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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Friday, June 30th, 2006

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 87

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Went back to Clear Lake and fished Monday the 27th and part of Tuesday. After my last trip, I was expecting to get into great numbers of bass. Boy, was I wrong on Monday morning. A hot spell had come in over the weekend and I barely boated eight fish on Monday, between 9:30 am and 12:30 pm. I went to some points around Clearlake Oaks and barely managed a couple of bass on some deep diving cranks. Tried a crawfish pattern that had worked last week, tried chartruese, a bass pattern, and even a white shad imitation with minimal success. I moved off the points and targeted some isolated tulies near deeper water and ended up getting a half dozen more fish in the two to three pound class, before quitting for lunch and switching over to crappie. Bassing wasn't quite the fast and furious action of the week before, but it was still all good. By noon, it had gotten to 98 degrees ( not as bad as the previous day's 104 degrees, thanks to some cloud cover.) So, up went the bimini and out came the crappie pole for some low key minnow dipping. It sure was fun!
      After an early supper, I got back on the lake at around 6:30 pm. I stubbornly decided to try the points again with a deep diver. Ended up getting a channel cat of about four to five pounds on the first few casts. After that, I landed a nice bigmouth that looked like a football. I was so astounded by the huskiness of this fish that I threw it in the live well, to be released and weighed later, with a borrowed scale. As mentioned in the preceding post, this fish ,too, looked no more than fifteen inches in length but turned out to be 4.8 lbs.! At this time, I decided to switch over to crappie and ended up getting five more channel cats that evening, on my crappie rig! Needless to say, it was pretty exciting.
      Tuesday morning, started the boat up at 7:30 am, but only because a buddy of mine insisted on getting an early start. This morning, I decided to try a different strategy than the one that had served me so well the week before, but failed so miserably, yesterday. However, I still couldn't resist throwing a few casts at the first point we passed. I got one bass on a crank, while my buddy nailed three on a tandem carolina/drop shot rig. Sometimes they hit the bottom rig, at other times, the top.
      Needless to say, I switched to a drop shot rig and decided it was time to move on to some off shore rock piles. Upon starting the motor, the starter threw its top nut. We took the cowling off the motor and saw the spring and starter washer precariously perched on the starter shaft, but couldn't locate the nut. We decided to just fish the Rattle Snake area, using the trolling motor. We ended up at a rock pile west of Rattle Snake and proceeded to pull seven fish out of it. I was drop shotting 4" purple and black, curly tail worms. My buddy was using his tandem rig with various types of worms. However, he kept hanging up on the rocks because of the carolina part of his tandem rig.
      My friend decided to look for the starter nut one more time and miraculously found it. He wound it down tight with some wrenches I had on the boat and we came back in for lunch. After lunch, I went back out to find some more rock piles close by. I had wanted to go out to deeper water like Shag Rock and Kono Tyee, since the weather had turned so hot. However, I decided against it, until I had my starter looked at by the shop.
      I'm glad to see by the helpful preceding post that the fish are still on ledges near fifteen or plus feet of water. That is exactly where I found the bass, early Tuesday afternoon, between 1:00 and 2:30 pm. I found a 6", two tone, dark and light blue, curly tail worm that my friend had left on the back of my bass boat. Just for the hell of it, I cast it out and dragged it down the end of a rock pile. Wham! I got a solid strike and started to fight what seemed to be big fish. After a few shakes of his head, the fish dislodged the hook and I lost the first fish. After some colorful exclamations, I cast out the same worm again, and again, I got a tremendous strike. The fish shook its head as I fought it to the boat and again, I lost it right at the boat. The water was so algae stained that I never got a look at the fish. This time, I changed over to a larger sized hook, because I was using a longer, 6" worm with a wider girth. After that, I proceeded to land bass after bass, without losing a single fish, including what looked to be at least a 15 lb. channel cat. I ended up landing about eight more chunky bass of up to three pounds, over the next hour and a half. This also included several more juvenile channel cats. Not bad,for a day that included engine trouble.
      It was incredible how many fish I caught on my friend's worm before it finally got too beat up to stay on. I tried a June Bug straight tail and several other colors, including curly tail worms, with little luck. Either it had gotten too hot and/or the fish had moved off the rock piles, by 2:30 pm or the fish only wanted my friend's 6", two tone, blue, curly tail worm that day. The bad part was, my friend had no idea where the worm came from or what it was called!

