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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Sunday, September 28th, 2008

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 68

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Hot Temps and no wind made for a tuff day. Threw everything got 2 fish until 4:00 p.m. then caught 4 more. Fished 9:30a.m.-7:30 p.m.
      Marked fish on drop offs. Couldnt get bit up tight or anywhere else for that matter. No topwater. Threw frogs and spinnerbait all evening. 1 strike.
      City: sacramento

      Tips: Hope for some cooler weather. Fish seemed to be suspended between shallow and deep water. They were not looking up at all.

    • By

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Went out for 3 hours after work and i did pretty good first i missed a bite on the frog threw it back in the same spot and a couple casts later it hit again it was 6 pounds even. Then moved over to boat ramp and threw the red eye shad in chrome sexy shad and caught 3 and lost about 10 2 were like 10 inches and so were all the ones i lost and the last cast of the day caught 1 more 1 pound 2 ounces.
      City: THA P

      Tips: lipless crankbaits reeling fast barely touching the tops of submerged weeds. i was reeling almost as fast as i could reel with my revo 6.2:1 gear ratio. try throwing them on 7:1.

  • Sacramento County
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      Water Temp: 72

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Late start, heard there was a tourney starting from Granite Bay. Expected to see lots of trailers but not much at Brown's Ravine. Me and big brudda went out to the buoy lane straight out of the ramp. Fished 9-16ft and I had 4 fish to 1-2lbs by 9am and big brudda had 2. All on dropshot...Aaron's Magic 5" on a standout hook rig. Moved around and brudda missed a couple hits...shut down for me. A few boats moved in to our starting point and we watched them catch 3 more....coulda had my limit but who's counting, yeah? Ain't worried 'bout size, just hookups for fun.
      City: folsom

      Tips: Fish hit mostly at 14-16ft between buoys and dropoffs. Wacky rig worked for me but used alot of worms. Love the dropshot...hook was 1 ft above the sinker.

    • By

      Water Temp: 68

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: come on jim, why dont you give us a couple cues, they cant all be in one place.
      City: sacramento

      Tips: i suck too

    • By

      Water Temp: 70

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Primarily fished the north fork. Partner caught one dinky fish on a t-rigged senko ... probably shouldnt even count. :-) I pretty much suck and need help. Threw dartheads, rat-l-traps, jerkbaits, senkos in 20 ft of water with no luck. Did see a a couple of boats bring in a fish or two. Fished from 7am - 11am. Nice day regardless.
      City: Elk Grove

      Tips: 5 mph folks!

  • Butte County
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      Water Temp: 70

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Launched from spillway at first light ran up to the south side for no fish moved back to find some deep drop offs and found some dinks afterabout a hour of this we moved around the bend to the north and got on fish from jigs to drop shot broke off a nice one trying to horse into the boat. and the net was right next to me all fish were healthy and released Spillway from what I ould tell was free and I highly recommend useing this launch mucho better compared to bidwell kind of a tough day not sure why all the conditions were right except for no wind limit of5 for 6 # Question of the day when is the plane going to take off that has to be a site to see !
      City: Roseville

      Tips: find the fish and they will bite
      crank baits SEXY
      Stacy 90
      green pumkin grubs
      drop shot
      All caught fish just nothing real big today

    • By

      Water Temp: 68

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Went out nice and early with a buddy on a couple kayaks. we each caught a couple half pounders on white and chartreuse spinners.
      City: Windsor

      Tips: Keep it fun!

    • By

      Water Temp: 67

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Went out first thing in the morning, first on the lake. Didn't get a damn thing, not even a bite. Tried around the island, nothing then decided to run down the sunny side of the North side of the lake. Graphed a ton of fish. Looks like they are sitting on the ledges in about 10 ft all around, but they didn't like my drop shot, jig or cranks. Ended up down by the tulls and cranked and threw senkos in around and never got anything. Found an small cove with a tree sicking out and saw a huge fish swim right around the tree. I threw out my senko and a baby brush hog, nothing. Finally decided to throw cranks so I hooked on my favorite square bill in rainbow trout color and on the first throw nailed a 6lber. Now I know what a 6lber feels like and I have to say, this is my personal best at this lake. This fish was heavy enough I couldn't take it holding in front of me so I had to take a picture with her in the net. Fun fish and I guess this means the fish are starting to move around. The lake is stained and dirty, almost like oil on the surface. Lake is way down and launch isn't that fun but very capable. I think in the the next few months, this lake will be quite fun!!!
      City: Santa Rosa

      Tips: Catch and Release!!! Notify the rangers if you see people keeping the fish!!! Cranks work best in rainbow trout color. Work next to the tulls and in the deeper holes.

