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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Sunday, September 14th, 2008

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

      Report: The gate guardian at Anderson (a caucasian lady in her 30's) I believe wakes up on the wrong side of the bed a few times a week. If she cops you an attitude do not respond back or she will find a reason to not let you in. One time I arrived at 7:59 and 45 seconds, and she told me to turn around because they weren't open and I couldn't park in front of the gate. The gate opens the other way so I was not blocking anyone or anything. I guess the nice sheriffs and mussel inspectors there make up for the evil gate guardian.

  • Mason County
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      Water Temp: 74-70

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: The gate guardian at Anderson (a caucasian lady in her 30's) I believe wakes up on the wrong side of the bed a few times a week. If she cops you an attitude do not respond back or she will find a reason to not let you in. One time I arrived at 7:59 and 45 seconds, and she told me to turn around because they weren't open and I couldn't park in front of the gate. The gate opens the other way so I was not blocking anyone or anything. I guess the nice sheriffs and mussel inspectors there make up for the evil gate guardian.

  • Santa Clara County
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      Water Temp: ?

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Drove to the lake to check it out with 2 friends. We all had things to later in the day so we left the boat at home and went on foot. Brought two poles, one frog rod and one senko rod. Never had to use the senko rod and didn't walk far. Threw fogs on a mat just to the right of the ramp and stoked em'. Landed 7 fish from 2 to 4 pounds in about two hours(8a.m. to 10a.m.) and missed about 15 more all out of the same weed mat.

      Tips: frogs worked for us. Would love to go back and toss kermy at a few more spots around the lake.

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 66

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished outgoing. launched out of russos, saw some birds working in the main river, caught some small sb. wind blowing pretty hard. Worked se of franks for some LMB. one flipping, two white senko (up to 3.5 lbs) and several dinks. Fish looked as though they have not been feeding lately, pretty scrawny. quit at 1:30pm. tough fishing.

    • By

      Water Temp: 70

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: water temps definitely came down from a couple of weeks ago. we started off the day fishing sand mound slough...only able to get a few hits. My bro caught one 4-12 in sand mound with a baby brush hog. Other fish and hits came off a senko. Spent too much time in unproductive water, which pretty much dampened the day. But with an hour or two left...we headed back out to franks...hung around the south east area near quimby and started fishing. Since my day was shot, i just wanted to see if there was any top water action going...and hoped i could catch a few misc stripers. 2 casts in...a small blow up near isolated tule clump. I stuck with that pattern looking for submerged s as well, and finally we got onto a nice pattern. I forgot to tie on a senko for all those missed hits...would probably would have increased our numbers. But regardless, it was a blast to get a good top water bite. We were throwing poppers...G-splash (lucky craft) and the mega bass popper. the g-splash got the most hits, but the mega bass brought out the big boys.
      City: el sobrante

      Tips: after my 2nd popper fish, the feathered treble hook got tattered, and started to fall off. after that I noticed the bite died down. Where as my bro's popper continued to get hits (feathers still in good shape). Most hits came on a long pause...and i believe the feathers siting still helped with this pattern. fall bite is just around the corner...and they are ready to eat!! good times!!

  • Amador County
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      Water Temp: 77

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished from 7am - Noon. Caught one dink on a darthead hula grub at 11:30 but nothing else. Not even a bite. Some fish jumping out of the water but couldn't tell what they were or what they were after. Fished 10 - 30 ft water with wacky, darthead, traps with no success. North ramp on island. Only had trolling motor so didn't venture too far. Also tried anchovies for catfish with no luck.

  • Napa County
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      Water Temp: 72+

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I've tried this lake out 2 times now and nothing!!! Seems very promising because I can see a lot of fish up against the tules but I never get a bite. I've gotten out very early and the top water bite sucks, I've tried swimbaits, nothing and pluging a jig for them deep, nothing. I chart fish but they are just mouth locked. I've positioned around the drop offs and nothing, not even a bite. The lake is getting low and most likely the ramp will be closed shortly. Love the lake but not the bite. Maybe when the temp drops things will improve if we can still get on this lake. Best part is that when the lake fills back up (hope for big rain this winter) then I'll know all the structure around the lake. Has anyone ever caught a fish outta here???
      City: Santa Rosa

      Tips: Wish I could help. I've fished all the way up the lake arm and nothing. Anyone who knows this lake that can help it would be appreciated. Note: the gate to the ramp is open an hour before sunrise. Hope for rain!!!!

