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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Saturday, February 12th, 2005

  • Trinity County
    • By

      Water Temp: 47-48

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Yeah, I'm totally hooked. Went out on Trinity for another trip with The "Maine" Guide, John F. Gray. I didn't think it could be better than my January experience. I was wrong. Fished from 11:30 AM to 4PM. Together we caught 29 fish. The best was a 4 LB., 12 OZ. Smallie that John caught. John and I each caught 4 & 1/2 LB Largies and numerous 3+ LB Smallies. I'll post a pic. of John's 4-11 and two of my best fish in the Pics section. We caught 'em in 25 to 40 feet of water, out of Trinity Center on submerged rock piles. The closer we got to shore, the less fish we caught. Watch your depth finder and look for 30-35 feet of water smack-dab-in the middle of the lake. We used Pro Worms, brown tubes, and brown and orange jigs. 29 fish in 4.5 hours. At one point we had a fish on 6-straight combined casts.
      City: Sacramento

      Tips: Call John Gray. I've never seen anyone know a lake like he knows Trinity.

Friday, February 11th, 2005

  • Mason County
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      Water Temp: 51

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Got on the lake at 8:15am and started fishing a rocky point and got my first fish of the year. And boy was it a great start, it was a 5.2 large mouth, what a toad and a fight. Managed 5 fish before the rain started. Caught all 5 fish on a pumpkin hula grub.
      City: San Jose

      Tips: Fish deep and slow, somtimes you have to cast to the same spot 4-5 times before they bite. This is typical when the water is cold and muddy, you pretty much have to hit them over the head!

  • Napa County
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      Water Temp: 53-56

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Nice day on the water with Tom Erickson. Working the narrows for part of the morning on points with rock and some sandy beaches. Got our first limit by 9am with brown/purple jigs, crankin and worms. It was a good bite all over the lake on jigs, also brush hogs. The warmer part of the lake is up North with the bigger smallies and largemouth.
      City: rocklin

      Tips: Watch for the bass to be moving up in the warmer water.

  • Butte County
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      Water Temp: 45 Degrees

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Well, I took my young cousin out and tryed the talked up method of dropshotting. It was is first time dropshotting and he wasnt to sure how to do it. On his second cast he hooked into a what I called Tournament Big Fish Winner, this was a big spot, caught him on a smokie colored robo leach cant tell you where I have a tournament up there on the 19th of this month fish was slow only one caught but it made my day alon with his trust me.
      City: Oroville

      Tips: Fish Slow and dont use exotic colors stick to natural colors.

  • Sonoma County
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      Water Temp: 53

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Hooked three bass from 2 to 4.5 lbs. on a black and brown jig in the Dry Creek Arm. Fish hit in the afternoon and were in 15 to 25 feet. All three were in the same area. No bites on drop shot rig.
      City: No

Thursday, February 10th, 2005

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 53

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: After reading the NCBF post on Black bass had to go try for myself. We landed 17 BB to 6 lbs. best 5 going 19 lbs. Bite was on sweet beavers and trixy shad fished like a worm. Note saw a boat fight a sturgeon for 20mins in Big Break pretty cool, but it bent out the hook. Thank you John Lee for your post. You helped make it a great day.
      Fire Jon
      City: San Bruno

      Tips: fish slow and hard big fish were in the thick part of the weeds.

    • By

      Water Temp: low 50's

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: On Tuesday, we caught 2 limits of stripers in less than 30 minutes (largest - 9 lbs). Today, 3 of us went out and we caught 4 stripers and 2 bass (4 lbs and 2 lbs). All fish caught on Rat L Traps. For both trips combined, we caught over 30 shaker stripers.
      City: Dixon

      Tips: Fished around islands today and caught fish in 6-8 ft of water. Shad colored Rat L Traps.

