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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Thursday, August 4th, 2005

    • By

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Hey guys,

      Everyone setup is different. It all depends on how comfortable you are with your setup. As long as you stay in the 7' to 8'1/2" range with rods your fine. I use a 8'1/2" lamaglass swimbait rod with a reel that is a 5:1 gear ratio because it gives the swimbait better action with the slower retrieve. I also add a 15lbs to 17lbs yozuri hybrid monofilament line to my arsenal.
      City: San Jose

      Tips: Make sure you use mono and not braid because braid don't stretch and when a big bass tries to inhale a swimbait with braided line, it struggles to get it in its mouth. Trust me, use mono instead.

    • By

      Water Temp: n/a

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Hey Dog,

      You've got the right area once you reach the top of the levy you are looking down on one of three ponds back there. The one you are looking at is not the island pond. Go down the hill to the left and you will pass the second and smallest pond. Keep going along the road staying close to the levy and you will come up on the island pond. BTW, I don't think you are allowed to fish the island itself as it is a nesting area for some endangered bird. Lots of good water in both big ponds. Have fun and stick a BIG dog!
      City: Santa Cruz

      Tips: I usually fish cover (trees, tules, etc) with a senko or lizard. I like the 7" senko in green pumpkin/black flake.

    • By

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Ok this is a question for those with experiance. I see the reports about the island pond and wanted to know whare it is. Is it the area that you have to park all the way back by the launch ramp and has the dirt road that goes up over the hill and all the way back on the small pond side or is the whole area called the island ponds ????
      City: San Leandro

Wednesday, August 3rd, 2005

  • Amador County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: fished from 9 to around 3:30 am. caught 30+ between four people. mostly small, a few 3-4 pounders and one 5 # on a drop shot. Good crank bait bite. Nothing on blades, few on senkos. I think there was only one or two other boats on the water.
      City: nv

      Tips: you can sit at home and talk about fishing or you can go out and catch a fish

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: 80's

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: With 4 little kids, my fishing time has suffered more in the last several years than in my whole lifetime. Today was worth the wait. Brandon convinced me that the jig bite was happening, so I took my 7 year old daughter, Stacy, over for the day. Started off losing a 2.5 on a darthead right next to the redbud ramp, rats! Next stop, I hook something good in some deep pilings on a crankbait. It pulls my line around some underwater supports and I fight the tremendous temptation to pull back hard. Instead, I loosened pressure a tad and managed to get it coming at me. Several minutes into this, I figure I had a catfish, but it turned out to be a 7.5 bass. Wow, what a way to start the day! Bang another keeper of these pilings then cast a jig off these deep rocks and kept missing bites, presumably bluegill. Wheeler gave me 4 fish I believe on a 3/8 oz brown jig, from 5 feet down to 25 feet. Bait/fish everywhere. The highlight of the morning was when Stacy started yelling that she had one. The child must have been dragging 50 yards of line between her rod and her splitshot worm. She caught her first fish on an artificial on her own off the beacon off monitor island.

      Dartheaded some deep docks across from konocti and caught 5 or 6 more to 2.5 or so.

      Shag rock produced 3 or 4 more on jigs, but only to 1.75 or so.
      Along about 4pm at about 100 degrees with no wind, my god it was hot, we pulled in to the concrete boathouse on the south end and started to get bit on the jig. Bites on almost every cast, but I was only hooking about 1/4 of them. Stacy caught another keeper here. Maybe it was the time of day, I dont know, but when I started fishing a long break from 18-25 feet, the fish started to gain in size and I started missing less bites. Caught 3 in the last five minutes including a beautiful 5.2 that swam off with the jig, dropped it, then came back and ate it again! This was the most enjoyable day trip with my best fishing buddy!
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: Rallyers should have no trouble getting bites on jigs, though dropshotting/splitshotting seems like you could catch 50 fish a day. I figure we caught about 25 fish between 9-6 pm.

    • By

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Went out to Shadow Cliffs Wednesday after work. Fished from 6pm to 8:30pm. Focused on the large back pond. Fished the shore from 5 or 6 spots on the far side from the parking lot. Caught two nice LM, one 16" and one 15". Didn't have my scale with me. Both were taken on a 6" pumpkin seed lizard with chartreuse tail. Worked it with a painfully slow action to get the strikes.
      City: Fremont

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      Water Temp: Don't Know

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Arrived at 7:30 p.m. and walked arroyo shoreline until 9. Landed a two-pounder on a purple persuader buzzbait. No hits on red shad baby brush hog, the only other bait I tried. Fish released.
      City: Santa Clara

      Tips: First time at this water. Hard to access from shore. Don't try to walk around the entire lake/pond. Thought I could do that but the trail dead-ended just before I could complete the loop. Thus I had to quickly back-track and retrace my steps around 90% of the lake (instead of 10%) to get out of the woods before dark and 9 p.m. park closure.

    • By

      Water Temp: ?

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: 100+fish! That's not bad. Yea...I just wanted to know what trail would be better to take? The left side or the right side? Can anyone help me out? Thanks!
      City: Richmond

      Tips: Catch and Release!