Saturday, September 13th, 2008

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

      Report: fished friday dusk two hits one on and lost one fished late into the nite nothing fished all day sat. nothing saw fish but no strikes water so low that its hard to find cover for fish to hide in couldn`t catch them guess thats why they call it fishin it was fun though
      City: rio vista

  • Mason County
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      Water Temp: 73

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Good day at Anderson. My friend Fred and I started off real poorly. Unlike Tracker31 we couldn't get a bump on a crank. Tried cranks in shad, parrot, and even KVD's Sexy Shad, no joy.
      We cranked mainly along the North west rocky bank when you turn left out of the Launch Ramp.
      Then tried the deep cove with the Island across from the lake from the launch ramp poppers and cranks also without success. Also tried and failed with swimbaits, and spinners. Finally after unsuccessfully hiting various main lake points we tried Russ Snyder's tip of fishing the Northern end past the 5mph bouys (Thanks Russ!). Starting catching a bunch ~15 (all small < 2#) split shotting Margarita Mutilators on the outside edges of grass clumps along the North Eastern bank ~ 8-15~ This was from 2-3pm. The bite stopped once we hit ~ 5' deep. We then motored over to the East bank and worked it back South. On this side we tried hula grubs and 7-8" worms. No luck. There also wasn't any grass. Packed it in around 4pm. Just noticed it was a full moon tonight.
      Who, what, where and how, my English teacher would be proud.
      City: Monterey

      Tips: The "gate guard" informed us that Anderson now requires reservations even though its after Labor Day. She let us in anyway when Fred politely asked her if it was on their website, which she admitted it wasn't.

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 67 deg

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: went out of B&w resort took a run to little mandeville. The good thing about the delta if you dont catch stripers break out the bass rods . fished for stripers caught some dinks soaked some bait for 4 hrs nothing to talk about . picked up and went around little mandeville fished south and west side went over to quimby island east side and nada, nothing looked really good on the incoming tide . it just was a tough day of fishing throwing senkos blades top water could not get a pattern down going to go next sunday with a buddy.. not to mention tourney going on. tight lines to all
      City: Elmira

      Tips: bad tide, tough bite today will knock um dead next week. get your fishing in early!!! cause all those big boats dont slow down,and try to swamp us bass fisherman

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: 76-79

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: I had the pleasure of guiding two great fishermen - and just great guys! One was as local as you can get - lives in the south keys and the other from New York state. The eastern guy qualified for and fished the latest Bassmaster Classic. He made it through the Federation tournaments. It was a real pleasure to show him our great fishery at Clear Lake - though this is the slow time of year. And I was most embarrased when his first bass was a catfish!!! Anyway, we started out of Red Bud about 5 pm and worked our way up the west shore. The bite was really dead but we did get a few small ones before dark. The frog, topwater, and crank bite were dead. The few we caught were on green pumpkin Power worms. It is always fun to introduce new people to night fishing with a black light and last night was no exception. The bass even cooperated!! Our best bite was when the moon was lower - about 9 to 11 pm. Our best area was Anderson Island - on a few of my favorite spots. I think the breeze (a real breeze - not wind!) broke up the moonlight penetration and helped the bite. We also fished the east shore back down to Red Bud and found one or two more hot spots. We wound up with 16 good bass after dark, with three just above and below the 4 lb mark. Our 5 best were pushing 18 lbs - not great but ok. 10" black Power worms were very good (with light weight sinkers) and brush hogs worked too. I was very surprised at how shallow some of the bass were in the bright open water - as little as 4 feet. The guys had a double hookup in that shallow water! They seemed to be feeding as we got several hard hits. We missed several before and after dark that just didn't want to commit to the bait. After 9 pm, a different story. We only hooked a few bass deeper than 20 feet. Beautiful night, great company, and pretty good fishing!
      City: Yuba city

      Tips: A big surprise for me - where were the carp?! They have been active lately and I thought they would be with a pretty good bite last night. Only heard 2 or 3 all evening. They love the moonlight. Back to the drawing board on that theory. Actually, I think the past few nights have been very cool and that might be the answer. They were active during the late afternoon. As we ran back to Red Bud at 1:30 am, we could feel fall in the air. A bit chilly!! We fished a lot of dock shadows but really found most of the bass on rock piles, ledges, etc. I noticed that several areas of thick weeds have thinned already which should put more bass back on main structure.

