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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Sunday, May 20th, 2007

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: 63-70

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished from 5/17 to 5/20. Basically threw a frog all weekend.They were crushing it. There were fish in every weed mat I threw in. Caught a couple of 6's, and a couple of 4's. All the rest were 2's and 3's. Only hooked about 10% of the bites....That froggin is hard. When I wasn't throwin a frog I put on the trusty old speed trap. Caught a lot off of points. On one point I lost 2 fish back to back that were easily over 6 pounds. It pissed me off.
      City: San Jose/Clearlake Oaks

      Tips: If you see a weed mat, throw a frog...It doesn't matter what time of day, or how thick the mat is. And there's lot of post spawn fish about 15 feet off of the tullies. Throw a spinnerbait or senko for thoughs guys.

    • By

      Water Temp: 68-71

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: What started out as a birthday tubing trip on Lake Mendocino for my 14 yr old son into a fishing trip to Clear Lake when Momma decided Saturday night to stay out of the forcasted wind and boy did THAT work out nice! We hit the water at 5:00 am and headed to the point between Land's End and the casino for some topwater action before the wind came and it did not dissapoint. We threw spooks for a while and my boy banged a 3 after we watched a tourney blast off from the casino and held on through the waves that pounded us as they flew by (maybe a little more than spittin' distance away next time to the guy in the white & blue Basscat...eh fella?)and then I made one of those decisions that just make your day. I tied on a black & yellow frog and the fun began! I started getting blowup after blowup and had a blast for about 45 min until the sun hit and that was it....for now. We caught a few fish after that on dropshot and Senkos but we decided to head to Quercus Pt and try some plastics. We had a few there but not what I thought so we headed to Corinthian Bay and fished dropshot and senko rigs there and in the slough next to it and caught 10-15 fish up to 3 lbs in there mainly on senkos up tight against wood and walls. By this time it was about 10:00 am and we thought we might head up into Lakeport and try a few docks I knew would have fish this time of year since we were just trying to have fun. Man o' man when we came out of that slough by long tule point I knew we had better button everything down, including our kidneys, because Mr wind had came to play.

      When we saw the wind and the direction it was blowing I knew the spot I wanted to go would be blown out so we headed to a little pocket out of the wind by the trailer park in S.Lakeport and me and my son had the best day we have had together in long time. There were little grass pockets all over so I picked up my little froggy and went to work. The fish were tight against the bank under the grass and I got 25-30 blowups (landed 13-15) on a stretch of bank about 40 yds long. Nothing big, up to 3 1/2- 4 lbs but man what fun!

      While I was doing this, my son was pitching 5" senkos in every color I had to the edges of the grass and all of a sudden his stick went hot! He caught fish after fish, again up to about 3 1/2 lbs, until I ran out of 5" Senkos. So I gave him my 6" senkos and it didn't seem to matter because they just kept biting. The wind on the main lake was howling, I could see the tournament guys taking a pounding runnig and gunning and here we sat all by ourselves pounding fish after fish! My hands got tired from chucking my frog and my boy was using what was left of my Senkos so I put on a Zoom brush hog in watermelon W/blue flake weightless like a Senko and pitched it to a shade pocket in about 1 ft of water and it looked like someone flushed the commode! It turned out to be the biggest fish of the day, 5 lbs, just before we decided to leave around 2:30.

      If this had been a normal day fishing I would have ranked it one of the top 10 days I have had number wise but doing it with my boy on his birthday fishing trip made it my best day fishing ever!
      City: Ukiah

      Tips: Senkos, Senkos, and when you tired of that....TOO BAD!throw more Senkos! The frog bite surprised me but was a lot of fun this early in the year. I mainly used the Margarita Mut #2 and the Mavrick shop special #1 from Tackle-it for drop-shotting but it did not compare to the Senko bite. Fish were pretty tight in 1-4 ft of water and the frog worked real well when pitched over grass pockets up against the bank. Oh, by the way, did I mention the Senko bite was pretty good?

