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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Thursday, March 23rd, 2006

  • Sacramento County
    • By

      Water Temp: 50-57

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Out in the afternoon with Tom Ericson, find the lake set @ 5 mph because of all the wood in the water. The parking lot was filled with trucks and boat trailers, everybody out looking for that large swim bait bass. Last Saturday one of the members from the Basin Bassmaster came in with a BIG bag 31.50 lbs for five fish. So I headed out in the wooded waters into the back of a cove looking for the same thing. For the next two hours the bit was off, until we riged up a split shot with a leach. In 4-8 ft the smallies and spots were found fat and strong. Leaving at dark and the cold front caming in we found no big bass.
      City: rocklin

      Tips: fish shallow and in the backs of coves, good luck and becareful.

  • San Francisco County
    • By

      Water Temp: Still Pretty Co

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Caught 2 bass today - in Solano County, then stopped at Lake Merced on the way home. Fished the Impoundment for 45 minutes or so. Tied on a Strike King Bleeding Chartreuse and White 3/8 oz spinnerbait. Tossed along the brushline on the left, fished both sides of the sand point in the middle and slow rolled the bushes on the right. Not a hit or bite...the water is clear and cold.

      Met a nice young man named Kin in the parking lot. He braved the South Lake in hip waders today. He had no luck, either. Looked like he had a small rattle trap rigged up. I asked him to post a report. i encourage everyone reads these and fishes the Lake to submit a report once in a while. I really enjoy reading them and I learn a lot about how other guys fish the Lake, what works for them and it gives me confidence when I read that folks are catching bass.
      City: Daly City

      Tips: Catching fish at Lake Merced right now is all about the weather. It was nice this afternoon, tomorrow and saturday rain is forecast. Sunday, partly cloudy...so who knows? Just get out there and give it a try (weather permitting)...

  • Shasta County
    • By

      Water Temp: 46-50

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished two days. First day up the Squaw and between the two of us we caught 51 total fish, some were keepers. Mostly on minnows, some on senko's, and a 3.5 lb large mouth on a spinnerbait. On friday fished the Sacramento arm and caught a total of 33 fish, again some keepers. Again minnows were the bait of choice, a few on senko's, a couple on spinnerbaits and a 4 lb large mouth on a minnow. Fish appear to stil be suspended, not close to the shore yet. Still lots of fun!!
      City: Rough and Ready, Calif.

Wednesday, March 22nd, 2006

  • Mason County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished for an hour and caught 3 nice bass. Caught 2 of them on watermelon candy brush hogs and 1 on a white suspending rapala.
      City: Morgan Hill

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 54 degrees

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Launched out of whisky slough today about 10:00 am. Fished with the wife until 2:30 pm. Had a good day on the water about 7 fish total all nice and fat chunky females with a couple small males. Threw blades and super flukes. All in all a solid day on the Delta considering Mondays storm, man did I get dumped on.
      Success to all this fishing season and safety on the water. The big girls are getting ready to play.
      City: Tracy

      Tips: Fish inside weed line and fish slow some bites were real aggressive others were almost dead sticking the bait. Cover as much water as you can and most of all have FUN!

    • By

      Water Temp: 55

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Caught a bunch of fish today. Started with a 5.11 then a 3.14 and a 10.1 a few 2's and 1's mixed in. Due to tournament upcoming I have to be tight lipped .
      City: Elk Grove

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 48 to 53

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Thanks to westernbass.com, I posted on the forum and met another angler on line Brandon and we went to Clear Lake for a little fun fishing and catch up on the bite there. We launched at Red Bud and since it was cold, we fished close and then just hopped around on the sought end of the lake. We caught a little over 40 fish for the day biggest was only 3.5 "Brandon got it" The fish we caught on brn/ppl jigs, dart head and drop shot brn/pppl and green worms. No reaction fish found. We found a lot of dead areas and then when we caught one we could get two to five more fish close by. Most all of the fish we in the corners of the coves out of the wind with some sun. What a awesome lake post frontal day water under 50 degree and we still got over 40 fish, can't wait till next week!
      City: Martinez

      Tips: During ther day we found if you fished slower you caught more fish. Keep the bait in one area and the fish seem to be drawn to it.

    • By

      Water Temp: ?

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Went out for the 45 mins before sunset. Only got one bite in the back cove 3.5lb bessy full of eggs ready to burst. Hit a pbj senko against some tulies. May be going back out soon.

      Tom
      City: Pittsburg

      Tips: Start keeping your eyes open for beds its going to start to happen any day now.

    • By

      Water Temp: 53

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Went float tubing at Miller's Point for a couple hours around 11AM today. The lake is full and the water is cold and muddy. I was surprised to see lots of activity - fish and baitfish - in water that was 20ft or more deep. I decided to shake a finesse worm with brass and glass, focusing mainly on deep water (>15 ft.).

      I managed to catch one 13-incher from the base of a eucalyptus tree in 22 ft of water. Classic pressure bite, even though I was shaking the worm like a madman. Had three consecutive bites at another tree but couldn't convince the fish to take the worm.
      City: San Francisco

      Tips: Fish deep and annoy them into biting.

  • San Francisco County
    • By

      Water Temp: cold

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: So what do you do when your boss sends you home early?? Go to the lake and smoke a cigar that's what! Got my line in the water around 3:45pm and tried a black and blue jig with a ribbon tailed grub trailer at the DPW pier for an hour or so. Didn't have any luck there so I decided to try my luck at the impoundment for a little while. I tied on Dad's (Mike Ashton's) white bleeding spinnerbait to see what happened. I cast out along the treeline where the tules came out to a point, SLOWLY bringing it back in. I was working it so slow I could barely feel the blades turning. On the third cast I landed a 2 pound LMB. Then tried the other side and on the first cast landed a 3 1/2 pound LMB. I had to call it a day after that. Well, I have to say that it was a nice day at the lake.
      City: South San Francisco

      Tips: Again...work SLOWLY. If you already think that you are working it slowly, slow it down more than that! It will pay off sooner or later. Happy Fishing!

