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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Friday, April 25th, 2008

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

      Report: Lived in Ventura as a kid and went to Matilija Reservoir north of Ojai once on a camping trip back in the early 60's. Anyone know if it holds any decent bass or if it even gets fished much? Or is fishing even allowed there anymore?

  • Santa Clara County
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      Water Temp: 60

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Got 4 fish from the bank between the small and big dams. Spinner baits and texas-rigged worms.
      City: San Mateo

      Tips: To the person who left the previous report (bmfd), would appreciate it if you kept your ignorant, racial slurs to yourself and stuck to fishing information.

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

      Report: Lived in Ventura as a kid and went to Matilija Reservoir north of Ojai once on a camping trip back in the early 60's. Anyone know if it holds any decent bass or if it even gets fished much? Or is fishing even allowed there anymore?
      City: Sacramento

  • Sacramento County
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      Water Temp: 59 - 62

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: on the water at 8:30. Started ripping on the face of Mormon Is. Dam. got 2 dinks one 3# and a 3.5 # salmon, all eat a L C staycee sp90 in ghost minnow.moved south and hit wind blown side of main points with a dartheaded 4 1/2 curly robo in aaron's magic, got 1 or 2 fish in every stop. Ended the day in front of the dam. caught several there on the same bait including a 3# 2 oz and a little smallie. Tried the hula grub for a while with no takers.
      total for the day 14# for the best five. 15 fish caught, most of em keepers.

      Total for the day
      City: Folsom

      Tips: move a lot, fish hitting the bank but scattered.
      Focus on points near both deep and shallow waters. Natural colors where best for me, water is realy clear.

    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Does anyone know how the water has come up at indian valley. Has anyone been to the North end. I was there in December and it was high and dry.
      Thanks,
      Bruce

  • Shasta County
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      Water Temp: 58

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished a fun tourney with the U.S. Forest Service over the weekend. We were the only team from So Ca. As usual, we went in blind, with the exception of info and baits from Phil's Prop; this is an exceptional shop with some very helpful people. As recommended, we threw tubes and worms in 5 -20- ft. for plenty of fish. One color tube worked so well we had to return after day 1 to re-load. A lot of fish were shallow, however, most were small and not keepers. Bigger fish came out of water from 20 - 40 feet on the dropshot and underspin. When we caught bigger fish shallow, it was on either a wacky jig or drop-shot senko. Overall though, the fish that made it to the scales came on the underspin; bigger fish, HOWEVER, not a lot of bites - you gotta keep chucking and winding for the reaction bite from the deeper females. After the 2 day tourney we placed 14th out of over 100 teams. We felt very fortunate for being out of the area and not knowing the lake.
      City: Castaic, CA

      Tips: Darthead tubes, worms and wacky rigged senkos in 5 - 20 feet. Don't be afraid to go deep for better fish - dropshot blue crawler robos or slow role the underspin in 20 - 50 ft.

  • Sonoma County
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      Water Temp: 55-59

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished the lake from 4-23 to 4-25. Temps were from 55 in the morning to 59 in the afternoon. Baits of choice were jigs, senkos and dropshot.
      Decided to explore the lake from top to bottom. On Wednesday it rained most of the day and we fished the southwest end of the lake. We found some fish in 5 to 15 feet but no size to speak of top fish was 2.5. Thursday fished the main body and found it to be more productive especially in the early morning, fish were more shallower for the first couple of hours of fishing plus the fish were more cooperative during slight wind spurts. The size of the fish on the main lake seemed about 1 to 2 pounds on average. On Friday we fished the upper lake around Yorty creek. Fishing was a little harder but the quality was a bit better. We only fished a half day but our 2 top fish were 2.5.
      City: South San Francisco

      Tips: Most of the fish are in a pre-spawn stage and are slowly moving up. The lake needs to have a good warmup period maybe that has just begun. Fish your baits slow. None of the fish caught showed any signs of bedding and most were pale.

Thursday, April 24th, 2008

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 61.2

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Went out and fished North today. Caught 15+ fish with the biggest going 6lbs. Caught the majority on a crawdad bait. Caught 5 topwater fish in a 45 minute span before dark. Catching a lot of 4+ lbers. with at least a big fish everytime out.
      City: Elk Grove

    • By

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: I fished the high tide today in Franks tract. I threw a shiner pattern weed slinger in the north tules. 1st cast a 12 lb striper. I thought it was my personal best large mouth. Ended up with alot of 3-4 lb fish just throwing into the tules and swiming the bait slowly. This weekend should be good with the warmer temps.
      City: farmington

      Tips: Enjoying retired life! Be patient and throw deep into the tules. Hold on!

