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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Thursday, July 17th, 2008

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      Water Temp: 75

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: had the trip of a lifetime. got a ten plus off the dam face right when i got there. stayed on the water till 11 o clock. the top water bite was on. i got a whole variety of size. i dialed in on a pattern an it paid off. all together got three pushing ten and more in 6 - 8 lb range. eastman is a blessing. found a huge dead bass w light fishing line in mouth. and others i caught had hooks in the belly. we all know how important these fish are for the future/
      City: merced

      Tips: i dont want to give all my tips, i am very competitive but. fish were in 20 ft. try to beef up your line to reduce chances of losing fish. fishing is taking its toll on these fish. we all need to practice clean fishing.

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      Water Temp: 72-75

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: 4 hrs out, SKUNKED...

      Tips: covered entire lake using everything in box, nada.

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

      Report: turkey shoot on 7-19-08, brandy creek, team event
      6pm to midnight, sign up at the ramp by 530pm
      City: whiskeytown

Wednesday, July 16th, 2008

  • Santa Clara County
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      Water Temp: 78 - 81

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: What a day at Calero! Started on the water at 4 off by 8pm, over 25 bass. One of those days where everything I threw worked. Bagged 15 + using split shot robo's, cranking, senkos, and jigs. Big fish for the afternoon went 4.7 on blk vpr jig, punching thru weed mats. From 6-8 wanted to work on top-water, and gained some confidence! Three nice 3's on frog, a 4.2, and the topper for the day, 5.10 on chartruese buzzbait.
      City: San Jose

      Tips: Talked to a few people on shoreline who weren't catching much. Felt bad working the outside weedline and catching on almost every cast right in front of them! Outside weedline and points seperating shallow from deep.

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 76.6

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished around the dissapointment slough area.A twelve hour day catching two 4 pounders & many three pounders with a total of 21 bass..Used 6 inch Senko's red/black & brushhogs with 1/2 oz..fixed bullet weights..Also did some drop/shotting with 7 inch Robo worms & 1/2 oz weights...
      City: Sacramento

      Tips: Senko's worked the best at the top of the tide & the outgo for two hours then the bite shut off..Switched to the brushhog with weights and that was the ticket.....A hot day...93 degrees! Dropshoting never produced a fish over 2 pounds..

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      Water Temp: 73 to 79

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished the Mossdale turkey shoot with my son (had a ball)caught a lot of fish,largest 3lb. Son lost 2 between 5 and 8 lbs,hook too small on swimbait, darn those two would have put us in the money. Most fish on senco ,one 2plus on swimbait. senco on rocks,swimbait sparce tullies. great weekday turkey shoot come on out wed Aug. 13. blast off at 4pm , back at dusk. Launch out of Ladds. Jack

      Tips: Fish hard ,rocks and tullies mixed. Fish holding 1 to 6 ft.

    • By

      Water Temp: 76 degrees

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished the top of the tide just at the turn around Mildred Island..Caught 40 bass with 5.4 oz. largest...Used 6 inch Senko's Red/Black...Fish very aggressive the whole outgo...Very few dinks!..Not much boat pressure....
      City: Sacramento

      Tips: Lots of water here, so RUN & GUN till you find them....

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      Water Temp: 75

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: This is more a thank you report. I went out of Holland last Thursday (7/10) and after fishing for a hour or two with only a couple of bites, I talked to a fisherman who was doing real well. He gave me all the info I could've asked for and even flipped his favorite crank bait onto my boat so I could get a good look at it. Anyway, I didn't catch fish doing what he was doing, but because of his advice I did catch fish and was able to develop a pattern. I'm a real novice in the Delta and ended the 6 hr day with about 15 fish anchored by a 6lber. I know most bass dudes don't give out too much info for various reasons, but this guy did. So a big THANKS to the guy in the Pro Craft w/ the Mariner engine I had a great day.
      City: orinda

      Tips: Caught all the fish on Senkos, mostly on the ends of sparse tules, although the big fish came on shallow rock. Black with red flake seemed to work the best.

