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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Friday, October 24th, 2008

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 63 to 65

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: We caught 17 bass and 1 trout. Moved around until we found bait and fish. Used mostly spoons. Drop shot and darter head caught 2 fish. Started in the narrows then moved out to the main lake. I do not believe the lake has turned over yet. Fish bit spoons dead stick and jigging.
      City: Millbrae

      Tips: keep it movin...Movin, Movin, Movin. Got to keep it Movin!

  • Butte County
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      Water Temp: 61-63

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I spent the last two weeks over at Clear Lake for two tournaments and had a great time catching a lot of quality bass. Although it was great catching 4-6lb bass, it was nice to fish in clean water and be back at my home lake. The fishing is really good out here in Oroville Lake right now. Not much traffic and bass are ready to give you a thrill. We took spots on several methods, drop shot, tubes and jigs. The depth was from 15-45 feet. The only down side is our ramps. The dam ramp is 4 wheel only, but has no dock and is no charge. Bidwell ramp is still chargeing and caused a few to get towed out this week due to the water droping to the bottom of the metal tarmack which should be fixed for the weekend.
      City: Paradise

      Tips: Main body and all branches producing well. Drop shot anything like Basstrix minnows, Robo worms and shad. The Gitzit tubes in the clear sparkle color also produced. The Paradise Tackle Co. jigs in the brown-purple, blake-blue, brown-red and black and red produced most of the bass. Found bass on points and also walls (rocky and solid). I also heard some of the coves where produceing with tubes and senko's.

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

      Report: Well I guess one word could describe this trip..........LOUSY.I tried all my spot's.Started with RAT-L-TRAP'S and cought two fish about 12".Then threw topwater for about two hour's and cought one 24" fish on of all thing's a Devil's Horse.That was it for the day.I tried bait jigging spoon's ran around for an hour trying to meter fish....nothing.The highlite of the day was finding huge school's of shad around the ramp but nothing feeding on them.Well this weekend I am going to hit Los Banos Creek
      City: Salinas

      Tips: NOT MUCH

  • Sonoma County
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      Water Temp: 54 here!!

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Vixens are made by Reaction Innovations and they do work great- even here in Oregon! I use several of their products. My daughter caught her first bass at a northern California pond on a 4.5" Flirt worm. Good luck.
      City: yoncalla, oregon

Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008

  • Napa County
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      Water Temp: 65 -68

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Wednesday, Oct. 22, my fishing buddy and I started on the flats (vineyards) about 9 AM. The stained water temperature was 65

      Tips: Look for weeds and diving birds. The water is now low enough to locate submerged trees off shore at the vineyards.

  • Sacramento County
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      Water Temp: 67

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished last 3 hours of light with 2 bites = 0 fish. Dinks. No reaction bites.
      City: Cameron Park

    • By

      Water Temp: 64

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: The lake has cleared up but is getting lower and lower every day. The ranger told me that the ramp might have to be closed if we don't get a good storm shortly.

      Bottom line is that the dinks are hitting crank baits but nothing bigger is hit anything.
      City: Santa Rosa

      Tips: Wait until we have a few storms and this lake might start producing. The gates open at 7am so get there early if you want the morning bite.

Tuesday, October 21st, 2008

  • Tuolumne County
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      Water Temp: 67

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I fished on Saturday 4pm-9pm and Tuesday 12pm-430pm. Spent a fair amount of that time trolling for kokanee and trout, but by tuesday got a couple hours in bass fishing. I had to try some new lures from bass pro shops, berserk baits, and the baitbarn.....and yes my wife didnt divorce me.

      The good news is I did very well on Berserk baits new spinnerbait DP Shad...a new lure that isnt even on the website yet. And I'm in line to get thier new lure "perfect shad". I caught several 1.5 to 2 lb. bass...average was 16" long. On main lake points....and the most savage bites I've had all year. On my first cast I retrieved a bit fast and nearly missed the fish, but I continued the chase right to the water line and busted out of the water to nostril hook itself. Seemed like a topwater bite, it was so explosive.

      Disappointments on speedtraps greencraw color and on norman lures red ,and purple shad crankbaits.

      spent a shorttime on dropshotting and jigging with a 3/4 oz browncraw berzerkbaits jig. didnt really spend enough time on these presentations or shakey heads, and am still learning...so no suprise that I didnt catch any on these.
      City: Atwater

      Tips: Fish alot!....oh by the way....saw 2 boats out of blueoaks, and maybe 6 other out of flemming. And I still had a guy boat to within 30 yards of me and fish my water....come on guys find your own water.

