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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Tuesday, September 29th, 2015

  • Butte County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Launched about 6:30 am and headed to the middle fork, end portion, and tossed worms till 10: am. Decent bite today, but many smaller fish, seems half my catch was under 12"! even though I fished deeper then many do at 25-40 feet. Total 23 fish, only one 15" spot with about 2 14" the rest 12-13" or so other then the dinks. Again, 4-5 were LM. I'm beginning to like the middle fork, but going to north fork next trip to my old honey holes.

Saturday, September 26th, 2015

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 70-75

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I took a good fisherman to Berryessa yesterday, teaching him about off-shore structure and - new to him - spooning! He has now become a fan of the Rick Tietz designed Blade Runnner spoons. His first spoon bass with a big 1 1/2 oz spoon was a 3 lb 2 oz smallie!! He even caught a few more. He had started off with some of Rick's smaller spoons. As I was showing him how to work the spoon, I nailed a quality smallie at 3 1/2 lbs! I told him all spoon fish are like that - (yea, right!). I was using one of Rick's new UV morning dawn spoons. We started early in the morning and the lake was DEAD!! No bites and no small bass chasing shad on the surface. Had one small bass hit a topwater. We started spooning around 11 am and the bite was fair - but not great. In a cove I like, we saw a wolfpack of big bass chase a school of bait. What a sight! As they went out to deeper water, we spooned those 3 pounder smallies I mentioned. I was metering a bank off Big Island with my new Gen 3 Lowrance 12"meter (really a TV screen!) There was nothing on the meter - bait or fish. I was trying the MM111 Robo worm for fun and soon a 3 lb largemouth crunched it! The invisible fish!!! We wound up with a fair amount of spoon bass with our best 5 about 12 1/2 lbs.

      Tips: This is the time of year to move around. The bait moves - and so should you! Again, I am impressed with the size of the bass this year. No big largemouth this trip, but the smallies are amazing - big and fat! I'm sure drop-shotting would be good now with shad colored baits, but again, my largemouth hit a Texas rigged worm. If the summer heat would ever give in to a cool fall, the bite will improve!!

  • Butte County
    • By

      Report: Pretty new to bass fishing, Having hard time catching many this summer. Found this site and must say a big thank you to Tom for your reports. Fished drop shot, buddy and I caught 31

      Keep em coming Tom

Thursday, September 24th, 2015

  • Solano County
    • By

      Report: Delta Report….

      East County Fishing rolls as Salmon Stripers surge

      Tournaments return to Big Break Marina with Dan’s Delta Outdoors Striper Series Leading the way back to this Delta Icon! Last minute Check In 430 to 600 am Saturday AM Awards, Raffle and Fun starts at 300 pm. Sodas and snacks will be available.

      R2SeaTournament is just a week away and promises to be Epic event! More Next Week!

      Isleton
      Tough hot temps accompanied by the approaching full moon slowed salmon a bit. Still salmon anglers are seeing success, a few fishing finally started getting an occasional report of success from Salmon searching anglers. 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. Smallies are getting more attention now as 2 to 4 pound fish show more often now… Jigs and flukes are getting them!

      Walnut Grove
      Salmon are increasing in numbers Silvertrons and K-14 getting mentioned Bank anglers Pile worms and cut baits prevail. Catfish action is getting the most praise, 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. Best area has been Courtland to Walnut grove. Red Eye Shad and small shad patterned plastics are the top choices here as well. Small swimbaits are scoring Largemoth and Smallmouth in the Meadows.

      Discovery Bay
      Hot muggy conditions had revitalized the frog for bass anglers. Stay near main river current with Crankbaits Strike King XD 6 and 2.5 square bills. Bobby D’s Swim Jigs and Spinner baits 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 ! Top water stripes are showing in the deep water side. Topwater scoring striped bass on the main river topwater look for birds.

      West Delta
      WOW! More 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 to 38 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. A few more Salmon success stories have come on the incoming tide with Mepp’s Flying C’s in Pittsburgh and Humphries areas . Bass Bite stays solid in the Break and surrounding cuts. Cranking and spinnerbaits is starting to improve daily.