Saturday, September 27th, 2008

  • Napa County
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      Water Temp: 72-74

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: The anglers from Basin Bassmasters had a small tournament with 11 boats. Most the anglers fished the main body and the narrows. Top water baits were the best bait for the day. buzz baits, vexens and pop r's. The big largemouth was a 11.06 on a pop r late morning, caught by Steve Irwin. A 7.00 lb, 5.30 lb, 4.50 lb and some 3's. Drop shot, split shot and jigs did work. Look for humps and bait jumping around and you will find the big bass.
      City: Rocklin

      Tips: Points and humps in the main body.

  • Santa Clara County
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      Water Temp: 72-74

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Got 5, biggest 2#, on RatlnVibe in shad, swim jig with chartruse grub trailer and brown jig with purple grub trailer. All fish caught tight against grass edges. Lake was 4' lower than since my last post.
      City: Monterey

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 67 deg

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: went out of B&W caught some nice fish nothing big had a good time took a friend from washington his first time bass fishing He had a good time . other than having a slight hangover had a good day. seen lots of baitfish jumping in the early am Im thinking stripers are really close to start showing up in schools. was going to go this saturday but got snagged up, going to try to get out sunday
      City: Elmira

      Tips: all caught on senkos 5 inch watermelon texas style. no blow ups

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

      Report: got off work late and didnt have time to get the boat out so decided to hit it up from shore a little bit.the algae problem is getting a little better and water is starting to clear. saw massive amount of schoolers eating shad in the back of santa ana near the creek. managed to scratch a few off throwing the spoon. biggest being 4.5 then got a 5.0 throwing the frog right before dark in the sticks.stuff is starting to change. this week should be fun
      City: ojai

      Tips: lake fork crome spoon.snag proof bobbys perfect frog(cicadia). 7 ft 844 imx.new curado 7 to 1.

  • Sacramento County
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      Water Temp: 69

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: A little slow up river (s), boats surrounded me shutting down the bite. Still caught some, no size. Moved to main body to a depression and caught a little over two limits, quit, tired and went home.
      City: sac

      Tips: All fish on reverse carolina rig. tossed out and worked back.

    • By

      Water Temp: 64 (up river)

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: same as last week except only about 75 fish. Fishermen who saw ma probably hit it pretty hard or the cloud cover and no wind had an effect on numbers and larger fish. No large ones caught in area. I park my boat and fan cast the immediate area which has many fish gorging on bait.
      City: sac

      Tips: Take a friend or acquaintance to enjoy this kind of fishing.

  • Merced County
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      Water Temp: 63

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: fished oniel forebay,got there aat sunrise and got 1 fish 21" with sara spook at 7:00 and nothing else,fished for 4 hrs and wint home,tryed flukes with no fish,any addvice for me,oh yeah check 12 is where i fished,what is the secret to cathing stripers here,
      City: los banos

      Tips: super sara spook

    • By

      Water Temp: n/a

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Well I ariived about a half hour before sunrise and the word must be out becouse they were lined up ahead of me.Well nobody's was putting in so I did what are we waiting for.Well it was not so good today.Between the new moon and them stopping the pumping in of new water the bite was not very good.I did catch fish but all small 17"-19" all on Rat-L-Traps.There were quit a few boat's fishing the area I like to so the pressure was there also.I lost two good fish one on a Spook and one on the Trap.One odd thing happened that I have never witnessed.The larger fish I lost on the Trap becouse my line broke did the strangest thing.After my line broke that fish thrashed on top of the water for about 15 seconds like it was pissed or something strange.The bait bite was not happenig either and no boils at all.
      City: Salinas

