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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Monday, January 23rd, 2006

  • Sacramento County
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      Water Temp: 47-50

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Yes the fishing is hard but some can get a bite or two. I went out in the afternoon for three hours and my first bite was in the South Fork just outside of New York Cove. not a keeper. Used up one tank of fuel in the search of some bass.
      City: Rocklin

      Tips: I spoke to some bass fisherman and it seems that drop shot was the set up to use.

    • By

      Water Temp: 49-52

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: First time out to actually fish with my FBL partner Greg Hernandez. Caught 2 on shallow main lake points on cranks in Chartruese and "hot mustard". Only got bit on points with a good wind blowing on them. When the lake slicked off, the fish disappeared. Only caught the 2, but felt we had a solid pattern to work from if the wind would have cooperated.
      City: Roseville

      Tips: Crank and throw alot of reaction baits. Muddy water is keeping these fish shallow and it is beginning to warm with these beautiful days we have been having.

    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: WENT OUT SATURDAY TO ENJOY THE BEAUTIFUL WEATHER. STARTED OUT ON THE PENNINSULA ACROSS FROM BROWNS. TOSSED WHITE SPINNER BAIT WITH NO TAKERS. SWITCHED OVER TO MY GOOD OLD STAND BY (NO MATTER WHAT TIME OF YEAR) A CAROLINA RIGGED ROBO WORM IN OXBLOOD W/ RED FLAKE. MANAGED (3) SPOTS TO 2.5 LBS. THEY WERE FAT AND PULLED HARD LIKE 4 & 5 POUNDERS, NOT THAT I WOULD KNOW. THEY CAME IN 10 TO 16 FOOT OF WATER OFF GRADUAL DROP OFFS.
      City: SAC.

      Tips: STICK WITH IT. WINTER FISHING AT FOLSOM CAN BE VERY GOOD AT TIMES, ESPECIALLY WITH THE STAINED WATER CONDITIONS WE ARE ENJOYING.

  • San Francisco County
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      Water Temp: Cold

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished South Lake with my son for a couple of hours. Mostly threw spinnerbaits - slow rolled along tules. Nothing bit... but it was a nice day. Phil Matier and Andrew Ross of the Chronicle came along and asked us some questions about the DPW pier(and why we weren't fishing there). When it warms up a bit, the fishing should get better - right?
      City: Daly City, CA

Sunday, January 22nd, 2006

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 48-52.5

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Well it was a pretty tough day overall, started with jigs with only two bites in three hours then I went over by orwood and started throwing a rip it seemed like when you found 51 to 52 degree water they would eat jerk jerk pauuuuuuuuuuuse up to ten seconds at times they would hit when it was sitting or right when you started to pull.
      City: Knightsen

      Tips: we only had seven bites today with five in the boat three were over four and two rats. bites were far and few between persistance pays off lucky craft staycees in shad patterns 8 to ten feet grass lines!

    • By

      Water Temp: 48'

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: STRIPER TIME..... Lost 6 fish on the line, Caught ten, 9 keepers up to 6.5 lbs... Caught in the only place to find clear water this time year, don't know? find out...
      City: Oakley

      Tips: Bright colors, slow or really quick presentation.

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: 46-49

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Launched in Redbud. South water much better water clarity than the north. Fished with my buddy Tiger, we got 9 bass, best 5 went 11.8 lbs. Tigers 4.1 on a Jig was the biggest. Not great, but considering all the maddy lakes we were happy to find decent water. Fish were either on a Jig or a drop shot and one on a Senko. To our surprise all fish came in 5 to 12 feet. No jerk bait fish or T-Rig takers. Wind came up late morning and no fish after 12:40, first one at 7:34.

      Went by Konocti to check out the Marina activity and what a scene. 50+ people with everything from surf rids with 4 hooks to $10 kids poles. Watched them for a while and saw literally every fish go into a bucket, 3" to 2 lbs, pogey or Croppie it didn't matter. Great for the kids but not sure I agree with the message the adults were sending. Maybe Konocti should police it a little heavier. Got a kick out of a couple guys and their son, he pulled in a 2 lb bass and one of the people saw him release it and said something to him he replied, somewhat jokingly I think, "some one has to release a fish around here" Most of the folks probably didn't understand it but Tiger and I got a real kick out of it. The dock was a zoo.
      City: Pacifica

      Tips: Water seems to be clearing and bite was OK in the morning. Our fish were short and fat eating the abundant shad very well. For what it is worth I agree that when Cooch and Larry and others give updates it is great for us all - Thanks to you and the others who post here I know it helps us! Weather was great mostly sunny all day.

