Submit
Report

Northern California Lake Fishing Report

Limit:

Sunday, April 30th, 2006

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: warming up

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Summer has finally arrived as this past weekend boaters flocked to take advantage of the beautiful weather at Lake Berryessa. Saturday morning I headed out with Orville and John. It was overcast and quite brisk. Our first stop was the ranch house which in the past was usually very successful but alas not this morning. But that gave me a chance to teach Orville and John how to use a senco with brass and glass. Then my plan was to troll towards the wineyards and pick up a few fish along the way but this proved fruitless too. So we headed straight for the fishing grounds. We started in about fifteen feet of water. Orville threw his senco with brass and glass and on the way down on his first cast he hit a small mouth bass which he released. A few minutes go by and he gets another bass that he releases. I changed John's rod to a weightless senco and he wound up with a few nice small mouth bass that he caught in about 2 1/2 feet of water. On the way back to Steele Park the sun came out and the day warmed up considerably. Then I went out with Tim later in the day to one of my favorite coves and limited out with bass (5 bass to 11 1/2 lbs). When we came back to the dock ready to call it a day I met our new neighbours and their 13 year old son Anthony and asked if he liked to fish. He said yes enthusiastically so I asked his parents if he can go out for awhile and they said sure. We went back to my favorite cove again and we only fished weightless sencos in two feet of water and Anthony had five hits right away. The water conditions Saturday was approximately one foot visibility. We picked up some nice bass and one crappie. Sunday morning I trolled from Steele Park to Spanish Flat and limited out with trout and salmon within an hour. They were all between six feet and fifteen feet down. There was heavy boat activity trolling for them. Later in the day my wife and I decided to try the back of the Monticello Ski School to get away from the boat action on the lake and the fishing was not bad. This full moon that is coming up in May will absolutely put all the females to spawn. If you are interested in a guided trip book early.
      'til next week.............................good fishing!!!!! www.fishingconnection.net
      If you have any interesting fishing stories to share let me know at bestguide@hotmail.com
      City: Napa

      Tips: Fish are at pre spawn mode so they want to bulk up i lile plastic for slow retreave or crank baits for faster retreaves ,the fish will let you know how they want there presentation,any questions feel free to contact me 650 583 3333

    • By

      Water Temp: 66

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Launched out of Markley Cove and headed to the east side with my brother in law. It was only his 5th time bass fishing and his first 4 were in the same week. He schooled me on the 1st 4 fish in the boat and I kept breaking lines on hook sets as I did not have my heavy leaders. We were Carolina rigging. After about 20 fish or so we had been on the water for apx. 2 hrs and it was 9:00 am. I read here there were fish holding at the south side of the big island and one big one over 8 lbs. so we headed their. Mind you, we were catching a mixed bag of bass mostly blackies. Immediately we hooked into fish for the next couple of hours up to 4 lbs. I watched at others fish with crank and spinner baits, why people use these on this lake I will never know but they do not yield much.
      After about 20 fish, my brother in law tells me he has a snag as I am releasing a fish. He tells me it is not a snag but a fish. I ask him any size, he says it feels decent as it is coming to the boat. He gets it up to the boat and I freaked out. It was at least 10 lbs. Mind you I have been fishing this lake for 20 years and my biggest was a tad over 8. The fish was at the side of the boat and relized it was hooked and dove straight down, I told him don't horse it as he was. Only problem was, he was using a wire hook my buddy set him up with on our last outing. It looked like we would get the fish but his drag was tight and it straightened the hook.
      I've never seen such a big fish get caught next to me or caught one myself and I guess I am still waiting now.
      City: Sacramento

      Tips: For all of you who like to fish spinners and crank baits. Get over them. This time of year use plastics in salt and pepper.

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 68-70

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Lauched out of Lungberg sunday, we stayed in Frank tract. early morning used 6"senko, got few 3lber, nothing big like everyone told me, lots boat probably scares the big mommas. missed few big fishes. that's fishing. have a good day!
      City: el cerrito

      Tips: fish the senko really slow in the tullies, be patient. good luck!

