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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Friday, November 3rd, 2006

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 60 degrees

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Ken , Thanks for the tip of eating stripped bass. Most people probably don't know that.
      City: Discovery Bay

  • Sacramento County
    • By

      Water Temp: 61-63

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: So,I pretty much was here visiting family and had heard that folsom was a great lake to swimbait fish for lunker largemouth so, I took the day off and I pretty much trew Huddleson shasta trout swim baits all day long. Best 5 fish was 35 pounds. Was pretty close to my best day fishing.
      City: Texas

      Tips: The key I found was dragging the huddleston right on the bottom. I was fishing some humps that I later found out was called mormon island over by browns. goodluck and happy fishing..

    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Anyone that knows Jim or at least knows of him...is aware that he is one of the premiere anglers on Folsom. He spends a lot of time out there. I think instead of questioning his honesty, we should encourage him (and others) to continue to post to the Reports page. Its a very handy tool for those looking for "tips" on how to fish lakes.

      Greg H.
      www.FolsomBassLeague.com
      City: Folsom

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

      Report: The entry fee for the Redwood Empire Bass Club's annual "Turkey Shoot" open team tournament on December 16th is $100 per team not the $50 I mentioned in the previous post. Sorry for the error. I hope to see you all there.
      The more contestants, the more money you can win.
      City: Santa Rosa

    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Redwood Empire Bass Club welcomes new members both boaters and non boaters to fish our Clear Lake Tournament on November 11th.Please come to our meeting next Wednesday at 7p.m. at the Rohnert Park Community Center at the corner of Rohnert Park Expressway and Snyder. For more info log onto rebc.net or call me at 707.758.5762.
      Also the club is hosting our annual "Turkey Shoot" open tournament at Lake Sonoma on December 16th. This is a team tournament and it is open to anyone who wants to fish. The entry fee is $50 per team. You can sign up at our December 13th meeting or call me. Thanks.
      City: Santa Rosa

Thursday, November 2nd, 2006

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 60-63

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: This is a little late. But I'm bored at work. Went out Last Saturday and caught a pretty good crankin' bite. Fished from Disco bay, up to the San Joauqin looking for stripers and large mouth. Lots of Schoolie Stripers in one of the elbows of Idian Slough Frist thing in the morning. They were small guys though. Rattle Traps along weed lines picked up largemouth. Lots of dinks. Caught a few pitchin sweet beavers and jigs in heavy current pushin' up to the tullies. No size though. Biggest Largemouth was caught in one of the entraces to franks tract on the north end along the weed lines, 4.8 pounds(good job Jerry). FOund a school of stripers bustin on the way back to Orwood south of Holland's cut. Rat'l-traps got em first. Then threw a white swimbait, let it sink to the bottom, reel in slowly and they'd bite every cast until they left the slough. Largest was about 5 pounds and a lot in the 2 to three pound range. Looked for them in the same spot next day same time and they weren't there. Good delta double header day.
      City: San Jose

      Tips: Don't use trout poles to catch stripers. Don't use trout poles in franks tract.(jerry did bring in a four pounder in the current through the weeds with 8 lb test on a light spinning rod though) just don't do it again. DOn't fish hung over. Charge your trolling motor battery before you drive an hour and a half to get the stripers in the current. when all else fails throw a ratl trap chrome and blue, baby shad, chrome and black. Swimbaits provided from fishermans warehouse were the ticket when we found a school of stripers. see you guys out there on SATURDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 60-61

