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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Monday, November 29th, 2004

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      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: too cold
      City: p-town

      Tips: give it up for this year, try salmon fishing in concord, 20+ plus fish in a few hours, good luck.

Sunday, November 28th, 2004

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      Water Temp: around 58 ish

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: nothing, one hit for me, used robo's c-rigged, crank, and a brushhog, got the hit on the robo.
      City: san jose

      Tips: fish deep and where shallow water meets deep, look for visible structure

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 50

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: B-R-R-R! Cold and a Big North Wind. Got blown off Big Break in our "tin bote" so we hid inside the marina. Jason only lifted 2 in the 1 to 2 pounder class on a Method Crank. Fish were down in the weedbeds. Tried flippin tules, drop shot and even ventured out to try some spooks for stripers but only got SKWOT!
      City: Pittsburg

      Tips: Stay home and stay warm on days like this! Maybe next time...

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      Water Temp: cold?

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Skunk day at Coyote, cold and windy. The lake has been drained even more! We used jigs, texas riged worms. Chad I even tryed the rooster tail and nothing. Not even a trout on a cast master. Well better luck next time.
      City: San Jose

      Tips: keep warm and be prepaired for mud. Good luck!

  • Mariposa County
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      Water Temp: 57

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished today with a buddy of mine and it sucked. Caught a few fish between the both of us all under 11 inches. Could not find any fish and not a whole lot of balls of shad either. Must of been due to the brite blue - bird day. Hope it turns on soon. Our fish came on a spoon and drop shot. Good luck at this place for a while.

      Tips: Stay home and wait for some steady weather.

  • Sonoma County
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      Water Temp: 57

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: The rain had just stopped when we arrived Saturday morning.With overcast skies we started throwing crankbaits and my partner caught a 2.5 smallie on his second cast off a rocky point. Continued to crank and I nailed a 3.6LB,2.8 and then a 4LB largemouth that ate the crankbait.Once the sun came out,we switched to worms and jigs and caught three more including a beautiful 4.5 that my partner caught in a tree. We had the lake to ourselves and saw only one other bass boat.I guess everyone went Xmas shopping or slept in because of the rain.Best five went around 17 LBS.
      City: Santa Rosa

      Tips: Crankbaits and plastics around rocks and trees in five to twenty five feet.The bite was soft so slow down and set on any pressure you feel.

Saturday, November 27th, 2004

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

      Report: Got Blown all over the place and drenched to the bone. Still fun though, got 3 in about what turned out to be a little over an hour of fishing. Pretty much tried to avoid getting blown to shore and had an issue with the trolling motor (not good in the wind). Jigs and dropshot.

  • Sacramento County
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      Water Temp: 56

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: 8 fish from 12:30- 4:00 30-50'dropshotted 4" plastics on north fork points.

      Tips: look for arches not bait. fish slow and thorough

  • Fresno County
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      Water Temp: 55

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Of course I couldn't go on Friday with clear weather and only had Sat available. It rained all day and there was a Fresno Bass Open (32 boats) going on also. Tried a little topwater but to no good. Went upriver and tried reaction but not even a chase. Switched to dropshotting small plastics in shad colors and caught a 2 lber, a 13 incher, and two dinks before the rain took it's toll on my Son-in-Law who didn't have rain boots and gave up. Most were in about 30 foot and a real soft bite.
      City: Fresno

      Tips: Slow plastics

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      Water Temp: 56 degrees

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Tough morning on the lake today! Some rain but heavy wind...gauge on Todd's Boat Rental house read 50 mph late in the morning! Mostly it was 20-30 mph through most of the morning.
      Lots of fish showing on the depth finder suspended over the main lake basin, probably mostly the stocked trout but mixed in are some very large fish symbols...may be large bass out there feeding on those trout. Tried for them with trout-imitation swim-baits and swimmin' jigs but couldn't interest them in biting. After 1500 lbs. of trout were stocked a couple of days prior, the bass may have been stuffed (like we were after Thanksgiving Day!).
      The only fairly lee bank we could find was across from the parking lot, and it seemed every boat on the lake converged there to get some relief from the wind.
      Tried lots of stuff, and very slow presentations, but couldn't connect, even out in the deeper water where we assumed the fish would have gone with the cold rain dropping the water temperature by a few degrees.
      City: Monterey

      Tips: Dress warmly, with rain gear, and be prepared for stiff wind. We had to anchor against the lee shore across from parking lot to keep from being blown around amidst white caps and two to three foot waves on main lake.
      Next time out under similar conditions I'd use a black jig with black pork-rind trailer and crawl it slowly on the bottom...that's a winter pattern that has worked for me many times before on other lakes.

