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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Sunday, December 9th, 2007

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

      Report: Angler's Choice Pro-Team Central Vally circuit hosted it's first tournament on Millerton this Sunday. Ten teams braved a cold start to compete on this late fall day that saw some excellent quaility limits come to the scale. Veiw the entire results and news at www.usanglerschoice.net under the Central Valley Pro-Teams Results and News headings.
      City: Le Grand, Ca.

      Tips: Next tournament date - 1/26/2008 on Pine Flat.

Saturday, December 8th, 2007

  • Napa County
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      Water Temp: 57-59

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished a club event on Saturday. Conditions: post front, blue skies, no wind in the early morning, strong north wind by noon that continued the rest of the tournament day. Water was crystal clear and unusually warm for this time of year.

      I didn't have time to prefish for this event and the last time I fished Berryessa was this time last year. I read the recent post by Larry Hemphill and tied on 2 spoons...a 1-ounce and a 2-ounce in morning dawn color. I also tied on a jig, a C-rig and a rip bait.

      My partner and I ran to Wragg Canyon and looked for bait fish. At first, we didn't see any so we worked a couple points with the ripbait and jigs. No bites all the way out to 50 feet. At this point, we decided to cover a lot of water looking for the baitfish Larry talked about.

      WOW! When we found the baitfish, the balls were 30 feet thick! I started spooning while my partner used a dropshot. I immediately stuck a small spot. In the next 30 minutes, we finished a small limit anchored by one largemouth around 2.4#. It was half the fish came on the spoon and half on the dropshot. But, I also stuck several nice salmon. Around 10:00, we realized we were still catching a lot of fish but we weren't improving the size. We decided to try fishing UNDER the bait balls using a C-rig. The theory was that the small spots were "chasing" shad while the bigger fish were just laying below, eating the injured minnows that drifted down. This worked. We culled out all four spots with smallies and largemouth. Also caught a 2# crappie! At the end of the day we stopped counting at 33 keepers...including 7 salmon and a big crappie. Our weigh-in limit was ALL largemouth and we won the tournament by a pound and a half.

      The post-front bite was tough for the other 18 boats. We did not expect to get a check with a bunch of 2# fish but 2nd place was only 9 pounds so we were lucky.

      Thank you Larry for making honest and accurate fishing reports. We found exactly the conditions you described and our bite was fantastic. We caught fish all day including spots, smallies, LM crappie and salmon. In addition, we missed another 10-15 bites that just didn't hook up. This rare kind of fishing day is what makes all the time we devote to fishing worth it.
      City: Fair Oaks

      Tips: All fish came between 50-55 feet in big balls of baitfish. Small spoons catch small fish. My best fish came on the 2-ounce DUH spoon. The other thing was that the better fish are NOT chasing shad. They are waiting under the baitfish pods for the injured minnows to drift down...makes sense...big fish can't afford the energy to chase small meals, but they can get fat by letting the salmon and spots beat up on the balls of bait fish while they lay on the bottom sucking up "french fries". So, if you want largemouth, get under the bait balls.

    • By

      Water Temp: 53.5

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished from 10-3 caught 25-30 fish only 4 over 2 pounds all on drop shot and dart head 4 1/2" curly tail prizm shad and blue gill. No reaction bite. lots of fun.
      City: Lincoln

      Tips: fish rock banks and bounce it all the way back to the boat.

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

      Report: Still sucks unless you are fishing live shad...shad are everywhere...Did manage a few bites in the morning but nothing special...
      City: Oak View

  • Sacramento County
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      Water Temp: 54

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: I fished main lake areas using jigs managed around 15 for the day with the largest a largeie 3.4 on a swimbait. A couple of my friends where fishing just to the left of me and picked up a 7.3 largie on a swimbait. They were primarily using drop shot and jigs and I am sure they had close to 20 or better for the day.
      City: Lincoln

    • By

      Water Temp: cold

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: started fising about 11 am. tryed drop shot and darthead picked up a 2 lbs smallmouth. about 15 ft off the bank then we got a couple of nice spotties. 2 to 3 lbs. all on purple and brown sculpin. most fish got it on the drop or we would just drag the bottom and they would pick it up . we ended up with 12 fish for the day.
      City: carmichael ca.

