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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Tuesday, June 5th, 2007

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 71

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Got on the water about 6am fished Sandmound nothing but dinks in the am poppers and spooks no luck...moved down near disco bay and found lots of dinks on DT Grubs..301 nothing near tullies but riprap I nailed them.....went back to sand mound in the afternoon flipped a grub inside a weed line and hooked into one that topped my biggest fish ever (10.4)fought her for about 2 min my girlfriend got the net and right when we got her to the side of the boat....the fish scared her she dropped the net...the fish turned and pop....I'll never use florocarbon ever again...what a way to spend my 48th b day....arrrrrrrgh
      City: Oakland

      Tips: don't use anything less that 16lb test in the delta. The fish are in really shallow water 1-3 ft.

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: 71

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: What an amazing day today!! When I guide someone from out of state, I always want things perfect! I met my client from Oregon at 6 am at the Clearlake Oaks and was looking forward to showing him the wonders of Clear Lake for the first time! The lake had other ideas as the wind was howling and the cold front was moving in! I realized after observing the water that we were going to Lakeport. Bob Higgins of Limit Out Tackle told me everyone else had made that move. So we started there at 7:30 am and the Oregonian had the nerve to catch a bass on the first cast!! Then I knew the day was totally ruined! Not so this day! We worked our way up north from Lakeport fishing nooks and crannies - docks, rocks, tules, and whatever structure we could find. He was using the 8" green pumpkin Dead Ringer and I was using the 7 1/2" RoboTail worm in green neon pumpkin. We were targeting larger bass with the big worms. We caught quality after quality bass - mostly all over 3 lbs. I think we had 8 between 4 and 5 lbs. I actually got broken off with 14 lb test also - couldn't believe it. I was also determined to catch a chug bug topwater bass in spite of the weather and I did - about 10 am. That was one of our smaller bass at 2 1/4 lbs We did some sight fishing which was no easy task, but my client did coax a 4-2 and a 4 3/4 to take a white/chartreuse Robo Sourpuss - nice sight bait!! I highly recommend it! He worked on the bigger one for awhile and when she bit the first time - he got her - sweet! Hard to do in the wind. As we were getting near the end of the trip, I suggest he try the watermelon/red flake Dead Ringer he had - since it was getting brighter out and he needed a change! GOOD DECISION!! As we fishing one of the metal walls up north, I heard him grunt. I turned around and looked in the water and almost freaked!!!! He said she might be "6" and I though "16"!!!! After a tense moment or two in the wind, I netted a beauty - a spawned out 8 lb 11 oz toad. He told me later his goal was an "8". So he overshot his goal a bit - big deal! His previous biggest in Oregon was 5 1/2. I was proud of our limit - between 26 1/2 and 27 lbs - in very tough conditions! We wound up with 31 bass total. We were really trying for quality, not numbers.
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: I mentioned the RoboTail worm made by Roboworm. I really put it to the test and it held up very well! I caught 10 or 12 bass on the original worm I used - and these were quality bass!! They are soft but seem very strong. I tried the red crawler color also but only caught one bass on it. Green pumpkin really has been the color of choice for me this year at Clear Lake. It seems to work every trip no matter what type of bait I or my clients are throwing. Other than the sight fish, most of our bass were in the 6 to 10 foot range. It is not easy for me to fish that shallow all day - but I managed! My biggest was the 5 pounder on the Robo worm. I threw my
      Weapon jig the last few minutes and did hook a nice bass but lost it. Lots of weeds up north but my client was very good at finding holes in the weeds and pitchin' his worm in the holes and stickin' bass. One or two Senko bass (#301) but worms were the "meal of the day"! The bass were very aggressive from our start time - 7:30 am to about 11 am. As the clouds move out and the cold wind increased, the bite really slowed for us. If you would have told me that my client would have stuck a bass that size in those post-front conditions and at 2 pm, I wouldn't have believed it unless I saw it. Well, I saw it!!!!!

Monday, June 4th, 2007

    • By

      Water Temp: 68

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: No fish caught on reaction baits.Only fish caught fell to Senko's around the bridge area. Tried wakebait after dark with no luck.
      City: San Jose

      Tips: Green Pumpkin Senko's fished slow was the ticket taday!!!

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

      Report: Decided to sneak a few hours in the morning. Started with a swimbait for nothing. Didnt see even a follower. Changed tactics and was using the Casitas usual of oxblood rf and put 3 in the boat before bailing
      City: Ventura

    • By

      Water Temp: 74

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished Friday and Sunday got on the lake at first light. Top water is not hitting so good yet but spinners in blues slow just about 1 foot deep will hook a few. Most fish came in about 1 to 10 feet of water. 7" watermelon works great on dropshot or texas rigged. I lot of fish came on crank baits again close to the banks or on the rock piles. Friday we had about 40 fish with few in the 4 to 6 pound range. Sunday was not as good about 25 fish and only 2 in the 5 pound range. I think the fish knew it was the weekend with a lot more boats on the lake. Laugh!
      Have a great day fishing and be safe.
      City: Fresno

      Tips: Fish the rocks they seem to like the heat. Shad cranks are working great.