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: 49-51

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Sometimes it is hard to decide between day or night trips. Last night and today I did both and could have easily skipped the night trip. I only caught five last night as the cloud cover I was promised disappeared at dusk and it turned cold and damp - not good night conditions. I quit about 2 am. After a good nights sleep, I started my scouting trip today about 11 am and fished 'til dark - thank goodness. Some of you know I love to fish the last hour of dark and today proved why! I broke off a huge bass on the second hookset, around 5 pm. I was really bummed! About 45 minutes later, I hooked another monster and set ONLY once! So I finally get this one in the boat - after surviving a scary 3/4 wallow out of the water (did I freak? - yes!) - and the jig falls out of her huge mouth. What is a guy to do?! Didn't matter this time - she was gorgeous - at 10 lbs 11 oz! The winner and the loser were both hooked on a 3/8 oz brown/orange Rattlin' Weapon jig with a single tail Yamamoto #180 grub - what else?!!! In between those events, I got into a great rip bite as the sun was setting - I caught 5 and they were all between 2 3/4 and 3 1/4 lbs - and one crappie! I lost the biggest one - drag too tight. Those were fun after catching about 10 to 12 that averaged only 12 inches rippin' near Indian Beach. I drop-shotted several 1 1/2 lb bass using a Berkely june-bug Pulse worm. Finally a good limit, something over 22 pounds. Great drive home!!!
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: I was using the Staycee 90 that is off-white with the chartreuse stripe on the side. It seemed to work fine so I didn't change. The big bass are still deep down south, as both of those big ones and another nice one I missed were 20 to 30 feet deep. I was slowly swimming the jigs - ticking rocks. Shaking them didn't seem to help. And for those of you that are interested, I did not hear a single carp roll last night - the lake was absolutely dead. The other successful night trips in January all had some carp activity, especially around midnight. If you are going to winter night fish, cloudy nights are always better.

  • Sacramento County
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      Water Temp: 49-50

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished Folsom from Noon until Dark. Spent a lot of time looking for fish. Caught one small keeper up North and one small Keeper down south. Steep Points seemed to be the key but it was hard to find a pattern with so few bites. Tried Darterhead, Carolina Rig, Cranking, Blading, and Jigs. My buddy did hook an 18" Salmon dragging a worm.
      City: Orangevale

      Tips: Caught the two fish on Jigs, dragging real slow. Not much of a bite, just a small "thump". Bass bites are scarce at Folsom right now...

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

      Report: BPC, it's nice to hear your back on the water. Was that you out there in that tiny aluminum boat with that guy with the blue puffy jacket?

  • Shasta County
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      Water Temp: 47.9-50.1

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: at Packers at 0640, one ahead of me, air temp 44, wind out of the north at 8, ran over into the mid sac arm and got bit real quick, had 9 before 0815 and one went 2.4, caught them on a new color hoo dun it, #100, a smoke with red and black flake HOWEVER that was it until 12 noon. fished in 15 different spots and got on some fish but no go. Ended up north so ran back south and got into them again but on the hdi in #109 and got my best of the day a fat 2.82. only 2 dinks out of the 19 and one other decent fish at 1.9. no rip or blade fish this am. The 1.9 came on the #22, out at 1345, air temp 64 and very pleasant. wind up and down this am from 8 to 15 out of the north and NW. The fish were hitting noticeably harder today.
      City: Redding

Wednesday, February 9th, 2005

  • Santa Clara County
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      Water Temp: ???

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Hey MikeT
      How do you spoon what types of techniques do you use. I've heard of spooning and catching lots of fish but never had a clue on how to do it. What types of spoons do you use, etc. Thanks Greg
      City: San Jose

  • Butte County
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      Water Temp: Mid 40's

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished WON tourney on the 5th dartheaded all day between 40 and 60 feet, most people used jigs. weighed 8.45. tough bite for most everyone. all together we caught 10-12 fish all day. Beautiful day on the water hardly any wind and warm weather.
      City: Red Bluff

      Tips: Fish SLOW!

