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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Tuesday, November 24th, 2015

  • Yuba County
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      Report: by Gary Dobyns » Wed Nov 25, 2015 8:12 am

      Bullards is best spotted bass fishery in the world. Bar NONE!!!!! Still they get a little picky at times. Things that always work at least to some degree at Bullards are:

      Drop shotting - I don't really think color matters all that much. Robo in Oxblood, Aaron's Magic, MM 3, and whatever your favorite color is. I'd try a red, purple, and brown color. They will like one of them or all of them.

      Senkos - Can't miss here. Senkos work everywhere and Bullards they make work even better. Green Pumpkin, Green Pumpkin/Watermelon Laminate , Baby Bass, Natural Shad. These are my personal favorites but I believe whatever your favorite color is, they'll eat it too.

      Jigs - Lots of crawdads in Bullards and they get eat. Browns and green colors or add a little purple. All standard stuff

      At times Jerkbaits. crankbaits, C-Rigs, Swimbaits all work great too.

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

      Report: launched out of paradise point. went straight to the main channel went to the Hilton island across on the south east end, when I pulled up fly fisherman were catching strippers one every three cast casting at the tules notice they were using striper darts shad black and white and silver, the other fisherman was using the blue,white and silver. Did see them over the hour of being there releasing 25+ fish, one of the fisherman pulled a 15 to 18lb stripper and released it cool. when I pulled up I tossed on a blue gill and started my slow troll being there 3 min hooked into a 31 inch fish, after that had some shiners tossed one in and 14 inch fish, bunch of them 10 inch to 20 inch fish lost count, after 2 hours pulled up and went across windmill cove on the corner going into 14 mile slough, threw on a rattle trap blue with a white tail and trolled the edge all the way down to the tree and hooked 8 fish in a hour all small fish did get to nice 6 lb black bass in the process. headed to dads point and country club golf course and just killed it on whatever rattle trap I put on most fish were in 18 to 25 inch range.

Monday, November 23rd, 2015

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 55

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Launched out of Rivers End at 10:30. Lots of Hyacinth at the pump station. Wind about 3MPH. Tide was coming in fast on main river, lots of Hyacinth barges. Worked south to east side of Coney Island. Conditions were nice, but no fish. Tried swim-baits, top water, and crank baits. Got desperate, and tried chicken livers. Finally caught a few 16 inch strippers. Slow day. Hope to have better news next week. Good luck.

Saturday, November 21st, 2015

  • Solano County
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      Report: Delta Report…. Stripes Sturgeon Solid
      Isleton The salmon bite remains ok as season winds down. The bite in the area just improved all week. Salmon anglers are seeing success. a few fishing finally started getting solid reports of success from Salmon searching anglers with Silvertrons leading the way. Water temperatures have dropped with the cooler evenings. Many anglers to the west are seeing more salmon daily… getting close. Silvertron’s are the best bet for those who want to try.
      Walnut Grove Slowed way down for Salmon still many decent Scores reported Silvertrons and K-14 getting mentioned. Best area has been Courtland to Walnut grove. More Stripes are in the area as anglers recover still around as temperatures return more seasonable in the Walnut Grove area as the trolling bite is OK mostly small fish.. Red Eye Shad and small shad patterned plastics are the top choices here as well. Rip baits are scoring Largemouth and Smallmouth in the Meadows.
      Discovery Bay Black Bass cooler evening temps have water temperatures dropping and the bite on upswing!. Rip baits and Drop-shotting getting mentioned often now for the largemouth. Stripers that had been starting to group up in the Marina side seem to have disappeared. Have faith! They are still in the area, the bait and stripes are in main river Holland riverside south to Italian Slough. Dan’s Classic Shimmer Jigs and Strike King RedEye Shad getting bit.
      Frank’s Tract Stripers and bass bite both doing well now responded well to the cooler temperatures. It’s no secret what a little fall weather can do. Ripbaits are great options while small swim baits and swim jigs get the mention. We found plenty of Stripers and Black Bass with Hair Jigs, Weedless Swimmers like the BIG 6thSense Hollow Bodies getting grabbed. Lot of Stripers in main River and Mildred areas.
      West Delta Anglers in search of stripers are finding solid numbers of keeper stripers from both boat and bank. Most of the nice stripers coming soaking Shad, anchovies and sardines . Antioch Pier scored stripers to27 inches this week. Shad is top offering. The West as in Honker Bay to the Broad Slough plug casting is getting fish when wind cooperates. Sturgeon quietly is slipping into the spotlight. Eel is the best bait over all, but roe and shad also scoring diamondbacks Broad slough and surrounding cuts.
      Provided by Dan’s Delta Outdoors, 1625 Main St Oakley CA 925/234-4694 Follow us on Facebook