      Provided by Dan’s Delta Outdoors, 1625 Main St Oakley CA 925/234-4694 Follow us on Facebook

  • Shasta County
    • By

      Report: Provided by Phil's Props - Visit them at http://www.philsprop.com/
      Lake Shasta
      Fishing is still getting better as the water temp starts to edge down. Fish shallow early with top water baits and shallow crankbaits, As the day goes on move out to 20' to 30' and fish tubes, 6" worms on dartheads, Wacky rigged senkos and spoons.

      Trinity lake
      Trinity is continuing to fish well. Small swimbaits like the Keitech Fat Swing Impact, Tubes and top water baits have been producing well.

    • By

      Water Temp: High 60's

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Got a chance to fish the Pit Arm this morning, the drop shot bite was hot from 8:30-10. I'm talking every other cast ranging from 12-17 inches. A few was choking up Shad so I grab a Crankbait and manage to hook into a solid 2 pounder. I'd like to welcome this cool fall introduction with open arms

      Tips: Anything shad color or brown. Target areas with 7-25ft of water. The deeper the better

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2015

  • Alameda County
    • By

      Report: This LARGEMOUTH MONSTER weighing in at a hearty 16.6 lbs. was carefully caught and released by Ian Cornelius of Castro Valley on September 14, 2015. Cornelius reported it was caught near Alder Point using roboworms. A half pound shy of the lake record, this is one of the biggest bass caught here at Lake Chabot in over 10 years. Our current lake record is held by Louis Vasquez from 2002 for a bass weighing in at 17 lbs.


      From Lake Chabot
      Bass fishing has been steady for the last several weeks with some bass anglers catching and releasing good numbers. Reports of bass from 1 lbs. to 4 lbs. are coming in daily. If you are fishing for bass, the early mornings and the evenings are best and they bite mostly on plastics, jigs, hula grubs and top water. If you do want to try your luck a couple good spots to fish for bass are near the island or in bass cove.

      Please practice catch and release for bass, as they are not stocked into the lake and their population depends on you!

  • Butte County
    • By

      Water Temp: 72

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Launched about 6:20 am today, headed to the west fork and glad I did. Wide open bite till I stopped fishing at 10:30 am. No big fish, but plenty of action tossing worm. Managed to catch 34 fish, largest fish a 14 1/2" spot, with most running 12-13". Quite a few LM mixed in, guessing about 6-7 LM this morning, largest 14". Some dinks spots and LM under 12", 5-6 is my guess. Fished deep, 30 foot to 40 foot. Fished steep rocky banks only, no point fishing today. When driving across the Dam on my way out, noticed something swimming in the middle of the dam area, thought it was a person at first, then it dived, never coming up. Huge fish whatever it was!!

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2015

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 75

      Report: Got on the water today around 10:30 and the bite was good until around 2:30. Swimming jigs along grass and tule clumps seemed to work okay. Pitching jigs and letting them fall to the base of targets really hasn't been working for me. I caught several nice fish off a 6" hollow body swimbait rigged on a weedless jig head. The water is pretty clear and there is a lot of bait in the water so in order to get bites off the swimbait I had to work it fast and violent. Its a reaction bit and they take it deep. Biggest fish today was pushing 5lbs. The evening bite was not there so I am going to try and get out earlier next time.

      Tips: There are a lot of 12" schoolie stripers out there right now so if you have kids it would be a good time to take em. I caught a bunch off a 1/2 oz team daiwa vibe in the ghost/olive color. The biggest problem with catching these small stripers is removing them from the hook. BE CAREFUL.

  • Amador County
    • By

      Report: From Lake Camanche

      Alert: Due to a large release of water from Pardee & a lower release from Camanche the water level has risen. Please note that south shore low water courtesy ramp #2 has now been reopened while ramp #3 has been closed. No change at north shore.

