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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Saturday, November 29th, 2008

  • Amador County
    • By

      Water Temp: 60-61

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: I guided a great guy from Minnesota last night from about 4:30 pm to midnight. The bite started out pretty fair as he caught his first California bass shortly before dark. He continued to do well into early evening, hooking several more but just landing 2 of them up to 2 3/4 lbs. They are hard to get out of the trees. I had him using a 10" black Power worm most of the trip. I was trying a brush hog to no avail - didn't get a bite 'til later and finally landed a nice one before we quit. The high fog kept the air temp nice and the boat dry. We noticed about 8 pm that it was getting suddenly much colder - we looked up - and the fog was gone, nothing but cold stars!! The temp dropped quickly and my Ranger got so wet with heavy dew that we had to wipe seats down constantly. That absolutely messed the bite up as it always does. Heavy damp air is the kiss of death for night fishing and last night was no exception - except for my 2 last bites. We had a great time in spite of the slow action and were able to get the boat out without too much work.
      City: Yuba city

      Tips: I have fished Amador a few times in the last 35 years with the water this low but it struck me this time how steep the walls are - there is still 100 feet of water in places. Most of the bass will hangin' in and around the trees 'till the lake comes up, so plan accordingly! I found shad hugging the bottom in 40 to 50 feet of water and also found balls of them suspended in 10 to 25 feet of water. Water temp says it is October!

  • Tuolumne County
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      Water Temp: 61

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Went out with fellow nutcase Wally and finally got into a great fall bite. The water is finally getting near the fifties which triggers the feeding frenzy. we cuaht over 100 fish with the best five spots going 15 pounds.Great time for a guide trip if ypou need any help catching fish with your electronics.
      City: Sonora

      Tips: Stay with the bait. The hold over trout are just now showing in the bait and the big spots come with them.

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

      Report: lake still filling. water is still 250 yards from milkhouse island. another 250 yards till ramp usuable. lake didnt fill 2008 so dont expect much more in 2009 without some serious rains this winter/spring. pz4bass.

Friday, November 28th, 2008

  • Napa County
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      Water Temp: 61

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: My good friend Lenn Jann invited me to go fishing today and I really needed to. We starting looking for shad schools in 40 - 75ft. and wasn't long before we found bait and massive numbers of fish. the 1-3/4oz. morning dawn Duh!! spoon seemed to be the best choice. We tried other spoons and drop-shotting but always went back to morning dawn. We caught and released way over 100 bass and also had a couple big catfish, a salmon and 2 kokanee.
      City: Sacramento

      Tips: Watch for birds diving in the creek channels bettween 40 to 70ft.,they can tell you where the bait fish are.

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

      Report: Fog, fog and more fog. Launched out of B & W into the peasoup . Visability was about 20ft until around noon so stayed around there. Jim was right on the one fish winning out club outing, except it was 15 inches and 1.92 lbs. My partner Mike M. cought it on a small jointed craw crankbait around 7am. Had a couple of bites after that but missed them except for 1 maybe 5 inch LM on a wee-wart. bait was almost bigger then this little bugger that thought he was king of the delta. Still can't believe we won the outing as it was the only fish weighted in even.
      City: Vallejo

      Tips: Never give up when the bites slow, you never know what will happen.

    • By

      Water Temp: 57

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Wen tout in search of Stripers. Launched out of Ladds and began by throwing spooks. Landed one 2.5 LM and two other 14" LM on chrome black traps. Went bqack toward the port of Stockton and founs an area with a lot of diving birds. Caught three just keeper stripers on a swimbait. All in all it was very slow at least in this area of the Delta.
      City: Hanford

    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Launched out of B&W first light, I fished all over the place, 2#er shook loose at the boat, landed several dinks, all came on drop shot (reaction innovations flirt worm, spring break), I fished a 7" watermelon senko, wacky, hoping for some bigger bites, I believe I got those bites but I dumped one before I could see it, and missed the others. Tried for stripers with spooks a lot of the day, no luck. @ the boat ramp coming in a club tournament was weighing in...ONE 13" FISH ONE IT!!! Holy crap!! Hope thins turn around soon.

      Tips: could'nt tell ya

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: 58*

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Got in a couple hours for Turkey day weekend. Fished along North Drive up to windflower for a couple of little guys on dead ringers, then shot over to Rattlesnake before dark as the wind picked up, and managed to pick up a few better fish (2.7, 3.2, 3.13) on southwest side of island in about 8-10ft of water. Stayed in the wind and chop and did better than behind the island where there was no wind. All three fish on cinnamon yami kreatures T-rigged on 3/0 ewg's, 1/4 oz weight, all right before dark. Also threw the swimbait for awhile on hwy. 20 side, but no action.
      City: Clear Lake Park

      Tips: Keep it tight. All bites on the drop or shortly thereafter. Wasn't casting right on the bank, but off about 10-15ft. Look for tule and rock combined, move around.

    • By

      Water Temp: ??

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fishing from the bank from 8 am to noon, I picked up four fish. Two decent keepers of about 15" and two dinks. All fish caught on a shakey head rigged 6" red Roboworm.
      City: Mountain View

      Tips: Work the jig head rigged worm SLOW. Interestingly, the bites came amazingly close to shore.

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

      Report: This is the first time I've been skunked here since my rookie years. Not a good feeling. Didn't even get a bite. I usually fish from the shore on the south end or in the narrows. I've been coming here the past couple of months and catchin a limit of trout almost every time using white power eggs and a night crawler and throwing spoons and kastmasters. Good sized ones too, 2-3 pounders. Best time to fish this time of year is from about 1pm to 5 or 6. No sense gettin up early, the fishing is just as good if not better in the late afternoon to evening. Never had much luck here with bass though.
      City: Fremont

      Tips: If you guys have any tips on catchin bass or stripers, let me know.