  • Trinity County
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      Water Temp: 46-48

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Just got back from 4 hrs on thr Lake. This lake never ceases to amaze me, or perhaps it's the fish that are amazing. In 4 hrs in Feb I caught 14 fish, the best 5 near 18 lbs led by a 5-14 LM. The fish are still on mid lake tailing piles in 30' of water. Still waiting to get the first 6 lber, maybe next trip.
      City: Weaverville

      Tips: Thanks Dave for taking the pics.

Tuesday, February 8th, 2005

  • Amador County
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      Water Temp: 51

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Just went up for the afternoon and found quite a few 3 to 5lb. bass staging in 24 to 40ft. up in Jackson Creek. Useing a 3/4oz. black/red jig and a Camache Jack crawdad trailer I caught and released 7 bass before going out to the main body and fishing one of the island tops in 36ft. where the schoolies were stacked. Dropping a chatruese white spoon I caught about 20 nice bass.
      City: Sac.

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 47-48

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished Clear Lake the 8th,9th and 10th for the crappie at Shag rock and caught and released over 230 crappie well not just me my brother-in-law and his dad also. we caught most our fish on red/white mini jigs 1/32oz but most any color would have work. Crappie were down around 7-10 feet. The trick to catching the crappie when there was no wind and it was flat dead calm was to shake the rod tip which enduced the bite. Well while we were out there catching crappie I picked up my 1/4oz jig rod and caught atleast 20 small bass nothing over 2 pounds and I also dropshoted roboworms and still caught atleast that many. Saw aguy land a 4 1/2 lb bass on dropshot at Shag Rock. The crappie size were between 1 and 3 1/2 lbs. Like the other report with the guy who broke down. We Stayed at the Lake Place Resort and it was an outstanding resort, They had slips for boats with eletrical hook-ups. It was great to get ready to fish with my batteries all charged up. So if you get up there to Clear Lake check this place out. They cater to the Bass'r.
      City: Fairfield

  • Mariposa County
    • By

      Water Temp: Estimate 50

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: cold fromt on the horizon cloudy day little wind no rain. 3 total bass in 3 hours in pineecreek no action in coves no mud lines most action 30 feet on 3 inch worms split shot light bites probably missed 5-10 fish.
      City: Manteca

      Tips: slow and light tackle

  • Tuolumne County
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      Water Temp: 53

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished above the Parrott's Ferry Bridge from 3pm till dark. Fished 20-30 feet with texas rigged grub. Boated two (1lb and 2lb small mouth) Had a third with dropshot worm but spit the hook. I've heard good things about cathing fish from the Hwy 49 bridge and up.
      City: Sonora

      Tips: Fish deep near drop offs and points. Use a splash of "blood red" on your bait and you won't be disapointed.

    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished from the bank, 10 inch black power worm, solid 3 pounder plus several other good bites. pre-spawn is on.
      City: p-town

  • Shasta County
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      Water Temp: 48.4-49.6

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: headed for Jones Valley this am, first time in quite awhile, there at 0635, one ahead of me, air temp 41, wind out of the north at 5, lake is 62.5 ft down and the road in is in good shape with 15 graveled spots where the new culverts went in, lots of slash piles burning, add about 10 minutes for your trip into the ramp, ran over in the the middle pit and can't find any fish, get one bite at 8 am but miss it. Keep at it while moving around and still no fish, said the heck with it at 845 am and ran downstream near the McCloud and got on them good, had 19 fish between 0900 and 1140. Most were deeper than 35 ft. Got them on the hoo dun its in #109 and 22 with the most on the #22 with 3 over two, biggest at 2.27. caught some worm fish on the MGM #66 and a rainbow worm #99. Used a new bait called a Shasta Crawler that was cinnamon with red flake for 3 of them, most fat as footballs and full of crawdads. Widn pretty much quit while running back to Jones Valley, lots os small debris in the water with a few trees now coming downstream in the Pit Out at noon, air temp 57 and 40 plus rigs in the gravel at the ramp. Watch out for the logging going on around the Jones Valley road.
      City: Redding