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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Tuesday, July 31st, 2007

  • Ventura County
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      Water Temp: 79

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Had not been out since pre spawn. went for the afternoon bite up in the river. Small fish eating the hell out of the blade tight to the sticks. picked up a few on brown and purple jig and tennesee shad db3. Will look deeper and fish slow next week as the water continues to fall slowly each week.
      City: reseda

Monday, July 30th, 2007

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 80

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: After a succussful Clear Lake trip on Thurs/Fri, we tried our luck in the Frank's tract area on Sat/Sun (7/28,29). Caught about 15-20 fish each day in the am (only fished half days). They were mostly small (up to 4 lbs). Fished the top of the incoming and outgoing tides on tule islands and found fish taking our texas rigged sweet beavers, senkos,Ikas, and spinnerbaits. Also caught a few on droppshotted wacky senkos in the deeper 15' areas adjacent to the tule islands. Still learning the delta, but can see all of its potential that is talked about. The frog bite was not happening on the mats we fished? Anybody having any luck on frogs?
      City: San Diego, CA

      Tips: Ikas and senkos near the Sugar Barge wall. Sweet Beavers and dropshot near channel tule islands. Spinnerbaits midday windy areas near tules.

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: 78

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished Clear Lake on a Thurs/Fri (7/26,27) with my guide and long term friend Cliff Croxall of Benecia, Ca. What a memorial two days! Started both early, full moon mornings off with an incredible topwater bite! Landed a 9-10 and 6-1 on a Zara Spook just before the break of dawn. The big girl exploded on the Spook like nothing I have ever seen before. Easily a 10 or 11 in the spring. The jig bite was the best pattern overall on structure in 20-26'. Fished mostly the south end of the lake. Also caught a few dropshotting and with the 6" Senko. Another highlight was catching a 4 lb cat on a spinnerbait!! Thanks Cliff!! Can't wait till next year!
      City: San Diego, CA

      Tips: spooks and sammy's best within the first hour before sunrise. 1/2 oz jigs w/ sweet beaver trailer best overall mid-day pattern in 20-26.'

    • By

      Water Temp: 80+

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished the day after a Full moon and only 10 minnows at the most. Minnows are 2 lbers at Clear Lake. Then then next evening fished from 6 til midnight with my friend that used to work for a guide and we both only got 3 fish each. Dont know if the 4 days of full or near full moons filled there bellys. I saw Lots of food in the form of Shad and Fry. LOTS. Also saw the bottom in spots I have never seen before because the lake is low and the water is clear. Biggest went 2.5......lol....I know most guys dont post on here when they dont catch em at CL but....well I sucked it up the past few times

      Tips: Wait a week after the full moon.I think they have been eating alot lately.

    • By

      Water Temp: 81

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: fished from wed thru sat. wed and thurs, the bite was on fire . black and blue jig with junebug trailer was the ticket.. caught 35 from 2 to 6 lbs. friday, it slowed down for me. sat. i caught a few... thanks all for the exellent info.
      City: sacto

      Tips: go with the jig and fish it aggressively.
      have a blast at this most ultimate lake. ><}}}}'>

    • By

      Water Temp: 77

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Went out for 1.5 hours after work. Caught 6 fish: 3 dinks, a couple of 2lbers and 1 long and skinny 3lber all on the same lure, 1/2 oz trap.
      City: San Jose

      Tips: Work the EAST Bank.

  • Mariposa County
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      Water Temp: 81-83F

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Got on the water around 5pm and fished until 9pm. Started upriver and Horsehoe area. Caught a few standard McClure Spots and 1 small Largemouth. Went back down the river and fished the canyon and Arnold Bay area. Caught a few more spots here and there. Around 8pm I started throwing a buzzbait for the heck of it and on the second cast I caught a slot-size spot. Two or three more casts later I hooked up and that fish worked me over. Finally landed it and I'm guessing it was 7-8 pounds. I've caught alot of 5s and 6s and this one was definitely bigger than those. The best part was it was a spotted bass. No more hits on the buzzbait after that. That fish would be hard to beat so we called it a day.
      City: Atwater

      Tips: Be patient, change it up. We did best on salt & pepper grubs on a darthead and then of course the buzz bait. The fish didn't move up to the bank until it got dark. Fish deep and slow when the sun is up. Look for steep rocky points w/ some shade on them.

