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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Sunday, November 20th, 2005

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 58-60

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished on Sunday with Paul Addi from Las Vegas. We strted out in Big Break chasing Salmon and Stripers on traps. To our surprise, we got into a nice school of blacks. First fish Paul hangs an 8 lb 4oz largie with a belly sock full of something REAL hard, and still movin! What a pig! LOL We bounced around the river fishing mostly big rocky points, catching fish on jigs and plastics, and an occasional dropshot fish. We then finally found one small tull eisland loaded with shad. We began tossing the rattle traps and caught a bunch of 18" stripers, then on one erroneous cast into the shallow grass right on the point where I saw a swirle, a 7 lb. 14 oz. largie grabs my trap. We then started to slow roll spinnerbaits in 10 feet outside this islands edge and caught another 10 blacks to 3 pounds and countless 18-22" stripers.
      City: Oakley

      Tips: The striper bite is wide open, move around and toss traps and pencil poppers. The largemouth bite can be spotty, expect periods of inactivity when the skies are blue. Bounce around the points of rocky ledges and tulle islands to find the better fish.

  • Riverside County
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      Water Temp: 64

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Although they say nothing when you call about the current lake levels!. The lake is down about 50 feet. The fish have all but shut off.. Hopefully it will improve when the dam is repaired and the water level rises..
      City: las vegas nevada

      Tips: Forget it for now.. Just a little mud hole..

  • Palo Pinto County
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      Water Temp: 68

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: 15 dinks and and a 5lb donk top water and rattle traps fish real active after 4 days of warm weather
      City: santa cruz

Saturday, November 19th, 2005

  • Amador County
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      Water Temp: 62

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished from 6:00 a.m. till 2:00 p.m. Brother-in -law and I caught 29 bass between us. Ranged between one and four pounds. Larger fish came early on topwater and spinner baits. Used drop shotting later in the day. Caught fish between five and fifteen feet deep.
      City: Rancho Cordova

      Tips: Fish are grouped up. Would catch three or four fish in five minutes in a small area, than go thirty minutes with nothing. Have to work around the trout fisherman, but worth it. Only saw two other bass boats on the lake.

  • Napa County
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      Water Temp: 62-65

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: The Bass Classics of Santa Clara Valley had there tournament here and the bite was tough for most of us. In first place with 11.65 lbs was Scott Chong he was fishing in the narrows and catching spotted bass on a darthead and a oxblood worm. He also had fish deep on a sculpin drop shotting and on 6" dart head worms with an 1/8 oz. head in 40-50 ft on points and deep trees. In second place with 11.20 was J.R. Taylor and in third was Chris Lee who also had them very deep 40-60 ft. of water on darthead worms also and a brn jig with a grub trailer in 45 ft.He also caught some on a crank bait . In fourth place with 10.90 lbs was myself Mike Espinola I caught a 17" smallmouth in the morning 25'deep on the side of a point in the narrows. Then it shut down so I went into Putah creek and cranked a flat with standing trees and weed beds with my crawdad wiggle wart and caught 4 fish fishing the area hard for three hours up shallow in 5-10 ft.
      City: Fremont

      Tips: Crank craw dad cranks this time of year because the bass love um. Fish the narrows on the points in 20-50 ft with darthead worms or grubs to catch fish right now.

    • By

      Water Temp: 62-65

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Lake seemed to be turned over. We fished water w/ surface temps from 62 to 65 depending on the part of the day. Weather was in the low 50's ~ 70's from morning to the afternoon.

      Bite was slow ... I prefished the two weeks leading to the tournament. Tried to find a shallow bite, but could not reliably do so. Did find some deep fish 40-60' of water, so that was my safety valve.

      The night leading to the morning of the tournament was cold. Probably in the upper 30's. This was likely the 3rd straight night that the temps reached into the 30's ... given that, I thought that may have kicked the bass into high gear and turn on the bite. So the I tried to fish in the top 20' of water the first couple of hours. Although I had not prefished the Skiers Cove area, I decided to start there an crank this shallow point w/ a weedy cove in the back. Within the first hour, I had one missed bite on a crank bait and landed two shaker fish. That gave me some hope and I continued to fish that aread and proceeded to land one 13" class fish on the crankbait.