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

      Report: steve hows a guy supposed to leave a report after that crap, the dingy part of your report I believe you are dingy Anyway- I caught some good fish up the Mc Cloud arm on skitter pops on rip bait-chart. shad and I got caught in the wind and started throwing spinnerbaits-it really came on I think I boated over 30 fish on blades but I lost count long before
      City: Redding

      Tips: Stay away from steve renfrow

Monday, October 20th, 2008

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 60-64

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: I spent a couple of quality days at the delta this last weekend by myself. I really tried to focus on fishing a specific kind of water instead of just fishing what APPEARED to look good as i usually do out here.. I focused on finding a lot of moving water and finding the fastest moving currents that i could get in and it payed off well in the moring when the tide was coming in. I was throwing three baits, black buzzbait, bill lewis traps, and coochs new wadda bomb.. i really buckled down and focused on my presentation and it payed off because in the first two hours i had almost 16 pounds sat morning.. as the day progresed i stayed in the moving water and ended up close to twenty pounds for the day which is not huge.. but from what i have heard from all the boys, i would have gotten payed!!! I fished mainly the mokolme river and some parts of franks but at this point if you find the fastest current you can get in you will get a good bag!! All in all i had a fine trip to the delta well worth the 300 dollars in gas!!!
      City: Citrus Heights

      Tips: Dont waste your time fishing area's that get pounded every week.. Be creative in your fishing style and go with your instinct.... Be more productive and more attentitive to what you are doing with your bait instead of just chucken the baits out there.. Also do your HOMEWORK. i spent a great deal of time this week studing Coochs website and Dan Mathisons website learning what the best of the best do out here.. They fish for a living for a reason and they know what the heck they are talking about!!!! Thanks again fellas..

Sunday, October 19th, 2008

  • Amador County
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      Water Temp: na

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: good for trout on power worms orange pink red and charteruse color schools of trout everywhere fished for bass for 7-10 minutes caught 2 on a spider grub and the other in a grub dont know why we didnt go for bass longer o well trout was unbeleivable
      City: sacramento

      Tips: put your lure right in a trouts face and dont be afraid to get close caught one under a foot from the boat

  • Mason County
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      Water Temp: 65

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fred and I caught about 9 between us, the biggest 2#. First tried the grass beds on the North end of the lake, eastern side. Only got a couple of dinks and one sunfish on worms. Nothing on frogs or chatter. Then went south and
      fished the rocky western bank past the bridge.
      Picked up the biggest of the day on a hula grub 2+#.
      Fished the south end of the lake, caught my first one on my homemade lunker punker in trout pattern, how cool is that! Fred picked up a couple more on a shad crank. Fished seemed scattered, no real pattern. Pretty much got bit once on about everything we tried.
      City: Monterey

  • Napa County
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      Water Temp: 66

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: We launched out of Markley Cove at 6:30am with no wind and hopes of a great day of fishing. Colin (13) decided to show off and catch the first fish of the day. I have to say I did show him where to cast his lure!!! :) We caught 6 fish for the day all on different lures. Watermelon with black flake Senkos seemed to be the most productive.
      City: Sacramento

      Tips: All our fish were caught on points with grass very shallow!

    • By

      Water Temp: 68

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Sunday I fished with the two J's. We headed out at first light (it was cold!!!) across the lake
      towards the ranch house heading to the vineyards. I put my boat on automatic pilot and she (J1)
      caught her first bass on crankbait. She fished the front of the boat casting top water with no
      success. Meanwhile J2 was fishing off the back of the boat with jerk bait and landed a nice size
      bass. When we got to the point he fished with a River2Sea crawdad and had a fish on his line without
      knowing it because it was swimming towards the boat he landed that one easily. The vineyards, being
      the lake is so low, did not show a lot of activity. As we crossed towards Big Island we found a lot of
      birds and balls of bait. The fish were all between 35 and 45 feet deep. As we headed back towards
      home we stopped at a spot I call the 'crappie tree' and put out two markers. We fished between the
      two markers and ended up with some large crappies. As J1 was jigging for crappie she landed a nice
      salmon. The day before Albert and I had fished this same spot and every drift we had picked up fish.
      Dario and his family wanted to catch catfish. For the first hour or so he was a little disappointed but
      after his next two fish which were a fifteen pounder and a ten pounder he had a smile from ear to ear.
      He used hotdogs for bait. It was a good fishing weekend and we ended up catching a hodge-podge of
      different fish which made it interesting. 'til next week......................................good fishing!!!!!!
      www.fishingconnection.net If you have any fishing stories you would like to share please email me at
      bestguide@hotmail.com or call me at 650-583-3333.
      City: Napa

      Tips: for pics email me or call,free fishing advise to all.the limit on crappie is 25,bass 5,trout 5,,carp/cats/squa/sac pike what ever you want.

