been a month scence you've posted anything. I understand why you dont post anymore, but for every one of those jack asses there's 10 honest catch and release guys just lookin' for some good fishin'. Or even if we cant make it over there its nice just to here about whats goin' on. Come on PLEASE throw us a bone.
      City: McKinleyville

      Tips: Go try it and tell us how you did:)