      By the way, on the days the fish were biting best, I remember seeing and hearing plenty of carp rolling and splashing. I must say that I subscribe to Hemphill's Theory of Relativity. The correlation between bass and carp activity, that is. Happy fishing!
      City: San Francisco

      Tips: Change your hooks to match the size of your bait.

      During hot weather, drag your bait across the tops of submerged rock piles, but don't forget to continue dragging them down the slopes to deeper water, as well.

      Find a two tone, light blue, dark blue, 6" curly tail worm and when you do, please post and tell us what it's called!

    • By

      Water Temp: 82

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: I had a fun trip today with a good angler - good fishing - good conversation - and hopefully some good knowledge for him about the lake! After a night-day two trip marathon at Lake Amador the previous 24 hours, I needed a good client to keep me awake!! He did and the bass did! I was interested in the previous report - I am not surprised that the crawdad-colored crank bite was good. Again today, as in my previous report, the jig bite was great for us, especially in the afternoon, producing many bass to 5 lbs 3 oz. I was using my standard "Larry Hemphill Special" - brown/orange jig with #180 Yamamoto single tail grub, and my client had success with a #301 Yamamoto Kreature bait stuck on the back of his jig. I had him switch to that bulky bait (looked kinda funny)and he predeeded to catch two near 3 lb bass on, I think, back to back casts - or close to that. He had all kinds of action on that ugly combo!! We started early in the Rattlesnake Island area and my client had a good chartreuse spinnerbait bite going and I caught my first few bass on a Lucky Craft Lv 500. I think that is what it is called. The morning was spent in the Rattlesnake area and the narrows, targeting rocky areas with ledges. The bass are beginning to position themselves around these areas for the summer. We worked some rocky areas above the narrows in the afternoon - looking for some better quality bass, and they were, but the two biggest were only a little over 4 1/2 and the 5-3. We caught 28 with the 5 best pushing the 20 lb mark. We might have had one or two bass under 2 lbs - all the rest were over 2. You won't find post-spawn quality like that anywhere else - meaning the weight of the bass compared to their length. I'm telling you - that 5 pounder - if you glanced quickly at it - looked about 15 inches long! I think we should put more baitfish in the lake, har!!!!
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: The early summer bite is definately on for the average 2 to 4 lb bass. Their diet seems to included crawdads in addition to all the baitfish. We actually saw bass chasing bait out of the water and one doesn't see that much at Clear Lake. The biggest bass was caught under the boat around 20 feet deep. I assume many of the larger bass are in deeper water now. Ten to fifteen feet seems to be the magic depth on my boat. Green pumpkin and black grape worms continue to do well for us. I did try some buzzbaits this morning early with no results. That bite may be aways off since the bass don't have to work too hard for their meals now! Remember to try to tick the rocks with your crankbaits or spinnerbaits. And finally, NO bluegills this trip!!!!

  • San Francisco County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: FINALLY BACK TO MERCED TODAY AND MAN,THIS LAKE IS GREEN GREEN GREEN....STAYED IN THE NORTH LAKE AND TOSSED SPINNERS/CHATTERS/AND SENKOS FOR ABOUT AN HOUR WITH NO LUCK. WONDER WHEN THIS LAKES GONNA CLEAR UP.
      City: SF

      Tips: TRY FISHING ANOTHER SPOT FOR NOW

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

      Report: does anyone know which lake has the best bass fishing? rainbow or horseshoe?
      City: fremont

