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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Saturday, November 3rd, 2007

  • Sacramento County
    • By

      Water Temp: 63

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Alright, the bass are not in feeding mode. Spent 3 hours on the water this morning and got one lousy shaker on a green/silver worm drop shotting. We tried chatters, swimbaits, spinners, spoons, lipless cranks and jigs. Anyone been able to catch a decent amount of fish in this last week? I think we are getting killed by the barometric pressure. It's finaly on the downtick as I write this so hopefully the fall bass'n will pick up this week....not sure if I'll make it out though.
      City: Rocklin

      Tips: Don't eat yellow snow.

  • Merced County
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      Water Temp: 66.1

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: The fishing was slow at the trash racks. Managed to land one 4 lb'er on a jumbo minnow. Ran to Portuguese cove and metered some fish at 60'. Landed some the 2-5 lb range. The lake is rising fast.
      City: Menlo Park, CA

  • Trinity County
    • By

      Water Temp: I dunno

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Humboldt Bass "Club" had a turkeyshoot out there on the 3rd. Winners won with ~15 lbs of smallies. Fish were picked up by drop-shotting in 50+ ft of water. Thats about all I know!
      City: McKinleyville

      Tips: All I know is that if i had fished it, I certainly wouldn't have been dropshotting and probly would have lost!

Friday, November 2nd, 2007

  • Santa Barbara County
    • By

      Water Temp: 63-67

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished with a nice guy ( Sam ) looking to further his understanding of the lake today. We had a tough bite and took it in stride. I believe we would have done much better if we had had the wind from a few days earlier but on this day it was very minimal. While that makes it easier to fish...it makes it harder to catch! We caught fish on spoons, jigs, and dropshot worms. The shad all seem to be from Santa Cruz to the river. We ( I ) wasted alot of our day looking for fish on the ledges off of the flats but there was nothing going on there or on the shear walls. Very different year than last. Did catch a crappie on a spoon and briefly had a big carp on the line ( again! ). We could see fish in 4 feet of water so we left them and came back an hour later where I caught one of the healthiest 4 1/2 pounders (weighed on a scale) I've seen in the lake this year. One bigger 2 1/2 pound smallmouth ....Things were downright tough. The largemouth was in 10 feet of water on a Peanut butter and jelly 1/2 0z. jig with a brown black and red flake trailer and the smallie came on a chrome 3/4 oz. spoon cast to a ledge and hopped back to the boat. The smallmouth was hacking up really large and red crawfish so I think oxblood light red flake is a good worm choice and a little orange or red on the jig might help too.
      City: Ojai

      Tips: The lake is turning over to some degree and will be tough for a while if there is no wind. If the wind blows do not retreat but get out a blade (shad in nature) or a ROF5 Huddleston ( shallow running swimbait) and fish the wind blown banks. The fish that are eating seem to be the shallow ones. I think the deep fish are full ;)

  • Riverside County
    • By

      Water Temp: 68

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Topwater & LC staysee bite is going great on the main lake in the AM. Once the sun gets up I'm finding big fish on the main lake points suspended about 35-40 feet down and getting them on weighted swimbaits. My bait is probably about 25 feet down.

      Drop shots are also taking some fish shallow as well.

      Water Temp: 68 degrees
      Water Visibility: 12 feet down
      Conditions: Sunny, light breeze
      Rod: Dobyns 795 Mike Long Swimbait rod
      Reel: Rick Clunn BPS 5:2
      Line: Sunline Shooter 15lb
      Fish Depth: 35-40 feet
      Bait: New prototype swimbait (2008 release) 5" w/ 1oz weight


      <img src="/shared/photos/photos/resized/4928_resized.jpg">
      City: Irvine, CA

      Tips: Mark the fish on the main lake, back off, and throw swimbaits at them or spoons.

  • Sacramento County
    • By

      Water Temp: 62

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: played hookie friday and sure glad I did. Was able to find quality fish feeding on bait balls in 25-35ft. best areas were close to deep water. the bite was almost every cast from 11am-12:30pm. did best on drop shot and dragging. stuck out spooning. Caught 13 spots and 2 smallies; best 5 going around 12-13 lbs.
      City: EDH

      Tips: don't pee on the electric fence

Thursday, November 1st, 2007

    • By

      Water Temp: 61

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: No Reaction bite today. All the fish came on Hula grubs (any colors). Windy points hold the most and the better fish. Best 5 for about 10#.
      Much slower than the past week.
      City: folsom

      Tips: Take your boots, so you don't get your feet wet putting the boat...

