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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Monday, March 6th, 2006

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      Water Temp: 53 to 56

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: The big bass are still hold up and there are more than a good share of 3 to 4 pounders still been caught with swimbaits taking most of the bigger fish. Brushogs and senko's are a close second by many anglers with jigs arounding out the selection of baits used this weekend.Bass are still holding in 8 to 25 feet of water flats and rock piles are good areas to fish now as the bass are starting to move and hold more to these areas. Lake is coming slowly and no water is been released at this time traffic was lighter this weekend.
      City: kerman ca

      Tips: Right now as we get closer to spring this lake going to get even better. The baits you use such as senko's brushogs swimbaits spinnerbaits topwater and rip baits will be a good choice here. If the lake level hold we should have a very good spawn. Still the major points from the dam area from the east bank to theeast ramp are still a good area also the 5mph are going to be major areas to hold some of the bigger bass. Any questions e mail me at markinman50@aol.com

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

      Report: Hey Buck - there are lots of types of fish at this lake or any other that will come to the top to eat...trout, bass and carp are what one would expect to see at dusk. I have caught bass at dusk. Fish spots where there are lots of gnats flying around. If the fish are jumping, throw a top water bait. (3/16 oz hula popper or small Rebel popper). Let it sit until the rings go away. Then let it sit a minute more. Then pop it once. Then wait a minute or so then pop it a couple of times. If there are no strikes reel it in and start again.

      If you have a small #5 Rapala floating minnow - throw it out and let it sit until the rings disappear. Then just using the rod tip, twitch it, crank it slowly a couple of times and twitch it again then wait a second or two and twitch/ crank. Fish it just a few inches below the surface, twitching as you crank the bait back. if you don't get a strike, cast again and crank it a couple of times to get the bait down a little deeper, then twitch it (rod tip only)stop and crank , twitch it back. These have always worked for me at dusk for fish that are rising to the top.

      Needless to say - these are light (6lb. line, spinning rod)tackle baits...good luck
      City: Daly City

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

      Report: Finally made it back to this awsome fishery. I Fished the lake on Sunday, eather was nasty, but the fishing was decent. Began the day throwing a firetiger rougue, and a Lv100 series rattle bait. Caught several 2# smallies and one 3.2# spot. Reaction bite seemed to slow around sunrise. I started throwing flukes, and carolina rigged brush hogs in junebug and camo, for the rest of my fish. Biggest fish was a spot and came on the hog and she weighed in right at 4# even. Managed to catch about 11 total for around 14.5lbs., but bite was definetly slower than the last time I came in the beginning of March. However, a local I talked to said that there was a small bass club tourney there on Sat. I would be curious to know how they did and what the winning weight was?
      City: yreka

      Tips: Fish slow, they were all over the graph, but most came in 15-20ft.

Sunday, March 5th, 2006

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

      Report: Does anyone know where to buy crawfish at.

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      Water Temp: 54-56

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: I fished Sunday and while it wasn't as epic as the week before it was still an all day pick on both largemouth and smallmouth. I would have to say that spring has sprung and you can start fishing the historicly better spots now and catch fish. Basically I fought an east wind all day long and was still able to find fish that were willing to bite. In some spots we caught as many as 10 fish on worms and jigs after we went to them over and over and over we still would catch one or two more. Big fish of the day ....I was rip'n a jerkbait when I got hammered. At first it took off for deep water,then after a few headshakes it screamed right at me and under the boat. I was using 8 pound maxima and I had to play the fish which is something I rarely do. At that point I told my partner for the day to get my net out of the back locker. I had trouble keeping her from diving under the boat and had to clear my trolling motor on two seperate occasions. My partner asked if catfish ate ripbaits and I told him it wasn't a catfish as it wasn't swimming like one. I exclaimed I just wanted my bait back which of course my partner scoffed at...But it was true I just wanted that rip bait back. I finally grabbed my line and forced the fish up to the surface while leaving the drag light in case it wanted to go on another tear. Up popped a huge carp with my bait stuck under it's chin. My partner < now dubbed a tree hugger ! > wouldn't let beat the sucker over the head with an oar so we realesed one of God's creatures back to fight another day. He says it was 25 pounds....I don't care I just don't want them in my lake! I say spring has sprung because almost all the largemouth were smaller males. My best bait for the day was a brown jig. My partner caught them on a blade,Crank,worm,jig,ripbait. The water was up two feet from last week and had gained alot of color yet wasn't muddy. The inflow is slow and clear so the mainlake water temps. are cooler and didn't warm much through the day and won't likely do much again this coming week. I won't be fishing this style next week as I'm go'n hunting for the bigger girls a different way. The color for the jig didn't matter as I used 3 different Yamamoto twintails with the same results. My partner caught his dropshot fish on Robo worms in Arrons Magic and Oxblood. I think a MMM III would be a great pick! Crank was craw colored and the blade was white with dbl. chrome willow.
      City: Santa Barbara