    • By

      Water Temp: 56 degrees

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Launched out of Big Break marina on Saturday around 6:30 AM into fog soup. Wind less than 5MPH, and immediately caught a striped bass just above legal size. Thought the place was going to turn on but no action.Heading into Dutch and continued fished for striped bass. Nada. Shot over to Sherman and a few sloughs there. NADA. Headed back to BB into the sloughs to catch some bass. Picked up about 6 large mouth bass with nothing larger than 1.5 pounds. As we headed back to the marina around 2PM, outgoing tide, the birds started diving near the grass island. The striped bass were pushing the bait fish into the shallows. We were in about 3 feet of water, lots of grass out there, constantly getting hung up so we switched to jerk bait, and stayed 1 foot from the surface of the water. Caught 2 striped bass 20"+ as we fished until 3:15PM.

      Tips: If the striped bass are in the shallows immediately get that RT off your line and put on a weedless swim beat or jerk bait. We tried top water but the gulls were all over 'em, thinking they were the real deal. Unless you like flying a sea-gull kite don't give them something to steal. Look for the outgoing tide to push the bait fish into the shallows.

Friday, November 20th, 2015

  • Butte County
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      Report: Got an early launch at 6:30 am today, headed to the middle fork again. The day started great, first cast and decent 14 1/2" spot (photo) that seemed to be waiting just for me. No other fish so moved and could not get a bite for the life of me. Fished hard, could not locate fish today for some reason. Managed just 7 spots today, no schools, scattered or not liking the colors I was using. Frustrating when you know more can be caught, they were just not in the mood today. Ramp is getting long these days, still good ramp at the dam, just got to walk a bit to get up. Looks to be close to 250-300 feet long now? See photo from the top looking down. Still a good ramp. Pictures in fishing forum.

Tuesday, November 17th, 2015

  • Butte County
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      Water Temp: ?

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Got launched about 6:30 am at the dam. Ramp is getting much longer these days, but very narrow at the launch area. Stay close to the dock as a large rock is in the water 2/3 the way to the shore line. Day started very slow, first 45 minutes nothing at all in two different locations. Third location was the charm, got a nice 15" and the fish didn't stop coming in after that. I worked a 40 foot section of the lake, for the whole trip. I'd have caught more, but my boat clock was off an hour and I didn't know it till the boat came out. Damn, stopped fishing at 9:30 am, when I thought it was 10:30 am. Managed 21 fish today, one 15", two 14 1/2" a couple 2-3 14" with all others 12-14" range, no dinks (under 12") today Release all fish as always. Worst part of the day, forgot the camera!!! When you find fish, give the area a chance, fish it more, rather then move down the bank. Fish deeper!! all fish came from 30-40 foot range today, with a finesse Carolina rig, 1/8 oz, 15" tail from weight to hook with a McCoy McStopper plastic bobber stopper. Works great for re-rigging after getting broke off in the rocks. Use this every trip!

Monday, November 16th, 2015

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 57 64

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Tourneys are done for the year so I'll tell you how I caught em. Mostly out in disco throwing square bills , deep divers and jerk baits. Had some 25 Lb days. Late October they were all shallow, 11/14 was the toc and didn't have much time from a fog deley, but managed to grab 15lbs in a few hours on the jerk bait. The fish seem to be 5 or 10ft off the end of the docks suspending or right on the bottom. It seems with the sudden change in weather there moving into a winter transition rather quickly. The bass were deep and the stripes were shallow. Good luck out there, and for me on to the striped till January.