      Tips: fish slow

Friday, December 7th, 2007

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

      Report: Is the floating ramp still used at Trinity Center when the ramp is out of the water?
      City: Lompoc, Ca

Thursday, December 6th, 2007

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

      Report: Rain...but boy what a day!!!! went out of bridge bay headed up the Mac just past Hirz.....bammmm 1st fish 3.48 bammm...2.36...bammmmm...1.89...bammm...3.13
      then lots of small 1.4 to 1.63...moved up the right side bammmm 2.54.......bammmm 3.82....bammmm 3.63 this is one of the best days I've ever had...all on a new jig I never fished before got it from a guy who is making them local he calls it the BassTard.......Butcher out..
      City: Reddin

      Tips: Mac's got fish...

Wednesday, December 5th, 2007

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

      Report: Hit the narrows at 11:00 A.M. drop shotted w/ M&M 4inch and jigged W/1/4 oz brn jig hooked 10 spots in 45 min. called it a day
      City: W.Sac

      Tips: Find the bait fish and set the hok

    • By

      Water Temp: 57.8

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I was not expecting much today. I got on the water at 8 am and fog did not clear until 1 pm! I was primarily at the lake to mark exposed areas as the lake is down a rare ~23 ft. I was hoping to find some spoon fish from 10 am to 2 pm

      Tips: Read Larry Hemphill's posts. His below posts helped me get into these fish. Thanks Larry!

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      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Hey Oscar, Try rainbow trout swimbaits like Huddleston or River2sea versions. I grew upon this lake and as a teenager I was catching bass to 10 lbs. Good luck!
      City: Antioch

      Tips: Everyone with a float tube likes to throw senkos and jigs on this lake. Switch it up....go with swimbaits. You won't get as many bites, but trust me, there are monster fish in this lake and they will eat a BIG bait.

Monday, December 3rd, 2007

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: 48-50

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished Sun and Mon, Spoke to BFK (see photo's) when I arrived at Red Bud, they were just coming in at 10:30 am and I was going out, they had did well but had fished all night, cold and wet! I went out and got 13-14 fish to 4 lbs from 10:30 am to 8:00 PM. The 4 lber came at 6:15 pm and I started getting happy, the biggins are starting to play now but after the 4 lber all I got was 2 lb rats an my 6 inch long black blue jig, I mean this jig is big but all that would eat it was rats. Fished till 8:00 pm and said that enough stinging rain for me, if the toadies were biting I would stay in a hurricane or if I would of had some hot coffee!! Monday only got 4 fish to 4 lbs and I fished hard, I threw everything at them. The one thing I did not do is try the flats. The cool thing about Sunday was when they did hit that jig no matter how big they were it was a big thunk!! But I just started using braid and Floro on my jig rod so that may have been why it felt so much more aggressive.
      City: San Jose

      Tips: Black/Blue jigs & 6 inch warmouth Robo worms on drop shot, both with lots of Larry toe jam (smelly Jelly) sorry Larry:)

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      Water Temp: 48-50

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Left redbud 12:00pm, off the water @ 4:30pm, with 12 fish up to 6.1lbs in the boat. Started fishing shallow flats up from the preserve and got the first fish on a pointer in 4ft of water. Switched to shakey heads with m/dawn robos and augertails and picked up a couple more off of docks along Anderson Drive in Jago. Decided to switch back to rippin' the Pointer on the flats and found out that was where it was at. Also got 'em on a KIng Shad. Most of the best fish, surprisingly, came in pretty shallow water. They're eatin'. Fun !
      City: San Anselmo

      Tips: Pointer in Ghost Minnow, King Shad in Tenn. Shad color, erratic retrieve, 2-3 sharp snaps, long pause, etc, you know the drill...

