Submit
Report

Northern California Lake Fishing Report

Limit:

Saturday, February 5th, 2005

  • Sonoma County
    • By

      Water Temp: 47-54

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Went out with Jimmy Mac the Sonoma Veteran an my buddy Tiger the newly educated student of the game, who can read a graph like like he was born on a boat. We had a great day. Tiger started with a 3.9, on his secret go to bait, at 8:00. I followed with a 4.1 at 8:20. Jim got one at 8:50 now we are all on the board. Ten fish total, Tiger lead the pack with a 5.0 and a 5.1 and I had another 4.0. Best 5 went 22.1 lbs. 20+ other boaters out there not sure how they did, din't see alot of fish cought. Bite turned off in the afternoon when coincidently? the cloud cover came out with more wind and cold temps.
      City: Pacifica

      Tips: Don't be afraid to throw that swim bait, and the top water, work it slow. But for some of us old timers a good old texas rig ain't bad either.

    • By

      Water Temp: cold BRRRRRR

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: tried catfishing at night with my brother Saturday night (2/5). Got to the dam at 5:30 pm and left at 7:15 pm. We both where using anchovies. Only one bite for each of us.....no fish caught =( anybody have any information on this lake?
      City: San Jose

Friday, February 4th, 2005

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 53-55

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished 3 days this week, caught at least a limit each day with lots of small fish. Brown w/chartrouse tail worms dragged across the bottom, 16 - 20 feet, caught most of the fish. My wife caught several with a crappie jig, including a trout.
      City: Fairfield

      Tips: Smallmouth, Spots, and Largemouth are schooled up together in the coves, fish with the electronics until you find them and then have fun.

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 51.5

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: not much going on today, let's drop the boat in at Russo's (great place) and throw some blades. 3rd cast right outside the 5 zone........boink! 10 lb striper. OK, this is good, but where's mama black bass? a few hundred flips later with the jig, yep, a solid 4lber. that's it my friends. That's the beauty of it, no such thing as a bad day fishin'......gotta love this stuff, huh?
      City: walnut creek

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 48

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished Clear Lake for the first time in years. Joined the crowd at Shag Rock fishing for crappies. Most of the crowd was using mini-jigs type lures on a floater (jig was anywhere from 3-6 ft down). Everybody was catching them. We were the exception and tried to fish without a floater on our jigs. Caught a few crappies. We were also fishing for bass on a carolina rig with minnows. Caught 4 bass (largest 2.5 lbs). We then decided to fish with floaters and started catching fish. Besides catching crappies, we caught 6 more keeper bass on mini-jigs (largest - 1.5 lbs). We probably caught 15 undersized bass on the mini-jigs.
      City: Dixon

      Tips: Use your electronics to find the crappie schools. Use white or chartruese mini-jigs. The bass that we caught on mini-jigs were close to shore in the late afternoon.

  • Alameda County
    • By

      Water Temp: 49-55

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Got on the water around 7:30. Started out on the left side of the narrows throwing jigs shallow, no bites. Moved out into 30 to 40ft. of water where we found most of the bait action. My partner Wayne and I started dropshotting 4in. senkos{Brn./Org.}and I a pumkin/red/grn flk. 4in. worm. Got bit 4 times, lost one. All solid 21/2 to 3lbs. Worked the area for a while and started moving around staying deep. We managed to catch a few more on a junebug worm and a white Ika. We ended up with 5 nice largemouths. A beautiful day on the water, it was like a spring day ,about 63.
      City: Fremont

      Tips: Fishing was a little on the slow side, take your time. The lake is droping again about 5ft. down after the rain. It can make for a tough bite. Goodluck!

    • By

      Water Temp: ???

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Dudeman, a tip for fixing your rod tip. Super glue is a BAD idea, as it will eventually eat through the graphite. Instead, put some mono inside the new tip before you place it on the end of your rod. Place the rod tip on the end making sure it fits snuggly. Then take a lighter and melt the tip on there, making sure you dont burn the graphite. It has worked for me, hope that helps!
      City: Oakland

  • Shasta County
    • By

      Water Temp: 47.9-48.7

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: in at Packers this am with a lot of other guys at 0640, 41 degrees with a lot of high fog and haze, lake at 64.5 ft down with just a little breeze out of the north, ran over into the Mccloud and stuck them good right off the bat. got two over 3 lbs and a dink and one over 2lbs in 20 minutes, added another over 3 at 0830 and 7 more small fish by 1030 whend the sun came out. Caught them on the hdi's in 109 and 35. Got most of the small fish on a variety of worms, the Rainbow 292 and 99, the mgm 66 and the mf 38, all in 6 inch with the mgm being an eel. most of the fish were deeper this am betwen 28-60ft, 4 of the worm fish were tight to a rock wall and suspended about 20 ft down so the 1/4 oz darter head was most effective. Called it a day a little early and out at 1130, 40 rigs in the ot and the air temp was 54. Best 5 went 12.81, a good day for me.
      City: Redding