  • Trinity County
    • By

      Water Temp: 70+

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Finally the fishing is beginning to return to normal. The water level is still falling but not near as dramatically as it has been. I fished with clients the last 2 days and although the lake is not what I'd consider on fire, we caught enough so that everyone had a good time. Cinnamon Senkos around willows and darter head worms on points were the best producers.
      City: Weaverville

      Tips: Be careful out there this weekend, watch out for the other guy. Boats don't have turn signals, and I guess that's why most folks don't bother to look before they turn. I came up on a boat yesterday and not being sure what he might do I slowed to see which way he might go next. Sure enough a hard left right across my bow. Just because an accident isn't your fault doesn't mean it's gonna hurt less.

Thursday, June 29th, 2006

  • Amador County
    • By

      Water Temp: 84-86

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: I feel a little guilty posting this after my good buddy Rick's post. Our night was different. I got to Amador about 2 pm to look the lake over in preparation for 2 guide trips. I found one shadow at the end of a small cove off the main body and threw my old style green Snagproof frog about 2 feet from the edge. A 6 1/2 lb+ bass exploded on it - I was so stunned I almost forgot to set the hook. Wow, what a start. About 5 pm I stuck a 4 1/4 lb bass on a Rodstrainer jig in the Jackson Creek arm. I didn't expect this kind of size as the post-front was moving in. I met my clients at 6:30 - a couple about to be married and who LOVE to bass fish. I don't know if I have ever guided a female angler who loved bass fishing so much and worked so hard at it! He has to love it - He fishes the Lake Tahoe keys for bass! I decided he needed to learn how to fish a Senko since he had never seen one before. She was fishing an 8 inch worm. I caught the first bass on a jig - again, over 4 lbs. Soon he got bit twice on the Senko but missed them. I switched him to the #214 (bluegill) Senko and about sunset he lets out a yell - something real big was on his line. Did this bass ever carry on! I soon netted his FIRST Senko bass - all 6 lbs 3 oz of her! What could I say - "yea, the Senko a pretty good bait!!" Wow - talk about exciting - especially in a small area as we were again in the back of a cove. So, the first 4 bass - over 21 lbs - gotta love the post spawn - I guess! After dark, things returned to normal - 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 lb bass on worms. The soon-to-be-a-new-wife caught her first two. After she caught a few the blond jokes started - yes, she is a beautiful blond! We worked our way up Rock Creek and finally caught 3 on one point, averaging 2 lbs each. FINALLY, he gets the good bite on a junebug Dead Ringer and she made a lot of noise! She tipped the scale at 4 lb 10 oz. We ended around 2:30 am with 13 bass and a fabulous limit over 25 lbs. Great fishing and lots of laughts! The night was beautiful too - very little wind. I tried to take a nap but couldn't. Met my next client at 5:45 am. He is the fellow that had his first bass trip with me on March 29 - at Amador. He did very well on that trip, but this post-front morning found no active bass, also no surface activity. I started off with a small frog fish and them we both got a thrill as a 5 1/4 pounder blew up on the green imposter near the spillway. Wow!! I caught 2 more 2 to 3 pounders on jigs and that was it for the 4 1/2 hours. My client had several hits and stuck one or two but couldn't put any in the boat this time. He says he has been doing well since our first trip, just not this one. Those frog fish kept me awake all the way back to Yuba City!!
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: It is hard to totally figure out a pattern for Amador right now since there has been extreme heat and a summer front with thunder. I was a little surprised the fishing was as good as it was - a least on Wed. Watch the water level at Amador and as long as it doesn't drop too fast (it appears to be down now about 6 or 7 feet), there should still be some shallow fish - even during the day. It really is amazing that a near 7 lb bass will be in the 3 to 4 foot depth of 86 degree water! Eventually the larger bass will move out to main lake points, walls, and ledges.

