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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Friday, January 30th, 2009

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: 46-49

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Made a quick trip to see how the night bite was holding up. Slow, but ok. I only caught 6 bass in 6 hours but the 5 best were over 26 lbs with a 9lb 3oz beauty on top. She took a D&M chatterbait-like thing in about 30 feet of water. It's called a Piranha Swim Jig. Bob Higgins of Limit Out Tackle said they were good - and they are! I use a Yamamoto 5" grub trailer. All the other bass were 4 lbs or over except the 6th, about 2 1/2 lbs - which I somehow snagged on the D&M. Overall the bite was slow - no birds sounding and not a single carp rolled.
      City: Yuba city

      Tips: The quality bass are still deep. Don't let the sunshine fool you in January and early February. The sun is still not high enough to do much warming and the time of warmest temp is still very short. I only fished rock structure - did not try docks. The big bass came at 8 pm. Usually a big bass in the winter will bite between 10 and midnight. Always be ready and release them immediately unless you are prepared to deflate their air bladder. I had to do that with the big one as I took her photo.

  • Alameda County
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      Water Temp: 50

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished this lake with 5 guys two boats. One boat got 2 nice size largies and the other got 8, mixture of smb and lmb up to 3 1/2 lbs. Lake got really low and my go-to spots are now exposed outa water. Caught fish on jigs, drop-shots, and one on reaction. I tried swimbaits and spooning but no takers. Fish caught between 20 to 30 ft. water.
      City: Newark

      Tips: Use a good graph when fishing any lake to pin point underground structure. You gotta find the fish first to succeed.

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

      Report: The 5 mph limit is still active as posted at the main gate. Usually is 5 mph until the lake fills to 400'. It's only at 376' now.

    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Just wondering which ramp is open for boat launch now? What's the speed limit at the lake? where's the hot spot to try now.
      City: Fremont

      Tips: Try new water for better luck. Don't GIVE UP

Tuesday, January 27th, 2009

  • Mason County
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      Water Temp: 52

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Sure seems like it's going to be another dry winter. Lake Anderson seems like one of the few likes that might survive a rainless spring. The island top right outside the 5mph zone is still submerged, which means we have at least another 40 feet until the end of the ramp. Which isn't to bad for this time of the year. Other bodies of water such as Lake Oroville are in survival mode, 240 feet and dropping! Everyone needs to get outside and do a little rain dance.
      Total of three people in the boat today. It's 11am and we shoot strait across the lake from the ramp, and start fishing a steep point. We miss 3 fish on a watermelon tube up shallow, 10-20 ft. We then head south and fish another point on the east bank. Tubes and drop shots produce a few, but nothing big. It's now 2:30 and we head to the bridge at the lakes south end. There were several bass holding off the steep rock wall just past the bridge, due to the fact in had been facing the sun gathering heat for the majority of the day. We caught a few smaller fish on plastics fished right up against the wall, but the larger fish seemed to be suspended off the wall about 10-15 feet. It looked perfect for a swimbait, but they wouldn't touch any of the dozen I threw at them. Heading back up the lake we caught a few more fish on plastics, but nothing over 2lbs. 12 fish for half a day was the days count.
      City: San Bruno

      Tips: <a href="http://www.russnyders.com/">Rus Snyders Guide Service</a>

    • By

      Water Temp: 52 F

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Cold cold and cold...air and water..bass wise zero, zip, nada, nothing! My first time here..mussel inspection was quick.

      I heard of 2 bass caught...
      City: Monterey

      Tips: wait til March

Monday, January 26th, 2009

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 49-52

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Caught 3 LM (largest 3lb4oz) and 2 stripers. LM seemed to be relating to the inside edge of weed lines on the windward side. Stripers were caught on the slack water adjacent to the ends of tule islands.
      City: San Ramon

      Tips: All caught on a suspending ripbait (LC Pointer 100, ghost minnow).

  • Trinity County
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      Water Temp: Cold

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Trinity Center ramp is finally free of snow. To access the ramp, drive down the concrete ramp and take a right just below the courtesy dock. Procede along a narrow gravel path to the old low water shale ramp. Turn around at the top of the hill and back 200 yds to the water. Use extreme caution when parking as only a few spots beside the ramp are solid. DON'T assume that you will be the only one there and park on the ramp. I have launched several times in the last couple of months with no problems, but it is a 4 wheel drive adventure.
      Cedar Stock is still open but you might want to practice your backing skills before you arrive as the ramp is very narrow and crooked. It is the only one with a dock.
      Minersville is open but is very rough at the bottom as the pavement here has really started to break up. Also no dock, and the high winds all summer and fall have left about 6" of silt near shore all around the lake. Watch your step. It's a muddy mess.
      As for the bass fishing, the last time out I ended up trolling for trout.
      City: Weaverville

      Tips: Shasta? Clear Lake?

Sunday, January 25th, 2009

  • Amador County
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      Water Temp: 48-50

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Hit Camanche over the weekend for some review work. Launched out of the North Shore low water ramp at about 8:00am or 8:30am. We were trying to force a crankbait bite and finally managed a handful of crazy spots towards the end of the day.

