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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Sunday, November 12th, 2006

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      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Here may be and opportunity the next two day if these storms that are suppose to come through to get on some really nice bass. this past weekend showed their was no letting up on bass in the 4 to 6 pound range. Again live crawdads were the number one choice for anglers there may be a good swimbait bite here too if this weather hold up.Jig fishing is also holding on strong if you have chance to get to this lake this week it may pay off for some big bass.
      City: kerman ca

      Tips: Fish slow and hit areas Humps and dam area are doing good also second and third ramps east side swimming area drop off and 5mp area brush piles and flats are all holding bass also main point west side at the bouy line has drop off to creek channel that a good area for live bait.

  • Sacramento County
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      Water Temp: N/A

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Irregular report. Check out my report 12 Nov, Oroville
      City: Sacto

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      Water Temp: N/A

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Irregular report. Check out my report 12 Nov, Oroville
      City: Sacto

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      Water Temp: 58

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: COLD! Coldest day of the year by far. When we first hit the water at safe light, thought it was going to be a pretty nice day. But, fog and wind rolled in and it was Burrrrrrr City. We started on some humps over by Dike 8 and got a 2'4 rippin', but that was it for a while. Then we ran to the Browns Ravine area and got 2 nice keepers on a drop shot. Had a lot of other hits on the drop shot but they just wouldn't commit. Then ran to Folsom Point and got a lot more hits on the d-shot, but once again they wouldn't eat the bait with authority. Ran to the peninsula area and experienced our best bite of the day. We hit 5 more fish up to 2'5 on the jig and d-shot.
      City: Roseville

      Tips: 25-35 feet of water seemed to be the key. New it would be a tough bite with the cold storm front. I've seen this on Folsom before where there is an extreme weather change and the fish just play with the bait. Totalled 8 fish, with the best 5 going 10'4. I know it doesn't matter much, but this will be my last report. I have been posting on this site for years and I am sad to see how bad things have gotten. I'm sure some of the reports are bogus, but it is not our responsibility to call out other fisherman when we believe they are lying. Myself, along with others come to this site to get fishing reports and post reports to help others, not sift through postings of people bickering back and forth. I have won semi pro angler of the year in both New Bass and Anglers Choice circuits and won other open tournaments on the delta. I feel I am pretty accomplished on that body of water. I don't mention this to toot my own horn, but only to make a point. I post reports out of respect to my fellow 'fishing brothers' in hopes of helping them have a better trip when they go. I read the reports in hopes of them helping me get a better idea of what is going on. I like sharing the things I have learned because I was fortunate enough to have some good people share their knowledge with me when I was picking up the sport. I think we are fortunate to have guides like Larry Hemphill and Cooch who are willing to share their info with us. However, there are many other very good fisherman who used to post, but you don't hear from them anymore. It doesn't take a lot to understand why they are missing. Good luck out there.

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

      Report: we got on the lake at 12;30 got 3 slot spots at the bridge droppin a kastmaster then moved to the main body about 40' and got two at 15" with a real good fight , missed one that broke my line when he hit .
      City: lake oroville

      Tips: go deep and slow

    • By

      Water Temp: 56

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: John got two (both about 2 lbs) on a shad-colored crankbait, but that was it for us today. After a rain the day before that made us bail out the rental boats we use, we enjoyed a bluebird day with very little wind and mostly clear sky...cool in the morning but comfortable after 10:00 a.m. Even though there was a trout plant earlier in the week, trout-finished swimbaits didn't yield any fish for us. John did have a blow-up on a dead-sticked Castaic Trout (floating version), but the fish expelled the lure before John could set the hook. I tried the same floating Castaic Trout (dead-sticked and waked), and slow and fast-sinkng trout swimbaits but had no takers. Tried again to entice the many fish showing on the depthfinder in the main lake basin between 40 and 60 feet, but they weren't interested in anything I showed them, including spoons, Chatterbaits, LA Slider swimbait (cast), or Castaic swimbait (trolled with lead-core line).
      City: Monterey

      Tips: Find the underwater structure (points, humps, brush-piles, rock-piles) and you'll probably find the fish....they aren't everywhere - there are large areas that are devoid of fish or baitfish...like fishing in a bath-tub. If where you're fishing isn't producing, move.

