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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Monday, April 25th, 2005

  • Shasta County
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      Water Temp: 57 to 60

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished with a client(Dennis) and his lovely Wife (Jamie) from Sac. He is a very good fisherman and his wife is just starting to fish. Launched at bridge bay at 0530 temp. about 47 degrees fished points right out of ramp throwing spinnerbaits until we have better light to head up the mccloud, Dennis caught the 1st a 2.5 spot and Igot the next 2 both were 2-0. Headed up the mccloud to shallow point where we caught three more all small about 1.5 and Jamie dropped her rod and reel in the lakein about 10' of water,
      Next stop greens creek where a caught a 2.4 . one of my clients needed a restroom, so we went back to holiday harbor and no it was not Jamie, we then fished the willows behind all the boats, nada. next bear cove willows for 8 more 1.5 to 2.25 on weightless trik worms then to squaw point for finished up at the point with 1/4 oz. darthead and oxblood worm for a total weight of 9.5 Three of the last four where smallmouths.
      out of the water at 1400
      City: Redding

Sunday, April 24th, 2005

  • Mason County
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      Water Temp: 61

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished 8am -1pm and Overall it was tough for me, I really had to work for it. Got 8 fish on 5 baits, obviously couldn't figure it out. Got em deep (15ft) and got em shollow, couldn't find any consistent pattern. Kind of wished it would have rained a bit, but it was nice out there. 2 on a buzzbait, 2 on a trap, 2 on C-rig BBH, 1 on split shot and 1 on a senko. Biggest probably a little over 2 lbs with only one short thrown in the mix.
      City: San Carlos

      Tips: Nothing really that would help, but once I could'nt get bit more than once in a great looking area, I moved. I would pretty much get one fish and then move and catch another elsewhere. Cover water.

  • Santa Barbara County
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      Water Temp: 63+

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Still no spectacular bite. A few here and there no ryhme or reason. I had small Blade fish and better plastic fish. Swimbait is next weekend. Even if the water cools from the next storm they were THIS close to eating a jerkbait on a full moon...next 4 weeks will be exciting....Jumbled around with colors on my flipping jig....One fish on that. I went 4-wheel'n in the back of Big Cachuma,Dead horse and Santa Cruz....Like African Queen in Santa Cruz. If I couldn't have gone forward there was no back. A bunch of HUGE carp/koi/goldfish/mixed breed trash fish in the backs of these areas but NO BASS to speak off.? who knows. I am glad to see the 10-11 inchers that surely would have died without the flood and the real neat thing about the flood is we now have cover on the bottom from 140 feet to the shore.
      City: Santa Barbara

      Tips: Lots of places in 10 feet or less. If your looking for beds.....I've only found two places so far that have more than 1 or two. Think protected when looking for these largemouth...Smallmouth are kind of out a wack too! I'm sure this is going to be the longest spawn in Cachuma history....Good! I like the fish spread out and DOING DIFFERENT STUFF!

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: ?noguage

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Since it was church day during the morning hours til about 8:30 a.m. just hung around the luanch ramp. Baby brush hogs was the ticket then. Later in the afternoon about 5 p.m. I luanched the custom Valco bass boat and headed out starting in the back of Wind Mill Cove. I also checked some spots in 14 Mile Slough. WINDY!!! the wind ward sides were the ticket for me this evening til 10 p.m. Total 15 bass all just around 1.5 to 2.5 lbs., all males. Senkos, S.K. Bleeding Tubes, and S.K. Bitsy Jigs red/black with the small Zoom Chunk. No big fish for me today. Can't wait til I have more time so I can head out as far as Big Al's.
      City: Ladd's, Stockton

      Tips: Hit the windward sides that have cover. Fish were holding tight to cover, but were aggressive.

    • By

      Water Temp: 60to62

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: got a late start today, launched at 7:30 out of big break. started in franks. lots of boats out for won basshad a good day,played leap frog with a few boats.around 11a.m. i stick a 7lb 8oz on a brushog. at about 2 ron sticks a 6lb 4oz on a frog. we watched another boat stick one about 10lbs. big fish are moving up!!! can't wait till tommarow! best 5 were 23lbs 4ozs

      Tips: we covered our areas on both high and low tides. brushogs, senkos,beavers and frogs. see photos.