Friday, November 26th, 2004

  • Mason County
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      Water Temp: cold

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Went out from 9:30 - 1:30 with my brother hitting the banks. We caught and released 6 fish between us ranging from 1.5# to 5.5#. We caught four within the first 10 minutes we got there and had to work hard to get the last two.

      We fished green pumpkin grubs, brown and purple jigs and dropshotted purple 6" worms to catch all of them.
      City: San Jose

      Tips: Be patient cause your presentation is going to be slow...

  • Napa County
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      Water Temp: in 60's

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Got on the water by 8:00 AM and headed directly to the Southern part of the lake (Skier's Canyon, Haines Cove). Started to drop shot 4 inch plastic worms (watermelon with red flakes) in coves where fish were detected by finder. My son and I caught three bass in the 3 to 4 lb range within several hours and missed several others. Great day to be on the water.
      City: Fairfield

      Tips: Noticed that the bass were striking in mid-depth from 30 to 40 ft of water. I would recommend being patient and fishing slow. I have a tendency to set the hook once I feel the slightest bit of resistance. I probably could have landed two more if I were less aggressive.

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 52-55

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Spent the day fishing the Central Delta. Bite was pretty good for this time of year. Only problem was most were 12" fish. Caught about 20 fish total with 4 keepers. Most came dropshoting 6" worms in various colors in 6'-15' of water. Caught a couple on small brown/purple jigs, but lately the jig fish for me have been smaller. Did rip a decent 3.5# fish on a Pointer 100 and tried cranking quite a bit, but only had one taker on the cranks and nothing on blades.
      City: Brentwood

      Tips: Show down and work the outside weed lines. As the water temp drops focus on areas with reduced current.

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: 54

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished Friday with Rob and Mike from San Jose, morning started off very cool and Foggy out of the Oaks. Tossed cranks, rattletraps and jerkbaits the first two hours with no success, Went up around Anderson and began crankin a Carolina rigged Zoom Lizard, over the next two hours we caught 20-30 fish, all fat chunks in the 2-2.5 pound range. Went to go fish some deeper stuff at Shag, but 9 crappie boats were camped there having a ball. Ran straight accros the Narrows to the deep docks to do some spoonin', fish were there with all the shad, just couldn't git em ta eat and metal offerings. Caught two 3 ponders on the Lizard, we then began chucking Jumbo Minnows on a splitshot and all hell broke loose. Next 2.5 hours we catch another 30-40 fish from 3-6 pounds, eight of them over 5 pounds. Had ta laugh at my clients who originally frowned upon using live bait, but once they saw the difference in the quality of fish, and we wuz just using a splitshot rig, they are now converted. Running out of minners we moved around towards hiway 20 and began jerking LC StayCees (aurora black) and over the next two hours caught another 20-25 fish, most of these all in that 2.5 pound range. At 3:30 as we were heading back to the ramp, I sw a bunch of greebes and gulls poundin the shad, let's go guys, time ta live bait fish again. Pulling up I could see on my graph we wuz in 30 feet of water, the shad were so thick at times, my meter would only read 2 feet. I grabbed my spoon and began snagging shad and tossing em on the deck, we then moved up to a point at the edge of a ledge were the shad balls stopped and began drop shotting, Bingo! Bass bonanza again, we catch another 15-20 fish befor we head back in,, again, these were all 3-4 pound fish.
      City: Oakley

      Tips: Fish are schooled up, both deep and shallow, find the shad, you'll find the fish. Catching the better fish with any consistancy will be a challenge, unless ya use live bait. It's Minner TIME!