Saturday, November 11th, 2006

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

      Report: Caught 7 bass. Fished for about 3 and a half hours in the afternoon. 6 on a rapala x-rap and 1 on a yamamato texas rigged crawdad. All small fish but still fun. They are nailin the shad right now. It's crazy out there.
      City: Morgan Hill

  • Santa Barbara County
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      Water Temp: 63.2

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Another newbie to spoon fishing Kirk McIntyre connected with me and we were second out of the marina. I had told him we what our game plan would be ahead of time and because it was a learning trip for him we stuck to our gameplan. We started out tossing swimbaits for a bit and I found the fish had repositioned themselves from the week prior. We had strange weather the week prior setting new temp. records in Santa Barbara but this day was to be overcast all day and there was a light drizzle for an hour or two around 9:00-10:00. While throwing the huddleston I got whack and missed but the fish hit it two more times when I finally got a hook in it. It wasn't the biggest or hardest fighting but it was every bit of 4 pounds. Two casts or so later I stuck another that was maybe half a pound bigger. We fished the spot for another 45 minutes and I was bit one more time but did not connect. Score fish 3...Kelly 2. I am still wondering if the fish that hit 3 times and some of my other bites were more than one fish. It would seem likely and by missing as many as I did I might have stunk up the water for more swimbait action. I would have returned later on but was unable to because I somehow managed to tear a muscle in my shoulder getting out of the drivers seat like I've done a million times before and was severly hampered for the rest of the day. We went to a secondary spot and threw blades but there was no action on this day on the blade at either location. I knew that something was different but would not know how different until we broke out the spoons around 9:00. Along one of my better spots we went untouched for the first 10 minutes so I hauled us over to the walls. The reason? If there is no bait movement on the dropoffs I find that the resident fish that LIVE on the walls are more opertunistic when a spoon blazes past them and can sometimes be more consistant than the dropoffs. we caught assorted largemouth and smallmouth on the walls and I got one smallmouth close to three pounds but the numbers of fish based on weeks past was down by half or more. We had to go in around 10:30 after I wasted my shoulder but there was no way I was going to have Kirk drive from Lancaster all the way here for a short day. Since I can't be in my boat and not fish I bought 6 motrin at the store and had a peanut butter and motrin sandwich and we went back out. I was in pain but we started catching fish out on the drop offs at this point and so we stuck it out. I caught another channel cat of considerable size and then we ran into the crappie. I learned how to fizz a crappie or we were going to be eating them and they all made it to safety after I poked them. We had a few fish that we had to needle throughout the day as we brought them up from spots as deep as 60 feet and if you couldn't get the hook out and them back in the water lightning quick they would come up floating in a minute or two. I would have liked to have gone back to the swimbait for just a bit but I think my shoulder will be out of action for a week. It was as if someone threw a switch because the fish everywhere just stopped biting. After three other spots with minamal success the wind was howling but we made one last pass over our begining water and Kirk got his best fish of the day and several more to boot. Kirk says he now trusts this set up and presentation and after seeing how easy it is to fizz or quickly release the fish he is going to add it to his bag of tricks.
      City: Santa Barbara

      Tips: I don't know who it was I was talking to in line prior to the gate being opened but he had been reading my reports and had not been able to duplicate the results. He also told me he was using a half ounce spoon. No! No! No! 3/4 ounce Hopkins shorty chrome there is a reason trust me.. If you are looking for crappie look deep. 45 feet or more. we ran into them and they blacked out my meter at one spot. We caught them everywhere but they were very deep.

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 55-57

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: On Saturday with the wind and rain the anglers fishing for the 12 spots in the California BASS Federation Nation tournament it was tough. For one angler who had a nice bag of five bass on Saturday for 12.0 lbs and big fish 4.8 lbs. On Sunday Ken Hicks came in with another nice bag and a 5.4 lb, but was bet out with Rich's 5.8 big fish for the weekend. Ken's total weight for both days were 25 lbs. Most of the fish were picked up with rattle traps and speed traps. Rich"s bass ate a big black/red jig in the tulles.
      City: rocklin

      Tips: Good luck and keep cranking.

  • Alameda County
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      Water Temp: ?

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Darn, this lake gave me a good skunkin'. It looked real good and I tried it all but just couldn't get 'em to bite. total crap-out. None of my good ole standby lures seemed to work. I tried rubber worms, crank-plugs, spinners, and even a few chuggers. oh well, better luck next time. I hate Chabot.
      City: Mendo

      Tips: Go and get a good burger instead of spending the day here.

