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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Sunday, December 16th, 2007

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      Water Temp: 51 across the l

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Well I had to tow my boat with my new truck and I had to take my cousin out fishing, so why not do both at the same time.

      Wintertime bassin, never the best, but it sure never dissapoints!!
      Launched at about 10:30, fished till about 4:30.
      Water is up since I was last out. Started down by the dam, had a quick bite, but couldn't connect on the T-rigged Berkley Chigger Craw. Shot up to the mouth of Bear River, and my cuz stuck a decent spot on a black hula grub.
      Went up further to the "tree cove". Tossed a bandit crankbait up to the rocks and stuck a nice 3 lb largemouth, just around the corner (upriver) tossed a brown jig n' pig to a small stump and stuck another 3 lb largemouth. By then it was cold as #$&% so we went back down to the dam for a quick bit, nothing else, decided that a warm truck on the drive home would be more comfortable. Not the biggest bass, but two 3 lbers is a nice treat for the middle of December out at CFW. Didn't use any dropshot or darthead B.S. rather stick some big fish than a bucket full of 8 inchers!
      City: Lincoln

      Tips: Keep fishin deep with the drop shot, I'll stay shallow and catch the big ones!!!

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

      Report: Ripped eight decent fish today and had one very nice jig fish. Today I fished the mid-lake area and found fish just about everywhere I stopped. My best 5 today went just over 14lbs. I observed several folks fishing for crappie but didn't see anyone actually hook-up at Kono Tayee or at Shag Rock. Sure seems like crappie fishing is slow compared to years past.
      City: Petaluma

      Tips: A decent shad scent is used on all my rip baits. I believe it definitely makes a difference.

Saturday, December 15th, 2007

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 48

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: On a cold and foggy morning, I knew winter had settled into the delta. What happended to the fall bite? I don't know, I guess I missed it.

      The fog was thick, so I didn't get on the water until about 8:30 and started by throwing beavers without any takers. I did some shallow cranking in and around franks track, again no luck. I found myself near little franks and decided to toss a hula grub on a football head to the rip-rap. Of course, the first cast hung on the drop. So I moved in to retrieve it. I was able to pop it free and my rod immediately loaded up with a nice delta 4 pounder. And I knew I was on to something. This fish had a full belly and I realized that I had missed the fall bite. It was in the rocks and the "special of the day" was crawfish. With the tide almost bottomed out, I called it a day.
      City: Walnut Creek

      Tips: Who knew, they are between the weedline and the rip-rap. Work the gap

      For those that are interested in expanding they knowledge and fishing partners, Devil Mountain Bassmaster is quickly growing as one of the best bass clubs for the recreational tournament fisherman.

      If you are interested in learning more, please go to www.dmbass.com or give me a call at 925-639-7724.

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: 48

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Our club fished Saturday and found great weather but a tough bite. My partner and I decided to take a chance and stay on the North end to see if we could get a reaction bite from the bigger fish up North and it almost worked. I thought I could get a few bigger fish ripping a LC pointer 100 in shallow water first thing in the A.M.and our first three fish were 2.5 lb, 3.5lb and a 5+ with the biggest one coming unbuttoned at the boat. I was feeling pretty good at that point and then reality set in and 3 hrs and no bites later, I realized I should have went South. The rip bite died in the sun and with no wind and some pretty clear water for this time of year, the bite turned off for us. We tried swimbaits, speed traps, dropshot, shakey head worms and jigs with no takers. I finally was reduced to a wacky rigged worm to get the rest of my limit but I might as well of used a box of "Decon" since all we could find were rats!

      I know the bite was better from the narrows South but I thought we could at least get 14-16 lbs fishing a few select spots on the North end. Oh well, as my wife keeps telling me....thinking is not my strong suit!

      We ended up with just over 11 lbs but at least I got home in time to see the 49ers win one for a change. Probably should be thankful I didn't fall in!
      City: Ukiah

      Tips: Go South young man!!!!! The fish on the North end do not want to bite.

      One other thing I noticed was I do not remember hearing a single boat go by Corinthian Bay/Long Tule point area from 7:00 am to 10:00 am. Now when can any of you remember THAT happening on a sunny Saturday even in December?

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

      Report: Chris with the 17 foot green nitro boat get a hold of me. I talked to you yesterday at folsom low level ramp. Send me info to the above email address. Went out today to take pictures and there were at least 15 bass boats....
      City: EDH

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

      Report: I've been going every weekend and the fishing is not good.It has been tough. I've only been catching 15 inchers. The only things that i can catch my fish on are dropshots with a shad patern worm or a green worm and berserk bait jigs.In the past month the only good fish that we have caught were a 10.4lb black, 6lb spot, and a 6.98lb spot and came on berserk jigs. The best bit has been right at daylight and about noon. I cant catch any good fish up river so stay on th main lake.
      City: Atwater

      Tips: Use berserk bait jigs and stay on the main lake.