Friday, November 13th, 2015

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: 59-61

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Just read Gary Dobyns report on fall fishing. Good report! I have a good one too for Clear Lake. After a month off from Clear Lake, buddy Mike and I hit the lake Thursday afternoon - and found the dinks - some up to 14 inches now, everywhere! At sundown, we got serious with the night gear. But just before we did that, Mike had one more fish for me to net. Not 9 inches - but 9 pounds!! She hit a small plastic bait and went 9.08 lbs! Been awhile since I had seen one of those! I started throwing a D&M Piranha swim jig after dark, thinking maybe the water had cooled enough to use it. I also thought the new Yamamoto Heart Tail would be a good trailer for bigger bass. Decisions are great when they work!!! My first bass was 7 1/4 lbs. She crunched it!! After I got two more in the 3 1/2 lb range, I was thinking how cool it would be to catch a 7, 8, and Mike's 9. One of us would need an 8. About 15 minutes later, I got crunched again - and she went 8.14!! It has been awhile since we have seen 3 bass in a short period of time for 24+ pounds. The bite died after and we soon left with good memories of a 31 lb limit.

      Tips: It seems that the bigger bass still are in deeper water. Following the bait is hard now - since it is everywhere. The 3 bigger bass were 20 + feet deep. They simply attacked our baits, so the fall feed may have begun!

Thursday, November 12th, 2015

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 56

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished 6am til 1pm in whiskey slough and caught bass up to 7lbs throwing crankbaits and traps. Some senkos and dropshot in the mix.

Wednesday, November 11th, 2015

  • Lake County
    • By

      Report: From Clear Lake Outdoors
      The weather is finally cooling down and the fall bite is here. Water temps around 60 degrees. It was foggy and frozen this morning. Guys are catching fish north and south. The A rig bite has started. You can catch fish on shallow and deep crankbaits . The lv 500 bite has been good and will be thru march. The jig bite is slowing down. We just got a shipment of minnows and they are bigger than they have been, that bite is just starting to get good. Catfish and Crappie bite is good.
      Our winter hours are mon-sat 7am -5 pm and closed on sundays.707-262-5852
      The fall /winter is when big fish are caught here.
      Dave

  • Butte County
    • By

      Water Temp: Never looked or forgot!

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Launched about 6:30 am, from the dam again, ramp is getting longer, but still just fine for anyone with 4wd. Burr, darn cold beginning today. Went to the middle fork and fished anything with rocks, the more the better. Bite was really good, caught 26 fish today. No lunkers, but most were keepers, 4-5 14 1/2" fish, most 12-14" range with maybe 4-5 dinks under 12" Nice misty like fog coming off the water in the wee hours, giving the lake a kind of spooky look. Gave up fishing at 10:30 and called it a day. Busy ramp when I got back. Many boats on the water today. These are a few of the better fish, right at 14 1/2". Pictures in forum, under fishing.

Tuesday, November 10th, 2015

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 56

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Launched out of Wimpy's and fished the back half of the sloughs that run out to the east. Fished the A-rig all afternoon and landed nothing but stripes all day. All caught in 8-12 ft of water and fished it as close to bottom as possible. 5 fish that went 6.5 -7.8 lbs and another 5 in the 3-5lb range. Rigged up shad pattern paddle tails for the most part. I used 6 different plastics throughout the day and they were eating just about anything I stuck on the rig.

      Tips: Anything that mimics the bait fish that are back in the sloughs is gonna get bit. Bigger fish are definitely out off the bank in deeper water. Look for the birds and rip rap with spaced out tule patches.