  • Amador County
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      Water Temp: 60-67

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: This lake is pretty good. we went out about 6:45 to camanche arm and narrows just like the newspaper reported and spanked about 30 fish. Most came on worms but jigs also worked. Tough since it had just rained we had NONE over 2 # either they seemed to be all small males or females. Mixed bag with a few spotted bass. All in all good trip just dont know where the big fish are at this lake. Since i been coming here the bigest was 3.1 # spot and haven't heard of many people catching larger fish here either good luck !!!
      City: east bay

      Tips: try to find big fish small ones will bite a purple worm for ever but try and find the big ones can u handle it ??

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: 58-59

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: I took a client out yesterday (Sat) for a teach the lake trip - his first time to Clear Lake. I told him how "quiet" the lake would be - I think we had it to ourselves except for the other 250 bass boats that came from somewhere!!! Anyway, we did ok fighting the weather and trying to stay out of the tournament folks way. We fished from Rattlesnake Island to the narrows, and did manage to boat 23 bass and he ended the trip with his biggest at 3.1 lbs. We had a limit of about 12 1/4 lbs, working for bites more than big fish. We did a lot of split-shotting with Berkley pulse worms and small brush hogs. We couldn't get anything on reaction baits and didn't throw swimbaits. We found most of our bass in schools, as long as there was rock nearby. We missed a few on Senkos - the wind made it difficult.
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: Because of the pressure and cold front, many bass had moved off the tules and out to 8 or so feet of water. While we were trying to catch fish near the tules, many bites came from right under the boat. With a cold front, don't hesitate to work your bait out into deeper water. Some areas of underwater brush held a lot of fish for us.

    • By

      Water Temp: 59-63

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Great day on the pond. Caught 23 fish up to 5 lbs. Most of the fish were caught on deep diving rip baits off of shallow points. The fish were suspended in ten feet of water just off the edge of just about any flat. There is bait everywhere. Some parts of the lake are stained and others are clear. I caught all of my fish in the stained. I think them letting water out is making the fish suspend. I saw a lot of bare spots in the rocky areas. I hope them dropping water right now did not ruin the spawn. There was a lot of beds and no fish on them.
      City: san jose

      Tips: Throw a suspending rip bait out and rip it down to it's maximum depth and then let it sit for a bit. evry fish that I caught hit it while it was stopped. The fish would just grab it and swim off like it was a worm. ( no detectable strike other than line movement.)

    • By

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Good day at the Coyote. A three pound bass for me on a 5" Hula Grub, and a 2 pounder for my main man Jay "Chaka Kahn" Hann on jig/sweet beaver trailer. Not too much action, but good for a couple of 4:20 float tubers.
      City: Belmont, CA

      Tips: Bass shallow, relating to submerged trees, etc., on east shore. Try it out, Jerky.

    • By

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished for a couple of hours just before sunset. Managed one dink on a salt and pepper grub. Anyone know about the striper fishing in this lake?
      City: San Jose

  • Sonoma County
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      Water Temp: 58-62

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished dry creek and saw hundreds of fish back where the creek comes in. got a hit on the fluke but nothing else till we got further away from the creek. saw a lot of bedding males and some red tails. in cherry fish were looking and towards the sunset the females came to the beds. we got a lot of small males and a 4,4.2 and 4.7 almost at dark, ended up with 31 fish and a couple of big panfish a blk crappie goin 1.3.
      City: Pacifica,CA

      Tips: dropshot works, use it with cut tails and roboworms. dont let the bedding fish see you unless it is a single male on a bed

Saturday, April 23rd, 2005

  • Amador County
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      Water Temp: 61-63

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: With the rain here again and it cooled down the trout bit was good. We went in the back of coves looking for the bass on beds, not finding any. We went draging a green pumkin 4 " lizard in 10-15 ft getting 8 1-1.5 lb bass. no swim baits, no jigs just draging slow. Fished around down trees with senkos finding small smallies. Stay with browns/greens for now.
      City: rocklin

  • Mason County
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      Water Temp: 57

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Tough day. Caught 10 bass - largest 2lbs. Caught them on 4 baits. 1 senko, 3 spinner bait, 4 rip bait, 2 carolina rig. Only pattern if you could call it that would be grass lines on the main lake in 15 ft of water. Could not get anything up shallow and nothing in the coves. It rained on and off all day.
      City: Foster City

      Tips: Keep throwing different baits at them and keep moving. My best luck came along the main lake shoreline.

    • By

      Water Temp: 58-64

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Got on the water at about 1 pm, did well on the south end. All between 1-3 lbs on a junebug senko. The bite was best when it was raining, when the rain stopped so did the bite.
      City: Los Gatos

      Tips: Fish tight cover- lots of fallen oaks that hold schools of bass....mostly small though.