  • Riverside County
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      Water Temp: 56

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: SWIMBAITS ARE AWESOME! TOURNAMENT QUALITY FISH 5 FISH= 26.72lbs!
      City: HEMET

      Tips: DUDES YOU GOTTA TRY THIS!6-18inches ahead of your SWIMBAIT put 2-3 curly tail grubs in white or watermelonseed "NO HOOK!" JUST center the "FLOUROCARBON" ON TO THE GRUBS(couple of inches apart)THE METHOD SIMULATES " A FOOD CHAIN OR SHOULD I SAY THE HUNTER BEING HUNTED! A BRUTE WILL SEIZE THE OPPORTUNITY TO CAPITALIZE ON A"NEW JACK" NOT PAYING ATTENTION TO ITS SURROUNDINGS! DVL BIG BASS DONT JUST SMASH FINGERLINGS AND STOCKERS CAUSE THEY'RE DELICIOUS! BIG BASS VIEW THEM AS TRESPASSERS ESPECIALLY "AT MEAL TIME!A 6-8" TROUT FEEDING ON SHAD IS DISTRACTED LONG ENOUGH TO FALL VICTIM TO PREDATORY VIOLENCE DUDE! BIG BASS STALK THEM AND WAIT....................THEN *&%$@! LIGHTS OUT!

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      Water Temp: 62to 66.5

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Today was another good day as was friday bass between 4 to 6 pounds were being caught on live crawdads and there were some swimbait fish to 7 pounds around the islands and the dam area. First place in small club tourny produced a 18 pound 4 fish limit. You can catch bass from 10 to 50 feet here right now traffic is heavier on weekends lake is at 54 % live bait seem to be working well here. points dropoffs and islands in the damm area are all hold good numbers of bass. Also the flats like the second and third ramps on the east side are holding nice fish. The swimming area has a nice steep rocky dropoff that hold bass in the early morning as does the second ramp on the east side. 559-689-3255
      City: kerman ca

      Tips: Fish slow and work there areas the bass are all over here from 12 to 15 inches to the bigger 4 to 5 pound bass. live bai swimbaits jigs brushogs & sweetbeavers all work colors any crawdad pattern any trout pattern junebug lite pumpkin green jigs in 1/4 to 1/2 oz bullet or football head work well yamamoto twin tail grubs seen to edge single tail grubs. markinman51@aol.com

  • Butte County
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      Water Temp: Did not check,

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Pattern was keep them honest up shallow then proceed to 50-75 feet deep. Dragging jigs heavy darts and drop shot. Caught 10 plus pounds a day to garner first place overall. Great lake just could not do my thing from the back of the boat. There are some larger bass in the lake and they will take your offerings, just work for them. I heard of a few taken on spooks and I would not disbelieve that. Congratulations to Lockhart (pro side winner).
      City: Sacto

      Tips: Use depht finder to locate the bait, no matter what level they may be. Some fish came from no signs of fish down there. Present the technique that has the higher percentages in less time. Good fishing, Jimbo

    • By

      Water Temp: 53 - 59

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: fished a three boat two-day club tourney out of bidwell to avoid crowd at the AC pro am. Saturday promised t be a great day with rain and cold weather coming in starting Friday - i usually like inclement weather at Oroville. Boy was I wrong.
      First day was won with 12.1 lbs (seven fish). Fishing quiet pockets upriver from 20 - 40 ft. drop shots mostly. We had 7 lbs.
      Second day was also a drop shot day.
      I suxed. Threw the kitchen sink, got bit on beavers, dropshot, worms, jigs, just not often enough. Better fish on bottom hugging baits in about 10 - 20 ft - i think these were the roaming fish, up for a bite. not much of a rip bite.
      Not your normal Oroville fall bite.
      City: belmont

      Tips: conditions were changing rapidly over two days. overcast, rain & cold on Sat, overcast, clear and cold on sunday.
      No real tips other than to go slooow. I got two of my fish deadsticking. I think three to four days of steady weather (whatever, as long as it doesn't change much) will put the fish back on the feed.
      Note that the AC Pro Am wieghts were fairly light too.

