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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Sunday, April 10th, 2005

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: 56

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: I was honored to guide a great fellow from South Africa who also lived a few years in London. This was his first trip to northern Cal and of course, Clear Lake - which must have a good reputation all over the world! He has fished for bass all over Europe, so, no pressure on me of course!! Thursday, Clear Lake resembled the Pacific Ocean, so we just stuck around Rattlesnake and the keys. I struck first blood with a nice 4.1 bass on a #221 Senko, near a rock drop-off, about 10 feet of water. We were split-shotting a Berkely 4 inch Pulse worm in junebug and green pumpkin - throwing the rig near the newly green tules and dragging it out into the dormant underwater tules where we found some fish. The wind made it difficult but we managed. His first Clear Lake bass was a FAT 3 lb 9 oz beauty. He soon landed another at 3-12 - this one in the keys. He had one spinnerbait fish on my Terminator, but it jumped and he lost it. He caught one or two more in the two pound range. I ripped a 3 pounder on a ghost Staycee 90 on the island, but that was the only rip fish. Thought there would be more. We wound up with 9 bass only, missing several because of the wind. Our 5 best did weigh 16 lb 2 oz. I was pretty happy with that considering the weather.
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: I could have run him more around the lake, but I don't that would have left a good impression on him, especially his backside!! We ran into a boat fishing the island that had gotten blown off the north end. I knew I could get him into some fish where we were and it seemed to pay off. I felt if I ran somewhere else, the bite probably wouldn't have been much better and could have been worse. Those are the decision we all have to make on the water. He had a great time and so did I - he had great stories to tell! And he was a great fisherman - man, could he throw a spinnerbait!!

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      Water Temp: 56

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: On the water at 7:00am and conditions were calm, but water was really stained. Fished hard with Jigs and senko's until 11;00 when wind came up hard. Only got one small dink on wacky senko. Lake is hard and slow. Talked to one other guy whe got skunked too. Lake is draining fast and bass have no where to spawn.
      City: San Jo

      Tips: Go to calero if you want to catch! Go to Coyote if you want to fish.

      "The worst day of fishing is still better then the best day at work"!

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      Water Temp: NA

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Caught 4 for the morning, 7-10:30am. Largest 3.5 pounds and two between 1.5-2 pounds and 1 dink.
      All caught on the south side. The lake is being drained now, down 3 feet in one week.
      City: San Jose

      Tips: Nothing special...just tossing 5 inch grubs.

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      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Caught 2 fish off of purple/brown jigs with purple yamamoto twin tail grubs. Two fish were averaging 3#'s. Caught two more around 5:00 pm by the east dock averaging 3#'s off of blue ghost keeper worms. Too much kids to handle on boat so only 4 caught total. Seeing other anglers nearby catching a few fish as well. Water is dirty but fishing was fair to good.
      City: Fresno

  • Sacramento County
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      Water Temp: 58

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: I had the pleasure of fishing with EldoradoKid on Sunday in his boat! Caught spots on Senkos early in the cove at New York Creek. Later caught spots on crawdad jerks near Jacks Shack near the river channel. Finished the day catching smallies and spots on the North Fork on Senkos.
      City: Sacramento

      Tips: Slow presentation and large rocks were the ticket for the day for us! Look out Amador, here we come!

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      Water Temp: not sure

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: went all the way back up rattlesnake bar 6-9 in the AM with no luck with anything. Came back out by 5 mmile hr bouys along steep granite wall and nailed a 4lb large mouth on a brass n glass grey senko...b&g was up about 20 inches...
      City: Lincoln

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      Water Temp: 56 Degrees

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fishing North arm caught all quality fish. Fish the main body 4.5 lb female Black and 3 lb Smallie. The bites all day. Fished step walls with deep water near by.
      City: Granite Bay

      Tips: Split shot and Brown 6 in worm and salt and pepper grubs on dater heads. Couldn't get a reaction bite on blades or rip baits but others can.