      Water temps are hovering just under 50 degrees and the lake level is about the same as it was during our last serious drought in the late 80's early 90's. Still a little higher than that low point but getting close.
      City: San Mateo

      Tips: Looks like most of the bassers on the water were dropshotting out on the main lake points. We were throwing cranks to get through some testing and did manage some towards the end of the day though no size.

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

      Report: He Bradrc51 my Dad and i are goin to clear lake to mess around on sat and were goin south. which rock ledge are you talkin bout. jw
      City: ukiah

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

      Report: Thanks Fred. Nope haven't been there. Been going North to Shasta. Good ramp, good fishing and lots of water. When they get the ramp done at Bidwell and the water rises to meet it, I'll be back, unless they reschedule the Stren, in which case I'll have to show up.
      City: Paradise

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

      Report: No bites on Sunday. I tried rainbow colored powerbait and earthworms off the floating dock. I didn't see anyone else catch anything else either. I tried Rainbow lake in the afternoon for some bass and no luck there either.
      City: Fremont

      Tips: ????

    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: the last post was for stratoskid.
      City: sebastopol

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

      Report: WHAT BOAT RAMPS ARE THE BEST TO LAUNCH AT RIGHT NOW?
      City: Coast

Saturday, January 24th, 2009

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

      Report: First time at Berryessa. I was shore fishing the northern part of the lake, near Putah creek I think. I was hoping to get some action on crankbaits but nothing was working. Toward the end of the day I switched to a Texas Rigged 5" Senko and found a couple of Spots near the bottom next to a point.
      City: Fremont

      Tips: Fish slow, fish deep.

    • By

      Water Temp: 48-51

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Well i was pleasantly surprised to see that the lake has finally come back up to somewhat healthy level again. Its still pretty low but at least you can successfully launch your boat. My two brothers and i went out sat to fish and check the lake out for this spring and had an okay day for January. Youngest brother caught a nice spot on the first cast of the day on a drop shot to the right of the dam in about ten feet of water. About ten yards up the bank i caught another one about 1.5 on a crawdad colored gitzit. I threw dd12 and 22's along the rocks with no luck. tried a spinner baits in 20 feet of water...nada!!! Only seemed to get bit on the plastics... We went up the south arm for two hours without a bite!! Fished from five feet to fifty five feet and didn't even graph a fish? i fish this lake a lot and i have never seen that? I really hope the population of fish is not hurt because of how low the lake got this fall and late summer!!! I was glad to see lots of boats fishing out there.

      Tips: Wait for the lake level to hopefully top off and get out there before all the weekend boaters tear the lake up to bad!! March and April is a fun time to fish out here so gear up and look for some spots to fish when the lake finally does fill up!!

    • By

      Water Temp: 45-47

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Well for those of you that want to stay at home and wait for spring time, you are missing some of the best fishing in Northern California. Basin Bassmasters did their first Turkey Shoot for the 2009. 15 boats launched on a long but not so bad ramp. Five more feet and the concrete ramp will be used at the North shore side. The bite was tough for most of us but Drop Shot, Rippin did work for others. One five fish limit came in by Joe Everett and John Bounds. Two boats with four fish and a few with three, two and one fish. Most of the bass came in 15-35 ft in the main body and some in the creek channels.
      Good fishin and have fun.
      City: Rocklin

      Tips: fish very slow so that the fish have time to see the bait.

  • Nevada County
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      Water Temp: 43-48

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Much better day today. My bud Dan nailed one about #5 on a chatterbait right off, and then we caught 7 over the next 4 hours.
      The largest was 6.4 We had no small fish today.
      Almost all came on either blades or a chatter in a couple feet of water. A freezing cold northern wind was blowing and the protected coves held the fish.
      Probably a #23 limit.
      City: auburn

      Tips: the warmer water is where they were today

  • Butte County
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      Water Temp: 46

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Good to be back on the lake after 1 1/2 years. What a sight to see some of our favorite holes 250 feet out of the water. Wasn't too bad of a day for the most. There were times it rained so hard that I thought the lake might fill up in one afternoon, but we were prepared for it. Started very slow. We only had one fish by 11:30. Then we got on to a great bite the rest of the day. I can't tell you exact baits because of an upcoming tourney, but I can say you just have to cover water. The bulk of our fish were in the 10-20 ft range and the bites were soft. However, when you got bit, there was usually 2 or 3 more around. The nice surprise was the quality of the fish. We finished with 11.7 pounds for best 5. I would gladly take that in the tourney. Usually a winning or a good check weight.

      Tips: Stay patient. Middle of winter and the fish won't feed all day. Try and find clean water. We were thinking the warm rain would have the spots feeding up the creeks, but we couldn't find them there. Ramp is steep. Defintely recommend 4 wheel drive.

    • By

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Has anybody been fishing this lake? There's a boat dock at the spillway and lots of gravel to keep you out of the mud. Same amount of fish but lots less water like a rain barrel.
      City: Marysville