    • By

      Water Temp: n/a

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: The Redwood Empire Bass Club will be holding their annual "turkey shoot" open tournament on Dec. 15th at Lake Sonoma. The tournament is open to everyone. Club membership is not required. Sign up early to secure your blast-off position. This will be a team tournament, so get your partner and sign up today. Entry forms are available at the Outdoor Pro Shop in Rohnert Park or at our web site: www.REBC.net. For additional information, drop me an e-mail.
      City: Rohnert PArk

      Tips: Cost is $100 per team which include big fish option.

  • Trinity County
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      Water Temp: ?

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Just a quick update. My feeble calculations figured that we needed 2.5-3" of rain to bring the Trinity Center ramp back into play. We just went by 2" in my rain guage and it's still raining hard. And my wife says I can't dance...HA!!!!!!!

Sunday, December 2nd, 2007

  • Amador County
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      Water Temp: 56

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: go somewhere else not worth the money or time spent fishing sucks

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

      Report: Will some one fuckin make a reports here already?
      City: SB

      Tips: Fish Laffayette. Report.

Saturday, December 1st, 2007

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 52.5

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: weather wise...beatiful day, just a slight breeze, and the outdoor temp was not extremely cold, so it was alot more than i could ask for. As far as the fish bite.... tough bite..but hey its winter time. Caught a lot of small fish on pointers and a drop shot. my dad fished from the back of the boat and brought a dozen of minnows. He caught a limit pretty fast, compared to my 2 small bass barely over 14" each when we first started the day. we did hook into a couple stripers that were keepers, so that was a nice added bonus to the day. hopped over to the false river and just stuck with the pointer (jerk bait) and caught small ones quite regularly. It was actually quite fun, and i didnt complain about the size since I was not expecting to catch very many fish at all. pops and I both landed a limit, but he caught his "cheating" and used live bait hahhaha. Pretty big tourney out of russo's and from what heard, not everyone had 5 fish in their livewell. so that makes me feel alot better about my day.
      City: el cerrito

      Tips: the past 4 trips have all been dedicated to rip baits, and i'm really appreciating their fish catching capabilities. Its such an easy technique that doesnt require too much skill...yet still doesnt get the recognition like a jig or t-rig worm. any ways, like all the previous posts...just work it slow.. the longer the pause the better, and just wait for that bass to nail the bait. KEEP WARM out there!!!!

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: 50-55

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Well we started out fishing right around noon over around Rattlesnake Isalnd...We got an early start on a long day/night fishing trip! We pulled a quick fish off a dropshot in about 18 feet of water..We then moved over to Shag Rock...We began working the outer edges of that bank all the way down producing us about 15 fish up to 4 pounds, ALL on dropshot and jigs..Caught about 8 more fish until it got dark..And when it did it WAS ON! At about 5:30 P.M. right when it got about at its darkest point the bite absolutely came alive..There was hardly any moon which was suprising for the bite to be so hot.. We started throwing BIG black and blue jigs! One was throwing with a rattle, and the other w/out..But it didnt matter...We went to a location right past konocti and pulled 15 fish out of ONE SPOT!! Including a 7.8 and a 8.4..They were the 2 last fish to bite! We then shot across to this point i know about right across from Redbud launch and began slamming them on 7 in. Mission Fish swimming them on the bottom! Dumped one easily over 10 and caught about 7 others up to 5 pounds! Overall about 40 fish most of them coming at night, unbeliveable trip! Bite actually shot off for us at about 8:30 or 9...
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: Fish are obviously scattered all over the lake, but this time of year more fish, and the bigger fish are going to be out deeper! We caught LL of our fishing during the DAY in about 18-25 feet...BUTTTT when night time came, we began to fish a little more shallower, it seemed those fish moved up closer to the bank to feed..ANywhere from 2-10 feet! GOOD LUCK EVERYBODY!

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

      Report: Windy conditons from the start but managed 19 fish up to 3 pounds on jigs and drop shot. Best 5 13-14 pounds. Most fish found in 14-25 feet.
      Fished Beals point area and picked up 4 but finally started to look for less windy areas.
      City: Lincoln