      Tips: None just go fishing

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

      Report: called shasta rec. no answer, drove by, no one there, only guy I have seen is the guy cleaning the restrooms, no dock guys around in the am. losing 3 months use of my ramp pass ain't gettin it. gonaa go next year and not pay a dime to these idiots. not a single float in the water.
      City: bella vista

      Tips: dont buy a ramp pass, wasted money

  • Trinity County
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      Water Temp: 69

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: fishing was awesome in the morning then slow down in the afternoon all in all was a good day on the water lots of 4# smallies and a few 5-6# larges.
      City: shasta

      Tips: go deep

Friday, September 26th, 2008

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: 72

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: South end, Fri 9/26. North end, Sat 9/27. I love this lake (the few times I've fished it) and I'm an 'average' bass fisherman, at best (admittedly) but holy cow, was this the slowest I've ever seen this place or what? Yes, it was.

      Launched out of Red Bud Fri morning and fished several recommended areas, throwing anything from chatterbaits to swim baits. Got first (and last keeper size for 2 days of fishing, perhaps 1.5 lbs) within about 15 minutes. Thought things might be decent with that start; boy was I wrong.

      Threw medium to deep running crankbaits/Rat L Traps/Speedtraps after no success with spinnerbaits or topwater. Nothing. Around noon, got one on a dropshot (oxblood 6" roboworm), perhaps 10 inches. That would be the last fish of the weekend. TWO other bites after that. Whoa... it was just plain shut down.

      Great weather though! Ha. Interesting notes: Talked to others in adjacent boats and was glad to know it wasn't 'just us'... similarly awful for them as well. The weeds were still pretty heavy closer to shore. Water level down about 5-6 feet (thanks to the drought; we all know that). Let's see what else... Oh, dead carp floating on the surface EVERYWHERE (both North and South), including washed ashore and throughout the water itself; kinda creepy almost), and aside from the weeds, lots of algae. Poor Clear Lake was more like 'Death Lake' and the smell was pretty bad in some places from the decomposing carp.

      Other notes: Trillions of tiny white bait fish (not sure what they are, but are they common for this time of year?) so we figure 'wow---that's not exactly helpful for 'competition' where the bass' menu is concerned. Also, there were a ton of 'fingerling' bass but mommas and poppas were nowhere to be seen.
      City: San Rafael

      Tips: Wait for the fall bite; perhaps that will turn on in a couple weeks.... or maybe tomorrow. Who knows? But you did yourself a favor if you didn't fish CL this particular weekend. Oh---and bring a few beers along, while drinking 'responsibly', but of course!

Thursday, September 25th, 2008

  • Plumas County
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      Water Temp: 65-68

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I decided to make a short trip to Almanor Tues and Wed after getting my Ranger serviced at Oasis Marine in Redding. The water is very clear, though there was a slight algae bloom on the west side. The fall bite hasn't started yet - daytime was very tough though I did't start 'til noon on Tues. Once the shadows formed about 5:30 pm, I got into a fair topwater bite on shad colored Chug Bugs. I missed the first 3 - nice smallies in the 2 1/2 - 3 lb range. Finally I landed the one that made the trip. I fought her over 3 minutes, not wanting the Bug to pull out again! I won this time and she weighed almost 3 1/2 lbs! Always a thrill to see a beautiful smallie! Later I missed another 2 - one big one missed the lure going up and coming down!! Completely cleared the water! Wed was also very slow and to top it off, a big south wind came up and blew all day! I did land a near 2 lb smallie on a brown/orange Rodstrainer jig and missed another good one on topwater. The wind killed the topwater bite and cooled the surface temp 2 degrees. I landed another Robo worm smallie and missed the final bite. The quality was excellent but the numbers were poor. Scenery like that helps soothe the ego!!
      City: Yuba city

      Tips: I didn't see too many shallow quality bass, though I did see lots of this years spawn - 3 or 4 inches! I fished mostly on the west side - did not do well on the east side. Did not try the early morning bite either day. Maybe it was good. Nights are getting chilly - days were great!! Lake is down quite a bit - lower than normal for this time of year. I did a lot of dragging worms but found it difficult as the weeds are still everywhere.