    • By

      Water Temp: 60

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: fished delta with 13 teams most fish caught on sinkos and dropshot sweet beavers big break franks and mildred big fish 8.80
      City: el cerrito

      Tips: high water use big senkos low water use smaller senkos

    • By

      Water Temp: 66-68

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished Disco Bay with my wife both Sat and Sun
      caught both bed in lots of the bays, best bay by far was in Marina area. Best bait was a zoom frost white
      fluke, no weight, throwing in real tight and twitching it out-letting it fall. Once we got on that pattern we locked in and caught the heck out of em'. We used to do that 10-15 years ago with sluggo's, don't have anymore, I'll have to
      look around for some. Where the heck can you find sluggo's? I prefer their action ove the flukes
      City: Brentwood

      Tips: I found that not staying and working one fish for an hour that we were far more productive and the result was 30lbs + both days. also caught several very nice!!! with carolina rig and a jungle worm.

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 67-69

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished Saturday and Sunday with my 4 year old daughter and 21 month old son. I landed 7 fish to 4 lbs on W/M seed New Age knock off senkos 5" and reg senko purple with chartrues tip, caught 5 fish on Sunday. Fished half the day and swam the other half on both days. Got to keep the kids cool and happy. Fished the South end accross from Red Bud. Fish were holding on reg points in tulies and points that were made of tulies. I did find a few holding on big boulders. There were huge balls of shad everywhere but the good news is they would hit my senko under the ball of shad which suprised me, I know under a ball of shad is the best place to fish but with a bait that does not look anything like a shad suprised me, maybe they thought it was a small fish feeding on the shad. The fish were feeding heavey at night where I camped, the bass, crappie and carp were tearing up the shad under a light at the end of a dock, 3 guys landed 7 fish to 7 lbs under that lamp using dart heads with white flukes on the outsides of the ball of shad. I caught a 4 lber about 20 feet in front of 6 poeple on the beach and I let her come up and shake her head the a 65 year old guy just loved it, he swam over and gave me a cigar!!
      City: San Jose

      Tips: For me senkos in any color tossed into the tulies and pulled through real, real slow and watch that line. The fish under 3 lbs would hit it hard but the fish over 3 lbs would just be a presure bite, and if you feel weight, reel down and set the hook.
      Bob on Lake Shore drive in Clear Lake by Red Bud launch ramp turned me on to New Age Senkos, they have scent, last longer, have a resest hook groove and are $1.50 cheaper per bag. Good Luck and God Bless.

    • By

      Water Temp: 63 to 70

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Me and my best fishing buddy decided this is the lake to fish. Wow, we went to two of my favorite spots, and nothing! He says, let's fish shallow instead of deeper. First thing he does is throw a Senko about two feet deep, and BANG! A 9+ give him the biggest fish he has caught on that lake. We kept on fishing shallow, and ended up with about a dozen fish. Most were 2-4 lb range.
      City: Sacramento

      Tips: We didn't catch anything deeper than 4-5 feet. A lot on beds, and getting to them.

    • By

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished Sunday all day boated 24 fish. We got about 33% of them off beds the other we were fishing small worms and flukes. Morning was tough but as the water warmed things heated up a bit..biggest fish went 5lbs with the rest in the 2-3 lb range...Saw a ton of tourner fisherman but didnt' see too many of them catching fish.
      City: Mtn View

    • By

      Water Temp: 62 to 67

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Ok here it is. Fished the lake from 27th to the 30th.Had 5 baots in your party and I can tell you it was tough fishing but there is hope,the bass are starting to turn on slowly.Only two reaction bites all trip out of your party.The baits that worked the best were bush hogs in green pumpkin. Had to down size was the key, 3/16oz and down size the hooks.Senkos worked too if you wacky rigged them, that got thoughs fish that were just under the water in the state park and under the docks.The big fish for the party were a 6.13 until Sat. eve when I boated 10.3 and a 5 plus. Keep throwing there going shallower every day.Good luck
      City: oakdale

      Tips: The fish are jacked up so go slow. Stay away from the keys and rattlesnake the dead shad and crap everywhere.

    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: This was an awesome day to be at the lake. Nice and warm. One major issue, the skiers. There were ton of them. My girlfriend and I fished from 11am till 5pm. She caught three nice size bass. The biggest, 4lbs. Water is high, and still muddy. Tried Worms, Jigs, and Sweet Beavers.
      City: Sunnyvale

      Tips: Fish the rocks by the Dam.
      P.S. If you are going out fishing at Coyote and have a back seat open, drop me a line r_sobotkiewicz@yahoo.com Currently, I'm fishing in an inflatible. Would love to join you :)

  • Butte County
    • By

      Water Temp: 64

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Spent 3 days houseboating and dragged 2 bass boats for 4 of us. Caught large amounts of spots. Blind man with no arms could have caught 50 fish each day.
      Grey/white rock walls in the evening ad creeks all day. Middle and South forks. FUN STUFF!
      City: Pleasanton

      Tips: Go now or forever hold your peace.

