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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Sunday, March 27th, 2005

  • Trinity County
    • By

      Water Temp: 49

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Got out yesterday from 6 to 9:30 AM and the bite was a little slow at first. Picked up a 4-6 smallie near the Ballpark early on, then a 2lb LM. Both on Pro Worms. Fished until 9 with nothing going on and decided to hit a couple of main lake points before getting off the water to go to work. First spot I stopped at, first cast, 5-12 LM. Next 20 min. produced 3 more LM over 4 lbs. Would have liked to stay much longer but the real world beckoned. Best 5 fish over 22 lbs. I guess the fire has started. We have recieved over 2" of rain in the last 10 hours. Experience tells me that the larger tributaries will blow out under these conditions and will wash in a bunch of debris. The Tailing piles that have been so dangerous around the ballpark are now deep enough to no longer pose a hazard. Now we have to watch out for debris washed in by this latest storm.
      City: Weaverville

      Tips: I didn't get a reaction bite going, but heard of fish caught ripping and cranking. That should certainly should be working right now.

Saturday, March 26th, 2005

  • Mason County
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      Water Temp: 57

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Nice day with calm water and very few ski boats. Caught 14 bass in the 1.5 to 2lbs range. All were caught on points in 15 ft early and then 30 ft late in the day. No reaction bite. All fish taken on a carolina rig brush hog and a split shot lizzard. Could not find any shallow fish.
      City: Foster City

      Tips: Fish the bank to 16 ft early with soft plastics. Move deeper when the bite at that depth slows. Soft plastics on points where you can feel some vegitation.

    • By

      Water Temp: approx. 55 degr

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Plenty of smallish males from 3 feet to 12 feet deep. A couple of 3 pound females at around 10 feet deep. No wind and a day full of action yielding over 30 bass for me and over 25 for my budy float-tubing the south end with Senkos. Most fish were found hovering on the top of brush/weeds. They are HUNGRY and the females will be up very soon. But the water is still a little cold.
      City: San Jose

      Tips: No weight and keep working the top of the brushlines as slow as you can. Guys fishing blades and crankbaits were not catching as near as many as we were with plastic.

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 55-60

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Couldn't believe today..It was Awsome!!. Took two clients out today, out of Markley Cove. Started on points in main bay of the dam. Bite was slow compared to previous guide trips. So I went North to an area that I had written about. They were their big time. Set the boat down over 14ft of water and was going to Tx Rig and slit-shot them. One client set the hook on a smallie at 10ft and that told me something. I picked up a Rip Bait (Rapala's New XRAP) in Chartruas/Red Head, first cast 2lb Smallie over willows, third cast, another one. Handed the rod to a client, and setup two more rods. I kept the boat in 6-8.5ft of water and Ripped 12 fish in a 200yd stretch. Came back thru the second time and ripped 5 more. Caught 3 more by drop'in a senko hooked Wacky Rigged using a Doc Waton's weedless 1/0 Drop-shot hook. For the Fish that didn't want a Ripbait, this is the way to go. The biggiest of the Smallies with about 25% Largemouth out of 20 caught this way. Had 5 smallies that diffently went from 2lbs to 2 3/4lbs, probably 11 1/4 to 1/2lbs for best 5.

      Tried a long canyon within the narrows and we caught spots to 2lbs by Dropshot'in Morning Dawns and Tx rigged S-20 spade tails. Quit fishin at 5:30. I stopped fishing for 2hr's and just controlled the boat. Clients caught 30+ fish themselve's, one client was a total beginner.

      Rich Thiel
      (925)292-5024
      City: Livermore

      Tips: If your fishing the northend in the next week, look for willows in 6-9ft of water and rip a Chartruas XRAP (NEW on the Market) or a Luckycraft Clown Pattern SP100. Smallmouth love that color pattern. If nothing else try the wacky rig (explained above) and you should have a blast doing this.

  • Santa Clara County
    • By

      Water Temp: 58.1 to60.1

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: I got schooled today in big way by my copilot. He caught 19 bass to 5.5 lbs. I caught 2 bass to 2.5 lbs. At least I did not get skunked.
      It still was a great day on the water.
      City: san jose

      Tips: Rip baits will do the trick just as I found out.