    • By

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: The bass fishing is still holding up here with bass up to 4 pounds. Im still on a nice nice jig bite in 18 to 30 feet of water around rock piles and drop offs. As we get into february its going to start to get better for nice bass off the dam area.The east bank from the points under the ranger station to the east ramp hold nice bass.Also in the 5mph area in 20 to 35 feet of water find the structure and you will fine bass holding on it. lite green pumpkin 3/8 oz football head w/ yamamoto 208 single tail red/black flake grub is still a good baits to throw.Also baby brushogs in watermelon red/black flake works well on texas rig.Also Swim bait action is holding up just befrore storms move through and there are storm on thursday & saturday coming through so this may be another good time to hit the lake.
      City: kerman ca.

      Tips: Slow and easy take your time and you will catch some nice bass. Rock piles drop off & structure/ brush are holding fish. any questions e mail me anytime well be glad to help.

  • San Francisco County
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      Water Temp: Cold

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished the boat docks and North Lake today. Threw a black and blue jig with a curley tailed grub trailer into the tules and my trusty white spinner bait slow rolled along the bottom. Cast along the tule line and rocks. Tried jigging a silver/black rattle trap along the docks. The water was so cloudy, I thought the flash and vibration might help.

      Stayed 2 1/2 hours with no bites. It was a nice day - about 55 degrees, however it got windy about 30 minutes before I left.
      City: Daly City

      Tips: Water is kind of cold and muddy, right now...try a jig with a rattle orsomething with a bit of flash moved slowly.

  • Butte County
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      Water Temp: 45

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: No fish report just WIND and MUDDY water at Bidewell,lost some docks saturday night E dock,cold wind in AM water looked like chocolate milk, be safe have fun catch the fish
      City: chico

Saturday, January 21st, 2006

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 47-50.8

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished on Saturday with James and Rav of Bay Sportsfishing Charters. We had an exceptionally good fish catching day with 23 keepers on Jigs and Zippers. The Jig out performed the Zipper today 5:1, Most of the fish were caught in about 14' of water, in the weedless rocky banks of Disco Bay. Almost all of our jig fish came out in front of the deeper docks. Not every dock had fish, but when ya found a good dock, we'd catch 2-4 fish from it and several missed bites. Zipper fishin in the grass was much slower today in the afternoon. We got many bites, but unfortunately only boated four fish. These bites all seemed to be out on the outer drop of of the weedlines in about 8-10 foot. Biggest fish today was only 3 pounds. Nowhere near the quality of fish seen in the past 2 weeks, but the numbers made for a great jig fishin day.
      City: Oakley

      Tips: Must cover a lot of water to find those groups of fish. Once a fish is caught, begin to slow way down and methodically saturate the area picking off as many as will bite. Temp has dropped a few degrees with the recent cold snap. Our bites were definately better in that 49-50.8 range today. Seemed like everytime we'd go through spells of no bites, I'd look down and the temps were, 47 to 48.9 degrees, moving to areas where there was a small increase in temperature made the difference in getting bit today. Never saw the sun, and it was very cold out ALL day. Dress warm guys, be prepared and keep those vests on!

    • By

      Water Temp: 48.5

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: I won't say exactly where we were fishing or what we were using. But my buddy and I only caught 7 fish today. The seven were a 9,8,two 6's, and a few 3's. No small fish. We stayed in one area and the bites came very slow. It was like the small fish were no where to be found. Only good fish. The best January fishing me or my buddy have ever had! I'm still feeling kinda shocked...
      City: Stockton

      Tips: Slow presentation, deeper water and dark colors.

  • Amador County
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      Water Temp: 50

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Launched with a bunch of tourney guys, and went to points on the main lake. Slooooooow. Tried jigs, cranks, and spinnerbaits, but only caught 4 bass and a trout (by mistake) on dropshot. Bass weighed in about 8 lbs.
      City: Sacramento

      Tips: When the wind kicked up in the pm, we were out of there.