    • By

      Water Temp: 65 TO 70

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished hard and dragged everything at 6 colors of lead core. Caught one rainbow in the first 10 minutes.Around 11am the teperature rose to 100 degrees.I got this big bite that took the rod tip into the water.About 50 feet from the boat the fish survaced. At that distance it looked like a sturgon. It turned out to be a sqauwfish at about 30 inches.
      City: SANTA ROSA

      Tips: Wait until late October. 60 dollars in gas and 160 mile drive round trip from Santa Rosa.

  • Mariposa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 80-83

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: We must have caught about 75-100 fish just not a lot of big ones. Caught fish on just about everything we threw. Topwater, ripbaits, crankbaits-rattletraps, huddlebug, dropshot, and TnT jigs. One good thing is that 80% of our fish were largemouth and really fat. For a good custom made jig call Troyce-TnT baits (209) 505-8504

      Tips: Any type of grassy point in about 15' to 20'. Baitfish are everywhere and crawdads are being spit up. For a guide trip call (209) 604-8222 fishwranglers guide service

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

      Report: Tulloch is a yuppie lake to many darn houses and boat traffic. I would rather fish melones it is way better and wide open.
      City: Tracy

      Tips: Fish Tulloch only in the dead of winter when no one is on the lake.

Wednesday, June 28th, 2006

  • Amador County
    • By

      Water Temp: 80-85

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished from 4:30 pm till 12:30 am. New moon phase, just entered a cooling trend after many 100+ days. Slow fishing day and night. Maybe the sudden weather change was the problem. Not a typical afternoon/evening at Amador. Got about 5 fish, max size 3 pounds. 5 fish in 8 hours. Biggest fish came from dam area points on senko, second biggest fish came inside cove on crankbait.
      City: Folsom

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 66-77

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: I have had some of the best fishing on the Delta after days of hot,hot,hot weather & then the forecast does a complete 360 & this happened yesterday the 28 th. of June. High clouds, Thunder & about a 10 degree drop in the temp.Yesterday I could do no wrong (well almost), my biggest fish was a 7.8 lb. on a frog in shallow "OPEN WATER" I didnt drag her in with a huge clump of moss on her, YOU KNOW THE EASY WAY TOO CATCH FROG FISH, so I have herd!!! I had another very large fish jump right over the top of my frog. I thought cool no harm done,so I went for the back-up offering a big ol SENKO hooked MJB style. Sure enough I slip it in right past the area where she rolled on my frog & stopped the fall by thuming the spool so the bait would swing right into her direction. Saw the line jump & set... HOG ON!!! Turned the reel handle to engage the spool, spool engages but nothing but loose drag. Got a good look at the fish before she gave me the FIN & went bye-bye. From what I saw she looked to be between 7-8 lbs. but hay, I am a bad judge of fish & how much they weigth. I had a great day catching several frog fish in the open water. & They were eating these frog's not just slapping at it. I had a 4 lber. hit my frog in the open water, I swear I felt pressure & set for a blank. The frog land's about 8' from my boat. I let it sit for what seemed to be 10 seconds, when this fish SLURPS MY FROG UP .No need to set just swing, all in one motion this fish hit's the deck (I love 50 lb. power pro braid). What a great day on the delta. Lot's of solid 2'S-3'S with a few 4's, aswell as the 7.8 lb. & the other SLUG that I SCREWED-UP ON. I also caught 4 strippers up to 14 lbs. all released. what a blast... ~mjb
      City: Walnut Grove

      Tips: Shimano recomends that you back your drags off after each outing, which I do sometimes but not all the time. The problem is forgetting to crankem down the next time you hit the water. Which is why I never had a chance with that second SLUG! TIP , If you do back your drag's off (which you really should) put a note somewhere to remind you too crak-em back down prior to hooking into a SLUG!!!When I set on that second slug (WITH MY THUMB ON THE SPOOL, SPOOL NOT ENGAGED) I felt like I could catch any fish in the Delta that day, until I started to reel down on her & couldnt.ALWAYS SOMETHING!!! ~MJB

    • By

      Water Temp: warm

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished from 4pm till dark..Caught about 15 fish in front of the dam on wacky worms,all small up to 1.5 lbs..went to the north end later for 3 top water fish
      City: loomis

      Tips: color didn't mater, just fish of points or islands about 10 to 20 feet

    • By

      Water Temp: ?