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished Clearlake on Nov. 1-4 Prefish for the Future Pro Tour on 1-2 and TOC on 3-4. Thurs. 11/2 first day of prefish. Rained most of the day. Started out fishing deep docks in the south end with traps, cranks and spinnerbaits. Caught several fish all solid 2.5-3.5 lb fish. The pattern noted here would be the pattern for the tournament. Rocky banks and fish up shallow. Pulled the boat out around noon to dry off, eat and launch the boat on the north end. Found more fish up shallow and ended the day with a limit for about 16lbs. Wet but satisfied with our results and looking forward to Friday. Checked in at Konocti and got some much needed sleep. Friday Morning found calm conditions. Fished all day and had 2 small fish and a real let down to the confidence. Checked in for the TOC got our launch number and off to the casino for a little fun. The gameplan was to start on the best area from Thursday, we also decided to only take reaction baits and leave all the other rods in the room. Tournament day #1. We started on the deep docks around Windmill Point and got 2 small fish. We went through the area and by 7:30 we decided to head north. Our first stop was around Henderson and our biggest fish of the tournament about 7.5lbs on a spinnerbait in 2ft of water off rocks. Some high fives and then another fish in about 15ft of water on a deep runner spinnerbait about 3.5lbs. Then off to an area off Highway 20 and into a wide open bite on crankbaits and traps that lasted about 45 minutes we caught a 6.5, 4 and several 3-4lb fish. We had our limit and culled and its about 1045am. We know we have over 20lbs in the boat and decide to hit several areas as a prefish for the next day. We spend the rest of the day bouncing around the lake and do not get any better fish. Day 1 weight is 23.12lbs and we are in first place but only by 1.5lbs. We are happy with the result and have a nice steak dinner with a few brews and then off to bed. I wake about midnight with a killer headache and walk down to the lobby for Motrin. I notice a very bright full moon and no clouds, uh-oh. Tough bite tomorrow. I get nervous and do not sleep well the rest of the night, unlike my partner who slept like a log. There are a lot of good anglers within striking distance and we know we need a good weight to win the boat. Day #2. We head to our best spot from Saturday and get 2 2lb fish. We then head back over to Henderson and in the same spot that our biggest fish came yesterday and we get our biggest fish of day 2-5.77lbs on a spinnerbait again. We then bounce around the lake and catch 2 fish to fill the limit on rattle traps. We now have 5 fish for around 12lbs and we need to cull out our 2 smallest fish. We head to Windmill and my partner sticks a nice fish and we cull one of the fish a little bit later we stick another 5lb spinnerbait fish and cull again. Its about 2:30pm and our weigh in is at 3:15. We feel we have around 15-16lbs but we don't think this will be enough, but we are unable to get anything better and head to the scales. We are feeling a little disappointed but we were able grind out a respectable limit. We begin to hear how tough the bite was as we pull in and our hopes begin to rise. We talk to the day 1 2nd place guys and they say they have 13lbs. We bag our fish and they look bigger than we thought. We are beginning to get optimistic. In line we are waiting and no big bags are coming in. We get to the scales and Vince Harris talks us up good and then sees our fish. He asks what we think we have and we say 15lbs. The pros doing the weighing say we have 17+ and the scales say 18.98lbs Vince says the weigh in is not over but he is declaring us the winners now. We can't believe it. Anyway we get the victory and our first boat. What a rush. Total weight is 42.10lbs for 10 fish. We had 4 fish 5lbs or better and 3 of them came on spinnerbaits. The rest of the fish came on crankbaits and rattle traps. This was a real team effort as we both caught fish.
      City: San Jose

      Tips: Thanks to the guys in the Nitro who had the slot next to us at the dock. They lent us an extension cord. Ours was not long enough. Thanks guys. A lot of nice people on the water and many people came up and introduced themselves and congratulated us. Very rewarding to get a good vibe from your competitors. Thanks to the FPT and all the fishermen who participated.

  • Butte County
    • By

      Water Temp: 60-63

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Got some time off to spend some time with some good friends on a houseboat. Fished friday and Saturday, moving all over the lake we found the bass from 5-50 ft using jigs with grubs. Not finding much of any bait balls but use your graph to locate. The North end seem to be better for the larger fish.
      City: rocklin

      Tips: go deep and slow, no reaction bit yet.

  • Merced County
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      Water Temp: COLD ?

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: 4:00pm fish under 156 bridge with bleeding jig rattle no luck, swithched to ancovies/night crawler mix caught 2 small 10" bass around 7:00pm went to the bridge at the end of pioneer rd. or off 156/bill wright rd. fished with ancovies caught 4 20"+ strippers one was 26" 11lb. left around 8:30 slowed a bit with the wind picking up.
      City: Los Banos

  • Shasta County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Out at 6:40 am......rain and breeze...got jig fish, spinnerbait fish, crank fish and worm fish...off at 3:00pm Rain turned em on.......Butcher out.
      City: Reddin

      Tips: Go up the Sac or McCloud.......big rock.

