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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Sunday, December 23rd, 2007

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 55

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Blue bird sky on Sunday with cold front pushing through. Wish I would have went out on Saturday. No reaction bite at all. A few fish on drop shot and shaky head. Didn't graph much at all. Started dragging jigs late in the day. Caught 2 keepers pretty quick, but it was late in the day and had to leave. Should have started with jigs earlier.
      City: Sacramento

      Tips: I think the water is finnaly turning over. Maybe by end of this week's cold temps we'll be there. Once the water turns over more predictable winter patterns will pick up; I hope!

    • By

      Water Temp: 47-51

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: I freakin BLANKED!!! a Wierd day all in all. Couldn't produce on the crank, hula grub or jig.
      planned on spending some time with the swimbait.
      Spent most of the day tossing a Reastion Strike 6" bait. Had a good bump on it up Bear River Arm, and about an hour later, lost it on the cast ($15 to the bottom of the lake cause I didn't retie...usually throwing swimbaits with line heavier than 15lb.!!) Water level had risen about 6 ft since last weekend and the good ramp and dock are now useable (kinda nice!) poked around some in Rock creek arm, and some down by the dam, but the hula grub just wouldn't produce.
      Talked to another guy out there who had only 2 fish, one on a ripbait, other on worm. Saw a couple guys dropshottin and C-Rigging, didn't see 'em catch anything. I heard Friday was o.k. and Saturday pretty bad, guess the fish are still figuring out what to do with all this water thier gettin!!
      City: Lincoln

      Tips: Retie your swimbaits often, just bought the damn thing yesterday! At least that good bump told me that swimbait fish are a real possibility, maybe not with the big baits, but the medium swimbaits ought to produce.
      Probly won't get back to CFW till the summer, but it should be pretty full by then.

  • Sacramento County
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      Water Temp: unknown

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: North Fork: Granite Bay to Anderson Island. Trolled lavender shad Deep Little N - caught Chinook salmon, but no bass. Threw 1/2 oz jig w/ craw trailer - nothing. Not much on the sonar.
      Saw some fish at 20 ft.
      Double drop shot w/ pumpkin grub and blood 5" worm - nada.
      City: Folsom

  • Mariposa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 56-58

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: I really wish people would put in a honest report.Like if you are using bezerk jigs, Im ok with that sponsor deal or no sponsor deal,what color,what size .5oz .75oz??
      what cover did you catch fish on points, ledges,flats,creek channels,wood,rock,boulders,main lake,pocket,cove,river arm??? If you take the time to place a report please place a report.
      I have not fished here since I was 5 years old and have no clue what this lake is about.
      We had a horable day even getting to the lake.
      Leaf spring broke on hwy 99 near modesto and no flat bed would fit my 18ft nitro it was too wide.
      My advise dont wait too long as a maintenance precaution you may want to change your leaf springs every 7 years or so mine broke at 12 years they lasted a while. They dont cost much and they are much easier to fix at home than on the roadside at 4am.
      We were lucky to have some tools and get off the highway.We did not quit and we made it to the lake by 1pm.The Lake is Way way low .fishing was way way slow.Few bites few fish,what we were doing did not work so I wont advise it. Would be a neat lake if it was full.Look forward to some helpfull tips from a report than can help new comers to catch some fish at this lake.
      City: elk grove

      Tips: Keep moving for a bite or two.

Saturday, December 22nd, 2007

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: ?? Cold

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: I agree it's nice to be back on my home waters. After a 2 year tour in South Korea and enjoying the bass fishing there. I'm excited to be back and hunt for that first 10 lber. that's still eluding me.

      After getting the annual service done on my custom 12 ft. Valco "BASS BUSTER 1" luanched at Pixie Woods and worked main channel points and coves with docks and marinas.
      City: Stockton

      Tips: Work it slow and down size. Found fish in 10 ft. of water.

  • Amador County
    • By

      Water Temp: 52 am 54 pm

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Beautiful full moon all nite. Freezing temp, but no rain or wind. Mike's multi species ranger is great with the big windshield. Why don't more guys own them? Spent a lot of time looking for bait balls. Where have all the birds gone? Usually you find the birds you find the bait right? The lake is VERY LOW right now. Kinda neat looking up at all your old hot spots to see why fish held there. Tried spoonin no luck. Tried jigs no luck. Carolina and drop shot were best. We had a small 7 lb limit. Afternoon was better when my watch showed 4 hooves.
      City: orangevale

      Tips: Find the bait you'll find the fish. Launch ramp is only the center. 2 outside ramps are out of the water. Look out for sudden depth changes. Lots of rock piles popping up out of nowhere. Islands everywhere. The prop guys are making a lot of money this year don't help them. MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL YOU BASS NUTS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR.