  • Amador County
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      Water Temp: 76

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Lake very warm, and very very clear. All the action was on top water. whatever it was if it made noise the bass would hit it. Largest was 6lb smallest 2lbs with several 3-4lbs in between. they hit the plug next to any type of stick-up you could throw at. The lake is so very very low. EBMUD sez its 38% full. I say its 78 percent empty and falling.
      City: Sactown

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: I hope warm....

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I plan on taking my novice fishing partner to Clear Lake and I am going to teach him how to frog fish. Can someone tell me how the frog bite is going and how the weeds are?
      City: Simi Valley

      Tips: I am ready for a good week and giving my fishing partner a good old bass kicking..........

  • Mariposa County
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      Water Temp: 78-80

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: What a weird day on the lake. I got out there about 530, missing the false dawn and was fishing by 545. Topwater on Zara spooks failed. Spinnerbaits and buzzbaits failed. Crankbaits failed...my first four hour a big zilch.....piney creek and barretts areas. then I went rovin, and headed up toward bagby and found some atypical structure....and was sight fishing some nice florida and spotted bass. at first i was using in line spinners and hooked a 3 lb bass on a roostertail, but between the light tackle and a very aggresive fish i lost him....but soon i was catching some 15-16in bass...never saw the big one again. But what really worked well was drop shotting..a 3in reaper in that grey with white and red fleck. On my first cast a bass...and nearly every cast..until the area i was fishing was depleted. I was with my son and he caught several 6in bass on roostertails at mclure point as well. A weird but fun day...bite trailed off at about 2-3pm...and we were tired...feed the carp at baretts and then went home.
      City: atawater

      Tips: Dropshotting works!

  • Shasta County
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      Water Temp: 75-79 degrees

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: The reaction bite has been very good in the Pit River Arm with spinnerbaits, cranks, ripbaits and topwater. Better topwater choices included Vixens, Zara Spooks or Sammy's. Chartreuse and white spinnerbaits or chartreuse and purple crankbaits in the mud lines are also working well. Lucky Craft Staysee 90's in ghost minnow or chartreuse shad are favored for the rip bite. Worms and jigs worked on main lake points in the 15 to 30 ft range have been picking up some fish. Spotted bass and an occasional smallie were taken with fish averaging up to 1

Monday, July 14th, 2008

  • Plumas County
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      Water Temp: 70+

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished for smallmouth last week and did quite well with fish up to a little over 2#. Worms and crickets with split shot. Fish were in about 20-30' at times, then moved up to 12' at other times. Some were caught by the kids with nightcrawlers off the dock. I saw some huge fish off the dock swimming in 6' of water. They looked like big browns, but are there squawfish in that lake? If they were browns, they were big! Smoke was real bad, along with ashes on most days of the week. Worse in the afternoons. No wind.
      City: Folsom

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 78-80

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: July 14th, 2008 - Launched from Rivers End Marina located in Byron California at 6am and fished until 3pm..

      Locations Fished - Grant Line Canal, Woodward Canal, Union Point area, Victoria Canal.

      Catch - 3fish over 3lbs, 8 fish of legal size but under 3lbs, several short fish .
      City: Byron

      Tips: Bait - 5" Senco motor oil with black flake, Rebel Pop-R in baby bass pattern and Bomber model "A" in the chartreuse and blue pattern .

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

      Report: Three of us from Ventura County and Fresno fished the weekend and Monday this week. We are the ones from Southern Calif that LH saved and took us out on Sunday. We fished on Saturday at Rattlesnake and Shag Rock. We found a steady bite during the day with several fish up to 4 lbs. Saturday afternoon we applied first aid to my trolling motor with hose clamps (the plastic housing broke apart) and were able to fish in the evening when one of us was on fire with the green watermelon fluke and caught at least 7 fish and one at 7-4. We fished the banks that ran south from Shag rock to the concrete wall. For Sunday see LH report. Monday we fished 1/2 day and started on the south end. It was slow until about 10 am when we found an area east of shag rock and caught several fish on kreature baits, flukes, and senkos. One went 6-6 on the kreature bait. We finished the day at Rattlesnake island and found some small school feeding on shad. We caught a few drop shoting a small oxblood robo work and a small rip bait. The birds were also feeding on the shad. It was the first sign of schooling shad we had seen all weekend. I want to say thank you to Bob at Limit Out for taking my many calls trying to help me with my trolling motor, and to Larry for salvaging saving our Sunday. The hose clamps worked great and kept it together for the remainder of the trip.
      City: Thousand Oaks