Friday, November 10th, 2006

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      Water Temp: 58.7

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Went out about 10:00am. Haven't been to this lake in 12 years or more! Flew blind today. Went with my partner and my 9 year old son and a friend of his and my 6 year old daughter. Thought it was going to be a good day! Had a 3lb in the first five casts just past the launch on a brn/orange rod strainer w/ 180 yamamoto twin tail trailer. Then nothing for about an hour and a half. Found some bait balls by rock walls. So we dropshotted a few and c-rigged a few more. all on warmouth 4.5in worms.
      City: chico

      Tips: robos seem to work the best

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 61

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Started out at first light to go Stripe-er fishing and immediately ran into thick fog. Please everyone go slow in that stuff. Had a Bass boat blow by me going way too fast. Remember Striper bait fishermen might anchor anywhere. Had very little luck with linesides, but did catch several nice Largemouth on spooks and ripbait along weedlines in Mildred. Ran to Franks fishing a few active pumps along the way. Nothing. Fished the weedlines on NE of Franks for several smallish Largenmouth on Pointer Ghost Minow ripbait and Blk/red flake Senko. Metered a good looking school of stripers in a cut off of Franks, but dumped my first hookup on a spoon when line broke. The school dispersed after that like they usually do. Picked up a 4 lb striper trolling in Disco. Drifted Jumbo minnows and Bluegill last night in Disco. Metered some good looking fish, but no bites. Everyone I talked to was experiencing the same slow fishing. Great day on the water with my son, but just seemed dead. Not much current and no wind.
      City: Discovery Bay

      Tips: Enjoy your time on the water fishing for whatever you like. Never really did get a pattern going, but had wonderful time watching my 10 yr old son learning to throw my Curado's

    • By

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished down south looking to establish some kind of LM pattern.... tough for me to stay focused when the linesides are in....Got bit everywhere I went on just about everything I threw,, but no size. Buzzbait, spinnerbait, chatterbait, rat-l-trap, speed trap, DD14, jigs and senko's.. Got em tight to the bank, outside weed lines,deep ledges ,in the current, out of the current, high water, low water.... a few 2.5's and one 3 with bunches of rats.. Maybe 12 pounds for best five. I know the bigguns are out there, I saw the weights last weekend, just not for me..
      Still pretty good water clarity and the dams will be up till about the 20th..
      City: Tracy

      Tips: Catch more stripers!

    • By

      Water Temp: 62

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Launched out of Big Break at 7am, Ran into a fog bank on the river. Slowly made my way up into Dutch Slough, We were going to go for stripers, and had some luck on scoolie sized ones from 18-24 inches. when the tide went slack the stripers stopped biting.
      I saw some comotion off of a tule point and fired a swimbait over there. Much to my delight it was whacked by a bass, after that we were bass fishing. We got maybee 15 bass, nothing big, but alot of fun.
      City: Suisun City

      Tips: look for tules with deep water right next to them, look at the current and pitch your baits in all the protected pockets.
      rememeber a fat bass is lazy, she don't want to fight the current......

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: 62

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Started off early with jigs at Shag rock with one going 2.8 lbs. Moved to another spot by Anderson Island and began to throw the delta colored Voo-Doo with the first big fish of the day going 4.63 on the Cull-M-Right scale. We stayed around Anderson Island for the remaining time of our trip catching and releasing about 12 fish. Best 5 went around 13 pounds. We threw the LV 500 and the Voo-Doo all day but the Voo-Doo seemed to be what they wanted.
      City: Roseville

      Tips: Try the Voo-Doo in white or orange. Seems to me that the Voo-Doo lure seems to get the more aggresive fish which is what we were looking for.

    • By

      Water Temp: 59-61

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Had the day off so the wife and I spent the morning crappie fishing at our secret spot called Shag rock. She caught the most with 16 and I caught 15. Sizes ranged from 1lb to just over 3lbs (she also caught the largest). All fish were released.

      We then targeted bass in the afternoon which started off nicely with a fat 4lber just engufing my LV 500 while the bait was being dragged along the bottom like a jig. We ended up with 7 bass (not counting the dinks we caught crappie fishing) with the best 5 coming in at right around 11lbs.
      City: Petaluma

      Tips: Crappie - chartreuse and red/white 1/16 oz jigs. Let the jigs sink then work them in slowly using different retrieves.

      Bass - LV 500 and drop shot. Experiment with your bait selections and technique. These fish seem to like things that are VERY different.