Wednesday, November 1st, 2006

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: cold

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Went out today started at about 11:30am-12:00pm and stayed in piper. I fished Brown and Purple jigs it seemed for the deeper fish sortly after it touched bottom they would hit the jig. Deepest I caught was about 18-20ft but most were in the 12-17foot range. I caught a few in 4-6ft of water. They seemed to want the jig to be moveing a little bit. Best 5 went 12lbs 12oz biggest was 4lbs.
      City: Russo's

      Tips: Fish the docks with a brown and blue jig if they arent eating the jig in the fall down twich it a few times and hang on!!

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 63

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: I did some night fishing last night off a friends pier hear in jago,i had a feeling the lockjaw switch was turned off now that the weather has changed.had a great time in the short three hours I was there,proceeded to stick two 4 pounders in a row followed by a 3.4,2.6 and a few 1 pounders all draggin a brush hog.the countdown to the rip bite is hear!!!
      City: lower lake

      Tips: while night fishing,add brass n glass with a hog or big worm,shake vigiorously,pause,get the net!

  • Yuba County
    • By

      Water Temp: 63

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I did a teach-the-lake trip today with a good fisherman - unfortunately the fish wern't very well behaved! They were not very active the day following a lot of rain. They must have feed then. One critter made a mistake of feeding about 11:15 am in the main body - she ate my brown/orange Rodstrainer jig with Yamamoto grub trailer. She was a spotted bass weighing 6 lbs 14 oz - my 3rd biggest spot ever and 4th biggest at Collins. A client caught a 7-1 previously. We fished all over the lake with every bait known to man and only landed 4 bass including one largemouth. The others were in the 2 lb range and we each lost a few. Drop-shotting and spooning did not work for some reason, just jigs and worms.
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: Fishing should pick up in the next week or so with clouds, cooler weather, and rain moving in. The lake is down 40 feet. The island tops are showing.

Tuesday, October 31st, 2006

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 62

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Stripper fishing has picked up in Discovery Bay. Been catching strippers all over 10lbs. Went out last night with my buddy Chris and had a hay day. Started the night off with 30lbs and kept going. 14,12,12,10lbs. Drift Blue gill and throw the hair razor. thats all i could say. Good luck and fish on.
      City: Discovery BAy

      Tips: Drift Blue Gill. watch your fish finder and when you mark fish start throwing the hair razor. The fish are on frenzy and biting good. Good luck Stay on the Newport dr. side of Discovery bay.

    • By

      Water Temp: 66.7 to 68.0

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: THE BASS FISHING HERE HASN'T LET UP ON BASS 12 TO 15 INCHES LONG. THERE WAS 3 NICE BASS CAUGHT ON SWIMBAITS THIS PAST WEEKEND 2IN THE 7 POUND CLASS AND ONE 9 POUNDER ALL CAUGHT BY THE SAME ANGLER. I WAS UP THIS PAST WEEK AND CAUGHT THE SMALLER BASS THEY WERE IN 15 TO 30 FEET OF WATER BUT I ALSO HAD 2 BASS TO 3 POUNDS THEY CAME OUT OF 51 FEET OF WATER ALL ON JIGS.LITE PUMPKIN GREEN 1/4OZ BULLET WITH A 208 4" DOUBLE TAIL WATERMELON RED/BLK FLAKE GRUB AS MY TRAILER (YAMAMOTO )CAUGHT ALL ALL SMALLIER BASS. I ALSO USED A 1/4 OZ & 3/8 OZ ARKIE NEW COLOR (MILLERTON/PINEFLAT) SPECIAL WITH A GRN /PUMPKIN YAMAMOTO 4" DOUBLE TAIL THAT ALSO WORKED ON THE SMALLER BASS AND ALSO CAUGHT THE TWO BIGGER BASS. TRAFFIC IS HEAVY ON THE WEEKENDS 559-689-3255 RANGER STATION.
      City: kerman ca.

