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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Monday, May 2nd, 2005

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

      Report: Zach, yes boats are allowed on the lake. You can rent boats as well. ELECTRIC power only. Kayaks are ok also. Whats not permitted is float tubes, and sail boats. You want to head towards Felton, in Felton, get on Graham hill rd (towards santa Cruz) left onto Zayante rd. Follow Zayante rd past quailhollow road( up about 1.5 - 2 miles) to E Zayante rd. (it'll be a left at a Y) then follow the signs to the lake. The road into the lake gets narrow at times and downhill traffic sometimes is going too fast, Be cautious when approaching some of the uphill turns.
      Small aluminum boats are easy to get in, but I'd say anything bigger than 18' you'll have to pay attention. I've seen Ranger boats on the lake so it can be done.
      City: Scotts Valley

  • Amador County
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      Water Temp: 64

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I guided a client from Minnesota today, who wanted to fish a beautiful, peaceful lake. Pardee was the choice - and a good choice it was! We started at 11:30 am and we were the last ones to leave! We had a slight north wind and post-front conditions, so daytime fishing was fair. We caught 5 largemouth and 4 smallmouth before sunset, mostly on points, using watermelon/red flake small brush hogs, and two 2+ pounders were caught on a Rodstrainer jig. Most of out fish were caught from 10 to 25 feet. We looked for beds but had a hard time with the wind. After sunset, we fished main lake points. I was using my brown/orange 3/8 oz Redstrainer with #180 Yami grub, when my line got heavy. It moved to the top of the water and something that looked like the mouth of a crocodile rose out of the water. I couldn't believe my eyes!!! After a struggle, he netted a fat, pre-spawn female that weighed 9 lb 6 oz. After photos (westernbass - photos), we put her back where she was sure to spawn in a day or so. I think the man from Minnesota must have had eyes as big as the "toad". They don't see many of those up there! Hoping my client would come through with one of his own, he soon sets with his brush hog. I knew right away I better get the net and soon a 3 lb 2 oz smallmouth was in! Wow, an 18 1/4 lb limit at Pardee. We had big smiles as we pulled the boat out!
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: This was an interesting day in that we had so many bass follow our baits or take a swipe at them, but wouldn't connect. I threw topwater a lot but no takers. I looked at the lure once and saw 5 bass following the lure - just looking at it. Post-front could have been the answer. Luckly our big one did more than look!!

  • Shasta County
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      Water Temp: 60-63

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: I did catch 5 fish on a popper,the fish the other guy is talking about have to be little,i let it sit right over the green bush in water.i caught bigger fish in the brown sticks with a crappie jig and caught my biggest fish near a booey,it was BIG.red worms plastic work good i dont know the other stuff but my dad says if you can do neighborhood watch at night in jones valley and do nothing but get drunk and steal peoples stuff then your a perfect canidate for a security job at a kmart or maybe work in a carwash.but he says anyway you look at it they are stealing from americans i am learning alot from all of you
      City: Anderson

  • Trinity County
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      Water Temp: 55 - 60

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished the entire week (5/2 - 5/7) with my "old" team partner from So.Cal, Carl Richards. We had to fisht the elements most of the week, but fishing, as usual, was good to red-hot. But there definitely times when the bite was tough. The key was getting on the soft bite`, even with jigs.

      We fished with John Gray on 5/3; what a super trip. Though fishing was rated fair at best, we were there to learn his techniques that have made him so successful on the lake. But I'll tell you John, it was sure nice to use my bait casting gear after our trip :-) Super guy, great lunch and though we have fished the lake for fifteen years now, we still learned a lot... Thanks John.

      The rest of the week was catching lots of smallmouth and largemouth just short of 4#. We fished south of Trinity Center on Saturday and did as well as we did in the north learning more new areas. And even in the rain and wind, we had some fast and furious flurries.
      City: Eureka, CA

      Tips: Jigs and pro worms

    • By

      Water Temp: 56

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished with a client from Redding. Launched at Trinity Center @0530 started at the ball park I caught thee fish there all ripped 1.5 to 3.5.
      Crossed the lake to my favorite point,no bites went in the back of cove and ripped another 2.5 My client was having a hard time feeling the soft bite, Fished squirrel gluch for only one more but a good one at 4.5. My client was still having a hard time so I took him to look for bedfish up East Fork even when we could see the fish he could not get one. we ended up with 10 fish, the five best was 15.5 #. My client did'nt catch a fish so he is comming back another day for a free trip. out at 1400
      City: Redding