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 60-63

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: i concure with the last report. thought i was in the FLW yesterday. 2 boats on every spot. all the fish i managed ware small and dragging a jig and pig in 20 to 30 foot of water. missed a lot of bits the ones i caught were like the lure was hung or a little resistance and i set.
      but the weather could not have been better.
      all the boat traffic sucked.
      City: san ramon

  • Yuba County
    • By

      Water Temp: 63-64

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I wanted to get to the lake at sunrise but didn't make it. Started fishing about 9 am and quit at 12:30 pm. Very bright sky and no wind made for tough conditions. My first Duh! spoon fish was a bluegill about 3/4 lbs in 40 feet of water!! I missed 4 or 5 bites on the 3/4 oz spoon but did land 5 spots to 3 lbs 2 oz. The total weight was only about 11 lbs. I fished the main body structure and did fish some up the river arm. A few bass were working bait but overall kinda slow because of the bluebird skies. One of the bass I lost was a good one, and, I had a brown trout follow my spoon all the way to the boat. Would have been fun to hook her (maybe?)! Oddly enough, most of the ones I lost were on a jig.
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: While most bass are still deep, some are moving to more shallow water. Unfortunately, the lake is still dropping, which hinders shallow migrations.

  • Sacramento County
    • By

      Water Temp: 64

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: went out today with my daughter drop shot all fish worked water from 20' to 40' small 4 inch worms soft bite caught a nice 3 pound smallmouth jumped right in the boat.
      City: Roseville

      Tips: there were about 10 bass boats out today didnt see anyone else catch anything anyone care to share there day email me

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

      Report: My whole family of fishermen and Ladies spent the week out on Trinity. We had such a great time we will be back in a month. We caught several smallies around 3-4 pounds each day and my son landed a 5.9 smallie on the last day. It's strange to fish for an hour or two without getting bit and then hitting a spot that produces 10 fish in an hour. even my wife(who doesn't fish) walked away with a 6 pound largemouth. I will be back here in 29 days!
      City: REDDING

      Tips: We were junk fishing to be honest with ya. We threw everything at them.

Wednesday, October 31st, 2007

  • Santa Barbara County
    • By

      Water Temp: 62.8

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Hit the lake today 0700, tried Big Cachume bay and teh shelf leading to it, nothing on top water, jig, drop shot. Went into BC and still nothing. Flew to Santa Cruz only to find....nothing....tried the end near the dam...noting, saw a few but they didn't want the spoon, jig or drop shot, fished the wall doing what felt was 20 mph, the wind was unrelenting on the main lake with only a few sheltered areas to find. Maybe the swim bait bite will improve over the next few days...saw the fish tanker entering the park as I was leaving..this weekend could be great swimbait bite..then again maybe not the lake seems to be turning over in areas Left the lake at 1330 with nothing to show
      City: lompoc

      Tips: Beats me, I tried jigs in watermelon, purple/brown, red/brown, drop shot in oxblood, water melon, and shad.... nothing

  • Mariposa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 65-67

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: fished with my dad today i backed seated ..we started on the visiable pillings caught a few smaller spots. then we moved up the river i caught 3 spots that were overs and weight over 3lbs in the afternoon i caught a lg mouth over 5lbs caught all on soft plastics in 15 to 30 ft we had a pretty good day we caught 25 total from 9am to 4pm
      City: valley springs

      Tips: fish slow

Tuesday, October 30th, 2007

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 62

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished Berryessa for the first time in 10 months. Found the water to be very clear with visibility down to 15ft. Struggled in the morning only catching small fish (10") on jigs, and jerkbaits. Hit primary and secondary points. Managed to find a school of small fish suspended near a creek channel and hooked several using drop shot and dart head. Later in the day ran to the main lake and found schools of fish around a sunken island and stuck several fish up to 3lbs. Most of the fish were smallmouth mixed in with larger spots. Smallest fish was 1.5 lbs. Fish were healthy and fought very aggressively. Ended the day with the best 5 toping 13 lbs. Caught over 15 keepers for the day.
      City: Walnut Creek

      Tips: Fish slowly with smaller baits. Water is real clear so fish are spooky, make long casts.