      Tips: The best method for us this day was to fish the ripbait or blade until we connected and if the spot was conducive to fishing it slower with the dropshot or jig we did and found our best spot this way....otherwise we just let the wind keep shoving us along while we kept slinging away...we revisted our better spots all day long and caught fish on them every pass through.

  • Ventura County
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      Water Temp: 59-61

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Some fish on beds, mostly males prospecting. My partner stuck a 5lb male on a bed.
      Most fish staging, 15-25' of water, near spawning flats.
      City: los angeles

      Tips: Look for spawning flats out of the wind. All CBC members, bubblegum swimbaits in 100'.

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      Water Temp: Morning 57.9

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Pretty fun day out there today. My buddy and I fished from open until close and caught 35. The swimbait bite was slow. We had 2 7-8lb. followers on the Triple Trout but no biters. Throw 7 inch Black grape Roboworm on a Texas Rig in 5 - 15 feet of water. The bite is all day. In fact, as the day progresses, the bite gets better. We didn't catch any big fish but most of the fish were 2 1/2 pounders. We had 2 over 5lb's and 3 over 4lb's. Bed fish were all over but they were very small. The biggest bed fish we ran across was about 5 lb's and very spooky. 2 more weeks and this place is going to explode! Have fun out there and good luck!
      City: Fullerton

      Tips: 7 inch Robo Black Grape/Oxblood Light Red Flake

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

      Report: I need info about this lake. I'm thinking about this lake a lot. Heard too many good fishing report but don't know much about this lake. The best fishing spot? Tips and hints and all that good stuff. Love to fish but been striking out lately. Been fish out here in Contra Costa County. Someone please help me end my losing streak. Thanks
      City: Antioch Ca.

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      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Very cold and raining...didn't stop 'em from hitting. Caught 7lb. bass on Lucky Craft lipless crankbait near dam. Also snagged someone's broken line. Started to pull the tangled line off my lure when it pulled back. Managed to land a striper well over 15 lbs....still alive! All in all a good trip despite the weather.
      City: Antioch

      Tips: Try draggin' the bottom...you never know what you might hook into!

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      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Thanks Alot Tom. I'll try your techniques. I am really appreciated for your information. I odn't think the weather is going to warming up for at least another week or 2. wellz. I'll see you around. Most of time I will be tubing out there.
      Thanks again
      City: Fremont

  • Sacramento County
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      Water Temp: ?

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Went to granite bay launch ramp, Islands have disappeared. Lake level is up at least 6 feet from 3 days ago. Did not fish. It is going to be wood everywhere soon so be very careful. Heavy rains and high wind will scatter bait. Good luck
      City: orangevale

      Tips: just reporting on water level. Too windy to fish.