      When it reached past 8AM and we only had that one fish in the boat, I then decided to run south in the narrows and fish the one deep spot that I had prefish and had caught some nice fish. Upon arrival, I immediately caught a nice 15+" spot in 45' of water on my darthead w/ a 4.5" oxblood worm. Proceeding down that bank, I switched between a jig and the darthead. Catching two or three more fish in the 15-16" class on a brown jig tipped w/ a watermellon/red grub.

      For the balance of the day, we fished that general area and I caught one more fish in the 16" class on a darthead. Then another 15"er on a crank bait.
      City: San Jose

      Tips: Fish deep and slow ... drop-shot, jigs, splitshot, etc all should work. Make sure you are in contact w/the bottom and shake the bait and pause ... repeat.

    • By

      Water Temp: 61

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Have been on the lake the past 3 weekends, and it is SLOWLY changing. I have fished all over and yesterday decided to start at the dam. We had a limit of solid keepers in about 2 hours, that probably went 9.5lbs. Typical bag for this pond during the transistion period these fish are trying to get adjusted to. We caught fish on 5 different baits and the mojority of the bites were just pressure. We need cold nights and rain, and then this place will be ON!.
      City: Napa

      Tips: Stick with natural colors and cover water, once you catch a couple of fish from one spot. Leave and come back about 30 minutes later and you can catch them again.

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 56-57

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Reading lot's of B.S. here. Went out expecting 8 pound LM and 40 pound Stripers out of Ladds. Fished my butt of using the entire bad of tackle. 1 bite and 0 fish. Saw a couple of little stripers caught but everyone I talked to was reporting the same as me. Kinda makes you wonder bout all these guys reporting 25 pound bags and such...uh huh.Maybe I just didn't fish correctly or didn't use the right bait. Whatever the case these reports seem kind of fishy to me. 8 pounders 40 pounders....sure. I got 6 of em!
      City: Delta

      Tips: Don't believe all that you read here. Just be real. See yall in the spring.

    • By

      Water Temp: 59

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Basin Bassmasters TOC. Winners used 4 inch swim baits for top weight. I found lots of small bass but the big ones avoided me. I did catch dinner in the morning. A couple of hungry strippers ate my super spook. Biggest crome walleye was 6 lbs. Boy did it taste good last nite. Deep fried with pancake batter.Love delta in the fall.
      City: orangevale

      Tips: Still good time for rip baits, crank baits, worms.Tide seemed slow all day to me? I do much better when the currents is stronger.It triggers the bigger bites. We had no wind and no clouds to make my spook work on black bass today but normally they produce well.Hope the feds don't screw up Berryessa.Keep an eye open on what the feds are trying to do on berryessa guys it will scare the hell out of you. What next the delta?

    • By

      Water Temp: 55 deg

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Well the T.O.C. was held out of Pardise Point for the Best top five fishermen from Basin Bass Masters on Saturday (boaters and non boaters). The tide was still coming in along with the fog. When the tide started out so did the fog and it seamed that the fish did too. The tide swing was slow with very slow moving water.Quency Malone and I teamed up for the last time this year for a day of dinks and more dinks. We moved all over the east side of the Delta looking for bigger bass and some moving waters. At the end of the day back at the marina the six teams came for the last time for 2005, ( a good year for all). Jim Malm and Bonner took first place with 10.64 and Jim got the big fish for 3.7 lbs. Lets all now go striper and salmon fishing. For those fishermen that charge there boats at home before leaving in the morning, be sure to disconnect the cord before hitting the road. Be safe on the water and good fishing
      City: rocklin

      Tips: swim baits was the lure of the day

  • Merced County
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      Water Temp: N/A