    • By

      Water Temp: 65-68

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished all day in the middle fork and alittle bit in the south fork. Between two of us we caught 31 fish. All but four we in the slot and above, 10 were keepers. Senkos in clear with black and red flake and white spinner baits were the baits of choice. Drifting minnows were a waste of time. Quite a bit of debri in spots!!
      City: Rough and Ready

    • By

      Water Temp: unknown

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Myself and eight buddys float tube back ponds.All of us caught at lease one bass useing plastics.I caught three on a baby bushhog.Fishing should get real good there in a week or two.
      City: castro valley

      Tips: PLEASE CATCH AND RELEASE THE BASS

  • Shasta County
    • By

      Water Temp: 58

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: In at jonesvalley up the pit water stain up there. Fished willow bushes lots of small fish all on worms. Started cranking a white and char norman crank on points bigger fish but ony 12-13 inchers. Mid morning getting windy changed to a spinnerbait. Started on points working back into the coves started to catch better fish 15-16 incher and lots of the.The fish seem to shallow in 5 feet of water. Most of the fish seem to be half way back in the coves.Best 5 fish a little over 10lbs.
      City: Redding

  • Sonoma County
    • By

      Water Temp: 64 - 70

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Went out Sunday with my 9 year old Mikey for our first 2006 Sonoma Trip. Launched at 8:30 at a crowded ramp. Mikey drove us north to Cherry creek; we tried Spinner Baits and Senkos. Pretty muddy, less that 2 feet visibility. First fish 9:20 a one pounder on a Helix. Slow and staedy another at 10:10 then 10:15 .... last fish at 3:45. Went north to Dry creek, clear water all the way up at the end of the Creek and saw some fish cruising. Most of our fish already spawned out. Mikey landed and released 10 fish alltogether, mostly on a Helix or Senko with one fish on a crankbait. Beautiful day, over 80 outside and high 60's in the water with limited wind. Mikey did alot of swimming and had a really fun fishing day. Big fish 3.5 best five only 10.2 lbs. Interesting ending to the day, sheriff came down to the dock and asked me if I saw a sinking boat near the ramp said one was reported - maybe we'll read about it later. Lots of clowns, no sinking boats. Several Ski boats and smokers still launching at 4:00 on Sunday.
      City: Pacifica

      Tips: Slow bite, senko fish pretty much just picked it up and swam, had to line watch. No fish on t-Rig, Jerk bait, drop shot or blades. Great weather. Saw one bedfish stayed over her for a few minutes but she wasn't locked on so we let her go, would have our big fish. Kids make the trip GREAT!

    • By

      Water Temp: 64-71

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: fished thursday with my old man (apr.27). playede hooky from work so got a late start, about 10 am. Started in yorty and had 20 in the boat by noon. very warm with no breeze. most fish caught on senkos in watermelon and motor oil w/ red flake. fish were on gravel banks and secondary points, not real tight to cover. i also caught a few drop shotting robo worms. moved to a cove off warm springs arm and caught 10 more including pops boating a nice 6.8 in front of a father and son across the way. they asked what we were using and i asked if they had any dark senkos. 5 minutes later i see the father yelling for the net. a big bass close to 10 lbs! needles to say they thanked us for the tip. left at 4pm. Great day with pops on the water. Sunday got an earlier start with a buddy. Same results,40 fish most in the 2-3 lb range. very healthy. 50-50 senko and drop shot.
      City: santa rosa

      Tips: this is my first report. thanks to all who post reports. i am learning a lot. sonoma is a finese lake. as much as i love watching all the guys in there fancy boats throwing everything but plastics, believe me they are all you need here. SENKOS, brush hogs, craws and drop shot will always do best. i hope this helps

Saturday, April 29th, 2006

  • Mason County
    • By

      Water Temp: 58

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Caught 9 bass - biggest 2.5lbs. All but one were caught on carolina brush hog or TX rigged worm thrown up shallow or on points. No reaction bite on spinner or jerk bait. Fish were biting until the ski boats took over the lake and it shut down by noon. Did take one on a crank bait around noon.
      City: Foster City

      Tips: Shallow points, mud banks, humps or wood in 10 ft or less with soft plastics.