Sunday, September 20th, 2015

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 72 degrees

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished Big Break on Saturday, out at first-light fishing for some striped bass. At 7:45 the bait fish were popping and the water started to boil at the entrance to Dutch and caught about 7-8 fish on chrome/black rattle trap. Largest was about 20 inches, but most about 12 inches. Rolled into Emerson and caught about 15 LMB ranging in size from dink to 2 pounds, fishing with wacky Trick worm. Off the water by noon before the temperature hit 90 degrees.

      Tips: When the birds start hunting get ready to pick-up your trolling motor and gun it to the first sign of popping bait fish.

    • By

      Water Temp: 72-76

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Got out again on Sunday @ about 7:30 with all intentions on refining my punching skills so just started right from the ramp of oasis (figuring on the fresh release of the tournament fish) to no avail. Haf a little current tossed the swim jig out and picked up two 2lbers so i figured I'd troll around and find em with that then flip the grass around them. More dinks. Figured I had too much weight for flipping the grass clumps so started pitching a white jig hit an outside bend with overhanging bamboo with a clump of grass and my line was under the boat in a hurry, set and a nice 3.75. Tried to duplicate that but couldn't. Went out to the main channel to flip the grass and mats picked up 2 3lbers on the outsider grass but again couldn't put it together. Lots of boats can't wait for the rain

      Tips: None. Just read my previous report and it seems like the big one's are sticking real close and in that deeper water only to come up briefly, from there who knows.

Saturday, September 19th, 2015

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 69-76

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Man the bite is so much different on the weekends with the traffic. Had a Saturday tourney, it was a tough day mostly 1.5lbers with one going 4.36. The good one came off a swim jig on a grass flat next to a drop, others off a lipless and swim senco. Worked slopoing points, inside bends, and grass points at all different depths, nothing really going except dinks.

      Tips: None really except get away from the boat traffic

Friday, September 18th, 2015

  • Lake County
    • By

      Report: Well as you can image we have had one hell of a week up here at the lake with the fire and all. Let me first start off by saying our thoughts & prayers go out to the poor families which lost everything in this devastating tragedy. A special thanks going out to all the fire fighters for once again putting it all on the line to fight the blaze.

      On the fishing scene, the Lake continues to fish good with the mid-lake and southern arms accounting for most of the action. Water temps seem to be slowly dropping down a bit to the low to mid 70's. The water clarity has improved slightly as well. The north end of the lake is starting to show signs of life with a few fisherman doing well fishing LV500's with a yo -yo retrieve off the bottom. The jig & crankbait bite is still going strong on the rock piles and deep water areas. There is also a decent swimbait bite starting up on the 6" trash fish or 4.8" & 5.8" Keitech with a moderate retrieve close to the bottom. We have also been selling quite a few 5" & 6" Senkos and plastic worms as well. We finally got our first shipment of jumbo minnows in and some of the local old-timers have been roping them pretty good using the sliding bobber technique.

      The lake is just on the leading edge of the fall transition. We are starting to see the silverside minnows showing up and we also believe there is a very healthy population of threadfin shad this year. It won't be much longer and the cooling water temps will push the bait fish to the shore & we will begin to see the bass start to school up & put the feed bag on.

      In closing, I want everyone to know that all roads leading to the lake remain open except for highway 29 from Middletown to Lower Lake. Also the prevailing winds have switched back to out of the west so there is absolutely no smoke to contend with out there on the lake. I also wanted to take a moment to applaud Kent Brown for having to make the difficult decision to cancel this year's Triton owner's tournament due to the circumstances. The hotels & motels are pretty much full with the fire fighting personnel & evacuee's, so Kent made the right choice. As we get closer to full containment of the fire, things will hopefully get back to normal real soon. We will see all you Triton owner's guy's and gal's next year for sure. This awesome lake and the giant bass that swim in it aren't going anywhere, anytime soon.

      Tight Lines, Troy Bellah (Clear Lake Outdoors)

Thursday, September 17th, 2015

  • Solano County
    • By

      Report: Delta Report…. East County Fishing rolls as Salmon Stripers surge
      Hook series this weekend

      Dan’s Delta Outdoors Striper Series starts 26th September

      Isleton
      Cooler temps and a sprinkle of rain have more Salmon Anglers are seeing success, a few fishing finally started getting an occasional report of success from Salmon searching anglers. 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. Smallies are getting more attention now as 2 to 4 pound fish show more often now… Jigs and flukes are getting them!