  • Butte County
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      Water Temp: 75

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I took a writer from Western Outdoors to Oroville this afternoon to help him prepare for an upcoming article he is working on - featuring the fishery at Lake Oroville. He was guided by a trout/salmon guide in the morning and they did well on Coho's to 19 inches. Pressure was on!!!!! Well, guess what!? We did well too, landing in excess of 25 spotted bass with 3 at the 15 1/2 to 16 inch range. We just had time to fish the middle fork. We use morning dawn and prizm shad 4" Robo worms, and #301 Senkos. He also caught some drop-shotting the Basstrix flashtrix minnow. We caught a few on topwater baits too. One of the "overs" was in less than 10 feet of water - weird! We had heavy cloud cover and wind when we started but it quit about 4 pm and the lake was dead calm. Nice trip!
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: As the lake slowly drops, the bass are moving off-shore and small bass were chasing bait on the surface. A sure sign that summer is just around the corner!

    • By

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: hiked in to the left for about 30 min,decided this is a dumb idea since i was out of breath.fished one cove that was sheltered from the wind and nothing.started walking back and found two coves that looked nice.landed a nice 4 lber and lost another on the next cast.all aand all fished about 1.5 hrs caught 2 last one was just befor the fence alittle dinker but made me happy i caught two.
      City: petaluma

      Tips: lots of hiking but if your up to it and patient the fishing can be good.couple buddys have a spot they swear by but its a deep hike.

Sunday, June 3rd, 2007

  • Napa County
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      Water Temp: 73+

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Sorry for the late report. The 3rd was my 3rd weekend in a row at Berryessa. The bass fishing is(was) on fire! Fished the main lake using pretty much just senkos. For the three weekends, probably had a total of around 80+ fish.
      City: SF

      Tips: Senkos and jigs on the main lake. Smallmouth and spotted bass everywhere near dropoffs. Jigs on points are working great!

    • By

      Water Temp: getting warmer

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I had a busy weekend at the lake. Friday I took out a group of seven guys on a pontoon boat. They were all eager to learn how to catch bass. Bob was the captain and did a great job navigating the boat. Since we were all fishing from one boat, I decided that the area near the ranch house would be ideal because we could fish from all sides of the boat and everyone had a good chance to land fish. We had everyone using plastic worms on one side and those casting crankbait and topwater baits were in the front and back of the boat. This worked out great. A shallow diving crankbait was the hit of the day. He landed three nice size bass in a short span of time. The guy throwing topwater lures did great too. Later in the day we switched to lessons on catching catfish and carp. They were all very good pupils. I look forward to taking them all out again next summer. That evening I took out Dan and his lovely wife to my favorite cove. I wanted Dan to fish topwater and told him that when the sun started to set would be an ideal time. I had him throw a white chugger many times. He began to get bored with it and asked if he could change to another bait. I told him to throw at a target near shore and he got close. The bass exploded on it and for the balance of the night he stayed with the topwater lure getting more confident and more bites. Saturday morning I had another group consisting of a groom and his father along with his friends (the wedding was later that day). We went to Spanish Flat to rent another boat for two of the fellows and the other three fished on my boat. We headed for the ranch house again. Brian, who is a very good fisherman, caught fish with whatever lures I have him to use. The first one was a chugger and on his second cast he landed a nice bass. It was another successful day with everyone landing fish and having a great time. Sunday I spent a few hours at the dock showing some kids how to catch carp and we were very successful. '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: IT IS HAPPENING NOW

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 72-73

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Took my 14 yr old son out for some fishing at 6 am down south delta. He started catching fish right away on senkos, I was looking for a top water bite and getting just short strikes. Had the last of the incoming and then the outgoing of a very high tide. Was just a great day, my son got a 4-12 then a 7-2 (his biggest) both on a black/blue senko. Then about an hour later I got an 8-5 on a tube bait. Fish were tight to cover on the outgoing. Just a great day on the water off by 11:30 w/ best 5 going 26.5!!!
      City: Tracy

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: 78

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Well my dad and i went out on the lake sunday due to his great luck the day before. We started out on the tulie line near the Fetzer dock throwing frogs we both had 3 blowups, on one of my blowups i pitched my senko back in and hooked him and we were just fun fishin so a played with him and lost it about a five pounder. The frog bite was really slow at first but picked up later, i had my senko in my hand all day.About noon we roll up on about a seven pounder my dad lets me have him so it took me about seven casts and finally got him on my green w black flake senko. There are alot of bass still bedding everywhere we went when saw a fish on a bed it took us about 2 minutes and we had them. So over aLL we had 32 fish with are best five going about 21 pounds.
      City: Ukiah

      Tips: They were biting on just about everything but the senko and frog worked the best.

