Northern California Lake Fishing Report

Limit:

Wednesday, November 16th, 2005

    • By

      Water Temp: 60-62

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished until noon with my dad. We caught about 15, a 5lber, 3, and the rest were about 2lbs with some dinks. Lost an 8lber first thing in the morning. Our best five would have went 14lbs
      City: Delhi

      Tips: fish were in shallow early and moved out to about 20-25 ft later. Some were still shallow looking for bait.

    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Thank you Bigfish.
      City: Sac.

Tuesday, November 15th, 2005

    • By

      Water Temp: high 50s

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished with another Fish Nut and potential relative, Kane Fong, that I met on this site. We fished Beaver, Hog, and Sycamore. Got action only in Sycamore -- 4 salmon (8, 14, 14, and 22 lbs - 3 of them had the nice silver color) and 3 keeper size bass (1+ lbs). Introduced Kane to cranking Rat L Traps for salmon and he caught the largest. Winds were minimal.
      City: Dixon

      Tips: 3/4 oz chrome w/blue back and bleeding shad w/blue.

    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Hey cn, The slot on Oroville is 12"-15". This means to keep a Bass it must be under 12" or over 15". Good Luck Bigfish.
      City: Cameron Park

Monday, November 14th, 2005

    • By

      Water Temp: 54

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished from 7 pm to midnight - had to leave early. Full moon, light fog, and high, thin clouds, air temp about 45 at start to about 39 when left, fair amount of dew. Slow but steady bite. Got 3 all under 2 pounds. Missed a couple of good bites - always give fish a second or two when using the largest Senkos before setting hook. Found fish both in coves and on main lake points mostly in about 15' - 20' of water. Had problems with moss and some weeds in areas making worm and jig fishing tedious.
      City: Folsom

      Tips: Get there earlier if you can - I couldn't. Days probably better than nights. Areas near steep banks/walls seemed a bit better.

    • By

      Water Temp: 63

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Cool... I read these report's and obviously none of these are about fishing... If we knew what we were doing.. with the water temp's and lately full moon .. My question is where are the big one's. I don't drop shot.. doesn't work.. waste of time in wind... crank. my freind's..boat 50 off bank.. and cast a deep diver.. chartruse and blue.. Have fun.. It work's...
      City: morgan hill

      Tips: the tip.. stay away from "Smaa" the shit that ya gotta cleean of the hook;s and swivels. Cast just short... or along side.. Oh hey like I said..fishing is fun.. some people get angry at these report's..if You get angry at me let me know.. last tip... white spinner, indiana, colorado..half ounce.. make sure ya got the trailor hook on.. good for 2 to 3 's out side of the line.. slow roll... good luck.. Zack

    • By

      Water Temp: ????

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: I floated good old Contra Loma on Monday. Fished all morning with swimbaits with no takers. Gave in and broke out my drop shot rod and landed 15 in a couple of hours. I got one a hair under 4lb and the rest were a mix of 1-1.5. Paddled around the whole lake and hit all the main points. I did see a guy land a nice catfish maybe 6 or 7 pounds on what he claimed was catfish stinkbait. No other anglers that I could see on the lake today. The usual color(purple) was the ticket today as it has been lately. I am still waiting for the swimbait fish to come my way. I also caught a 21" rainbow in a rattletrap 12 inches off the shore right at the dam.
      City: Antioch

    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Can anyone provide information on what the slot limit is on the lake? I think it is all fish from 14" and under are to be relaesed. Is that correct? Thanks for the info.
      City: Sacramento