  • Sacramento County
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      Water Temp: 58

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Started in main body (zilch) not one bite on reaction baits. I later went up river in south fork (zilch) not one bite. I worked back out towards main body past Brown's (zilch). I could see plenty of fish, I could feel my bait touch them, but not one taker. Went home.
      City: sac

      Tips: Sometimes cold fronts with no surface action (wind) results in lock jaw. Did not drop shot or other finese methods.

  • Butte County
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      Water Temp: 57-58

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: A bit tougher on Friday. Caught 22, partner 9 on 4 inch worms rigged on 16th oz texas rig and 1/8 oz dart heads. 6 fish over the slot with another 19 inch spot. Only one largemouth but it was over 3 pounds. Big fish came early, and a bunch of the typical 14 1/2 inch Oroville clones. Most fish came off the main body, a few in the Middle fork. Fish were located between 15 and 35 feet.
      City: Woodland

Thursday, November 27th, 2008

  • Leon County
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      Water Temp: low 60's

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: im really looking to do some local bass fishing at lafayette this weekend. i know theres an enormous population of bass in there- i nearly caught a 10# just off the side of of a dock next to the tullies. i just need some advice as to where all the bass are now and what baits are hot. Anyone got any about lafayette right now?
      THANKS :)
      City: el cerrito

      Tips: I can NEVER catch one of the million 6-12 inchers on anything in my tackle :(
      (oh, and if someone can give me any helpful advice about the above, ill tell u the hottest trout and catfish spot on the lake right now.) ;)

    • By

      Water Temp: 55

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Thought I would try my luck before Thanksgiving so I headed out first thing in the morning. Nobody else on the lake and the lake has really cleared up but is still very low.

      Found a few dinks but nothing else. Again this lake needs a real nice storm to get it going. The fish have seemed to move up to towards the shoreline, because I'm not graphing them in the normal drop off areas.

      It looks as if the weeds are gone, but they are not!!! Almost every cast comes back with mush or weeds.
      City: Santa Rosa

      Tips: Stay away until we get more rain. Clear lake is busting open and I wouldn't waste my time here yet.

Wednesday, November 26th, 2008

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 57.9

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished Whiskey and Mildred's. Saw them on graph but not biting. Top water, crank bait, and vertical jigging had no effect. SAW A BIG SEAL IN WHISKEY! Caught one on top water but was a keeper. Remember catch and release.
      City: Tracy

    • By

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: nice fish. beat my 19 pounder easy. ive been trying to go to hook to get a punker for a while now. and my spro BBZ1's third joint broke offf so i got to send it in but i got my hudddleston now.
      City: THA P

      Tips: big swimbaits

  • Sacramento County
    • By

      Water Temp: 58

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished a 100 yd stretch in main body until 1000. Fish abruptly stopped at 0915. From daylight until 0915 the action was furious. 5 lbder on rip bait, a few nice ones on very deep crankbait, a few on jigs, a few on darts, etc. It didn't seem to matter.
      City: sac

      Tips: As soon as heavy wind and rain moved in, the action stopped.

Tuesday, November 25th, 2008

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 62-63 Degrees

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished on Saturday, caught about 7 fish total. Big fish of 5.84 pnds came on clear sexy shad Strike King King Shad. Got him on incoming tide on weed edges. Just ripping the lure and letting it float up, about 3-4 second pauses. Caught other fish with same pattern with Strike King #5 Sexy Shad. Caught other fish flipping green pumpkin/watermelon double wide beaver on tule edges during morning outgoing. Over all tough bite.
      City: Fremont

      Tips: Fish slow with cranks and deadstick plastics, if you don't get bit on plastics while dead sticking for about 5-10 seconds, pull your plastic out and move on.

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: ?

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: One of my fishing buddies took me to Clear Lake last night for some fun fishin' and it was still fun. We didn't do the twilight bite - starting about 8 pm until 1 am. He even let me catch the biggest which he never does! The biggest wasn't very pretty however, in fact looked like she had recently spawned, no kiddin'! Big mouth, quite skinny, and weighed between 6 3/4 and 7 lbs. Nothing like the great shape the other previous big ones have been. We boated 22 bass for a nice limit over 25 lbs. Would have had a lot more but my partner lost more than he deserved! The bite really slowed after 10:30 pm - talked to another angler and he said the same thing. Since the weather is historically warm this time of year, small bass are still around. I caught a 10" bass - you never see those this time of year! We fished from the back of Konocti Bay to Kono Taye.
      City: Yuba city

      Tips: I did something last night that I was determined to do no matter how good the plastic bite was. I fish a Booyah Boogee Bait (Chatter bait type) and it worked well, catching 4 of our biggest fish. I was using a 1/2 oz model and caught the bigger fish about 15 to 25 feet on that bait. I would isolate individual deep rocks and swim the bait over them. That worked several times. At Kono Taye, I ticked it over the tops of weeds and a 5 1/2 slammed it - best bite of the fall! Something different is always fun!! Brush hogs and jigs worked well too. Fish seemed a little deeper last night overall.

    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: 24 lb. 10 oz. Striper on Lunker Punker. Stripers chasing Trout all over the lake. To you non believers, see the pic on the bulletin board at the lake or @ "NorCalFishing.com"
      City: Antioch

      Tips: Toss big baits. Jerry Rago 10" tool had a couple of followers all the way to the bank.