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

      Report: Fished in the north part of the lake towards Putah creek. Fishing was slow first thing in the morning but picked up later and was pretty steady until we left. Hooked about 10 bass, inluding a few that I lost. Some were pretty small but a few nice ones came through including a big one that got away. Some fish were in around 15 feet of water off the bottom, but most bites came not too far from the bank. Bites were more aggressive than they were the last time I was out in March. I only had one molasses bite. The rest were pretty obvious. Jigs and drop-shotting were most effective. Most of the action was in and around coves, but rocky banks produced a few too. A couple crappies came out of the brush on my tube jig as a bonus for the grill. To top the day off I did a little trolling in the main lake which produced a small trout for the grill. A 1/8 ounce kastmaster did the trick for the trout. It was a great day on the lake!

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

      Report: A somewhat good day, about 8 fish to the boat, biggest 3 1/2lbs. Using drop shot plastics and nightcrawlers. Tough bite, tried several different areas.

      Tips: Slow presantation is the key here.

    • By

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Woo Hoo!! Sean and I went out on Friday evening, started around 4, left at 7, between the 2 of us we caught about 30 bass in ONE cove!!! Fishin slow and draggin on the bottom, we were pickin em off every other cast!
      City: Sacramento

      Tips: Usin a pearl green paddletail, clear and purple glitter, chartreuse/blue, they were hittin pretty much everything we threw at them. Fish slow and deep. Catch and Release!!!

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

      Report: Caught two LM bass by the tullies in Honker Bay from 10 to 11am. Both were about 1 lb. Not huge but at least they are biting. I caught them using a 4" purple senko hooked wacky style.
      City: San Leandro

      Tips: Tullies in Honker Bay. Purple senko.

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: 56-60

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Larry, the Future Pro Tour had their event there Saturday, 200 teams. My son and I fished Rattlesnake area (with several others) and stunk it up. We cought a fair amount of fish but all small. I had a particularly bad day, lost a couple on a lucky craft early, no reason I could tell and then another on a Senko about 4# and we never really recovered. Worst performance I remember in my limited experience. Two keepers, is all we managed. 22.7 won the event and 11.88 was big fish (bed fish). Did not get a chance to prefish but Vince mentioned the seminar Friday was helpful to several anglers.
      City: Pacifica

      Tips: Develop a pattern for a cold front BEFORE you start fishing.

  • Sacramento County
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      Water Temp: 58-60

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I guided a client to his first bass fishing trip ever Wed and fished with my fishin' bud Rick Tietz on Friday. We had a nice trip Wed, landing 15 bass, 13 of them spots. My client picked up split-shotting pretty quickly, though his hook-sets were "far and wide" early on. Luckly he got the hang of it since he needed to land his 2 1/4 lb spot and his 2 lb smallie. He caught 6 or 7 and now knows what he's been missing! We fished from Granite Bay to Beals Point and on the near side of the peninsula. We started about 10:30 am and quit at 6:30 pm. Though we missed the early bite (if there was one), we did well in the early afternoon. A big cloud settled over the entire lake in the later afternoon and seemed to shut down the bite. If we had been able to fish 'til dark, I think the bite would have been good. We did find a big school of bass in some willows, landed about 7, and then saw the whole school swim under the boat, which was in about 4 feet of water - maybe 30 fish. Some of the spots were up to 4 lbs. What a sight!!! A good trip overall. Friday, Rick and I started about 10 am from Granite Bay and fished several of the same areas and around dike 8. Fishing was spotty, some here, none there. We returned to the school of bass I had found Wed and they were still there. We each caught quality spots with Rick getting a 3 1/4 pounder. I had one near 3 crunch a Yamamoto Kreature bait. We were split-shotting, shaking 6 inch worms, drop-shotting Basstrix minnows near willows, ripped a few, and had a couple of hits on spinnerbaits when the flat calm lake became an ocean in 20 minutes at 40 MPH winds came out of nowhere. One of the most amazing weather events I have seen in my 40 years on the water. Two hours later, the lake went calm again. Amazing!! We wound up with 20 bass, only one largemouth. I tried topwater after the lake calmed before we left and had one big spot roll right over the top of the Chug Bug. I hope she works on her aim for next time!!
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: We found bass both trips near rock and dropoffs. Most of the fish were in isolated or near-isolated willows. The key is looking for deep water nearby - as in creek channels. That is a spring key of solving the Folsom puzzle. The fairly shallow island tops didn't seem to have many bass on them. It was sad to see all the goose eggs that had been recently laid, under 4 feet of water, with the parents swiming over them, wondering what happened. The lake is coming up rapidly now.