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Launched at the usual place at Sugar Barge first thing in the morning. The boat hasn't been used in awhile and assumed the batteries were charged since it was hooked up to the charger. Well, the starting battery was bad so we switched it to a trolling motor battery which worked but left us pretty crippled only running the trolling on 1 battery, not much power there. But that didn't stop us.
      Anyway, the fishing was slow for us. I caught 2, lost 3 at the boat. My partner caught 3, lost 2 at the boat. Not much size for us. Biggest was probably around 2.5 lbs. We went and fished near Mildred in the morning and went to Whiskey, Dissapointment in search for cleaner water and on to Franks in the early afternoon. Water was muddy at most places we went and stained in a few. Called it a day at 2:00. Fished were caught on senkos and beavertails. Nice to finally be out especially with the weather being so nice.
      City: Union City

      Tips: Check your battteries!! :)

    • By

      Water Temp: 58.3

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Launched out of Sugar Barge and headed up towards Mildred about 0700. Immediately caught 2 on Senkos, tight to tully and 1 on blades, again, tight to the tullies, very shallow. All three fish were 2-3lbs. A few dinks (1-1.5lb) after that. Headed to Franks at Noon and picked up several more 2lbs, on zippers flip into weed openings. NO Biggies. A few were full of eggs, ready to drop.

      Fun day with top 5 about 10-11 lbs.

      Tips: Fish not chasing, couldn't find them suspended either. Reaction baits did not seem to work today. Fish were tight into cover and pick-up on Senkos very light. Missed a few on the set. Water surprising, very clear 2-3', fishing in 6-7' of water.

  • Ventura County
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      Water Temp: 64

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished WON bass on Saturday didn't have a clue going into it...I used Margarita MutilatorIII fx sculpin #4 misquito hook with 15 power pro and 10 floro on 1/8 oz drop shot....fished the main island..not the submerged..... Found some fish shallow infront of tules or out infront on the points or the face of a point between willows.. I don't have time to find the flip bite but there had to be one...Move around but the marina side of that island should be the better of the sides but I got them here and there where ever around likely spawn areas ...Trout swimbait bite won the day....The boys never left the spot and racked up 34 pounds and change for a new W.O.N. record! Simply awesome fish in their five bags....our 11.38 was good enough for a check and 13th place...It's tough out there. 15 limits for 72 teams and only 52 teams weighed in at all
      City: Santa Barbara

  • Alameda County
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      Water Temp: ??

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Tough day at Chabot. Five hours on the water. Mostly trolled for trout. One bite and one miss. Worked soft plastics while my son threw a spinnerbait around the island. One bump on plastic leech splitshot rigged. Moved to Honker Bay with deep diving Rapala Fat Rap in Black and Silver...stuck a typical 2lb. Chabot Bass.
      City: Daly City, CA

      Tips: With crankbaits - throw as far along a bank as possible. Crank it down 2 or 3 turns to get it to depth. Reel back as slowly as possible all the way back to boat.

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 56

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: I did a "teach the lake" trip on Saturday with two clients. More learning went on than catching! We launched out of Lucerne - but not at first light. We starting catching a few north of Lucerne and had we stayed there, would have caught several in the 2 to 3 pound range. But we needed to look at several areas and did catch a few here and there on split-shot worms and the biggest - about 3 1/4, on a Weapon jig. We ripped a lot with no success except for a big one that followed it to the boat. One of the guys threw a spinnerbait a lot, but no takers. We wound up with 7 or 8 in the boat, but no big fish hooked. Several folks we talked to were struggling with artificials. We saw some using minnows and hooking a few. I knew it would be slow because of the weather and water temp drop. I hate it when I'm right about bad things!! We did as much traveling as fishing, and the guys will do well when it warms up a bit.
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: After I left them at the ramp, I tried a little late afternoon fishing with jigs, but had no hits. I did catch a few more smaller bass on Staycee rip baits, but overall - pretty slow.

    • By

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: DO not waste your time at this lake.

      On paper it looks very beautiful, has water running into it, lots of trees and tall grasses that look ideal for spawning bass to have millions of little babies and thrive.

      But beware !
      This is very near a golfcourse and as a result the fertilizer runoff has produced a virtual weed factory that you cannot fish.
      Topwaters will get stuck. Drop shots will be abosrbed by the dense "forest". A dry fly may not get snagged (iffy) but the fish would never see it.

      Someone needs to whack these weeds (how?) and stop the golf course runoff.

      Too bad though, a really beautiful setting.....
      City: Colfax

  • Butte County
    • By

      Water Temp: 55-57

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: In at Limesaddle at 11:00am out at 4:30 with 13 fish landed.Ripped three on a clown Pointer 100,a 2.5 largemouth the only good reaction fish.Two good fish landed at northfork point on a pumpkin spidergrub but no overs.Picked up the rest of the bites in dark canyon on secondary points using an oxblood split-shot worm at 15 to 22 feet.Incoming water was 50 degrees and resulted in no pick-ups.All the fish on plastics were pressure bites.We seemed to mark the most bait and fish about half way into the coves fished.A week of sun and the north end should produce good numbers.Light colored shale rock held the most fish today.
      City: Willows

  • Sonoma County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: going fishing tommorow need to know where the fish are. Any tips will help. What kind of lures should I take.
      City: windsor

      Tips: Thanks in advance.