    • By

      Water Temp: 73-75

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Well, Vaughn and I decided to go for it despite the full moon. Started out at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, fishing the old keys hoping for some frog fish. Worked the frogs till it was about dark with no action. We though maybe the full moon was going to screw us. We then moved to the new keys and started getting fish on plastics. The action stayed fairly steady even after the moon rose. Couldn't beleive it when I looked at the time and it was 2:30 a.m. After about 30 fish between us, we called it a night. Back on the water at 6:30 a.m. Started south of Konocti with poppers and frogs and plastics. Had constant action all day. At about 11:30 a.m., we went back and checked out of our room and then got some lunch. We took a little snooz for about an hour and were back on the water at about 2:00 p.m. We went back to the new keys and kept getting consistent action on plastics. Tried for some more frog fish and had several blow ups, one that was quite large but did not stay hooked. Only boated one fish on the frog. Need to work on keeping frog fish on. We got about 60 between us on the day. Went home at 6:00 p.m.
      City: Ben Lomond

      Tips: Get out there and fish. This is an awesome fishery!!

    • By

      Water Temp: 73.2

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Another excellent day at Clear Lake with very little wind and lots of fish! We hit 4 walls first thing at 5:30am with several in the boat right off the bat. We decided to move across the Rattlesnake arm and go back into a cove that we had good luck in a couple weeks ago. Same results as that past trip.........FISH ON! Purple and brown jigs with the cinnamon/purple twin tail Yamamoto's were killing them! Ken had to use the "little girls" room so after that we hit the back side of Rattlesnake Island with no bites. Back across the lake to the dock and Ken decided to show us that he really could set the hook and not lose fish!
      City: Sacramento

      Tips: slow in the weeds and Senkos were good all day! Tight lines!

    • By

      Water Temp: 74-78

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I fished both Saturday and Sunday this weekend. On Saturday I took out two co-workers who had never been bass fishing before. We fished from 8:30 to 1:00 and caught 20 fish. Our biggest fish of the day was 3.5lbs. Nothing spectacular, but I was happy to see each of my friends catch their first Clear Lake bass. We focused on spots all around the narrows and on into Horsehoe. My friends caught fish using the drop shot and shakey head worm. I caught most of my fish on the jig. Today the wife and I spent the entire day on the lake and had an excellent time. The wife caught the first, biggest, most and last fish of the day. Together we combined for 50+ fish, with the largest being a very clean 4-13. Our best 5 today went just under 18lbs. Today we fished further south around Monitor island and south of Fraser point. The clarity of the water was unreal in these areas. It made fishing tough especially with light wind and a high sun. The jig bite is red hot right now, I caught numerous fish with it today. The wife caught most of her fish using a drop shot like technique that the fish just ate up today.
      City: Petaluma, CA

      Tips: Go fishing using your favorite techniques and you will catch fish. Avoid clear water in low wind high sun conditions. The water levels are a bit low so look for fish off the bank

    • By

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: HOLY COW!!!!!!!
      I haven't had the opportunity to fish Clear Lake in two years and I made up for it this weekend. Sold my boat recently so took my father in law and his little fishing boat (not as comfortable as my 21' rig, but got us to where the fish were). Here is a quick brake down:
      Saturday: 50 fish Best 5 25 (Big fish ~8)
      Sunday : 30 fish Best 5 28 (Big fish ~9)
      Fished everything from topwater and cranks to jigs and senkos. Jigs were definately the top producer. I tie my own brown jigs (3/8 oz) with brown yamamoto twin tail. Fished around the narrows, Soda Bay, Konocti, Windflower, and Anderson Island. There are still some spawning fish around; a number of the fish we pulled up had other fish with them and they had irratated fins. Topwater bite was inconsistent on the spook. Crankbait of choice was a white deep little n.

      What an amazing lake, can't wait to go back. Oroville is fun, but the spots just don't measure up if you know what I mean.
      City: Chico

      Tips: I love to fish a jig so I'm biased. Senko didn't seem to work as consistantly, but did produce some nice fish.

    • By

      Water Temp: 72-75

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Got on the lake around 6:00am started out in the flats fishing top water, spook to be exact. Got three in a matter of about 30mins. then we went to my buddies spot which I didnt get the name of but we work it with a CRig and got about 8fish biggest around 5pounds. the went back to the falts and worked it even more and caught about 18 more. nothing huge!!! Biggest went about 5 pounds.
      City: Sac

      Tips: Topwater seems to be on right now. make long cast into the shade and slow constint movement on the bait. I used a Jr Spook! Also the Crig Worked well as always!!! We were using a lizziard!! Take A Kid Fishing

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

      Report: still so windy. try again at alater date. anybody else go?
      City: hollister

    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: thanks for the number
      City: san bruno

    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: NONE

      Tips: WIND# 209-826-9019

  • Shasta County
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      Water Temp: Mid to hi 60s

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: 4 day houseboat trip during first week of June. Tossed "beetle spinners" in green which did very well on spots. Caught about a dozen up at the end of Little Squaw Creek inlet right next to dam. Tossed Repella off deep water rocks just off ski island on Silverthorn side and landed of all things, pan fish about the same size as the lure. Got a fun large mouth (about 3 1/2 pounds) throwing this same lure in a cover up the Pit arm.

      Tips: fish rocky shelves and cover morning and evening. Small spinners with green plastics worked well on spotties but just about anything you throw at them works.