  • Sacramento County
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      Water Temp: 52-54 deg

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: The day after THANKSGIVING a foggy, but on a light wind morning. Out with one of my team mates from the BASSIN BASSMASTERS CLUB (Bonner). We spent part of the morning looking for bait fish in the main body, finding them on rocky points. One good spot is still left of the dam in that large cove and the points right of dyke 8. Look in 20 to 35 ft using a drop shot and split shot. A good worm to use is the PRO WORM # 266 leach, 4 inch or smaller. We missed some bites but still managed to pick up two good spots in the frist two hours. Look for the moving bait with bass chasing. If the bait looks like a ball, most of the time the bass around it are not eating or aggesive at this monent. We later fished in the sunny North Fork area, no fish. We both cranked for some time, no fish. Some fisherman were on the islands near Browns Revine and sitting on top of humps in deeper water. Check out the rocky point just left of the Dam. Watch out for the humps that are coming up 300-400 yards out, we almost hit one new dyke 8 ( 2ft of water). I used a jig brown/orange (larry's jig) no luck. Drop shots and drag n a worm is working.
      City: rocklin

      Tips: Fish slow , deep and use a stink bait

  • Merced County
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      Water Temp: 56

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Started fishing at around 12:99 noon. We launched at Dinosaur Point, and went across to the dam. We used live bait, shiners, and fished down about 120 ft. Fished for about 5 hours and caught only 3 fish. All about 4 lbs. Slow, but the weather was awesome.
      City: Salinas

  • Shasta County
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      Water Temp: 56-58

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished from the 25th through the 28th. No activity on topwater or shallow reaction baits at all. All success came in 40-55 ft deep. Salt Creek was the hot spot. Find the shad and find the bass. Drop sotting works but spooning brought in better quality and faster action.
      City: San Ramon

      Tips: For drop shot any and all plastic baits seemed to work equally well. Spooning with a 3/4 oz. white/Char. spoon was the hot ticket. The better bass where right on the bottom but others suspended up to 20 ft over 50 feet of water at times. Watch your meter. If baitfish are there and your are over a nice drop off or good structure fish that spoon just off the bottom with short 1-2 ft lifts. Hang on!

Thursday, November 25th, 2004

  • Napa County
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      Water Temp: 55

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: On the water around 7:30 and decided to try for trout before looking for some bass. Within 20 minutes I looked into a nice 18" trout while trolling through Capel Cove. I was top lining a pins minnow. Hooked into another about a half hour later but lost it at the boat. By 9:00 I headed towards the narrows looking for bass, and found the bite very tough. I tried an assortment of plastics without any luck. I'll try again next week.
      City: Rohnert Park

      Tips: If your looking for some fun, try trollig for some trout along the surface early. The bass are scattered and deep. Well at least that's what everyone has told me.

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

      Report: Haven't been out to the lake lately but will definately get there before the weekend is over.
      My best lake in Maine has been frozen over for approx. 2 weeks now. If I was still back there I would have already gone through the first 2 cords of firewood (out of 10). Back there it is still 5 weeks away from ice fishing season, and I would be suffering severe withdrawal.
      Last weekend I fished The Fall Classic on Shasta with a friend and finished a very respectable (for me) 33rd. This weekend is the Cottonwood Clubs' $100/lb Tourney, which is a hoot, but unfortunately I won't be able to enter.
      In a couple of weeks I'm headed to Oroville for a tournament. At the end of the month my Daughter and 5 year old Grandson are headed here from Maine and are both avid fishermen (they live on the coast and chase stripers all summer) and are expecting Grandpa to put them on fish. (and you thought there was pressure in a tournament).
      The point of all of this is.... Do I feel blessed this Thanksgiving Day? You bet I do! I have a wonderful wife who tried her best to kill me with a fork by serving a wonderful dinner today, I live next to a great fishery,(Trinity). I live within driving distance of Shasta, Oroville, Clear Lake, the Delta. I own a boat, I have rods and reels, I have some tackle.... What's not to be thankful for.
      City: Weaverville

      Tips: Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Wednesday, November 24th, 2004

  • Amador County
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      Water Temp: 56-57

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: I think Larry has his day off by one - I think he was there Tuesday night the 23rd. Anyway, I found the fishing slow overall. Started around 4 pm and left around 11 pm. I landed 5 fish total, all on jigs and 4 were before dark and seemed to be tightly packed into a group as I'd get several bites in one spot after going a long way without any bites. They were mostly on secondary points about halfway into the arms except for one up Jackson. Biggest landed was close to 3 but lost one on a fat worm which could have been larger, maybe a 5. That was the only worm fish.
      City: Folsom

      Tips: It seemed the north side was better than the south side. Dress warm.