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

      Report: Fished live crawdads for a couple of hours on sunday morning. Caught 10 bass, biggest five would have went close to 15 lbs. Lake is getting ready to turn on in the next couple of weeks. Have fun!
      City: Concord, CA

Saturday, March 4th, 2006

  • Mason County
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      Water Temp: 51-53 degrees

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Got the first 20+ fish day of the year splitshot and dropshot plastics. They were pretty small as usual for me here. One buddy did manage a 2.5 and a 4.5, both full of eggs.
      A side note is I did find a school of small crappie 30 feet over structure in 50 feet of water, then my friend got a 3/4 pound crappie on a plastic worm as we were pulling out, in 3 feet of water. Go figure! They want to be moving up but the water is still too cold.
      City: San Jose

      Tips: Plastics worked real slow in 12 to 35 feet, on rocks. Fish are starting to move around.

  • Napa County
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      Water Temp: 51

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Got out to fish our club tourney. Could not pick a better day to fish this lake. No wind or rain all day. I put the boat in 25 ft of water and made long cast to the shore. dropshoted (1/4 oz) a 4.5" curltail robo (oxblood) all the way back to the boat. Fish hit in 12-15 ft of water and even right under the boat. Together (Niko & I) we caught 20 fish. 1-2.20# spot, 2-largemouth, 17-smallies. Not much weight, but had alot of fun. My 5 for 7.95 & Niko 5 for 7.90. Winning weight was 11.75 w/5.40 kicker caught on a swimbait.
      City: Fremont

      Tips: Everything was working. Dropshit, spidergrubs, rattletraps, ripbait (the flats). Stay out deep and make long cast, till you find the right depth they are at.

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      Water Temp: 49-52

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: First trip this year, I didn't expect much as it was raining so much the day before. We got to the lake at around 7am and put in, we were the only ones on the lake. We threw blades for 30 mins with no luck. I switched to a crawdad colored crank bait and starting pickin up fish as we would pass sunken trees. All in all a good day for the weather. 7 total fish all fish over 12 inches 1 that was around 20"
      City: Roseville

      Tips: Craw colored cranks, slow retrieve past the trees.

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      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Hey Tim,
      Right now is tough, but with a warming trend over due, It will pick up. These fish are in a pre spawn mode(try the 2 points on either side of the cove opposite the boat ramp). You'll know when they are warmed up as the will literally have their noses pressed against the shore.
      City: Antioch

      Tips: When the water does warm, I do best with either a green senko or drop shotting a yamamoto green worm which I dye the tail black. I got one bass last year 11.4 lbs this way. Idid pick up 2 decent fish the other day on a swim bait and a buzz bait but it was tough. I will most likely be out again tomarrow....good luck.

  • San Francisco County
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      Water Temp: cold

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished from 10:00am to 12:30pm Worked a 4 inch Senko (black w/ blue flake). Fished the John Muir Pier dock and impoundment. Got a hit...that was it. Once again, I was yacking with a basser named Sal, not paying attention...Weather has to stabilize and the Lake needs to warm a little. The water is really high and should be a good spring for bass fishing here.
      City: Daly City

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      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: thanks zane. I will give it a try soon. Too bad about no float tubes.

  • Butte County
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      Water Temp: 45-48

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Put in at Lime Saddle and fished the north fork. Fished from 9am to 4pm and caught over 30 bass. 5 best were over 10 lbs. We caught them on tubes and senkos. Mostly up against the banks on rock walls. The warmer the water , the more it produced.
      City: Magalia

  • Westchester County
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      Water Temp: 52 degree

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: i was throwing plastics before the storm... fishin for bass... darn trout like plastic worms. i could feel this tap tap tap... set the hook and catch a 13 inch trout. but i did catch a 15" & a 13" smallmouth. man they were fat. they look like they were goin to burst.

      hey john... that's ur problem... there are no spotted bass in quarry lakes. hehehe... j/k
      City: Fremont

      Tips: timing is the key. the water has to drop 20ft and it has to warm up. like most deep water lakes, the bass hang out on the ledges and come up to feed on the flats. right now the bass are on the third drop-off... too far to cast to... u need a boat with a depth finder. u can see a lot of suspended fish in 30 to 60ft. tough fishing right now.