  • Butte County
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      Water Temp: 74-78+

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: I picked up a father and two sons off their house boat today and wondering how the full moon would affect the bite for the day. As it was the morning top water bite was still strong. About 20+ blow-ups and about 10 hooked with 2 bass on one Pop-r. The top water lasted till about 8am. We then threw tubes on shade lines up the North Fork,and caught some nice bass. I wanted to show my clients the mud line bite so we headed for the main body to throw some lipless crank bait. The mud lines had just started to form so the bite was just starting. With a total of about 30 bass it was time to go in for the morning.
      City: Paradise

      Tips: Top water in the morning, fish shade lines and mud lines.

    • By

      Water Temp: warm ?75?

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: went froggin for about two hours, no bites. caught 1 small one on a senko. fishing was bad. Where are all the fish? any advice? are the fish east of the bridge now?
      City: pleasanton

      Tips: fish SLOW. fish aren't active.

Sunday, July 29th, 2007

  • Mason County
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      Water Temp: 76

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Some wind and some muddy water where the wind hit muddy banks. Fished deep (25-45ft) landed 60 fish with many in the 2 lb range. Must have caught 30 fish in one spot in 30 mintes (3 people on boat)
      City: Anderson

      Tips: It appeared on this hot sunny day - fish were holding up in deep holes where there is consistant shade.

  • Napa County
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      Water Temp: warm

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: This past weekend at the lake was very warm better spent swimming then fishing unless you went to Big Island for trout, salmon or kokanee which were being caught 55 to 80 feet deep. Lots of boats were trolling and catching fish. The bass on the other hand were not as obliging. The lake is full of feeder fish and with the full moon this week they have gorged themselves. On Saturday my friend Bob and I headed towards the BOR with no luck. We headed across the lake to the Ranch house and fished my two favorite points and picked up two nice smallies on River2Sea crawdads and Procure scents. It was a tough day for bass in shallow water. Sunday was a little cooler but still the bass were not cooperating. In the evening Abe and his girlfriend and a few friends went for catfish and landed a couple on hotdogs. They also caught a large carp and a couple of crappies. During the week I went rock fishing out of Emeryville on the "Happy Hooker" and caught 53 rock fish and 1 undersize lingcod. What a difference in temperature from the ocean to the lake. I'll take the lake anytime!!!! 'til next week................good fishing!!!!!!!!!!! www.fishingconnection.net If you have any fishing stories you would like to share please email me at
      bestguide@hotmail.com or call me at 650-583-3333
      City: Napa

      Tips: early mornings or after the sun goes down

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 70-75

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Jason, Terry and I fished out of B&W at 5:45am with the winds blowing light. I gave the two some tour of the delta and some hints were and how. First to get out of the wind and hit some rocky banks and tules. With the high tide coming in it gave us sometime to try our frogs, spinners, spooks and buzz baits. We stayed close to the banks using sankos and craws in dark colors. Jason hit one that broke his rod tip and Terry got his bass working the points, rocks and tules also
      City: rocklin

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

      Report: Hadn't fishesd in a while just wanted to shout out to Rippa. I know things changed but i dont have your digits. Give it up ill holler back.
      lata
      City: reseda

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

      Report: The wife and I finally got on the lake just before noon on Sunday. After three weeks of work, traveling and other stuff it was great to be on the water once again. We ended up taking just over 30 fish using many different techniques. Drop-shot, Basstrix, Jig and Shakey Head worm all took fish for us. We had two unusual occurences today as well. The first involved seeing a full grown bald eagle, that was way cool. The second (and this has never happened to me) was having an Osprey swoop down and grab my 6" lunker punker (I kid you not) the fish grabbed the lure and actually took drag for a few seconds before dropping the lure. How the bird avoided the hooks was beyond me, but I sure was thankful it did. Anyhow the biggest fish of the day was a 5-5 I took at Henderson finesse fishing a baby brushhog on a shakey head jig, our best 5 for the day went just over 19lbs.
      City: Petaluma, CA

    • By

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: I went out on my float tube today and caught one small pounder on a chartruse bass pro shops cranck bait the right when i was waiting for my parents to come and pick me up i threw out a wacky worm senko about 15 feet on the boat ramp and i got a birds nest and right when i picked it out my line went straight and i felt a pull so i pulled back it was a 6.1 pound bass.
      City: P

      Tips: use crank baits by the roocks.

Saturday, July 28th, 2007

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 80?