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: 63

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: first and biggest fish went 9.1 lbs.
      its a tough bite though!
      came off of the iwamoto jig later in the day.
      early on in the day caught a couple.
      City: santa rosa

      Tips: email me.

    • By

      Water Temp: 62-68

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Don Paganelli and I took our Thursday out-of-state clients from Berryessa to Clear Lake on Friday and Saturday. It was a combination fishing trip and watching bass boat races! The lake sounded and looked like giant mosquitos with rooster-tails for two days!! The bite was tough on Fri but much better on Sat. Don had the two experienced anglers with him on Fri and they caught a few decent bass with tons of dinks - which have finally shown up! they were drop-shotting mostly. I was teaching my guys how to bass fish, using worms and brush hogs. I was trying a Blade Runner jig (brown/orange) to see if that was working. We were fishing a subtle rock ledge that I fish during busy tournaments. I had them working the main part while I threw the jig into a nasty rock - not expecting to ever see it again. A 7 pounder swam away with it (about 11 am!) - she should have taken their worm!! We lost a few other good bass and landed some dinks. Sat I had the experienced guys and found good areas in the Oaks arm where they had a lot of success with 2 to 2 1/2 pounders - about 10 of them. I had one start with a 7" Berkley Power worm - new color, watermelon with purple and red flake. Soon they were both using it. The bite was early both days - by 10 or 11 am it was mostly over. Don's clients started getting the hang of bass fishing and landed several nice ones - including a smallmouth about 2 3/4 lbs!! How many of you have fished Clear Lake for decades and never have seen a smallmouth? It took me 25 years to catch one! Don was pretty excited - he had never seen a smallie from Clear Lake!
      City: Yuba city

      Tips: It is really hard to give any worthwhile tips on the day fishing at Clear Lake now since tournament pressure rules. Just start early! I guess the crank bite is good since I saw so many doing it. With boats everywhere I hooked and lost a nice bass at Shag Rock about 2 pm, using the jig - 40 feet!! I think the slender profile Berkely Power worm is a winner now - especially if it has a little sparkle!

  • Yuba County
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      Water Temp: 65

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Tough bite. Topwater way slow, only a couple of strikes. Fished topwater hard till about 10:00. Partner fished plastics and caught a two keepers, and several dinks. After 10:00 I switched to plastics caught 2 keepers. All keeper fish under 14".

      Fish seemed to be very shallow in only about 6 feet of water. Bait balls in about 10 feet.
      City: Woodland

  • Mariposa County
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      Water Temp: 70

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Pre-fished a tournament for the angler choice. After the front moved through and the full moon fishing was tough. Tried dropshotting, jigs, swimbaits, jerkbaits, and hula grubs. Cottonwood was dead, one Dink. The dam had a decent amount of fish in there. The river walls held the most concentration of fish but most of them had lock jaw. Total for the day was about a 6-7 pound bag. Not going to cut it for the tournament.
      City: Modesto

      Tips: Stay throwing the jigs. Produced the bigger keepers. Stay up in the river for the chance for a limit.

    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: hey i was fishing New Hogan the first time in the morning this one time, so boils and threw a spook out at them? Did not work only bait seemed to work. Wut kind of baits/topwater r u guys throwing in the boils? Can't get them to hit thanks!
      City: SAN RAMON

  • Merced County
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      Water Temp: N/A

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Well a little slow today.The fish seem to have left the flat's around all the grass.I fished rection and top water for about three hour's.I only had two hit's a a few follow the lure but that was it.Not one boil on topwater and I did not see any boiling at all.Well I then went to the old stand by Anchovie's and I finally cought 6 fish all about three or four pound's.The weather was to nice not a ripple on the water all day.
      City: Salinas

      Tips: I think the fish moved back out to deeper water,a whole 25'deep.Jig Spoon's or switch to bait.