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: we started off are day with flukes an got two hits but didnt get the fish. we moved on to the backside of the lake and got a,two 1.5s,and a 5 on arons magic roboworms dropshotted. our next fish was caught near the first on the same rig. Then we headed back to the boat ramp and caught three more bass on purple roboworms dropshotted.
      City: antioch

      Tips: dropshot

  • Sacramento County
    • By

      Water Temp: 84 to 88

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: On the water at 3:30 pm, went north to Miners ravine and fished spots back to Granite Bay. Top water the first hour no luck. Went to drop-shot no luck, senkos and darthead no luck.Finally went to a fluke and caught three fish with it,the first fish came when a cloud came overhead and dumped rain for 10 minutes.caught a few more at the meat wall and left at 7:15. Over all tough fishing 1.75 lbs to 2.5 lbs biggest.
      City: Granite Bay

      Tips: stop whining about summer conditions at Folsom and fish.

    • By

      Water Temp: hot

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: REPORT SUBMISSION RULES: Simply, let's keep it about fishing and reports of your day on the water. The reports area is not for arguments, advertising, or general discussions. It is for fishing reports. If you would like to have a discussion about something, please use our Fishing Forums.

      If there is a submission on any of our reports pages that is not a fishing report, it will be removed. By clicking on the "Submit Fishing Report" button below you agree that you understand and will abide by these rules

      Tips: You guys that are supporting the lake lice that are mentioned in the reports need to re read the rules. Like the other guy said if the lake lice affect the fishing, then that is part of a FIGHING REPORT.

    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: WATER DOG. This is a Bass fishing web site, how about respecting it for that? A lake is open for all recreation users, and it is up to us to give proper respect to others while doing there own thing. So in the future, please keep your non-fishing comments off of this site. Thank you for you cooperation.
      City: Camarillo

    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: i didnt realize there was so much lake lice out at folsom already. i'm going to go get my surf rod, and shad pattern wakeboard swim bait, and go after them. i should have a limit by noon.

      Tips: fish were the bass fisherman are and you should be able to find them running through their fishing holes.

  • Mariposa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 74 - 78

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Bring your top water and jurk baits and be ready to have a ball. But, don't forget your plastics in shad and crawdad patterns, they're working as well. The action is good to great most of the day on long sloping points and wind blown banks. Dinks are on the bank with fish to 3 pounds in 10-20 feet of water, they will come up and streach your line. Fished the Cotten and Temperance until 0930 hr., then headed for Horseshoe. The action was the same. All in all we boat 30 + fish with a dozen or so of dinks thrown in, but a good number of quality 2 pounders and up are active. Only a few small blacks with the spots thinking they were 10 pounders as usual.
      The lake is as beautiful as i've seen it in 20 years and filed to the brim. I just wanted to drive around and take in the scenery, believe me it's will worth the 12 bucks to get in.
      My partner was throwing a Bomber, black back with clear body, shallow diving. I was throwing a Chart. shad Lunckcraft 110 pointer deep diver. the deep diving jurks after the sun hits the water seem to be working better than shallow diving.
      Be safe and have a good time..
      City: Turlock

Tuesday, June 27th, 2006

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: n/a

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Snake, Post the pics without your mug in them.

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Had a fairly good day on the water today. Started throwing frogs on the high tide and had no success. Went to my fluke and started to catch 2-3 pound fish. The bite was very light. After the turn of the tide, I went back to the area where I started the day and threw the frog again. Wham, first cast, 4 pounder. Moved up a little way and had several blow ups and then I nailed a 7 pounder. I followed that up with more fish in the 3 pound range. Best five around 20 pounds
      City: Brentwood

      Tips: throw that frog!