Thursday, February 3rd, 2005

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 55-58

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Launched outta Ladds this morning about 8:30, ran over to 14 mile started flipping a senco with no bites. I ran to mildered fished some tulie berms and my first fish went 5lbs, so i slowed down and worked the area throughly for no more bites. I fired up and ran over bye Franks...and agin no bites so i ran back to mildred fished a tulie berm down river from where i cought my first fish and started flipping a double wide beaver after about 20 minutes i get a 2lbr put the fieh in the live well turn right around flip in the exact same spot and got another...this one barely keppt, after about another 20 minutes go back to where i caught the bigger fish, i start flipping the beaver and lost a decent one and that was it for the day
      City: modesto

      Tips: used 7 inch senco and double wide sweet beaver in watermelon/red both baits didnt try another bait all day...was looking for the fat one.

    • By

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: dudeman, if you can't take the rod back, it's an easy fix. Depending on where the tip broke, you will lose that much length, but just buy a new tip, super glue it on, and that's it. It's the other eyelets aside from the tip that are harder to repair. Also, you might want to sand down the area where you will be applying the new tip. Good luck!
      City: Oakland

      Tips: Hey bASSHOLE, we're about due for a tubin' trip! I've been stockin' up on worms!

  • Shasta County
    • By

      Water Temp: 48.2-49.6

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: At Packers at 0630, wind flat with a slight push out of the north, lake at 65.17ft down, air temp 51, nothing in packers for 20 minutes, ran into the upper sac near forked horn point and had 7 between 0715 and 0830 with most coming on the hdi in #22 and one on a MGM lizard in #25, first time using the lizard, only had one and it got destroyed on the 1.88 that bit it. The other were fairly nice between 1.8 and 1.93. ran back downstream near the dam at 0900 and got 5 more but no size with on a decent smalmouth at 1.84, again on the #22. Wind came up at 1030 at about 15. Ran back to packers and out at 1200, airtemp a balmy 68. Fish were a little shallower today, 19- 42 ft.
      City: Redding

Wednesday, February 2nd, 2005

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 49-52

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Hauled the red Ranger up to Berryessa in the hopes of tangling with a few pre-prespawn bass, and as expected, we didn't leave disappointed. Fishing from first light to 5:00pm with my dad, we managed 17 fish in the boat and several strikes missed as well. We found two basic patterns, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. To our surprise, the morning pattern involved VERY shallow fish, something I was more expecting as the water temp. rose in the warm afternoon sun. After fruitlessly fishing several key primary points in the Narrows, dad hit a chunky 3lb. spot in 5' of water on a channel bank adjacent to a point. Thinking it might be a fluke, we fished another good point, again with no results, and finally hit a fat prespawn smallie on the adjacent bank. Moving further into the creek, we caught another 6 fish and missed a couple more, all coming from water less than 10' deep. After catching a few more fish on the shallow pattern, by 11:00, that bite was done and the afternoon pattern began to take shape. Moving back to many of the same points which had been fruitless in the morning, we began catching fish on the sides of the points (channel breaks) anywhere from 15'-30' deep. We also caught a couple nice fish chasing a HUGE bait ball in the channel of a narrow feeder creek. Of the 17 fish boated, 3 were largemouth, 6 smallmouth and 8 spots. The best 5 probably went 11-12 lbs.
      City: Elk Grove

      Tips: Patterns were a bit backward for this time of year - shallow early, deeper in the afternoon - especially with the warm weather we're currently enjoying. Look for fish "highways" immediately adjacent to deep water transition areas. Best banks had softball-sized chunk rock and laydown trees recently eroded into the water. Caught 1 spooning, 1 splitshotting, 2 dropshotting, 2 on a jig, and the rest dartheading. Threw 4" and 6" Violet Shad Ultimate Bass Baits worms, Aaron's Magic and Hologram Shad Roboworm. Jig was 1/4 oz. Brown/Orange frog's hair w/ Spring Break Smallie Beaver trailer. One last note of interest - caught a beautiful 18" smallie which was already spawned out. Looks like an early year!

    • By

      Water Temp: 52

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: I fished with a 10 year old birthday boy today, along with his 12 year old brother and ? old dad!! This kid is growing up right - this is what he wanted for his birthday - a trip to Berryessa (in the winter?)! He is already a veteran of a Clear Lake night trip last summer with dad and me. The bites were fair today - somewhere around 25, but we could only put 11 in the boat - 5 biggest about 9 1/4 lbs. Had not dad broken off a good fish just before dark in Markley Cove, we might have had a good limit. Birthday boy did land 3 bass - thank goodness. We had a pretty stiff north wind most of the day which caused difficult fishing for the boys. The older brother lost a good spot right at the boat which was a real shame. We split-shotted various colors of Camanche Jack worms and Berkley Pulse Worms. Green pumpkin was working well, as was morning dawn/chartreuse tail. We landed several jig fish, using brown/orange and black/purple/blue. The latter worked well just before dark - that is what dad got broken off with! I cranked one, and drop-shotted one. The fish were not as aggressive as last Thursday. I don't know if fishing pressure had anything to do with that. I heard about last weekend and today saw more mid-week bass boats than I have ever seen in the past 20 years. We caught mostly largemouth and spots, with 2 smallies. Biggest was a 2-10 largemouth that dad caught.
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: We fished Wragg Canyon the most, along with other spots in the narrows. Never made it to the main lake. We fished over several schools of bass, but tough to get them to bite. We found most afternoon bass in shade pockets on steep banks. I sort of thought they would be in the sun, but not today. A couple of our lost fish were in the brush, but the birthday boy did a good job of yanking one out of a bush! Unlike last week, most of our bites were shallow fish. We tried some deep fishing but couldn't get bit. I think the problem was the wind - the lake didn't warm any on the surface and therefore not too much in the way of shallow movement. When all else fails - the kids always love the boat ride!!