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      Water Temp: 60

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Launched at about 3:00 pm. Talked to some guys that were just getting off the lake. They said they had been out since first thing in the morning and the bass fishing was real slow. They were telling the truth. I got only 5 fish and my buddy only got 2 to 2 #'s in 4 1/2 hours of fishing on plastic worms, all over the lake. Also hooked one little stocker trout trolling a gold Super Duper back to the ramp. Sure is nice to see the lake at full capacity though.
      City: Ben Lomond

      Tips: It will only get better with stable weather.

  • Sonoma County
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      Water Temp: 59

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished on Sunday. Didn't find any pattern. Hooked six fish to four pounds, drop shotting, and using senkos and brush hogs in the Dry Creek Arm. Had to search for the fish which came in groups from water that had totally different structure.
      City: Novato

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      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: got ther around 8am...fished till about 11:30. nothing...no fish...no bites. couldn't figure it out. must be a confidense thing, as i have none in this lake. tried jigs, grubs, senkos. maybe i didn't give any of them enough time? who knows. i know there are fish cuz i've seen other people catching. nice day to be out anyway. lots of people out there.
      City: SANTA ROSA

      Tips: if you got any to share, please do.

Saturday, April 9th, 2005

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      Water Temp: 57

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: It is a tough lake to catch bass in daytime. Some kids caught a few nest guarding bass on north shore. Bassing from float tube at night will work for sure.
      City: San Jose

      Tips: Drop shotting

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      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: FISHED FROM 3:30PM TO 5:30PM CAUGHT A 5 LB. FISH ON A STORM CRAWDAD UNDER THE BRIDGE. OTHER THAN THAT BARELY A NIBBLE.
      City: Santa Clara

  • Mason County
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      Water Temp: 57?

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Good news bad news. Good news was I caught 12 bass up to 2.5 lbs very quickly in the morning. The bad news was that I spent the next 3 hrs catching nothing but the wind. Morning was overcast and calm after the storms on Fri. I started with spinner bait and picked up 4 up shallow on wood right away. Knowing there was a reaction bite I swithed to a rip bait and picked up 8 more fish between 2-10 ft deep. Then the north wind started to blow very hard and it all ended like throwing a light switch. The real good news is that I didn't have any rattlesnakes decide to join me in the back of my boat like last weekend.
      City: Foster City

      Tips: Start with reaction baits in the grass lines shallow. If nothing bites start working deeper with plastics. If a north wind kicks up head for the house - it is over. I have heard there is a tourny on Anderson this weekend. I will stay clear of that much fishing pressure and go to DelValle for some bigger fish.

  • Yuba County
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      Water Temp: cold

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: fished the north part of the lake for a change all the way up to the no wake zone. We were looking for smallies and my son got one right away, about 1 1/2 lb then it was a spot fest from then on we put 76 fish in the boat between the 3 of us, nothing over 2 lbs though. But still alot of fun, cranks, small tubes, and small grubs, We missed alot of fish as they were slashing at the bait. It was as if they were trying to kill the bait instead of eating it. Fish were bunched up in spots. Mostly in the back of small coves or cuts a few off the points.
      City: b-ville

      Tips: dark colored tubes, grubs, worms in 4 inch

  • Santa Barbara County
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      Water Temp: 63

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I fished Saturday and Sunday and they were totally different in nature. I did well on Saturday with about 17 pounds for my efforts and did more scouting early on Sunday but still it fished way different. The wind howled on Sat. and so yes fellas there is a blade bite and I wouldn't doubt a buzzbait! I know of frog fish being caught! It just depends on you. If you didn't get bit on a jerkbait don't worry you will...Can't catch em on a blade keep toss'n it you will. Can't get a worm fish...keep trying you will...Fishing is slow but not alarmingly so...There are just so many options open to the bass right now in terms of comfort and they are taking full advantage of this....It is not like fishing in a barrel like years past...Now your going to have to dig out every ounce....You'll remember '05 with fondness in the years to come