  • Amador County
    • By

      Water Temp: depends on wher

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: great day on saturday. My buddy caught the largest spot I have ever seen or weighed. 7lb 3oz. caught it on a blue over silver size 11 rapala on the surface. It didn't seem to matter what you threw, they hit it, everywhere on the lake. smallest we caught was 2lbs most in 3-4 range and all in 10-15ft of water.
      City: Sacramento

    • By

      Water Temp: 70

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Started day north shore watching a guy drop his bayliner off his trailer half way down the ramp?Never seen that before. Lucky his brand new honda outboard was in the up position, the boat was gone when we got back in the evening. Had a great day. Nice overcast sky allowed mike and i to use top water for 2 hours with biggest at 3.8 lbs. Yep a real dollar fish for mike. My spook didn't work as well as lucky craft popper did.We each caught and released 15 nice ones apiece. Being in the back of the multi species boat I got the left overs. First top water fish was a nice 6lb channel cat. Hit the popper like a bass and kept mike all excited until I netted it. Grubs, crank baits, split shot, hula grubs, worms everything worked except buzz baits ,spinners and rip baits? $22.00 for 2 guys seems worth it when the fishing is that much fun.
      City: orangevale

      Tips: Don't hit the brakes hard when backing down the ramp. How embarrased could you be. I'm thinking do I really want to go for a boat ride with this clown? Fish are very active and bite real good. just throw your favorite bait.

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 62-66

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: I realize that almost everyone is a tournament fisherman, but I am really surprised at the lack of reports considering the hundreds of people that fish the lake every week. Anyway, I guided there Tues, Wed, and Fri - overall fair fishing. Tues was a cloudy post-front day with no sun which left us with poor fishing. My clients each had a good fish on near Lucerne - one big one on a ripbait and the other on a spinnerbait - both were lost. Finally one of them lands a near 3 pounder on a worm. A few more bites and that was it. Wed was a different story - SUN - the necessary spring ingredient! A client and I caught 10 bass - the five biggest near 18 lbs. We started from the Oaks and worked our way north. Above state park we started catching a few. We worked a fun pattern using Norman DD-14 shad colored crankbaits. We found off-shore roaming schools of shad and slowly worked the lures under the schools looking for the lazy bigger ones. We put several in the boat up to 4 lbs. Also caught a few on #221 Senkos. In the early afternoon we bought a ticket to enter the north keys. What a zoo! I wanted to show him all the nice bass we could SEE but not CATCH. I know some were caught in the morning. My client, who has fished with me several times, decided he was going to catch one anyway - in spite of what I said. The nerve!!!! We spotted a tail sticking out from a dock and as I was moving my Ranger out to the middle, I suddenly hear a lot of noise from a human and a fish!! Not a monster, but he was very pleased with the 4 1/4 pounder, fooled again with a 221 Senko. Even the home owners were on their docks, trying to catch their new neighbors!! Friday two more clients and I caught another 10 bass up to near 5 lbs. I'm afraid sight-seeing was mostly the order of the day. We saw bass of all sizes from 10 inches to well over 10 lbs. Three 8's swam right by the boat in Konocti Bay. They were friendly but gave us the fin as we cast our Senkos to them. After 11 am the bite just died as the bass tried to get a tan in a foot of water! They were spooky!!! We got a few quality bass and some very small bass - all on Senkos - colors 221, 222, and 301. Our limit wasn't big - maybe 13-14 lbs. We fished most of the time on these trips, but did a lot of learning new areas, as most of my clients want to do. I wish my report was full of monster bass, but I tell it like it is - good or bad!!
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: I really think one of the problems (just some of my theories) is that the weather had made a very sudden change causing the bass to move up quickly - making them a little more wary. As they get used to the shallows, I think the bite will improve. On Friday, about 1 pm sharp, the carp showed up in Konocti Bay to warm up at the 2 foot level. I do believe that 2 to 6 lb bass become a little nervous sunning themselves next to 20+ lb carp. The carp, bass, and bluegill (which were all over on Fri) will all be competing for spawning areas at the same time. I have notice through the years that the bass will often spawn a little sooner than the bass. This year will be an interesting spawn. May the best species win!!! We found bass still actively feeding on shad - even in the north keys. We didn't try swimbaits much because the Senkos and slow moving crankbaits seemed to work well. My Rattlin' Weapon jig with #180 Yamamoto grub did catch a few on Friday - including the near 5 pounder on a dock piling in the west side of the Rattlesnake arm. Hope some of this makes sense!!!