      Tips: Be prepared to adjust and find a pattern that's working. Our So Cal lakes have even clearer water which helped us adjust at Clearlake. Two years ago it didn't matter what I used - I caught fish using just about everything. It looked like things were starting to change for the better on Monday - signs of shad and a heavy algae bloom. Clearlake is a great lake.

  • Butte County
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      Water Temp: Bath Water

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Berry Creek is LOADED with largemouth. That's right largemouth! Further up the north fork where the feather river comes in is loaded with BIG spots and some nice little smallmouth. We were sight fishing in the middle of JULY. I LOVE IT.

      Tips: Brush Hogs at Berry and tubes, senkos, roboworms and jigs where the river hits the lake(in the current).

Sunday, July 13th, 2008

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 78-80

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: July 13th, 2008 - Launched from Russo's Marina located on Bethel Island at Franks Tract at 12 noon and fished till 930pm.

      Locations Fished - Franks Tract, Little Franks Tract, Holland Cut Marina area, Discovery Bay.


      Catch - 9 fish over 3lbs, 14 fish of legal size but under 3lbs, numerous short fish and 5 small stripers.
      City: Bethel Island

      Tips: Bait - Bomber model "A" in the chartreuse and blue pattern was the most consistent bait all day and caught all of the fish over 3lbs.

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: 81 to 82

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: went out of the oaks area on sunday got on the water at 5 am. started fishing rattlesnake Island on top water with no luck accept a 2 lbs crappie on a pop R. SO Ithen Started throwing a X rap and picked up 4 small mouth 2 to 3 lbs we contiuned around because we only had our trolling motor since my outboard in the shop my brother put on a Xrap in a hitch color and hooked up with we thought was a hog and faught it for at least 5 min. on light tackle but when we boated it . turned out to be a 8 lbs catfish,then I started throwing a yamamoto hula grub on a dropshot and picked up 10 more in the 3 to 4 lbs range I went threw all of that color and started with a senko in the same color with the same results we ended up with a total of 35 bass and 5 catfish that thought they were bass maybe they just like that smellyjelly sent
      City: carmichael

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      Water Temp: 83-85

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: A former client and 2 others towed their boat up from southern Cal but had problems with it. I don't normally guide on Sunday but made an exception for them after their distress call. We had a great time with a variety of techniques. One had his first frog blowups but missed them. They used Senkos (301,330,921), drop-shot, crankbaits, Texas rigged Robo worms (oxblood), jigs, flukes, and probably some others baits! I was handing out baits all day, har! The best bite was 9:30am to 12:30pm Everyone did well as we landed 23 bass to 4 3/4 lbs with a limit over 20 lbs. Lost one big one. The two biggest were the most shallow - about 2 or 3 feet in rock - hitting Senkos. The guys had good fishing skills but needed to learn how to fish different baits and different types of structure. I think we accomplished a lot! We fished all three parts of the lake with success at several spots, but the bite really died about 1pm.
      City: Yuba city

      Tips: As was mentioned in a previous post, weeds are difficult and are quite deep now in some spots (15+ feet). I will be interested to see if the lake ever gets some color this year. Again, no sign of small bass. We targeted tulles and weeds next to rock. We got a few dock fish but not as many as I thought we would. Lots of bass are hanging out at the edge of the weedlines - about 15-20 feet deep. If you can get a Senko down to them, they will take it during a feeding period. We used a lot of Smelly Jelly (crawfish) today because the bite was so dead early in the morning. We just stuck with it.

    • By

      Water Temp: 75

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: While fishing from 8:30-1:30 I threw everything in my tackle box with no success. I talked to another fisherman who had bagged only 1.
      City: carmel valley