      Tips: fish are on there beds and really spooky

    • By

      Water Temp: 60+

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished with a crew from Novato yesterday. I've mentioned that the fishing has been hot and cold and yesterday was somewhere in between. They didn't get a lot of bites but most of the ones they did get were special. Dad spent most of the day masterfully dragging a gitzit behind the boat and ended up with the first fish, a 3+ smallie, and later, the hat fish, a 5+ LM. John fished a Morning Dawn Pro Worm for big smallie of the day,a smallie well over 4, and pilot Bert kept us all in suspence all day by waiting until the last cast of the day to catch his 3+ smallie. Only 12-15 bites all day for the 3 of them, but their best 5 weighed over 19 lbs. Fishing Trinity can be a lot like police work, hours of boredom, punctuated by moments of sheer terror, followed by pure joy when that hog is finally in the net. Man I love my job.
      City: Weaverville

      Tips: Fish Trinity this week as those big releases which start at the end of the week are apt to mess things up for a couple of weeks.

Sunday, May 1st, 2005

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      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Float tubed around the lake for 8:30 am to noon and not a single bite. Used a drop shot w/ bungee worms, texas rigged power worms in various colors, and a couple of crank baits. There were 10-12 fisherman around the shoreline, a lot of fishing but no catching!
      City: Santa Clara

      Tips: I could use some!

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

      Report: fish are on beds big time on west side also starting to bedup good on eastshore but a little skidish if bedfishing is not your thing there is a ripbite.
      City: redding

      Tips: ghost and trout colors for ripbaits

    • By

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: fish are on beds big time on west side also starting to bedup good on eastshore but a little skidish if bedfishing is not your thing there is a ripbite.

      Tips: ghost and trout colors for ripbaits

  • Santa Clara County
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      Water Temp: 63-65F

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Hi,
      We caught 10 bass upto 2lbs, but had to work pretty hard for the fish. Watermelon lizard worked the best.

      Good luck
      Mark M

  • Amador County
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      Water Temp: 71

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: on the water about 6:30 AM. Hardly any boats for a SAT. Started at north end, moved towards dam, and then sunken islands. My partner and I caught 16 over 13 inches up to 33/4 lbs. several 2-3. Mostly spots and some largemouth. Throwing 4" green weenies on 1/4 jig head or drop shotting. Caught the three biggest between noon and 1 and then went home. Great day.
      City: carmichael

      Tips: mostly pressure bites. Water super clear, vis over 10 ft. Went to six lb on light spinning rods.

    • By

      Water Temp: 60-62

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Lots of action on crank & rip baits, mostly small males. I had what I think would have been my personal record on, along the west banks but my awesome 12 lb Flourocarbon P-Line decided to give way (I had just switched from 30 lb braid that morning), but I did get a visual (but that doesnt count). I was using a carolina rigged dirty sanchez colored beaver.
      City: Los Gatos

      Tips: Be patient- went all day saturday with no action at all, then sunday was the complete opposite.

  • Tuolumne County
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      Water Temp: 62-67

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Mistake, the below report was supposed to be for McClure not Pedro. Fished McClure sunday, Pdero saturday. Planned to fish Pedro both days, but it stunk for us so we went to McClure on sunday instead. Pedro on saturday, we tried everything with little success. Caught a few dinks first thing in the morning on flukes, but it slowed down to a halt after that, not even a decent plastics bite. I think only two fish after 8:00 a.m. Got those two on darter head reapers in 082, primary points.
      City: Hanford

      Tips: Go somewhere else 'til the water stabilizes.

    • By

      Water Temp: 62-67

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Was hoping to see some bed fish, but I think the dropping water has them messed up. The water temp is right there, but cruising the shallows was pretty baren with fish. We caught about 16 fish all day, biggest ones about 3 pounds. Best five would have been around 13 pounds. All but one fish were caught on main and secondary points in 6-12 feet. One rip, the rest plastics. Brown and purple colors for the plastics, Luckycraft ghose minnow Pointer 100 for the rip. Really had to work for what we got. All our fish looked like flat tires too, so they must have spawned already. I sure hope the spawn doesn't get ruined with the dropping water. That would sure hurt the fishing in years to come.
      City: Hanford

      Tips: The bottom half of the lake paid off better for us. Brown/purple plastics.