Saturday, November 7th, 2015

  • Napa County
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      Water Temp: 62-63

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Another great trip yesterday as I took a media personality, helping him get into a good spoon bite. And did he get into the program! After we found a good school of feeding bass, we put 2 1/2 to near 3 1/2 lb smallies into the boat for almost an hour straight. Two bass anglers were watching the show in their boat, They came over and we showed them what we were doing. I saw them catch one or two after that. We fished other parts of the lake and found the bite kinda slow. Again, in the afternoon, no topwater bite! As always, we used 1 1/2 oz Blade Runner spoons with UV Morning Dawn the best color. On the way in, I spotted a new rock area that just became visable. We fished it and spooned a few more and I was able to spoon a 4 lb spot. Great spoon bass!! Lake is still dropping, but slowly.

      Tips: The Lowrance is your friend. Move around 'til you find the bait!

Friday, November 6th, 2015

  • Yuba County
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      Water Temp: 63

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished bullards for the third time in my life. Fish were stacked up in the ends of rivers, where fresh rain had water pouring in. Fished the mud line, and foam canopy and saw some true giants nosing the baits. No takers. Fished from 5-15' with jerk baits, swim baits, and jigs. The jerk bait was hot, every cast, or every other cast. Even had a 6 lb squawfish eat the jerk bait.
      Didn't find any bait balls to spoon, but one was on the deck all day....

      Tips: Move around till you find them. They're definatley schooled up.

  • Solano County
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      Report: Delta Report…. Strong bite continues for Delta anglers
      Dan’s Delta Outdoors Fall Striper Series #3 Goes out of Big Break Marina Saturday November 7th. catch and release tournament is the Final of 3 events. Registration 5 to 6 am target draw and blast off right at first light. ALL BOATS must leave from Big Break Marina. This is the Finally of the 2015 Series “The Open” 24 inches or better no slot, Go get ‘em Boys and girls!
      Bait fishing tactics from both boat and Bank Seminar November 19th. Come receive instruction From The Dan’s Delta Staff on the best striper bait fishing tactics and techniques.
      Isleton The salmon bite remains strong as cooler evening temps take hold. The bite in the area just improved all week. Salmon anglers are seeing success. a few fishing finally started getting solid reports of success from Salmon searching anglers with Silvertrons leading the way. Water temperatures have dropped with the cooler evenings. Many anglers to the west are seeing more salmon daily… getting close. Silvertron’s are the best bet for those who want to try.
      Walnut Grove Continuing solid Salmon numbers with many decnt Scores reported Silvertrons and K-14 getting mentioned. Best area has been Courtland to Walnut grove. Few Stripes are in the area as anglers recover still around as temperatures return more seasonable in the Walnut Grove area as the trolling bite is OK mostly small fish.. Red Eye Shad and small shad patterned plastics are the top choices here as well. Small swimbaits are scoring Largemouth and Smallmouth in the Meadows.
      Discovery Bay Where did they go? Stripers that had been starting to group up in the Marina side seem to have disappeared. Have faith! They are still in the area, the bait and stripes are in main river Holland riverside south to Italian Slough. Dan’s Classic Shimmer Jigs and Strike King RedEye Shad getting bit. Black Bass cooler evening temps have water temperatures dropping and the bite on upswing!. Strike King small Double Buzz and Poppers getting mentioned often. Jig bite on points is also good, the all new TNT Booby Trap is a great replica of Delta Craws come by and check them out !
      Frank’s Tract Stripers and bass bite both responded well to the cooler temperatures. It’s no secret what a little fall weather can do. Walking baits are great topwater options while small swim baits and swim jigs get the mention. We found plenty of Stripers and Black Bass with Hair Jigs, Weedless Swimmers like the BIG 6thSense Hollow Bodies getting grabbed. Lot of Stripers on Old River Flats.
      West Delta Anglers in search of stripers are finding solid numbers of keeper stripers from both boat and bank. Most of the nice stripers coming soaking Shad . Antioch Pier scored stripers to27 inches this week. Shad is top offering. The West as in Honker Bay to the Broad Slough plug casting is getting fish when wind cooperates. Go On Top with Dan’s Delta Mizers, during the day go old school with Hair Jigs Like Dan’s Classic Shimmer jigs or Spro in open water White/Dark Green and White/Blue best this week . Sturgeon quietly is slipping into the spotlight. Eel is the best bait over all, but roe and shad also scoring diamondbacks Break and surrounding cuts. Cranking Lucke Strike Square bills in bait fish patterns and spinnerbaits is key.
      Provided by Dan’s Delta Outdoors, 1625 Main St Oakley CA 925/234-4694 Follow us on Facebook