      Walnut Grove
      Cooler temps have Salmon are increasing in numbers Silvertrons and K-14 getting mentioned Bank anglers Pile worms and cut baits prevail. Catfish action is getting the most praise, 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. Best area has been Courtland to Walnut grove. Red Eye Shad and small shad patterned plastics are the top choices here as well. Small swimbaits are scoring Largemoth and Smallmouth in the Meadows.

      Discovery Bay
      Hot muggy conditions had revitalized the frog for bass anglers. Stay near main river current with Crankbaits Strike King XD 6 and 2.5 square bills. Bobby D’s Swim Jigs and Spinner baits 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 ! Top water stripes are showing in the deep water side. Topwater scoring striped bass on the main river topwater look for birds.

      West Delta
      WOW! More 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 to 33 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. A few more Salmon success stories have come on the incoming tide with Mepp’s Flying C’s in Pittsburgh and Humphries areas . Bass Bite stays solid in the Break and surrounding cuts. Cranking and spinnerbaits is starting to improve daily.

      Provided by Dan’s Delta Outdoors, 1625 Main St Oakley CA 925/234-4694 Follow us on Facebook

  • Shasta County
    • By

      Report: From Shasta Lake
      Good morning Shasta Lake!

      It actually feels like fall! Here on the lake it seems like Fall lasts about 3 hours on a Tuesday in October wink emoticon

      Right now it is 52 degrees, and it has been steadily sprinkling all day grin emoticon Last night we had a great show from Mother Nature...lightning and thunder! Although we are supposed to warm back up to the mid 90's by the weekend, we are certainly enjoying this beautiful weather...RAIN!

      Lake Level Report (09/16/2015 at 9 AM)
      Lake Elevation: 937.78' (129.22' below full pool)
      Lake Elevation (2014): 904.87' (162.13' below full pool)
      Storage: 1,682,894 af
      Storage (2014): 1,227,167 af
      Outflow: 5,102 cfs
      Inflow: 1,100 cfs
      Precipitation (24 hr @ dam): 0.00"
      Precipitation (Season @ dam): 50.38"
      Precipitation (2014 Season @ dam): 31.00"

Wednesday, September 16th, 2015

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 72-74

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Got the evinrude fixed and took it out for some test runs at mossdale, and she ran great. As soon as I launched stripers started busting so I caught as many as I could without starting the motor, on top of course. Moved on and found some bass on shallow chunk rock with current mostly small. Worked that for awhile then saw some birds working on inside bends so moved over there working out a little deeper and started picking up fish in the 3lb class.

      Tips: If there not hooking up well try down sizing with a similar bait

Tuesday, September 15th, 2015

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 74

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Evinrude still down so took the trusty 16 ft nitro out, windy as all hell. No top water, put my buddy on with a spinner and i as well and got after it. Nothin big but fun. Out for about 4 hrs in the afternoon and boated about 20 between the two.

      Tips: Most hit it on a pause as it fluttered in about 5 to 6 ft of water.

  • Shasta County
    • By

      Water Temp: Low 70's

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fishing was great this weekend with the light winds which kicked the spotted bass & small mouth into gear. They are biting well all along the pit arm on soft plastics. The crank bait bite seems to be attracting larger fish. The catfish bite was slow and steady overnight while using chicken liver and night crawlers, the largest caught was near the 4 pound range. The bite was slow on the Mccloud due to all the water activity going on but overall a great caught weekend out on Shasta Lake as usual.

      Tips: Darker shades of plastics are working well

Monday, September 14th, 2015

    • By

      Report: Provided by Phils Props
      Salmon fishing on the Lower Sacramento river got off to a slow start this year. Reports from the Corning area are that more fish are starting to show up in that section of the river which means we are not far off of seeing them in better numbers from Red Bluff up to the Barge hole. Back trolling flatfish and back bouncing roe have been paying off with dime bright fish.