Sunday, November 13th, 2005

    • By

      Water Temp: 62-63

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I took a father and 14 year old son to Berryessa Sat to show them around and teach some techniques of the lake. It was their first trip to the lake. Too bad the bass wern't willing to help the teaching process! I was there last Friday in horrible post-front conditions and at least small bass were busting bait all over the lake. We only saw one small school of bass chase any bait all day Sat. No surface activity at all. There was even some cloud cover mid-day but it didn't help the fishing. I noticed that the boy was having bites on his rod but not connecting, so I asked him to use one of my Loomis 782's and that changed his life! His first fish on my rod took nearly 3 minutes to see and I finally netted a 3 lb smallie. Wow! And then a 2 1/2 lb largemouth - and then another - same size! I had a 2 1/4 spotted bass and within an hour we put together a limit near 11 1/2 lbs. We only caught a few others - very slow for numbers. Dad, for some reason, had one of those days and missed every bite he had. I thought the last hour of light would be great - it wasn't!! It was like they were on a one hour feed. The trip was worth seeing that smallmouth!
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: As with many nor Cal lakes, Berryessa needs some nasty weather - bad!! The bass are used to a good cold front to kick them in the rear and get them feeding. Hasn't happened this year - yet. No cold nights yet. As the previous post mentioned, we found the willing bass below 35 feet. All of our bass were caught split-shotting in the narrows and around Big Island. Sharp drop-offs were a key - they are hanging out near very deep water - especially if the sun is bright. Clay-small rock areas are good. A purple Camanche Jack 6" worm was the top producer. I spooned a lot - no bites. No jig bite either. I guess bass fishermen better wake up and see what "our" government folks want to do with this great lake in a few years. I don't think any of them bass fish by the way. Hmmmmm - I wonder if I can drag a worm from a sailboat? Yea, the wind will never blow then!!!!!

    • By

      Water Temp: 59-61

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished on Sunday with an annual customer, Burton Lee and his three grand kids. The Lee's have taken a trip with me the past 3 Novembers in search of Stripers. Unlike the previous two years, the stripers were there for us on Sunday in a big way. Started in Big Break tossing 3/4oz traps in shad and bleeding shad. Young Kailyn hung a huge tuxedo on her first cast, it got the best of her after about a 10 minute battle. Two casts late she snaps up another fish, after a little coaching and 15 minutes, we boat a 10.5 pounder(Photo's page). We moved out into the middle of the break at 9:00am and found a school of much smaller fish. After 10 non-keeps we git 1 keeper and move on. I caught two in the 9 pound range in Ironhorse on a shad Stacee. Moved to the clear water of Taylor and managed four more shakers. Then proceeded to chase largemouth the rest of the afternoon and caught 22 on dropshots and four on the lizard. Biggest black went 4.5 pounds, with most between 11-13 inches. At 3:30p headed back to the Break for one more run at the stripers and had a double hook up of two fish close to 20 pounds. Too much confusion with the teens and both came unbuttoned. All in all, awesome fishing day with the Lee's! Take a teen fishing guys, it's the perfect receipe for a great day on the river right now!
      City: OAKLEY

    • By

      Water Temp: 55-59

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished the Hook tourney today. Started off in Franks rippin pointer minnows and put a quick limit of 13" clones together. Headed down south and threw traps along grass lines giving us three more keepers to cull with. At the bottom of low tide we began flipping senkos/jigs off the ends of docks and were able to cull out some more. My partner and I each stuck a 5lb fish pushing our weight up to about 20 1/2lbs....good enough for the runner-up spot. Winners had 22lbs
      City: Tracy

    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: What is going on at Conta Loma, I haven't been out in like 6 weeks. Any tips
      City: Oakley

    • By

      Water Temp: 60-63

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: WENT OUT TODAY WITH MY KID .WHAT A NICE DAY CLEAR WARM AN NO WIND.TOUGH AS HELL ALMOST THOUGHT IT WAS A HOLIDAY THOUGH .NOBODY AROUND TOOK A QUICK RIDE UPSTREAM STARTED TO SEE PEOPLE ABOUT HALF WAY'S UP.WENT UP TO THE 120 BRIDGE SAW A COUPLE MORE BUT NOT THAT WAS IT .ANYWAY'S WE TRIED DROPSHOTTING, SWIMBAIT'S, SPOONING AN NOTHING. STILL HAD FUN, ALSO BREAKING IN MY NEW PROP SO IT WASN'T A TOTAL LOSS. ANYTIME YOU CAN RUN A CARBED MERC OVER 70 MPH IT'S NOT BORRING. THE CONDITION'S WERE PERFECT,AND MY KID LOVED IT!!!!!!!!!!!!
      City: TURLOCK