    • By

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: The wife and I fished for about 7 hours today and took 27 fish total. Holy cow was it windy. The best fish we caught today was a 4-8, however the wife had a decent fish (probably 6+) come unbuttoned at the boat. We primarily fished wherever we could get some shelter from the wind. We found fish everywhere we stopped, however, all the areas I had planned to fish today were wiped out by the wind so we had to adjust and it turned out OK. Our best 5 today went just over 14lbs, definitely not great but we had fun.
      City: Petaluma

      Tips: Dropshot and shakey head worm just about any watermelon color.

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      Water Temp: 65+

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished 100% WRL team tourney today with my 7 year old daughter as my partner. 90 boats and we got top 40. Will know for sure what place when the web site posts it. 17.65lbs in the most wind blown day I have been on. We subbed the boat twice, the second time blowing the fish finder off the bow. My daughter Michaela is a trooper. She was scared but didnt cry and caught fish. drop shot was our cofidnence and we stuck with that mainly. biggest was 4.75.
      City: Petaluma

      Tips: rent a subMarine Bass boat on windy Clear Lake days, or bring a surf board.

  • Riverside County
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      Water Temp: 70

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Pics here: http://www.nwbasser.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=20207#20207

      Only got 8 bites today (hooked 5) but there were some good ones. The biggest fish came in 38 foot of water on a 1/2oz football heads jig & brush hog combo & 12lb test Vicious Fluorocarbon; all the other fish came on Panic Minnows & Bass8baits 6" shakey head worms on a drop shot.
      City: Hemet

      Tips: Fish deep w/ fluorocarbon line instead of mono. Less stretch and it sinks which helps the bait get down and stay down during the retrieve.

    • By

      Water Temp: 72.8 to 74.0

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Bass fishing here is still very good on bass in the 3 to 4 pound range. Boat and shore anglers are scoring on senko,s jigs brushogs and topwater. The wind over the weekend didnt slow fishing good early moring and good afternoon bite most bass are shallow 3 to 15 feet deep lots of fry in the water now male bass are in attack mode.Bank anglers are using senko's and live bait and doing very well on bass to 7 pounds. Big bass this week 2 anglers 11 pounds bass on a senko and a 9 pounder on junebug 1/4oz arkie head jig with junebug 4" yamamoto twin tail grub as a trailer. Lake rating here right now is 6 to 8 on bass in the 3 to 4 pound range. WATCH FOR SNAKES IF BANK FISHING. 559-689-3255
      City: kerman ca

      Tips: SENKO'S,JIGS,BRUSHOG,TOPWATER( RICO'S ) WATERMELON RED/BLK FLAKE, JUNEBUG, PUMPKINGREEN/BLK FLAKE BLK/BLUE ALL VERY GOOD COLORS HERE RI8GHT NOW. LIVE BAIT CRAWDADS,LARGE MINNOWS,NIGHTCRAWLERS. Very good rating here 6 to 8 on bass to 4 pounds.

  • Butte County
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      Water Temp: 72.3

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Made the three hour drive with my Son and his girlfriend to oroville. Launched at the spillway and headed up the north fork at 7 am. started off with Crankbaits and jerkbaits. got a few up there including a 3 # trout. Brown senkos and creatures seemed to work, but what worked the best all day were jerkbaits. Milk or clear colored jerkbaoits seem to be the ticket. Most fish were in the slot. some smallmouths, but mostly spots. My son and his girlfriend got about 20 fish between them,but spent the middle of the day just laying in the sun. I took 45 bass,about 8 over the slot limit.
      City: brisbane

      Tips: work the rocky spots, but look for banks with steep drops even ones without rocks. the bigger fish came from unrocky banks. Work cranks and jerkbaits paralel to the banks.

    • By

      Water Temp: 64-69

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I had a couple of clients out today that hadn't fished for a while so I was hoping for a good day. We started out on the main body and worked our way up to the N Fork. We used senko's and tubes all day. They ended up with 60+ for the day with the largest being a 3.6lb large mouth. Senko's were the most productive both in pumpkin with green flake and watermelon and chartruse and the tubes in the motor oil and clear sparkle colors.
      City: Paradise

      Tips: We fished rocky walls and points and mud lines and shade lines.