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: I'm so sore. Headed out yesterday morning in what turned out to be an all day affair. Launched my float tube at 8am from Beacon and began hitting fish in the shaded areas behind the docks. Fish were hitting my jig and weightless t-rig senkos. Took a break from the water from about noon to 130pm. Launched back out when the tide started coming back in. Found a mat and tried to flip my senko into one of the holes. Senko landed ontop of some floating dead tules and BOOM!!! A fish just exploded on it! Turned out to be best fish of the day, 5+lbs. Waded the docks a little more and waited for the rec. boats to come back in. When it looked like most of them were in, I set out to the tulle wall across from the levy. From there, the fishing was insane. Every fish was at least a 3lber. All in all, a great day on the water! best 5 - 18lbs. My best limit ever!
      City: SF

      Tips: Get a tube. I love it. Senkos and Jigs did the trick for me. Target the shade. Under mats, docks, in the tules. Understanding the tide definately helps!

      Being able to spend the whole day in basically the same area taught me a lot about how the tide affects the position of the fish. Thanks to everyone for the input!

    • By

      Water Temp: 80

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: went out for a little night fishing in the tube and found the bite to be unreal. I hit a bank in the afternoon and could not get a tap but about 10 at night it was all out madness. All on black jigs as fast as you could cast.
      City: S.L.

      Tips: Fish the full moon.

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: 75-77

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Clear Lake still off the hook, water still very clear, some spots you can still see down 6 feet, I also saw lots of bait fish, 1/2 inch to 2 1/2 inchs long. The night bite was not good for me on Fri night, though a night tourney produced a 28 lb limit but the guys I spoke to had 18 lbs and they did not bring home a check, I also had around 18 lbs with two 5 lbers on Sat and about 22 fish total. Sat night was worse so went to sleep for 3 hrs and fished the Sun morn AM bite with little success until 8 and went in for coffee and donuts, bought some small bait fish fluks to try drop shot and got zero bites on them, I could see fish under docks and said hey lets try a watermelon senko and for the next 2 hrs I wacked them, first dock 5 lber, next dock 5 lber next dock 6 lber and I went back to each dock and got 3 lbers and than did it again and got 2 lbers, I can not tell how big a fish is in 2 feet of water under a dock because the 2 lbers tuned into 6 lbers and the 6 lbers turned into 3 lbers, I do not know how to sight fish in the Spring so it was awesome seing the fish eat the Senko right in front of you. Now don't laugh at me but I was using my crucial drop shot rod with 8 lb line to fish my Senko's, I can skip that thing so well under the docks but sure enouph it happend, I had a fish pull about 30 yards of line until it snapped my 8 lb line like it was 2 lb line, I didn't even slow it down, I hooked it by the bank and it was headed for the dock 40 yards away so I was trying to stop it before it got there, it may have been a big cat because I did get a couple of 4 lber on my drop shot the night before at the same spot. I can handle a 6 lber on my 8 lb line with no problem, I have caught 5 fish over 6 bls on it with no problem so what ever it was was big. 18 lbs on Sat, 22 lbs on Sun.
      City: San Jose

      Tips: Watermelon, watermelon, watermelon what ever you throw use watermelon with any flake, Senko, Brush hog, sweet beaver, hula grub and worm. During the heat of the day toss that senko under docks in the shade, it also works in open water but not as good, I did catch a few in open water, be patient and let it fall all the way to the bottom, even if its 20 feet deep, I got me 6 lber in 20 feet in front of the dock though most of my fish were in 2-4 feet of water, I could see them:). I want to thank all the people that took photo's for me, I had 2 tourney guys take pictures for me, one team in a Bass Cat and one team in a Stratos, these guys gave the sport a good name and were happy to take the photo's for me.

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

      Report: I spent July 16-19 on the lake in a houseboat. The fishing was awesome! Most fish were right on the bank, or within 10 feet of it. I only needed 2 rods...one for a blade and the other for a spook. I caught fish on other baits, but the best quality and quantity came from those two baits. I spent less than 10 hours fishing over those four days and probably caught over 60 fish. The thing that most impressed me was the amount of largemouth I caught during this trip and this time of year. I had three LMs over 3 lbs. plus a few others. Had a blast! The Oroville bass were fighting hard...
      City: Rocklin

      Tips: Take the kids fishing

  • Calaveras County
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      Water Temp: 76

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Decided late to get away fronm the Delta. One hour from Tracy. Office did not offer any tips or a smile. Crazy with jet skiers, but they stay pretty much at the boat ramp. Points and weed lines 6-10 ft. Launched at 9 and done by 2. 20 fish to 4 lbs. TOP WATER.
      City: TracyCh

      Tips: Top water all day. Lake is 20 ft at deepest point. Fish have no where to go but grass and all come up and kill it.