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: 50

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Went up with a buddy and his boy for a 2 day trip in hopes of a combo bass-crappie trip. We weren't disappointed, though it was a bit tougher than last year. We had hoped to head to Shag Rock like we did last year and catch 150+ crappie and 50+ bass, but the water was very dirty and there was nothing going on. We then tried Kono Toyabee (spelling?) and there were 4 or 5 boats there with only 2 of the boats catching fish. Luckily we ran in to a couple of guys that told us the crappie bite was doing well at Kinocti. When we got there we were surprised to see over 200 people loaded on the docks. It was so bad that some parts of the dock were actually under water. We pulled up and just decided to watch for a while to see exactly what people were doing. Noticed that half of the people were catching gills and half crappie. We decided to stay and try for bass in the area figuring that a lot of times a good population of bass will be where the crappie are. We started d-shottin' and got some nice keepers up to 2 1/2 pounds. We then decided to anchor up and start crappie fishing. The last 2 hours of the day were hot. With about 20 minutes to go in the day I caught a 3'5 crappie. By far my biggest crappie I have ever caught. The next day we went to our same spot and spent the whole day anchored up and catching crappie up to 3'0 pounds and bass up to 3 pds. We also bought some meal worms for my buddies boy and he was catching gills as fast as he could get the bait down to them. Wound up the trip with 90-100 crappie, 30-40 bass and another 20-30 gills. My buddies boy also caught his first crappie. Great 2 days of fishing.
      City: Roseville

      Tips: I would like to mention a couple of thing. First, I would like to thank Cooch for all the great reports on Clear Lake and the delta. I am a pretty successful tournament fisherman, but I know a couple of trips with Cooch would help me greatly. Second, I don't mean to sound like some self rightous, holier than thou person, but it was so disturbing what I witnessed on the Kinocti docks this weekend. There were 200+ people that didn't have the sense to spread out when the dock was sinking under their feet. There were people out there letting their 2-3 year old kids run around on a dock over 30 feet of water that was 50 degrees with no life jackets. I even saw a guy leaning up against a gas pump, smoking a cigarette and watching his kids fish. The marina manager came down and looked at the guy like "what the hell are you thinking" and politely asked hime to leave. But, the saddest thing was watching 200 people with ice chests keep every single thing caught. It didn't matter if it was 2 inches or 3 pounds, it went in the bucket or the chest. When we released our fish, people were yelling at us and could not believe we weren't keeping our bass and crappie. I yelled back, "someone has to their fish go". I also told another guy, "just because you can catch a hundred fish, doesn't mean you should keep a hundred". He looked at me like I was insane, but I think there was a language barrier. I just can't stand to see people making pigs out of themselves and you know that some of those people are there everyday. The saddest part was I did not see one game warden down ther checking licenses, under size bass or over limits. Sorry. I did not mean to go off. I just think that someone has to stand up for common sense and our finned friends every once in a while. Good fishing. Take a kid when you get a chance. The best part of the trip was watching my buddies boy tear em up.

  • Mariposa County
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      Water Temp: 53

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Devil Mountain Bass club event at McClure on Sat. There were two other tournaments at McClure and the Sourth ramp was PACKED! We launched from the North ramp which we pretty much had to ourselves. Anyway it was a tough bite from some but two of us managed to catch almost two limits. We did a paper tournament this time out since there is a15" limit on the lake. Winner had a bag of almost 10 lbs and second place was just half a pound behind at 9.3 lbs for 5 fish. My newbe partner (first time bass fishing from a bass boat) stuck two huge rainbows 7lbs and 5 lbs on a DARTHEAD of all things. It was pretty funny watching him fight the fish but he did a good job and landed both fish! Weather was fantasic and even with the big tournament one the lake we saw very few boats and were not crowded at all. Water is down 60 ft from full and you could see about 5 ft down. We found our fish on the main lake off a major point from 25-40 feet. Later in the day I ran to a deep flat tht was about 45-30 feet in depth with some old wood at the bottom. Managed to cull 3 of my fish in that spot.Most bites were a light tab or the line would go slack. Just realy up and set the hook. Fish are eating but the bite is light. Had three or four bites where the fish would pick up the tail of my worm and swim off. When I set the hook, I got back the front half of the worm only.
      City: Walnut Creek

      Tips: We had the most succes with football head jigs with hula grubs, t rigged worms and brown rubber skirted jigs with a grub trailer. Fish deep and slow. Try cinnimon, brown and orange and green weenies. Darthead for the big rainbows!

  • San Francisco County
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      Water Temp: Cold

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished South Lake and impoundment for 2 hours today. Tossed, slow rolled - and I do mean slow a white bleeding spinnerbait. Got a hit, but came unbuttoned. Also, threw a 4 inch Senko.