  • Ventura County
    • By

      Water Temp: 53

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: All I can say is wow! It's getting really good up at casitas. My partner and I got out on the water pretty late as the am temps were below freezing. Plugged a breakfast burrito and some jamaican blue mountain at the snack shack, and then headed out to the southeast side of the island. We took Kelly's advice and started where we left off last time, fishing 53-71 feet. That just wasn't on. We had a few 3 pounders but nothing quality. Decided to adjust our approach and moved up to the 47 - 52 foot range. The shad balls were holding a bit deeper than last week but it didn't matter. The ice jig was a waste of time for us. Went to the Duh. After I put 7 fish in a row in the boat my partner was about to take a dump. Finally he hooks up. 14 pound bullcat! nice. By the time he gets the slime off his rig I put 2 more 5's on board. Fish are coughing up shad like crazy. Footballers. We plugged a few more and called it for a lunch at the snack shack.

      After a couple burgies and a quick run to the outhouse for my partner, we finally got back out on the water. I thought we'd go looking for some new water, so we headed to Station. Got a lot of good marks on the outer ledges, but all we could get were panfish.

      We ran a few more spots experimenting with some new baits. Saw a few guys netting shad freehand on the walls around the corner from mudhen point. They looked like they were struggling to get even a couple pieces of finbait. We pulled up outside of them and stroked a few more fish. As the day went on the bite got a bit shallower. By 3-4 pm we were working 41-46 feet exclusively. If you dropped to 47+ you were into the panfish, guaranteed.
      City: Somis

      Tips: Watch out for the chorizo and pepper jack burrito at the snack shack.

  • Riverside County
    • By

      Water Temp: 60

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fishing hot in afternoon, points in 30 to 20feet, caught sixes SAt and Sun.
      City: Highland

  • Sacramento County
    • By

      Water Temp: 50

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: started the day out thowing swimbaits no takers so pulled out the dropshot and the spoons worked water from 12 to 70 feet caught 1 smallmouth around 3 pounds and a few spots and 2 limits of salmon up to 3 pounds.
      City: roseville

      Tips: tight lines take a kid fishing.

Friday, December 21st, 2007

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 53

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Big north wind made things very tough, unable to fish much of the lake. Started with jigs lower end of the lake with many short strikes no hook up pretty normal after a front. Went with a crank bait to cover some water and see where the fish were setting up. Same results with the crankbait shot strikes. Noticed while cranking the fish were setting up the the sides of the points rather than the tops. Since most of the fish were in the 25-45 foot range I started with a dropshot this worked well for fish in the 1.5-2.0 lb range. Changed over to a mojo rig with a creature bait and cought fish in the 2 lb range up to 3.5lbs. Over all a pretty tough day 20 fish total best five at 11 lbs.
      City: Vacaville

      Tips: Trust your electronics. Most of the fish cought were very close to the bottom.You had to watch the screen very closly to pick up the fish. The bait was very scattered today wich if probably the reason the were pinned so close to the bottom.

Thursday, December 20th, 2007

  • Plumas County
    • By

      Water Temp: ?????

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Best top water bite i have ever had popr were ticket JACK AND MADDIE DRILLED EM Madddie got her first senko fish Myron would be proud best year ever cant wait to go back.... tried dropshotting big browns to no avail
      City: mountain view

      Tips: rainbow pattern popr

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 53

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Caught a nice bag of smallies and hybreads spooning w/ a few largemouth here and there. The bass would not touch a dropshot where I was spooning. My wife caught a nice smallie #3.5 (~20")! Boy what a treat. Bait was still around 45-50 ft deep.

      Talked to a guy said he caught them deep with rattle trap, dropshot, and spooning.
      City: Elk Grove

      Tips: Don't give up on a spot with a lot of bait. We only caught squaw fish and king salmon for the first hour of spooning. I thought the bass were turned off or somewhere else (The last few weeks they were mixed with the other fish in our spot). Returned an hour later and the bass were on the bite! It was weird, at first the smallies were hitting, then an hour later the hybreads hit.

  • Ventura County
    • By

      Water Temp: 59.5

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Was second boat on the water. Went to the cove that is thick with shad and tried spooning and throwing an ice jig to see if I could get any takers, nada. They planted on tuesday so I threw the swimbait the rest of the day. Had lots of followers and saw bass chasing trout at most of the spots I was fishing. Finally got one to play with me and landed a nice 9.5 on the swimbait. Threw it some more and only had more followers. Conditions seemed good for the swimbait but couldnt get many to play. Saw other boats netting and fishing with shad, with some success.
      City: ventura

      Tips: Fish were up shallow today, I stuck with the big bait all day. Live shad, spoons would probably work for numbers.