Friday, March 25th, 2005

  • Plumas County
    • By

      Water Temp: 51

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fishing in steady for smallmouths. Hit the rocks with brown tubes. Nothing else to be said.
      City: susanville

      Tips: Catch and Release

  • Amador County
    • By

      Water Temp: 54-58

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished from 5:30am till 6:45pm- Fished Carson Creek, Rock Creek, the mouth of Mountain Spring and the mouth of Jackson Creek. The fish where holding in 4'-12' of water on the secondary points just off the main lake. The bite was on worms only early but spinnerbaits/worms as the water warmed up. My partner Burnie caught the "Big Fish" of the trip with a 5.9lb bass.
      City: Rancho Cordova

      Tips: Wait till the trout fishing is done on this lake.

    • By

      Water Temp: 55-58

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Full moon was today/tonight. Fished from about 4 pm till 11 pm. Got a few hits on jigs and worms but the only fish I got, a bit under 3, was on a 6" black/chartreuse ringworm covered in smelly jelly. Water was muddy - too muddy. I think that was the main problem with the bite. The single fish came about 1 hour after sunset in Mountain Spring. I recommend staying away for a few days until the water goes from muddy to stained. Place was a zoo with trout boats during the afternoon (a Friday). At night, only a couple other boats were on the water. I started in Jackson, then worked the north bank down to Rock Creek and ended up spending the rest of my time in Mountain Spring. Best bites seemed to be on main points - not in the coves/creek channels. Water temp was pretty low too. Conditions were cool, mostly clear, slight breeze, with a medium amount of dew from the get go. (Weather.com said dew point was supposed to be 42 degrees but it was dewing at dusk when air temp was probably in mid 50s.)
      City: Folsom

      Tips: Either fish during the day (fishing will still probably be lousy but a little better than night unless you find better spots than I did) or wait until the water clears up some. Sampled the senko, spinnerbait, and crankbait bite and didn't get bit. Floating debris is all over the lake so beware. The fish were probably males as I missed the bites I got on the 10" power worm but hooked the fish on the smaller ring worm.

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 55-60

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Got on the lake at about 7:50am and went back to the big flat on the north lake. caght a lot of dinks, and one 1.3. Lots of carp swirrling the top. went to the east side and found very clear water with vegetation. The bass were in about 14 ft and we could see them. Caught 1 smallies and two lrgmths. Ran into a bee hive but luckily no stings. Fished pope and caught a couple but the water got muddier the farther back u went. We got 38 fish out of 4 guys,1 of them 11 yrs old who caught 12 fish which beat everyone we talked to. Never got so many smallies in 1 day.
      City: Pacifica,CA

      Tips: Dropshot with robo worms, no reaction fish but got a swirl on topwater.

    • By

      Water Temp: 53-60

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: It was stained back in coves and clear out on points. Fished from 7 AM to 4 PM and caught 11. About 2/3 of them were Smallies. My largest 5 were just under 10 lbs. No biggin's. All fish were caught on soft plastics. The most effective was the drop-shot. No rip, blade, or jig fish. I probably spent too much time looking for reaction fish, but I'm just tired of the slow plastics right now ... winter is supposed to be over. The fish were scattered from 5 to 20 feet deep. Most of them were on the sides of points. I stayed in the Narrows all day. Never made it to the main lake. Water was cold in the AM and then wormed to 60. I did not see any smallies on beds ... but I didn't look to hard either. I expected more aggressive fish today but they were still pretty shy.
      City: Sacramento

      Tips: If we get a couple of days of stable weather the should be shallow and aggressive. For now, it is tough to beat the drop-shot.

  • Amador County
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      Water Temp: 59

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished China Gulch points and grass banks, brush hogs 6 inch and senkos 4 inch, Caught 15-20 fish in a two day period. Fish a staging. Caught 1 smallie about 3lbs on the point going into China Gulch all the rest were spots and largemouth.

  • Leon County
    • By

      Water Temp: iono

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: dropped down my aqua view saw a hog just sitting there under the boat launch dock. dropped down everything i had but she wouldn't take anytihng. caught a couple of dinks along the tullies on senkos.
      City: cv

      Tips: fish weedlines and docks with senkos. If you get there when lafeyette opens try small poppers and other topwater. Blades also. Good luck and fishing.