  • Sonoma County
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      Water Temp: 63

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished Sunday 8am-2pm in some nasty wind. Had a couple hits early on 78 staysee, but no connections. Four in the boat all day, all on senkos in coves around wood off main lake body. Caught 'em from about 3ft to 15ft deep. All little guys, all smallies, biggest 2.4. Tried jigs, blades, curly tails, B-hawgs, threw a crawdad crank, nada. Just Senkos.
      City: San Anselmo

      Tips: #3 ewg w/ a 5" senko t-rigged, no weigh, watermelon or red shad laminate. Do yourself a favor and wait 'till the wind stops unless you're doing the tournament thing.

Saturday, May 19th, 2007

  • Amador County
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      Water Temp: 72-75

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I had so much fun At Amador the other night I decided I needed more of that topwater action, though I was worried that several days of cool delta breezes might kill it. I invited a friend to go with me and we gave it our best shot after 6 pm. Sure enough, the topwated bite did slow some and several bass missed the Chug Bug which they didn't do the other night. I think I landed 4 or 5 two+ pounders, but I did get one bigger than the other night - 3 1/4 lbs. My friend got a monster, maybe 3 or 4 inches - couldn't believe it. Again, the best action was just before dark as the delta breeze died down. After dark they were biting 10" Power worms and Power lizards. My friend was using a variety of baits including a spinnerbait which got him 2 bass I think. We wound up with 14 bass total, but maybe just a 12 lb limit. No larger fish after dark like the other night. We quit about 1 am.
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: I really think the day and night bite will heat up when the weather finally heats up. The weed growth is amazing this year since the water is so clear. Heat should bring some color to the water. I did some cranking before dark too - no takers. They would hit a Senko but not sure we even landed one. Considering the conditions, I was pretty happy with the trip. Where is global warming at Amador?!

  • Yuba County
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      Water Temp: 67-72

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I gave this lake one more shot to see if I could find any bass bigger than 1.5 lbs and I was dissapointed. Either we caught 30 fish or we caught the same fish 30 times, I don't know. All spotted bass. All really skinny and nothing over 1.25 lbs. I am really bummed about this. It's fun to go out there and fish, don't get me wrong, but after catching dink after dink, your hope kinda fades. Oh well, my kids came with me and they had fun, so it was worth it. You can go out there right now and catch at least 50 bass per day if you wanted to, but don't expect anything big. Everything we threw worked to some degree because the spots are so aggressive, but the smaller plastics had better results. The water was gin clear, so it was a lot of finesse fishing, not exactly my favorite thing to do, but hey, I got to get and and fish and the lake is gorgeous and uncrowded this time of year.
      City: Vacaville

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: 70

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Took my 3 year old daughter with me for 3 days of Clear Lake bassin, took my friend Terry that lives in Clear Lake that basically can not move his legs from diabetes but that was not a problem, he was still able to catch a few of them buckets mouths, we got 11 fish in 5 hrs of fishing on Friday and than on Saturday just my daughter and I fished and got 25 bass to 3.5 lbs, we could not fish out of Red Bud area because my batteries were shot in my trolling motor and it was a huricane on Sat & Sun, Sunday the byte died for me but still got 3 fish to 3.5 lbs in about 4 hrs of fishing, I know if my batteries were good I could have fished my open water rock piles and deep docks but the wind and batteries would not let me. Spoke to a guy fishing 100% future pro tour and he had 23 lbs at 1:00 PM at Sunday, I watched him flip a black/brown jig for a 3.5 lb bass.
      City: San Jose

      Tips: Margareta Mutalator 4.5 or 6 inch or anything purple, brown or purple brown. I was using shakey head 1/4 oz but texas rig would work also because the kids at the camp site were killing them with a Zoom 8 in ribbon tail grape worm texas rigged. As the sun set on Sat I threw brush hogs, 8 inch worms and jigs and got fish on many different colors. If you buy a new 71 lb thrust 24V trolling motor don't be a tard like me and use your old batteries, buy new batteries!

    • By

      Water Temp: varied

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished north in and near Rodman on Saturday. Three of us took 15+ fish 1-3.5 #s against wind blown tulies. Sunday fished south channel. Two of us took 20 1-3 #s again. Two toads came off after we got a peak at them. Most of the fish were caught very tight to the shore.
      City: Sacramento

      Tips: Black and blue senko's wacky, grenn zipper worms and sweet beavers, brown and purple jigs in 2-5 ft of water.