    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: No report, just want to thank those of you who include location in your reports. Not everyone does. Not specific "secrets" of course, but a general location. Of the "5 W's", we know the "who and why". We need the "what, when and where". OK, got that off my chest--carry on. :)
      City: Stockton

  • Yuba County
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      Water Temp: 58-61

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Congrats on the monster spot - maybe 2nd biggest in Calif?! My client and I had a better than expected day today after the rain and cold front with north wind today. Since the lake is down some, I decided to try some offshore structure - and - there they were!! My client caught 7 and I caught 5 in about an hour up to 2 1/2 lbs - 8:30 to 9:30 am. He was using a MMIII Robo worm and I was using a Berkley green pumpkin Power worm. I spent the day showing him good areas to fish and we wound up with 2 largemouth and 21 spotted bass - the biggest spot at 3 1/2 lbs. So we were a little off the lake record, har!!!!! The good spot was the most shallow fish we caught. She was in the back of a cove on the west side about 4 or 5 feed deep. That one and most of our afternoon fish were caught on wacky rigged 5" Senkos in darker colors. Good trip!!
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: It is very hard to predict how the bite will be in the next month. The lake refuses to warm up much, but the bass are active. The east side is usually warmer in the spring, but not this year. Lake is about same temp all over. Most of our bass were about 15 to 20 feet deep, with a few more shallow in the afternoon.

  • Butte County
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      Water Temp: 55-62

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I took out a father/son team on Thrusday. They wanted to learn a couple of new patterns for targeting bass. We used jigs and senkos for the 1/2 day trip. We fished coves with trees and without trees. The guys had a great time caught about 25+ with 6 over. Thursday was the typical blue bird day with the rain and cold front the day before. Friday the 25th. I took out another couple of great guys. Picked them up from their house boat and went up to the slot area. Fished all the way up the North Fork and in Dark Canyon. They did great catching 30+ with 8 over. Their best five would have put them in the money in the Chico Bass Club Tournament the following day. Tubes,senkos and jigs took the bites but no reaction bite for the two days.
      City: Paradise

      Tips: Bites in the coves without trees came on jigs in brn/prpl, watermelon/blk and grn/pumpkin and senkos in pumpkin/blk and watermelon/blk. Coves with trees had the same color senkos. On the walls going out of the coves the tubes were real effective in the clear/sparkle and grn/blk.

  • Shasta County
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      Water Temp: 58-60

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Got on the lake by 10, the spring bite is on. Caught fish on drop shot, dart heads, jigs, carolina rig, senkos, tubes, small swimbaits, and texas rig. I used watermelon, warmouth, hologram shad, and green pumkin. It didn't seem to matter what color I used the fish hit them all very hard. Caught some fish from 2ft all the way to 30ft of water. Caught about 50 fish today, it was a blast! But I didn't even have 5 keepers, but when I catch 50 in one day it doesnt'matter the size.
      City: Redding

      Tips: I was wondering if anyone is catching fish up the pit and if they are, are they using spooks yet?

Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: 58-61

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished the 23rd-27th and the best day was 14 fish and nothing over 3.9 pounds. Many different reason why people think the fishing is so poor. I guess you can use minnows if you want to pay the price. We fished all over the north and south areas with limited success. Don't know if the poor fishing will continue but with gas prices the way it is I would wait until you see the reports posting better results. Most of our fish came on jigs, drop shot, a couple of AC, Senko and frog fish but nothing over 3 pounds. One of my fishing partners in his boat said they caught 40 fish on drop shot around docks. Must have been a luck spot becasue could not duplicate it.
      City: Lincoln

      Tips: Wait until it improves.

Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008

  • Mason County
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      Water Temp: 58 - 59

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Caught 21 fish in water from 4-25' deep. Green
      Senko wacky style. Fished eastside across from ramp and northend. Water seems cold for this time of year.
      City: Morgan Hill

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 63

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: went out sunday got nine not much in the way of size but did get a 6.5 lb mostly on spinning bait and worms. went out today only got three. on out going tide but nailed an 8.5 lb er lost one as big or bigger. landed big one on spinner again, the one that sliped away hit it on a chatter with sinko..

      Tips: dont know...its hit or miss any one else got any tips for me????/

  • Tuolumne County
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      Water Temp: 63

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Took two clients out on Saturday,it was cold and windy. We started in the back of Ramos creek throwing shaky head worms, only caught one 3lb. fish. Looked for beds but didn't find any. We moved out of the creek arm some and started fishing shale rock points, this is where we caught the rest of our fish. We caught then on brown worms an a few on sinkos. Most of the fish were right next to the bank on windy points, feeding on shad.We ended up catching 17 bass , with the biggest one being that first fish. Got a trip booked on the Delta on friday, look there for a report. Good fishing to you. www.markmcgowanguideservice.com
      City: Livermore

      Tips: Fish the windy side of the rocky points, with shaky worms.

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

      Report: sounds like its ready!!!!!!!!hahahahaha Too much pressure, thats a good one!

Monday, April 21st, 2008

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

      Report: Perico they are pressure washing at lopez and they are doing the lock system.
      City: Taft

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: ??

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: I decided to check a cuople spots north (destination was Mosher Slough) it was a bad decision today. I should have stayed south. I struggled getting my 5 fish limit today. Spinnerbaits and senkos worked for me. The custom Valco bass boat "BASSBUSTER1" is running good. I'm looking forward to chasing the frog bite this summer.
      City: Stockton

      Tips: LOL, rememeber to work southern areas first as the water warms work the northern areas to follow the prespawn / spawn patterns.