      Tips: FISH LIKE HELL- CATCH & RELEASE- TAKE A KID FISHING

    • By

      Water Temp: unown

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fishing tough all day caught 2 fish one 2.5lbs. split-shoting brushhogs and crawdads.
      City: Kerman

      Tips: TRY UP RIVER

    • By

      Water Temp: 62-65

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: fished by myself on sunday at mcclure, launching out of Barrett cove. started on the main body dragging 1oz hulas and dropshot. caught small fish shallow with a few 13-15" spots out in the 40-50 range. bite was tuff. ran up the river to explore the brush and found schooling fish but they were all 5inch blacks, no keepers. back to the main body for a few more dinks and one 16" spot in 50'.

      Tips: better fish seem to be deep on the main body

    • By

      Water Temp: ?

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: I have been fishing Nicasio for 20 years. Most people try for crappies or carp. This lake is full of fish. You must think like the fish in this lake.
      City: Richmond

      Tips: I caught a 7# bass on a minnow bait at the dam.My buddy Don caught a long catfish at the dam on chicken liver.I can only tell people don't give up on this lake.I can go early or late and catch something bass,crappie,catfish.throw everything including the kitchen sink. good luck!

Saturday, November 12th, 2005

    • By

      Water Temp: 61

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Took the boat up for probably the last trip of the year. Launched out of Markley around 9:30. Imediately put two fish in the boat from a small cove. Then headed over to Putah Creek. Found a couple more spots in another cove there. Finally finished up at the bridge pylons. Landed 3 fish there from 75' of water. All fish were caught drop-shotting, light colored RoboWorms. Ended up with 13 fish between myself and my wife. Very little boat traffic.
      City: Woodland

      Tips: No fish shallow, none on cranks, jigs, tubes, or darter heads. 35-45' seemed to be the magic depth.

    • By

      Water Temp: 59-61

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished Saturday for about 4 hours with Mike McFeely from 11:00a-3:00p. Caught 20 blacks to 3.5 pounds on jig-n-grubs and lizards. All the fish came on hard bottomed flats with big grass pockets in 4-8 feet of water, out of the current.
      City: OAKLEY

    • By

      Water Temp: 57

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fish our first club tourney since the death of our member Bert Studert last month. It was a little somber at the blast off but I think all had a good time. We heard the bite was tough and it turned out "they" were right. Couldn't get much of a reaction bite going in the Henderson Point area throwing blades and deep cranks for two hours so we switched up to darter head worms and dropshot and still foung it tough with 1 blade fish for 2lb and nothing else until we s3witched areas. Went through the narrows to Anderson Island and while I tried a craw crank to no avail, my partner drug out his Carolina rig and found a little something in 30-35 feet on a break. A baby black brush hog seemed to grab the interest of a few fish but nothing over 2 lbs. Ended the day at Soda Bay and caught more fish (7 or 8 I believe) but again, nothing over 2 lb. Ended up with our best 5 going 10.2 with our club winner getting 14.6 for five fish. Not the kind of weights we are used to seeing in November but I guess the enormous pressure on the lake the last 6 weeks is showing up.

      Still better than work !!
      Dave
      City: Ukiah

      Tips: Slow down and go either real shallow as some of our members reported getting their fish in less than 3 feet of water, or go deep and try for some less molested fish. Carolina rigged plastics on deep breaks would probably work all over if you could find the deep breaks. Sure would like to know where the bigger fish have gone.

    • By

      Water Temp: 60-62

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: started in the main lake throwing spinnerbaits with awesome action right off. caught 15 spots 2-3lb range within 10 min. Every spot was spitting shad. Caught a few more through out the day on 6in. dart heads and tubes. Ended up with a 14lb 5 fish limit.
      City: talent

      Tips: spinnerbaits first thing w'fast retrive. Find the shad find the spotts. Main lake secondary points produced the best.