Tuesday, August 2nd, 2005

    • By

      Water Temp: warm

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Went out yesterday and this evening. Yesterday I fished from 7:45 pm to 9pm. I only fished in and around the cove on the west shore. I lost one fish that felt nice on a 1/2oz black/brown/red jig and had another fish about 5-6lbs jump out of the water after it as I brought it through some weeds on the surface. I caught one 1lb. 4oz. on a 3/16oz brown/black Bass Stalker finesse jig with a Yamamoto baby fat craw in green pumpkin w/ green/purple. I caught one other dink on the jig and missed another. That was it for yesterday. This evening I fished the same area from 6:30 pm to 8:55pm. I started at the corner by the dam and caught a 1lb fish on a 3/8oz brown/black jig with a green pumpkin/red Zoom Super Hog as a trailer. I had a few other bites but they were just dinks playing with the trailer. I lost one about 2lbs that got caught in the weeds. I caught one dink in the cove with the same jig but with a Big Texan Sweat Beaver on it instead. At about 8:40 I got to the point before the cove and on my first cast caught a 5.0lber on the same jig. That was it for the night.
      City: Antioch

      Tips: Brown/black jigs fished with a steady, hopping retrieve around rocks and weeds. I assume topwaters would work as there were quite a few fish busting on shad. All I brought were jigs though so I couldn't test out the topwater bite.

Monday, August 1st, 2005

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

      Report: In response to the last report, ya this can be a tough time of the year at lake B. I usually try to plan my fishing days around the best times: morning and evening/night and avoid midday all together. I have the best luck heading out there late in the day to catch the evening bite and then staying late for some night fishing. Things can pick up a little in September and October can be excellent. Looking at the Clear lake reports it seems like they're getting some hit or miss action out of there right now. That might be a better bet.

  • Sacramento County
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      Water Temp: 81-83

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Hot Hot Hot, weather was over 100 deg, and this is why we fish in the morning and not at 3pm. I guess i should wait until the morning or when it cools down. We saw fish in my spots, using split shot, worms, lizards and leaches no fish. good luck and have fun.
      City: rocklin

      Tips: stay cool and look for the fish in the morning, soon the top water will start ?

    • By

      Water Temp: HOT

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Finally found this lake with some help. But, yea...caught a 2 pound largemouth on a spinnerbait. That was pretty cool. Didn't stay too long. Could someone tell me what trails to take and what side of the lake has better fishing. And...are the rattlesnake stories true. That freaked me out. That's I didn't want to walk any of the trails.
      City: El Cerrito

      Tips: SUNBLOCK

Sunday, July 31st, 2005

    • By

      Water Temp: warm

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: whent fishing for a couple of hours i caught 2 fish and my buddy caught 2 the water was so dirty that my line is green and brown
      City: sj

      Tips: throw eney thing we caught fish on worns, spiners, and crank baits

  • Plumas County
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      Water Temp: 76.2

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: The Small Mouth bite is great, but I could only get them drop shotting. The Rip Bite was not there, so I went to the 4" robo worm, and it didn't matter which color I used. almost every cast was a hookup. I caught near 100 fish many of them in the 12-15" range but I did catch about 10 fish in the 2-4lb. range. I spent 4 days on the lake and it was great, but once the water skiers came out I went in.
      City: west sacramento

  • Amador County
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      Water Temp: BAth water warm

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Float tubed Amador with my wife (who continues to smoke me this year) Sunday night and the fishing was better than last week, We had 7 fish over 4lbs with the largest just shy of 6lbs.With a total of 16 fish caught. Luckily there were no Tournaments on the lake this weekend as its pretty beat up by the time we do our Sunday night trips. Once again we caught fish, dropshotting, and blades with one fish (the largest on a Senko). On the lake at 7pm and off at midnight. I

      Tips: I caught one fish on the senko and I was hopping it around in the water as the bass seem very active , I could not get them to touch a Tex rig set up.Only the drop shots and spinner baits. The fish were from shore to out to 20ft deep, blades in night time colors with colorado blades and a Yamamoto 5"grub color 135 as a trailer

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 85 ?

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Went catfishing Sat night in Putah Creek with six people and caught 1 seven inch channel. Fished from 8:30pm until 3pm. Used shrip, nightcrawers, anchovies. Woke up and fished 10 mainbody points and 5 in Putah. We used plastic worms with various techinques and still only boated two very small largemouths.
      City: vallejo

      Tips: I could be wrong,but this seems like a difficult time of the year for this lake. Maybe nightfishing for bass is better?????
      I've heard that the fishing improves in the fall.
      Does anyone have any tips for me?

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 75-82

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished at Beaver Slough from 6am to 11am with a low tide going out. Found some nice bass on rocky points with Senkos and JK jigs in purple/black. With the tide moving 4 + ft we had good cerents all the time and found 20 + bass. Most were some but fun. Some on crank baits, Lizards and large worms. Once the tides stop it was time to head for home. good luck and have fun.
      City: rocklin

      Tips: black/purple JK jigs and split shot worms.

  • Amador County
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      Water Temp: 79

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Caught 2 cats to 2 lbs, 2 bass a little over a pound, and a crappie or two through the night. Buddy Roland caught 6 bass, a cat, and a few crappie in the Camanche Arm.
      City: Sacramento

      Tips: Fish cover with soft plastics in purple, darkgreen and black-n-red.

    • By

      Water Temp: high 70's

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: on the water sunday by 6:00 pm. caught 1 on a crank bait by 6:30 and two drop shot fish after that. fishing has slowed down a little but lake still looks nice. has anyone ever float tube the other side of 17?
      City: redwood

      Tips: black worms

  • Westchester County
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      Water Temp: warm

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: I was reading background info on this lake and heard they had smallmouth here. I fished the rainbow lake once and caught a few LM dinks a couple months ago. I went to the horseshoe lake and caught a few LM when I was really looking for smallies. Are those sites lying? Where are the smallies? Or do I really have to drive 40 or miles out of the area to catch em? I appreciate tips on the bronzebacks in the area.

      Tips: small brown/purple slipshot worms worked for me. (Leader was about 18"). Nothing on cranks.