    • By

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Thanks to Larry and everyone for posting Clear Lake reports. I learn a lot!

      Wind Saturday (and for sure Sunday!) kept me off the lake, plus this was a "chores" weekend at the place to get ready for the 3 day weekend. So I didn't launch the boat and fished a little off the dock in a small cove on the Clearlake arm of the lake.

      I always catch some fish there, mostly 2 or 3's. Saturday was really good. Lots of fish on Senko's and Drop Shot all day. I hooked into some 4's, and some 5's (weighed not guessed) then mid day I got a new PB with a 8.1 fish that worked me hard on really light tackle.

      Sunday the bite was totally different. As in zero in the same spot. Maybe the fish swam out of the cove? Maybe it was the weather or tourney fishing pressure? I did some more work and fished some and had zero fish. But that 8.1 was big fun!
      City: Oakland/Clearlake

      Tips: I was fishing from a dock, so you know I was casting out into the cove, right where the boats coming in would be. They were casting right against the wall, but I always find the bigger fish in that spot are in towards the middle.

      I was using a Stand Out drop shot hook for the first time, it seemed to work well. I also used a weedless finesse hook. I like them since I can wacky rig it and toss it with not much worry.

      My drop shot rig has Berkeley Fireline Crystal 10 lb test (size of 4lb mono) with about 10 feet of 8lb fluorocarbon tied on as a leader with a uni to uni knot. The big fish was caught on either a Margarita Mutilator or a Salt River Craw Roboworm I don't remember. I was using both all day rigged both wacky and regular.

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

      Report: Took the family up for a little camping over the weekend. First time on this lake, able to get out for around 3 hours each morning. First morning went well nice quality fish 2 over 4 the rest in the 2-3 pound range. 8 fish total best 5 at 16 plus. All caught on top water Vixen. Started the next morning with the topwater and for some reason they were not taking it as well many hit and misses changed the bait to a Voo-Doo with a fluke trailer worked much better size down a bit but numbers up 15 fish total 5 best 13 plus.
      City: Vacaville

      Tips: I was told the lake level was droping which means suspended fish and they were. The steeper banks with chunk rock were holding more fish than the long tapering points. Fished the main body east shore, some fish also came out of the brush though those were smaller. Worked the Vixen slow and steady no stops. Worked the Voo-Doo with a fast retreve with some stops then a rip to trigger the bite. Both lures in a Shad color.

    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: WOOHOO!!! first swim bait fish had to be 10 plus! and my friend got another one on a jerkbait both fish on were caught walking the bank by the dam
      City: Morgan Hill

  • Sacramento County
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      Water Temp: ?

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Nothing over 2.75 pounds , but plenty fish. All spots on 1/4 oz jigs. Tried topwater and swimbaits for a while , one top bite. Aior temmp unseasonally chilly. Went as far as NY creek mouth.
      City: sac

      Tips: Mouths were beat up from scraping for dads, one real small bass spit up a whole bunch of fry. Didn't have my front depht finder back yet so I fished blind and shallow. Just had a good ole day tossing and reeling in. left real early.

  • Butte County
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      Water Temp: 70

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: on water at six boated 150+ bass in north fork
      City: oo

      Tips: all the bass came on top water in the morning few on senkos and the majority of them on a motor oil or red magic worm.

    • By

      Water Temp: 70

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: What a difference a week makes! Lake is super dirty right now. Seems as though the weekend wakeboard guys have come out to play. Fished for a couple hours in the PM picking up nine. The normal stuff wasnt working so I started throwing a jig. This seemed to work decent but no where the action that was on the lake last week. Biggest spot went 3 1/2lbs. All were decent fish.
      City: Sac

      Tips: Fish points a drop offs.

    • By

      Water Temp: 65

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: John got on'em again with 12 bass on Friday and 10 on Saturday, with several over 3 lbs...no small feat since there were at least 23 boats on the lake on Saturday. He's using soft plastics (craws, lizards, and worms) and any color is working as long as it's green pumpkin with black flake. He's finding the fish deeper and taking a slow presentation...probably fish that have moved off the bank due to the fishing pressure of most anglers banging the banks.
      City: Monterey

      Tips: Fish deeper, slower, and use green pumpkin with blake flake.