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 60 - 63

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Two of us went out of the Oaks and stunk it up. Tried to find fish on rocks in the south with a River2sea bottom walker (tried Baby bass and trout colors), crankbaits, T-Rig and even tried senkos in the tulies. Tried spook and frog. Nothing all the way to windflower. First fish when the wind picked up a little and Lucky walked by with his doe....T-rig bhog for John, another shortly thereafter accross from the resort, no luck under the docks at all, went up to shag rock and got a couple off the rocks south of there but all on plastic. 4 fish is all we managed. Only got fish in wind mostly fishing 10-2o feet. No big fish...
      City: Pacifica

      Tips: Only fish we could muster were very light bite fishing slow. No reaction bite or swim bait bite for us. There was almost no wind and it was sunny after 12:00 off the water at 3:30. For now I would fish slow in rocks and if you find a fish don't leave for a while.......

  • Butte County
    • By

      Water Temp: 60

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Anybody on here fish the Bass Busters of Yuba City tournament last Saturday and if so, wondering what it took to win? We had just 7 pounds on a tough bite most coming on a 3" Kalin pearl white grubs rigged on a dart head. Launched at Bidwell on a cement ramp but dirt parking lot. The dam may be closed. Best launch now I think is Lime Saddle if you don't mind that heart pumping walk up the ramp.
      City: Paradise

      Tips: It was a full moon and that didn't help. We fished as much moving water as possible to scrounge what we did. White seemed to be the color. My son caught 2 small ones on the 6" Basstrix tube minnow.

Monday, October 29th, 2007

  • Santa Clara County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Took off work early and walked the shore at Almaden Reservoir for a couple of hours. I ended up with 2 bass that were both 2+ pounds. Both of them were caught on a Basstrix Paddle Tail Tube with a 1/16th ounce Falcon hook. I also had a couple of followers on the same bait. The water is WAY down and both fish were right on the bank in shallow water.
      City: San Jose

      Tips: Water is cooling so the slower the presentation the better. Both fish I caught hit the bait on the pause so I suggest a stop and go retrieve with shad colored cranks or swimbaits. Good luck!

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 62-64

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished Franks tract all day incoming tide for stripers is the key right now for me,look for the sparse "grass beds" not weed beds and throw 5-7" swim baits of your choice around them fish all sides of the grass front, sides, and behind.
      You will see there is a pattern. No big fish but several keepers.

      Tried for Largemouth very slow, no flip bite,no crank bite,Im only fishing outgoing tide might be better on incoming,caught several on senkos but all small, did catch one on a wake bait he was one inch bigger than the bait...

      south water was 64deg west is 2deg cooler

      FOR STRIPERS>>>
      GRASS BEDS!!!!
      40+ fish today.
      City: elk grove

      Tips: white swim baits cover water
      points
      tule bluffs
      shallow grass beds near 8ft of water.
      good luck.

  • San Francisco County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Although I have not posted as often this year, I have to say that the regular bass guys at Merced all put in a great deal of time on this Lake(s). I believe we practice catch and release with the fish we catch. I know that the occasional lunker is caught (my personal best at around 9lbs) along with mostly 1-2 lb. variety of LMB.

      I fish from the banks, piers, docks, etc. and have caught fish from all of those spots along the Lake(s).
      City: Daly City

    • By

      Water Temp: best when over

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Put in at least 100 hours of fishing primariy the north, south, and impound lakes on my porta boat and from the docks this year so far and caught a total of 10 LM bass from the three. Even fished a nice looking spot in the east lake once but caught nothing (is that still against the rules?). Most of the bass were less that 2 lbs with my personal best from Merced of 5-6 lbs. The fish are few and far between but fiesty and healthy looking. I have asked the CA DFG for help in improving the LMB fishing at Merced but have not reveived a response yet. If we all catch and release the LMB fishery at Merced will only get better with time. We have a jewel of a lake in our backyard that we all need to nuture and protect.
      City: San Francisco

      Tips: Drop shotting purple and red colored worms in and along the tule edges and of course persistence. Please, please, please, catch and release.