      The water is pretty high and cold. Fishing was fine, although I didn't catch any. The cigar I smoked was even better.
      City: Daly City

  • Butte County
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      Water Temp: 45

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: With my good friend Joe Evert we fished the Loomis Basin Bass Master Turkey Shoot. Cloudy and chilly. Previous weeks we had been catching fish on blades, cranks, drop shot, rip, split shot and jigs but this day we did not get much of a reaction bite but that was ok because the jib bite has been off the hook. With 8 over 15" we weight 5 fish for 10.84 which just enough to win over i beleive 10.42 at least 35-45 fish for the day.
      City: Roseville

      Tips: Jigs brown & purple, but try other things you just never know.

    • By

      Water Temp: 48

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished a little turkey shoot sat with 10 boats.Started at first bridge nothing. Went to bidwell marina. one 15 incher on brass and glass. Ripped a couple 14s. Went to main body about 10am cranked a 17 incher in one foot of water? Mike Dean was ripping smaller ones in about 15 foot of water.All fish were over 13 inchs but not 15.As that bite slowed I went to jigs and tubes. Both worked well. We ended up with 3 over 15" and maybe 20 bass total. Not bad for a cold windy day.The reaction bite was real good until the clouds blew away. Lost 3 fish on the hook set when the line would pop? Guess the rocks take a little out of your line. I won't be using 8 lb again on jigs.Two teams came in with limits over 15".one team had 4 Jack and I had 3 keepers and I don't know how many guys had 2 or 1 because no reason to weigh them with limits being weighed.Winning pattern was jigs on points 45 degrees 15 foot to 20. Fish slow.
      City: orangevale

      Tips: Use 12lb floro cargon line and check it. 3/8 to 1/2 oz brown jigs. Tubes worked well also. Rip if clouds. Yes they are hitting cranks and rip baits worked slow.

    • By

      Water Temp: 75.2-76.8

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: The bite is slowing down a bet, but still some good 2.0 - 2.5 lbers. For the Anglers from Bassin Bass Masters (out of Loomis) it was a small Turkey shot with ten boats leaving the spillway at safe sun light. Dennie Howard and I teamed up, our first stop was canyon creek for our first three 15" keepers. Using JK jigs (hand made by me) in brown/purple with a #180 grub or a cinnimon/purple flake. Around the rocks I was using 12 and 15 pound floralcarbon line to make sure I got my jig and fish to the boat. Make sure that after draging across the rocks or snaging that you retie your jigs. The rocks are tuff on your line.
      When the cold wind came up we moved off that point into Bidwell Canyon Marina along the shallow banks finding more bass in the size of 13-14 in range. Most of our bigger fish came in around the 45 deg banks. The winners had 10.88 with five fish. When Dennis and I got the Oroville in the morning I found that my cat was in the boat coming along for the ride. So the cat and I spent the day together. Check your boat for any stragglers before leaving home.
      City: Rocklin

      Tips: Pop your jig off the rocks and hang on.

    • By

      Water Temp: 52

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: I hadn't been out on the lake in nearly two months, entirely way too long. Started out with my go to 1/2 oz br/purp hand tied jig. First cast landed a 2.4...good start. I went to lift him into the boat and was surprised when my rod bent like it did. Caught a number close to this size within about an hour. My pops then landed our best fish for the day a 3.4# spot followed by a largemouth I cought the weighed 3.1. To say the least, we were pretty excited about this considering we've not been out in some time. The larger spot came on a custom poured Webbs baits 6" work on a t-rig, the others all came on either a tube or 1/2 oz br/purp jig. This time of year i'll change my jig color and trailer around depending on water color and light conditions...but I was lazy yesterday and fished with a jig I had on since November!! We didn't weight all of our fish, but I would be comfortable saying we had close to 13#'s. Once the sun broke through and a little breeze started blowing, the bite go much tougher. I think had we stayed on some of the fish we would have kept on them, but we moved around a bit looking for other concentrations of fish. Great quality fish, I'm glad the lake got a good stirring!!!
      P.S. Watch out for debris...there is a big slug of it in the WB upriver from Lime Saddle. There is also a bunch of it about 8' from the current water level, once the lake starts to creep up, this will be liberated, as always, stay safe (and save yourself some repair money!!!)

      MIke
      City: Chico

      Tips: Dont be bashful to fish big and fast!