      Tips: AREAS- 5MPH AREA HUMPS ISLANDS DROPOFFS DAM AND SWIMMING AREA ARE ALL HOLDING BASS. LAKE WAS AT 58% AND DROPING SLOWLY.

Monday, October 30th, 2006

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 63.6

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Hello Mark Lassagne if you would like to guide on the lake please let me show you where all the hot spots are.your the guide with the calendas is that correct,drop shot is ok but not my confidennce bait.but it catches fish,I remember you from the san mateo show feel free for my help call me at 650-583-3333 after 9am and before 9pm.
      City: NAPA

      Tips: learn the lake from someone who fishes it a lot and knows where the fish should be.

  • Santa Barbara County
    • By

      Water Temp: 64.5-66

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: I list the water as muddy but this is not the case for the whole lake. It appears the lower half ( arrow head side ) has been effected the most by turn over at this time. I wish I could fish Mondays all the time as the place was VERY peaceful with only one other bass boat on the water. The first 7 casts and I had a limit of smallmouth and largemouth on blades but none was over 1.5 pounds and one was a dink. I fished from dawn to dusk and caught fish early on spinnerbaits,jigs,chatterbaits,and cranks. I threw the huddelston for a bit and had some follows but I didn't fish it much and if the water temps fall a bit more those will be eaters instead of followers. I fished my spoon from about 9:30 until 4:30 and had great fishing with it. I had 3 catfish( one around 15 pounds) crappie,largemouth,smallmouth and one hell of a tussle with a big Ol' carp. The carp didn't fight like a catfish and on a 5 1/2 foot pistol grip rod it was some serious action. I could get it close but I could just make out it's outline before it would rip off a bunch of line. Because I couldn't quite make it out and the outline was more bass like than catfish and it wasn't rolling I played it until I could finally see it. DAMN! I had visions of the lake smallie record again. I guess I should just forget about the smallmouth record : ) Anyway the wind picked up real good around 3:00 and that REALLY put the fish on and I had a bunch of fun the last 1 1/2 hours. I did best in 40 feet however I had 4- 3 pound largemouth in around 27-30 feet with my bigger smallmouth being out in the deeper water.
      City: Santa Barbara

      Tips: If you don't have marker bouys than BUY some. When I catch a fish after a dry spell Or I find a tree etc. I will pitch out a bouy the minute I stick a fish. When the wind is really humping you can drift an amazing distance before you get the fish in the boat and released. It is very helpful as a reference point and It helps me to stay on fish. On one bouy I caught 25 fish within 15 feet of it and none when I strayed.

  • Sacramento County
    • By

      Water Temp: N/A

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: HI BIG JIM. WOULD YOU BE SO KIND AS TO TELL US HOW AND WHERE YOU WORK THOSE JIGS AND THE BRAND NAME. I WOULD LOVE TO CATCH A BUNCH OF SMALL FUN BASS.

    • By

      Water Temp: 62

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: hey guy's as of yesterday the gates are closed hand launch only... I disagree... I will find out why... make's no sense.. I've been doing great.. not the number's but the size.. this last saturday alot of rower's with ZERO RESPECT THIS IS WHAT NEED'S TO BE DONE..... are you listining. Call the park's and rec , dept.. Vasona and ask why is the launch ramp closed... I know I will... Hey, If ya don't know where to launch then don't go... Hey Matt...don't get mad, and or angry the problem is that the ranger's have ABSOLUTLY NOTHING TO DO WITH THE WATER DRAW.... I am not a ranger, allthough I think that with a couple of phone call's we can keep Lexington open for at least two more week's.. Take care fish safe,, catch and release..
      City: morgan hill

      Tips: my tip ,, find out about all the resevoir's... water district , drawing everything down.. right now is the best time to fish, Hell if you fish as much as I do then we can talk...I work more than I fish.. Take Care and by the way It is the start of the Holiday Season... Zack

Sunday, October 29th, 2006

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 65

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: I wanted to work on a local lake to start guiding on and Berryessa is the closest. We arrived there about 10am and launched out of Steele Park. $20 bucks to launch seems a little steep in my opinion. After reading Sid

      Tips: Fishing the island when the spots were coming up they were spitting up bait that looked like pond smelt and not shad probably the reason they would only hit the small worm.