  • Alameda County
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      Water Temp: warm

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Had a good day out there caught two stripers over two pounds and about six smallmouth bass over 1+. All fish were caught on zara spooks early in the morning.
      City: Livermore

      Tips: get there early and fish topwater. Stripers were boiling for a minute and were gone for the rest of the day. Good Luck and Catch and Release!

  • Fresno County
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      Water Temp: 77

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Got on the water at noon and fished until 6. It was a dinkfest! only one keeper but it was not very crowded and the haze from a fire the day before kept it cool. Didn't get a bite until 2pm and then caught one every other cast. At least I got out on the water. Most were in 14 feet.
      City: Madera

      Tips: Dropshot prism shad, the bass were full of shad and puked them up up all over my boat deck.

Friday, September 12th, 2008

  • Mason County
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      Water Temp: 75

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: fished the south banks from 8:30-12. caught 8 fish on crankbaits and 10" power worm. unfortunately missed about 5 fish on the worm, on very subtle hits (very frustrating). Lost a good 4lb fish next to the boat.
      City: Carmel Valley

  • Napa County
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      Water Temp: 77

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Had a good day, three of us landed about 15 throughout the day. We followed the baitfish all along the eastern shore. We caught most of our bass using crankbaits but a couple were taken using dark colored softbaits as well. Great day on the lake, perfect weather, lots of fish, almost no other boats on the lake at all.
      City: Vacaville

      Tips: Follow the baitfish, when you find them start throwing crankbaits.

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

      Report: does anyone know if you can still get a boat in on the ramp at Konocti Vista casino/ I heard it was very low(the lake)
      City: sacramento

  • Tuolumne County
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      Water Temp: 75

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished from 7am- 2pm. Water clear at about 6ft visability. water temp in main lake about 75. I fished six bit arm and poor mans gultch and finally woods creek, all for the first time.
      Tried spinnerbaits, crankbaits, panther martins, jointed minnows, vivef panther martin swimbait/spinner and zara spooks etc. All to no avail.
      City: Atwater

      Tips: didnt try dropshotting yet, didnt try split shot or any of the softplastic or jig presentations yet. and didnt do any swim baits.

  • Nevada County
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      Water Temp: 78

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: went out night fishing with my buddy randy. We took off about 7:oo pm, and fished till about 1:30 a.m.
      Total we got about 20 bass. A slow night for this lake.
      we got a few on beavers, and buzzbaits, but most on chatterbaits.
      Randy threw a senko till his arm fell off and could'nt get bit.
      He also threw a basstrix and still no takers.
      We caught most in the last 2 feet of water and probably had a 25# limit. The lions share came on C.B.'s
      Broke off 4 huge fish at the boat.
      City: auburn

      Tips: The places where you could fish shallows close to deeper water drop offs seemed to hold more solid concentrations of larger fish.
      I was stupid to fish this late in the year with only 12 pound test. The bigger ones are feeding more aggressively and your bound to tangle with one if you fish late enough.

Thursday, September 11th, 2008

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

      Report: Neal, Thanks for the last report. It saved me alot of searching.seems as if the points with baitfish activity had stripes on them. I ended up with 3 Stripes to 15lbs. I ran out of those slingers so I came in early. good day all around.
      City: Benicia

      Tips: Thanks for the reports. Hope my report helps someone else out there.

Wednesday, September 10th, 2008

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

      Report: With the water dropping I am finding lures all over the place. I guess being on a float tube makes it easier to go to shore and retrieve the baits. So far in the past two weeks I've retrieved two dd cranks, one lipless crank, one terminator spinnerbait, and a spro frog on a branch.