  • Butte County
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      Water Temp: 49

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Spillway ramp closed due to water level Launched out of Bidwell No dock and a sketchy ramp at best very shallow I still launched 7am cold no wind water was calm started fishing points drop shotting my son was trowing some top water no action I had a drop shot with a worm mouth 3inch worm got a hard hit pulled out a trout fishing 25ft second fish was a bass 2# fatty on a football head 1/2 oz with a white single tail grub good solid strike in about 12 ft of water
      started trowing a stacy 90 on points and was getting trout like crazy just nailing the bait left around 3pm with 2 limits mostly trout good day
      City: Roseville

      Tips: when the wind picked up so did the bite fish slow

  • Sonoma County
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      Water Temp: 52

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: The Redwood Empire Bass Club held their annual open tournament on Saturday. We had a great turnout with 32 boats. It took 16.84 lbs get 1st place and we paid 10 positions down to 11.65 lbs. Not a lot of big fish overall, but a 7.52 lb bass earned the big fish prize of $450. 2nd big fish weighed just over 6 lbs. Check out the complete standings at www.rebc.net.
      City: Rohnert Park

      Tips: Most anglers were catching bass on jigs, but overall the bite was very slow. Work main lake areas around trees. Try a black jig with a black/blue trailer between the trees. Work it very slowly and wait for tension on the line before setting the hook. Don't set on the first tap or you'll miss the fish.

Friday, December 14th, 2007

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      Water Temp: 52

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: This is a little late but better late than never I guess. I took the boat out to get some stabill put in the gas tank and get a line wet! I hadn't had the boat in the water since a August Delta trip, so it was certainly past time to get it in the water. She cranked up just fine! I took off around to the left of the launch ramp and fished by an old road bed opposite of the camp grounds with no takers. I was throwing reaction baits looking for some fun fishing, anything but a DS or DH rig!! Well after about an hour and a half of dinking around, I flew up to the dam and went around with more cranks and rattle traps with no takers. So I finally secumed to the DH with morning dawn as my color had a few hits in about 18' and I finally stuck a Larry on the north side of the dam went 1.25lbs and was 17" long. I was happy with that and called it a day. I take it the water is up now, that's great, we need all the water we can get.
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: Dress for the occasion, bundle up, and have fun!

  • Sacramento County
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      Water Temp: 54 Degrees

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Launched out of Granite Bay at Noon(by the way it's the only ramp that is still open) lake water level down to 370 feet air temp at 54 Degrees and I was told that the lake hasn't been this low in 2 decades. Started by fishing in 100 feet depth and slowly moved hoping that the fish would tell me at what depth their sitting in. Found a lot of bait in 80+ water but No action. Only had one hook up in 13 feet of water on my 6 inch swimbait. This spot was 4lbs 6oz and was huge. My very first swimbait fish came at 3:30pm. What a fight she put up!! Chris email me so that we can start sharing ideas. There were about 8 other boats on the water and talked with a couple of boaters pretty much had the same luck I had. I don't know why there are not more posts because there sure are plenty of boats on the water.
      City: EDH

      Tips: Just get out and enjoy the water.....Tight Lines

Thursday, December 13th, 2007

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

      Report: Striper fishing has been good at night. Have'nt hit the waters much during the day. Ken hit me up and i'll give you some areas to try.
      City: Discovery Bay

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      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Striper fishing has been good at night. Have'nt hit the waters much during the day. Ken hit me up and i'll give you some areas to try.
      City: Discovery Bay

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: 48ish

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: My buddy and I made a trip with the intention of splitshotting big minnows and seee what would happen. Jumbo minnows are expensive though. I figure they ran $1.50 apiece and I bought 4 dozen.......fairly pricy but it was a blast. My buddy dropped one down in 20 feet of water and caught a 2 lb fish right away. I missed several, lost 2 when I noticed that my #2 gami offset kept bending open------DOH! Switched to a 4ought offset hook, overkill I know and it looked kind of wierd, but it never got bent open! We fished 20' off deep rocks all day from redbud to henderson. We boated 18 fish to 6.5 lbs with 5 more up to 4.6 lbs. I fgure we missed as many fish as we caught. I would feel the fish bite and then run with the bait. Several times I freespooled the reel and let them run more. Swing on them and come up empty.
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: split shot jumbo minnows is working now.

    • By

      Water Temp: 49-52

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I had a very successful night fishing trip with a fishing buddy - we DIDN'T freeze to death!! Close however!!! The bass have experienced some freezing however as they arn't "thunking" the bait much anymore. We wanted to go Tues evening with the cloud cover (warmer night) but couldn't so experienced a very cold Wed evening with clear skies. The bite was best right at dark with Blade Runner and Rodstrainer jigs in Horseshoe Bay/Henderson area. I stuck a 7 even and a 5-5 and we each dumped 5's. He did land a near 5 and a 4 1/2. We did get several 4's and near 4's. It is always interesting to me how certain weight classes of bass feed on certain days and nights. We did not hook a monster to our knowledge. They might have fed more the previous night. But a real successful night (we quit at midnight) with 24 in the boat and a nice limit of almost 25 lbs. Best fishing was half hour before dark and 7 to 10 PM.
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: Dress warmly when fishing the very cold nights - and days for that matter. You can always take it off, but you can't put it on if you don't have it!! When you are running from spot to spot, remember the term "wind chill"!!! Brush hogs were good as usual - I tried black/blue a lot. The jig bite was better as I suspected it would be in colder water. I threw Basstrix swimbaits some before dark but no takers. Fish are still moving some - areas that were good two weeks ago are slower now. Most quality bass were 15 to 20 feet, though I did try deeper water a lot. 2 and 3 pounders were shallower. Interesting, the last 3 we caught (I should say "HE caught", har), were the smallest of the night - 1 1/4 to 2 lbs. I think the quality bass feed earlier in the winter evening and then the smaller ones feel safe to try. I have experieced that on many winter night trips. Don't forget the Smelly Jelly!