      Rip
      City: Santa Barbara

      Tips: try to fish the animal in it's kingdom by slanting things in your favor. use search baits and you will begin to unravel the secrets of where you are>

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 58-60

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished Whites, Potato, and Little Potato Slough from 7-2. Thought the day was going to be somewhat better than past trips by starting it off with an 8-15 on first cast with chart/white blade at whites. All small fish after that blades caught the majority of fish, few flip fish. Best bite was morning high tide, rocks/tules.
      City: Sacramento

      Tips: cover A LOT of water

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      Water Temp: 57'

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Went out to White and fished the outgoing. My brother-in law caught a 6-14 off a point and the rest were dinks in the 1.5lb range. Water very stained, cold and muddy. Fish holding tight to cover, hardly any off rocks. Caught them on senkos, zipper and one on jerk. Hardly anyone fishing White or Disappointment today.
      City: SSF

      Tips: Fish between weedline and tules.

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: 50-55.6

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished on Saturday with Mitch from Reno. Our initial plan was ta go up to ClearLake and enjoy some of that awesome swimbait bite we keep ghearin' about. Well, thanks to a bluebird, high pressure day proceeding a storm front, it just wasn't happening for us. We did manage to catch a couple of nice 3 pounders rippen' early. Crossed paths with Rich Pounds who had some clients out fishin minners, whatched catch a 4+ right away, so I knew we wuzon the right pattern of where the fish were. We then bounced around some lookng for a flip bite in some canals, drug some c-rigged green pumkin lizards and Robos with no takers. We worked our way up through Lake Port and were only able to manage a few keepers on the jerk bait following a simular pattern we found earlier. Before heading into Nice, Mitch suggestsed we grab some minners, lets do it, at least we can go locate some fish, then try ta figure out how ta catch em with artificials. Well we went back to the area we started and got fatreal quick on the minners, 4 pounder after four pounder, then Mitch catches a 7 pounder, next cast I git a 9 pound 14oz fish. Okay, time ta try artificials. Three colors later I stick a two pounder on a 9X 194 watermelon Senko, then a 3 pounder. Okay, we got the color they want WATERMELON! We then began to C-rig the same color Lizard and started catching these fish, couldn't catch the big girls but the 2.5-4 pound fish were willing ta hit both the Senco and Lizard. 35+ fish day, best 5 over 30 pounds, not a bad post frontal fishing day. Gotta love this pound!
      City: Oakley

      Tips: Water temps have dropped to the low 50s, these fish are still in transition and in some areas may be staging awaiting that series of warming days to move up on the next full moon. Fish the outside edges, get off the banks and tulles. Stick to watermelon greens and green pumkin colors that closely match the hitch. Also try using light colored jerk & swimbaits with some yellow in it. And then when all this fails, GO GIT SOME MINNERS and have a ball!

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      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: I also caught my first 10 pounder at contra loma this weekend. I was working the north shore when my brother pointed to a spawning bass about 5ft offshore towards the surface. I was using drop shot again and was waving it in front of it and making it mad for a while. It finally grabbed it and i set it. It was a good long 5minute fight. I took some photos and then released it. It was to the left of the north dock right before the north cove. The actual weigth was 10lbs and 1 ounce. My biggest Bass ever. I'll put the photo up soon.
      City: Oakley

      Tips: Drop Shotting along the shore and be quiet because they spook easy.

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      Water Temp: 55-56

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Horrible day- water levels have dropped significantly in the last week, I would venture to say at least 5-8 feet. Got on the water at 8am, caught one minnow less than a pound on a junebug senko. Rest of the boat was skunked.
      City: Los Gatos

      Tips: Wait for the water to warm up- hopefully they will start spawning soon, but its going to be rough since the levels are rapidly dropping.