Submit
Report

Northern California Lake Fishing Report

Limit:

Wednesday, January 25th, 2006

  • Ventura County
    • By

      Water Temp: 60

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Decided to try the wadleigh arm reeds early. After about 15 Min. of throwing a 6" castaic rainbow swimbait I was slammed and landed a 12# 3 my largest by a mile. That was the only bass of the day-------but what a day. She is back in the lake for one of you guys.
      City: oak park

      Tips: slooooow retrieve

Tuesday, January 24th, 2006

  • Mason County
    • By

      Water Temp: ?

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Same thing as friday for me. Not much on reaction, 1 on a blade and it was the smallest fish of the day. Caught 10 others on dartheads with shad pattern worms. These worm fish were all in 5-15 feet and hitting pretty aggresively. I fished the north end on flatter banks with little or no rocks. The bites were all spread out pretty evenly throughout the day, so just keep shakin'.

      Tips: I was throwing a curly tailed worm in a shad color, but i dipped the tip orange. Who knows if it heiped, but it certainly didn't hurt anything.

  • Butte County
    • By

      Water Temp: 47/49

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Tried to go up north fork but the debree pile is all the way to the slot junction. Lots of logs, the debree went from shore to shore so we went back to the slot area.
      The wind came up around nine and the fish stacked in 15' of water off shallow points. The bite was hot and heavy till the wind stopped. We used jigs and drop shotted.
      We crank fished in the morning for an hour, very slow then the hot bite for two hours, then our bite stopped. Off the water by 1:30.
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: Fish slow, our bites were very soft had quite a few flip the hook.

Monday, January 23rd, 2006

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 48-49

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Flipped jig&pig in discovery bay. Boated 4 fish all day 3.5 - 4.2. Not bad fish but slow bite. Tried rip baits, blades, and texas beavers, but caught all fish on the jig. Beautiful day on the delta.
      City: brentwood

      Tips: Jig in crawdad colors did it today for me.

  • Sacramento County
    • By

      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
    • By

      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
    • By

      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
    • By

      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
    • By

      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
    • By

      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
    • By

      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
    • By

      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
    • By

      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
    • By

      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
    • By

      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