  • Sacramento County
    • By

      Water Temp: 49

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: got out early tossed swimbaits allday caught 6 fish only biggest was a 8.45 worth the day but arm is sore
      City: Roseville

      Tips: fish big baits the fish are there

Wednesday, December 19th, 2007

  • Sacramento County
    • By

      Water Temp: 52

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I went to Folsom primarily to mark low water spots. This was my first trip this fall/winter. Wow, I knew the water was low, but to see it was something else. The temp break was about 1/2 up north fork and at New York Ravine in the south fork! Yes the south fork was flowing like a river just above New York Ravine. What a trip. Anyway, was only looking for bait to spoon or dropshot. Only found one good pod of bait fish. I did not see any fish around it, but spooned and dropshotted it with no luck. Also went over to Mormon Island to see the old house foundations. I found them and I was disappointed. There was not a whole lot to see. I'm going to wait until we get some water and fish the spring!
      City: Elk Grove

      Tips: None.

Tuesday, December 18th, 2007

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Not sure about the bluegill fishing now. But i have never been able to catch a bluegill in the Winter at Berryessa.
      City: San Bruno

    • By

      Water Temp: ?????

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: sorry for being a jackass but can someone tell me how the bluegill fishing is at Berryessa right now?
      City: Hell Cerrito

      Tips: If someone desperately wants to catch any sort of fish, big or small, it's all about bluegill fishing here! (At least in the summer and early fall).

Monday, December 17th, 2007

  • Ventura County
    • By

      Water Temp: 61

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Played hooky and went fishing from 7:00 until 1:00....Caught a fish right off in 30 feet on a spoon. It went dead with no takers so I moved on. I came upon several boats in a shallow cove and by the wheeling seagulls in the air I surmised that the bait was up and the locals were using live shad. I stayed "offshore" on a breakline and as I slowly eased into the area that was obviously having some action I managed to catch 4 more spoon fish in 35-40 feet. When I did get into the area I found it to be shallow in nature 10 to 5 feet and had a slick of shad just below netting depth but still visable ( I'm sure that earlier the bait had been right on top ) . I never saw a boil the whole time I was there ( 1 hour ) I don't use live bait but it's always intresting to watch the results. The other boat in area was throwing a shad type swimbait and not having any success. The live bait guys caught two three pounders but in my mind they were going about the fishing wrong. If I flyline a shad where there are a zillion shad than am I not one in a zillion? For my buck I'd had taken that healthy bait and flylined them on the mainlake points that have no schools of shad on them....I'm sure that the action would have been at least as good and most likely better. I went about spooning in deep and shallow without any action so I went in for lunch. Back out to my best spoon spot yielded me my best fish of the day...just over 3 pounds and that was it. I am used to catching more than one spoon fish on a spot and this has not been the case for me in my last two outings here. It must be because of a lack of cocentrations of bait so I must be barking up the wrong tree with the spoon....???slow down even more and use a jig or ???? I know the bite is tough right now but fishing for swimbait fish still doesn't turn me on....It probably would have the next day in the rain though ;)....
      City: Ojai

      Tips: The folks I did see fishing artificials seemed to be moving around at a good clip....I think slowing down and hitting them where they live is best somewhere in the 25 foot depth. For some reason my spot for spooning always produces yet some of my others are hit or miss...Strange year. I hope you do better than I have been experiencing...it just seems mighty quiet on my meter at times.

Sunday, December 16th, 2007

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 52 thru 55

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: It was a very cold weekend up at the lake. On Saturday my wife and I headed
      out to the vineyards. The water was very calm and the fishing was fair. Every-
      thing I threw caught fish. My largest fish was 3+ lbs. I caught it on brass and
      glass and a watermelon black flake five inch senko. I had quite a few bites on
      a spinner bait and lost a good size bass at the boat. I tried top water with little
      success. We hit a few fish on crankbait that went down anywhere from six inches
      to eight feet. Sunday was overcast most of the day and I went out for a couple of
      hours with Fred and his brother Jeff. They caught a couple of trout and I caught a
      bass (see photo). Before we went out I was fishing at the dock and caught around 14
      bass the largest one about 2 lbs. 'til next week......................good fishing!!!!!!!!!
      www.fishingconnection.net If you have any stories you would like to share please
      email me at bestguide@hotmail.com or call me at 650-583-3333.
      City: Napa

      Tips: Bait balls seen thru the lake throw SPOONS<TUBES<RATTLE TRAPS<RIP BAITS<MINNOWS<

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 45

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Went out with a friend for a foggy day and cold Delta day of bass fishing.Out at daybreak and no bites till 1:00 then wham,25lbs.for 4 fish.We were south delta and the fish were very active after a long search.I gotta 5 and a 2.He gotta 9.98 and a 8.Really was fun.
      City: Orangevale

      Tips: Hang in there,don't stop grinding it out till you find the fish.If you are not getting bit then move.Fish the current then fish the slow water.Jigs and brush hogs slow.Danny.