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2015

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 62

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: On the water at 1200 fished primarily sycamore slough. Pretty steady breeze today and sunny, found a decent spinner bait bite on wind blown side of the tule islands. Mostly 1.5- 2 lb fish there. Moved back in the slough and got on a insane crank bite in shad pattern deep diving. Caught 20+ fish during that last 2 hours of the outgoing tide. All came on windblown rip rap banks in 6-12 ft of water. Fish in the 2-3 lb range and then landed one that went 6.8 right at dusk. Quite a few blow ups in the area but the crank bite was to good to switch to topwater.

      Tips: All fish caught were caught while bumping the deep diving crank off the bottom. Pausing and then fast cranking on snags draws most of the hits. Fished parallel to the shore to keep it on bottom the while time in the 10ft range

    • By

      Report: From Cooch's Fishing October closed out last week with the Delta bass moving up and starting ta chew. Water temps have settled into the mid 60s and stablized driving active fish into the shallows and grass bed in numbers. The baracade in False River has been removed and current flows through Franks Tract and the middle part of the River are back to normal. Days of fighting through 50 dinks ta git a decent limit have been replaced with days of catchin 20+ keepers in the 2-6 pound range. The bigger fish for us have become more active later in the day after noon time. Active fish are now chasing down liplwess cranks and ripbaits fished over the top of the grass on the higher tides. As the tide begins to fall, the bigger fish are starting to position on the grass line breaks in 5-9 foot and are snapping both Jigs and a Yamamoto Kreature. Green pumpkins and Watermelon reds are working best and ya need to rotate between em constantly as their preference changes spot to spot, hour by hour. If yer not getting bit, or catching short fish, keep moving and cover water to find those bigger active fish that are schooling up.

Saturday, October 31st, 2015

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

      Report: Got out for a fun Halloween fishing run. Caught alot of rats on top water. Had some decent blowups with no hookups on froggy though. Water is getting cooler, saw a salmon swimming in old river. Lots of stripers to play with everywhere. The hyacinth is thick in some areas, careful of logs in the stuff.
      Most of all....Have fun !

      Tips: STOP THE TUNNELS

Thursday, October 29th, 2015

  • Napa County
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      Water Temp: 68-69

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I took one of my favorite clients to Berryessa Tuesday, finding cloudy skies and calm wind. We were going to work on spooning mostly, using Blade Runner 1 1/2 oz spoons. I had him used the new UV morning dawn color and I used a few different colors. All spring and summer long I have wondered, as others have, where all the spotted bass were. Bingo - we found them - and they have been growing!! We located a school of them feeding on shad and we spooned 3 to 3 1/2 lb spots for about an hour, with a few smallies mixed in. We weighed several of the spots to make sure the weights were accurate. These were the fattest spots I have every seen at Berryessa. This makes me think the lake is in excellent shape because it has been a big largemouth year also. We moved around the lake for hours looking for other baits balls with bass, but didn't find many. We went back to our morning area and caught a bunch more before we left. Funny, like Almanor last week, fishing great on the sunny day and slower on the cloudy day.

      Tips: We saw bait on my new Gen 3 Lowrance meters from 10 to 60 feet, but the spoon bite was best at about 35 to 40 feet. As for surface activity, there was NONE! Never saw a fish come to the surface. We did get a few bass drop-shotting Robo worms, but they were smaller bass. After all the largemouth this summer, we only caught three this trip - two dinks and a 13 incher! Guess they were on vacation!!