Tuesday, December 11th, 2007

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 48-52

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: well i tried to start off the day ripping.......nothing..then blades.nothing again. so i picked up a spinning rod, luckily i brought one and split shot a 6" roboworm all day. i targeted sunny banks with little current but close to the main channel. i targeted points but stayed off the bank. i found my self casting up to 6-8' of water all day. biggest fish shy over 2 lbs. no stripers. i figure i love fishing for bass so why switch. i tried a jig a little and cranking but nothing. total 10 fish nothing to brag about...
      City: san francisco

      Tips: work those points. look for water w/ no or little current. i do not doubt the c-rig would have work but i perferd that light presentation. it was calm and the water was like glass for 10am on till night.
      purple w/ chart. tip roboworm

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      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Hey Striperman, how are the strips doing? Haven't seen a report from you for a while.
      City: modesto

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      Water Temp: 53.8 to 56.8

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Ok bass fisherman the trout are in for round one and traffic is on the light side and bass moved back up shallow. Swimbaits work for my fishing partner on 12/9/07 with and 8/10 and 5/0 bass both bass were in less than 5 feet of water. Jig fish can also be caught in depths of 8 to 15 feet also. Afternoon bite is much better than the morning.
      City: kerman ca

      Tips: slow down and target and area small rock piles drop offs and brush piles and small trees are holding bass.

Sunday, December 9th, 2007

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 49.5

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Cold...really COLD. Bluebird skies, windy, falling water temp....and 2 lousy bites. fished with a LC pointer around a pump station and the lure absolutely got whacked. Good fight for about 1.5 min then POW....the fight stops, no resistance on the line....FISH 1, ANGLER 0. I'm pretty certain it was a good size striper, (but prayed it was a LM) Missed my only fish of the day, and to top it all off, the fish stole my lure to add to his or her trophy case. Damn expensive trophy too!! Tossed jigs, and pointers all day, and went home empty handed. Going to stay at home for the holidays, hopefully cabin fever wont get to me. Brought home all the loose tackle in the boat, and reorganizing everything.
      City: E.C.

      Tips: Wear a big Jacket, and bring some patience....its tough out there!!

  • Ventura County
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      Water Temp: 63

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: I had not been to Casitas in 5 weeks so I started where I left off. I was surprised by the lack of bites and the inactivity on my meter. I had left biting fish in 50 to 90 feet of water and was catching 10-12 fish per trip last month. I fished hard from first light until 11:30 and had two fish for my trouble. One came on a 1/2 oz. brown jig with a watermelon red flake zoom brush hog tailer in 35 feet and the other came on a 1 oz. spoon in 55 feet. I had lunch with the wifey and went out for one more hour. I have a spot that is very shear in nature with stone and chunk rock that has produced a spoon fish for me every trip this year. I tried this spot for 15 minutes covering the 40+ range and came away with nothing. I turned the boat in tight and dropped the 1 oz. spoon down. I caught a fish before it hit bottom. Same size as the morning fish. At the time it was not clear if the fish had come out from shallower to eat or if I had just got lucky on the drop. Since I was in shallow I went to a 3/4 spoon and caught a 3 pounder 5 minutes later in 25 feet. Hmmm?? I then stayed in tight and mover the boat along quick ( for spooning anyway ) and would pitch forward and get a few rips on the bait and then up and out and repeat. I caught another fish ( same size ). Okay the fish are shallow in my mind. I turned the boat around and caught two more in 25 feet in 5 more minutes. I observed bait in the 125+ range in the morning but could not find or catch any deep fish as in previous visits....Strange that post frontal I would catch the same quality fish as from weeks prior so much shallower. My only conclusion is that the fish are indeed shallower. Were they there at first light or shallower?...unknown...But I did not see shallow fish like trips before. The water warmed and the fish came up and became more active later in the day?? Unknown.
      City: Ojai

      Tips: I would fish in the 25 foot or shallower zone on the smaller points towards the backs of the main coves with a jig or dropshot in a brown color. My spooning techniques are not for everyone but they do allow me to search the water quickly. Swimbait fish should be on tap close to the launch ramp but I did not investigate them. Good luck...keep positive...have fun. ;)

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

      Report: I have been experiencing a pretty decent rip bite all around the lake over the last few weekends. A few Sundays ago I had a 24 fish day in only 3 hours of fishing. This past Sunday my numbers were down but the quality of the fish were much, much better. My best 5 for the day came in at 16-7. Big fish for the day was a 4-14.
      City: Petaluma