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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Monday, October 20th, 2008

  • Solano County
    • By

      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
    • By

      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
    • By

      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
    • By

      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
    • By

      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.

Saturday, October 18th, 2008

  • Mason County
    • By

      Water Temp: 64

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished for a few hours Sat morning. Started with top water and got about 5 blow-ups but only one fish on my frog along weed lines. The grass was hard to find and so were the fish. The only pattern I could describe would be mud lines and grass combinations very shallow 1-3 ft. Fish were all small. Tried spinner bait and crank but no reaction bite. Drop shot was the bait they wanted. Caught 9 fish.
      City: Foster City

      Tips: Fish shallow around any grass you can find. Also fish mud lines.

  • Sacramento County
    • By

      Water Temp: 64

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: North Fork a little breezy early, traveled up stream past five mile an hour bouys just past the turn. Monster spots on top water.
      City: sac

      Tips: Fish feeding heavily on schools of bait up there as water levels drop slowly.

  • Merced County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: went out friday nite with my wife and grandson,and he was more into throwing rocks and boy stuff,my wife caught one that was 15" and i caught a 13" and loss a keeper,oh well.....fished at the aqueduct near billy wright rd.
      City: los banos

      Tips: anchovies,bring plenty of snacks for grandkids......

  • Sonoma County
    • By

      Water Temp: 63

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished club tournament Sat. Got my first fish (about 4.4) at around 11:30 in about 25-30 feet on a brush hog. Got second one the same way/rig about 4 hours later. Got no bites fishing anything else (tried a lot of cranking 10-20 feet and a bit of drop shotting; nothing really). I noticed later on when washing out the livewells that there was a bit of (bright red) crawfish bits puked up in there, so apparently they're at least feeding somewhat actively on crawfish, yet somewhat deeper. Not surprising----consider what a warm/dry summer it's been. Fish weary of persistently shallower-lower-water-levels/warmer/less oxygenated, perhaps, so they're found deeper, at least the chunkier ones. Both fish came at around 25 to 30 feet on crawdad style bait, and as noted evidence of the real thing in their bellies.
      City: San Rafael

      Tips: If I went back, I'd (oh so patiently) drag similar baits at/on/near the bottom at similar depths, or crank REAL deep runners in crawdad/bright red colors(?)----that is, assuming similar weather conditions for the next week or so.

Friday, October 17th, 2008

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 68-70

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Don Paganelli and I guided 4 clients from Colorado yesterday and found the bite to be fair until about noon. The sun was bright, the lake was calm and very warm for mid-Oct. We found most of the bass suspended and the bait deep. The topwater bite was pretty good in the early morning as long as you could find shadows. The drop-shot bite was non-existant yesterday, while it had been pretty good for Rick Tietz and I during our trip on Tuesday. We used Robo worms in MMIII and salt river craw colors later in the day. I really don't know how many we caught total - about 20 to 25 bass. We fished the narrows and the south main body. Big bass was about 2 lbs - not so good.
      City: Yuba city

      Tips: Conditions are pretty tough right now - no storms or very cold nights to get the bass movin' and the bait to move to the surface. When one of these events happens the bite will drastically improve.

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 60-63

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: fished the Berckley Big Bass Event sat and sun. got one fish right over 4lbs, won some money it. caught it on a Berckley Critter Jig. no fish sunday but there were fish caught by other anglers. I fished and fished the mats beating them to death with a berckley type bait(cant remember the name of bait). I guess I was fishing in the wrong area. but I would like to thank all the Berkcley guys there Ken,Randy,and FPT-Vince, great job guys cant wit till next time,.
      City: colusa

      Tips: Hmmm, since I only caught one fish, dont have to many tips.

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: mid 60's

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: It seemed like a tough bite but did manage at least 5 fish. Caught a 3, 4+, 6+, and a 7.3 on a Berserk new purple hornet lake jig with a smallie beaver trailer. The other fish came split shotting a shad colored robo worm. Missed a couple of 3-4lbers on a deep diving shad crank. The next day I got a 4+ on a white frog and 3 others on the jig again.

      Tips: Fish the jig slow, then let it sit the bites are light. I also put my fishn time at www.fishwrangler.net in the blog. If you need Berserk jigs you can get them at www.baitbarn.net online, next day shipping. C&C marine has them, Escalon Bait, or Snelling 76.

    • By

      Water Temp: 65

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: yes it is open, i fished it today
      City: carmel valley

    • By

      Water Temp: 72 DEGRESS

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: MY FATHER AND FISHED 4 HOURS CAUGHT 15 FISH BETWEEN 15"AND 18".GOT TO FISH SLOW WITH JIGS AND SWIMBAITS.
      City: PLANADA