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Got there at 6:30am ran to the big bay,i believe it is Goosehead and fished about half hour with Zara Spook nothing not a swirl.Then ran over to the flat's by the windmill's and picked up three on spook all 26".That dried up and switched to jerkbait and cought 7 more all small about 18".A few duck hunter's in blind's right where i useualy fish so i left dont want to ruin there day.Then went to the back of the cove at dino point and picked up four more trolling this plug i dont even know what it is or where i even got them.They are about 6"long clear with black stripe.I do know they go about 20' becouse when my meter read that depth they would hit bottom.
      City: SALINAS

      Tips: Rip bait's and spook's in flat's seem to be the best for me.Good luck

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

      Report: I post this with a heavy heart and terrible feeling of loss. My mentor, friend and teacher, John Coyle, passed away today.
      God Bless you John, I know you are sticking fifteen pound spots right now in the upper Sacramento arm. Services pending.
      City: Redding

Friday, November 18th, 2005

  • Amador County
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      Water Temp: 62

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: 3 days after full moon, fished from 7:30 pm to 2:30 am, air temp upper 40's. Very slow until about 9 when a short hot bite was on in a small cove but ended abruptly when another boat drove in and out and back in again and seemed to spook the bass. Only got 3 fish with the biggest going 2.5+. Fished shallow and deep: offshore structure and structure related to the shoreline. Graphed the best population of fish in 35 feet on structure.
      City: Folsom

      Tips: Maybe fish days but the trout crowd is likely a zoo. Because of this, I'd recommend going to Clear Lake if you can afford the gas - I can't!

  • Napa County
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      Water Temp: 61 degrees

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: I went out with my friend Terry on Friday we started at eight o'clock on the main lake at the entrance to Putah Creek fishing points with drop offs we caught 16 fish total in the 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 pound range. We caught mostly largemouths but did catch a few smallmouths once we moved into putah creek. All of our fish were caught in 8 to 20 feet of water. The large mouths were caught on a peehead with a 6" fat morning dawn robo worm. The smallmouths were caught on a peehead & drop shot 6" fat new ayu robo worm. No dinks nice day on the water. We left at 3 o'clock.
      City: Sonoma

      Tips: There are fish shallow you just have move around and find them.

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

      Report: when is the last time you posted a fishing report tom ?
      City: san ho

    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Hey where still waiting your report
      where is it

    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: I check out this site to get fishing reports for the local lakes. The last 6 posts were of people whining about the rangers. THIS IS A FISHING REPORT FORUM! How about some FISHING reports!
      City: Santa Clara

      Tips: about the rangers; Deal with it!

  • Solano County
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      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: I took a guide trip with Randy Pringle to catch some stripers. Boy! did he put me on some fish.
      In our first area, we had 12 blow-ups and caught 6 fish. The best three went 65 pounds. One at 12#s, one at 15#s and my best ever 38#s. It was just unbelieveable. All fish were released alive. All fish were caught on top water plugs and the 15# was caught on a swimbait. Later in the day we spooned up some stripers in the 3 to 5 pound range. I took two of these home for dinner. If you want to experience some fantastic striper fishing, book a trip with Randy. The picture of the 38# pound should be up on his site soon.
      City: Suisun

      Tips: Book a guide trip to find out how it is done.

    • By

      Water Temp: high 50s

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: On Thursday, fished w/my cousin Gene in Disappointment and Sycamore. He had one of those days that you don't forget -- caught a limit of bass, stripers, and salmon. I only caught a limit of bass. Best 5 bass: 12+ lbs.

      On Friday, I fished with Gene and his brother, John. We fished Beaver, Hog, and Sycamore. Caught 6 salmon (largest 22+ lbs) and 1 bass.
      City: Dixon

      Tips: For both days, almost all of the fish were caught on Rat L Traps -- 1/2 and 3/4 oz. Colors were either shad or chrome w/blue.

  • Butte County
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      Water Temp: 62

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Hit the lake around 9:00 and went to Potters Ravine. Didn't get bit in several spots there. Went to the other end of the lake in the McCabe Creek area and managed to get 8 bites...landed 7. All 7 were over the slot with the best going 2.2 lbs. 6 bites on a medium running crankbait, the other two on a jerkbait. Most fish seemed to came in the back of pockets. Good Luck
      City: Lincoln