    • By

      Water Temp: 52

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: I fished with a 10 year old birthday boy today, along with his 12 year old brother and ? old dad!! This kid is growing up right - this is what he wanted for his birthday - a trip to Berryessa (in the winter?)! He is already a veteran of a Clear Lake night trip last summer with dad and me. The bites were fair today - somewhere around 25, but we could only put 11 in the boat - 5 biggest about 9 1/4 lbs. Had not dad broken off a good fish just before dark in Markley Cove, we might have had a good limit. Birthday boy did land 3 bass - thank goodness. We had a pretty stiff north wind most of the day which caused difficult fishing for the boys. The older brother lost a good spot right at the boat which was a real shame. We split-shotted various colors of Camanche Jack worms and Berkley Pulse Worms. Green pumpkin was working well, as was morning dawn/chartreuse tail. We landed several jig fish, using brown/orange and black/purple/blue. The latter worked well just before dark - that is what dad got broken off with! I cranked one, and drop-shotted one. The fish were not as aggressive as last Thursday. I don't know if fishing pressure had anything to do with that. I heard about last weekend and today saw more mid-week bass boats than I have ever seen in the past 20 years. We caught mostly largemouth and spots, with 2 smallies. Biggest was a 2-10 largemouth that dad caught.
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: We fished Wragg Canyon the most, along with other spots in the narrows. Never made it to the main lake. We fished over several schools of bass, but tough to get them to bite. We found most afternoon bass in shade pockets on steep banks. I sort of thought they would be in the sun, but not today. A couple of our lost fish were in the brush, but the birthday boy did a good job of yanking one out of a bush! Unlike last week, most of our bites were shallow fish. We tried some deep fishing but couldn't get bit. I think the problem was the wind - the lake didn't warm any on the surface and therefore not too much in the way of shallow movement. When all else fails - the kids always love the boat ride!!

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 47-49

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Well, I knew going in that I wasn't going to get much action. I was right. I fished from sunrise till around 1 p.m. I managed two fish one on a drop shot and one on a rip bait. The drop shot fish came in 2ft of water and it was a huge fish maybe pushing a lb. Water was stained and the fog was really thick until around noon. Fished Taylor the whole time. I can't wait for the prespawn.
      City: Walnut Creek

      Tips: Use the force. Always.

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 46-51

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Fishing was tough. Fished dropshot, Carolina, jig and spinnerbait. Fish caught on jig and dropshot. Fish next to weedbeds and rocky shore line and docks. We caught fish but... not nearly what I was looking for.
      City: Arcata

      Tips: SLOW DOWN CAST OUT AND READ A BOOK IT IS THAT SLOW. The water temp is still cold so the bass are not active yet

    • By

      Water Temp: dont know

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Haven't fished the lake in year's.. Used to water ski there when the lake turned..to green..quit that skiing thing , tried dirt bike's , got hurt.. went safe... fishing.. dont know it per say would like to learn.. any tip's

      Tips: On this lake I dont know.. as I said .. water temp make's a difference.. lake level, is the key, try dt's.. and or the same thing everyone is using ,, not me {drop shot?}.. Nope.. to windy your not gonna get them... give me a tip on this lake... I want to fish it this year. Thank's , Catch and realease.. your freind Doug

  • Sacramento County
    • By

      Water Temp: 48

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: beautiful day on the dead sea. Took my lovely wife marian out to the lake. She enjoyed the sun and trees. We fished deep and slow like everybody tells me to do. We did this for 5 hours. Then we went home.
      City: orangevale

      Tips: berryessa,berryessa,berryessa. One hour drive to markley launch ramp and $13.oo dollar ramp fee and you can catch 15 keepers a day.

  • Butte County
    • By

      Water Temp: n/a

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: any info on club tourney on sun. 1/30 out of spillway. winning weight....etc. just courious, been rough. thanks
      City: red bluff

  • Calaveras County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Anybody been here yet this year??? If so how is the fishing???? Water must be fairly high now huh? Whats working best? Color? all the good stuff-its been YEARS since I have been there and I am thinking of giving it a shot. Thanks for any info! Tight Lines!!!
      City: Chowchilla

      Tips: You tell me!