  • Sacramento County
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      Water Temp: 61-63

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Took the wife and 2 kids out for a day of fun, sun and fishing. Arrived at Brown's Revine about 8:00 AM and headed for a few of my favorite areas in the South Fork. After catching a few small darthead fish in a spawning pocket, I moved to an adjacent pocket and found just what I was looking for - a long, shallow secondary point with a shale rock bottom and a 30' creek channel on one side. The point topped out in 8' and gradually sloped into 17' on the end. My wife immediately got her first bite of the day - a beautiful 5lb. 14oz. spot! She then proceeded to boat 2 other spots weighing 4-09 and 4-06, followed by a 4-00 largemouth! The best fish I could muster was a 3-09 spot on a dropshot (which my 4 year-old son was kind enough to land for me) and several in the 2+ lb. class (most of which my 7 year-old daughter landed). In all, we caught over 25 keepers from that one spot, the best five of which went well over 20 lbs. A truly amazing day!
      City: Elk Grove

      Tips: Fish are still in prespawn mode - EVERY female we landed was still brimming with eggs. Caught fish dropshotting, dartheading and splitshotting 4.5" and 6" Oxblood/Red flake Roboworms.

    • By

      Water Temp: 59-63

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Chris Carson and I meet two other bass fisherman from Basin Bass Masters for a fun day on the water. I brought along my rain gear not knowing what a great day it was going to be. The morning started out with dark clouds and light winds fromthe east and turned out a sunny day. We started out fishing in the new flooded area near the camp ground. Using carolina rig and split shot with a pumkin or green pumkin lizards in 10 to 20 ft. Green senkos in the base of the trees in flooded waters, finding 6 nice keepers. Most of our spots and smallies came on rocks, points and out front of trees and rock piles. We stayed in the north fork until 12:30 and then off to lunch.
      City: rocklin

      Tips: fish slow, try blades and work around the trees for the bigger fish.

    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: GOT TO THE SPOT AROUND 6:30 AM FISHED A SENKO ON A BRASS AND GLASS I DIDNT HIT NOTHING THE ONLY ACTION I GOT WERE SOME FATTY CARP ABOUT 5 10LBERS THAT KEPT STIRRING UP THE BASS SPAWNING BEDS EATING ALL THEIR EGGS!I THINK THE CARP SPOOKED THE BASS!!!!

      Tips: TO MANY DAMN CARP!!!!

    • By

      Water Temp: 62

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: slow.. got there early.. 4 all day.. biggest was 2..threw everything at them...didn't matter..Summary.. Thanks to John George.. who opened the gate's I had a great day..
      City: los gatos

      Tips: The tip of the day is send a freindly "Hi" to Santa Clara Parks and Recreation for doing a great job.. Hey people..if it wasn't for the ranger's and all the staff, where would we be. and or go..If anyone disagrees with this.. well .. figure it out.. thank's let me know

  • Mariposa County
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      Water Temp: 68 degrees

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Had a pretty good day on the water. My dad and I caught aroud 30 fish all on the same mold, a 4 inch green weenie 082 and salt and pepper keeper worms. Anywhere on the lake seemed to produce a bunch of slot sized fish.
      City: Hilmar

      Tips: Split shot worms mainly in about 15' to 25' water along rock walls with steep drop offs and points.

  • Butte County
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      Water Temp: 60-65

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: stayed with and old friend in his new house in jones valley,the fishing is great. the skitterpop is by and far the best lure ever made,as every bass pro that works at the quarry will atest too.we caught over 60 fish each day only on the skitter and robert and ron tell me it has caught more fish and won more money than any lure on the lake,thanks for the great time and i will tell everybody to bring those skitters as you can't find them in redding,we fished nothing but willows targeting spawn fish and pre-spawn,thanks again bob
      City: paradise

      Tips: weekends are best according to robert as they have a 80% work comp rate in jones valley so the people just collect checks and fish,the store is filled with them in the morning and after they fish in afternoon,they are real lazy and dont fish on weekends but like robert says US LOCALS CATCH THE TOADS SO YOU DON't get to scared.