    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished North and South Lakes today. Tried several spots - underneath the bridge separating North and East lakes with a jig and plastic grub trailer. Fished a drop shot rig on both sides of the pier just below the Sunset Circle parking lot. Same with the Boat docks on the South Lake as well as the DPW pier and Impoundment. Slow rolled a spinnerbait for a bit along all of the tule walls and points I could cast to. Spent 30 minutes at each area. Until the weather starts settling down, and we have a few decent (meaning steady weather patterns)days in a row, the bite will probably be slow. I didn't get hit, bit, bumped or tagged at all today. Neither did the 5 other bassers I ran into while fishing today.

      I'll be going out of town tomorrow, but will try to return to Merced on Friday. It has been a fun week at the Lake, though. Met so many interesting guys and have had the opportunity to fish every day. Now, that is a rush!

      My son is out there as I post this. I wonder how he is doing?
      City: Daly City

  • Shasta County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Had some chores this A.M. so I didn't get on the Lake till about 10:45, must not have been holding my mouth right or something...1 good fish and not another bite using rubber worms and buzz. They seemed to all be sitting on the bottom at about 30-40 ft. off the rock points. Maybe I needed live bait or crawler.
      City: Cottonwood

    • By

      Water Temp: 50.3 degrees

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Hit the lake at 7:00 AM. went up the Pit River arm. Fishing slow, with us catching 9 keepers for the boat and 6-7 dinks in 4 1/2 hours. All caught on worms and grubs dragged really slow with long pauses.
      A lot of boat pre-fishing for the FLW tourney coming up. Heard of a few decent fish caught, but only caught from 1-2 lbs for our boat. off the lake by noon.
      City: Red Bluff

Tuesday, March 21st, 2006

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 51-52

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: 2 of us fished today. Caught 4 keeper size stripers (largest 8.0 lbs) and 2 bass (largest 3.5 lbs). All of them caught on 3/4 oz shad colored Rat L Traps (color code 53). It was cold out there. Not too many bites. Both bass were caught in 5-6 ft of water around an island in the San Joaquin. Stipers caught in Hog/Sycamore sloughs. Tried plastics and spinnerbaits, but no bass bite on them.
      City: Dixon

      Tips: Glad to have my Fish Hedz mask. Bundle up when you're out there. We were only traveling around 35mph and you could feel the cold.

    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Did anyone hear about the 25lb bass that was caught from Lake Dixon?
      City: San Bruno

    • By

      Water Temp: ?

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Went out to try for Bass and actually did great. Caught three good fish....a 2 lb, 4 lb, and 9.2 lbs. I believe this beets the record, however, I hiked in 3 miles from parking lot at marina side and would have killed her to take to have her pic taken. I did get pics w/ cell phone and she measured 26" with a belly that hung 10" from her back....full of eggs. These fish are starting to move shallow. All caught on swim baits.
      City: Antioch

      Tips: Fish the edges of flats next to drop offs. Lost one fish shallow on a lipless lucky craft crank bait...threw the hook when she jumped. Guy at the marina said the bass fishing hadn't started to pick up yet. I guess this is an untapped resource as I would say the fishing was great. Saw a few bruisers cruising the shallows.

  • San Francisco County
    • By

      Water Temp: cold

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: fished the south lake by the boat docks for about 2 hours slow rolling a chartreuse spinner and tossed around a 4'senko green pumpkin ...didnt get any takers but I did bump into Mike Aston and chatted for awhile .... Mike thanks for showing me how to post...all this time trying to figure out how to post and in the end the darn submit report was in front of my face the whole time! I'll be back tomorrow ...my spinner has a date with one of those fat females swimming around =)
      City: san francisco

      Tips: fish slow and most importantly fish with confidence

    • By

      Water Temp: Cold

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Three hours and two cigars at the Lake today. Fished both North and South Lakes. Threw a 4"smoke colored Senko on my spinning rod. Drop shot a 3" light green YUM caterpiller grub along the tules. Split shot a 4" pumpkin green wooly hawg inside holes in the tules on the inside of piers...nothing today...To take a kesson from Norm Mackenzie - "When you fish at Merced, you are looking for one fish, that one bite."

      Met a fellow basser named Pete today. He is a cool dude. Hope he had some luck, today.
      City: Daly City

Monday, March 20th, 2006

    • By

      Water Temp: 48 degrees

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Monday, March 20, 2006 - Conditions were cold and rainy. Arrived around 9:30am, and drove to south cove of the lake. Absolutely NO bites. From there went to Bear Creek - water was very merky, but a couple of bites - NO fish.
      Conditions show that fishing will be awesome this year when water clears up.
      City: marysville

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 48.5

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Rain & then more rain w/ little wind w/ morning temp from 38-42. Bite was non-existent all morning as rain pelted the south end. When rain stopped, bites were in the south/west end of lake on finessing pumpkin tubes & blk/red senkos. We caught 14 fish when rain stopped from 11 am to Noon.
      City: Martinez

      Tips: Fish the walls and docks. We had no luck w/the robo worm oxblood (flavor of the week). We changed it up by texas rigging tubes (yamamoto pumkin) and Senkos (blk/red). Tube landed a 5.2 lb LMB and the senko landed a 6.1 lb LMB.