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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Wednesday, October 13th, 2004

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 67.5

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Three buddy is out just called and said they have 3 small ones 7 to 10 lbs range. Waiting for the tide change at noonish for the bite to turn back on. Sorry fell to mention that in front of the diversion dam we tire up to the floating dock and cast out to middle of the river when the tide is slack or slowest that's has been the best action last week and this week so far. This area usually fast running but the damn gates are not open so the tides are perfect. When the water are moving then we drift or slow troll.
      City: San Bruno

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

      Report: Great day, caught 14 fish between the three of us. 1 10+ lb. cat, and 1 15 + pound cat. A lot of small trout and panfish.
      City: San Mateo

      Tips: Don't cry.

    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Horrible Horrible!!! That explains todays outting. The fishing sucked. I hadn't been since August. The lake dropped at least 25 feet. I caught one bass, four inches long, in six hours on a chug bug . We did everything. Talked to a local bassfisherman when we got back to the marina and he said that the lake is turning right now.
      City: Boraga

      Tips: Don't waste your time and money fishing here right now! Wait about two weeks. It is pathetic. Good luck to whoever tries!

  • Tuolumne County
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      Water Temp: 64-74

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: A a great rip with a client from Folsom..Best five 14+...very good for Melones and surprising.Cooling water has brought the better fish back on. In fact we caught more quality than not. Lake was flat calm and best bite was on reaction baits..Some drop shot fish but not red hot,too calm..Caught fish from the surface to 42 feet.
      City: Sonora

      Tips: Sounds like a broken record, but stay with the bait. They are not spitting shad yet but they are in the area. Will breal wide open soon!!!

  • Butte County
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      Water Temp: 68-70

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Just a quick report of my guided trip, teaching a client ways to approach the lake. The fishing was tough overall after several days of north wind and VERY hot temps. The early morning was good for topwater with 2 over the slot and 2 over 13 inches. One on a rip bait. After that we threw one ton jigs (Yamamoto #297), drop-shotted, and split-shotted. We looked hard for bait and did find some in a few areas. Instead of catching several in an area, it was just one or two. We wound up with 13 tournament keepers - five for about 9 pounds. We caught 6 shorter bass. Very slow presentation worked - felt almost no bites!
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: We fished all forks and the main body. Since I believe he is fishing a tournament, I won't say any more.

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

      Report: Has anyone fished Lake Elizabeth in Fremont? I fished there about 15 years ago and remember catching some Huge crappie and bass (also Planted rainbows). But I have not been out there in years, is it still open for fishing?
      City: Alameda

Tuesday, October 12th, 2004

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 68

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Got out on the water about 2:00pm today, with my buddy Rich. started with rattle traps, got one shaker in the old river. Decided to switch to crankbaits on the rock banks. Got seven bass to 3.9lbs. Went back to the traps and caught two nice stripers. 6:45pm off the water.
      City: Tracy

      Tips: good stripers showed up at dusk

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: 68-72

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: had some major boat trouble...but my buddy let us use his boat for the day...life saver

      so we didn't get going until 930am fished the south end south of konocti..caught a lot of fish on drop shot and grubs..nothing too big. 4lbs with most fish around 14 inches
      a lot of fun but couldn't find any quality fish..suprising since we were catching most fish in 12-15 feet of water
      City: Los Altos

      Tips: once the water cools the fishing should pick up big time

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

      Report: Had a great time tuesday with my friend Tony. Started getin them right off the get go...It just got beter after that ,well..... a few spots got hits but we blanked on them. We went through two and one half lbs of Dead Shad in 4 hours 20+ keepers,(kinda lost count) over 30+ in all.
      Some on plastics(shad colors) but mostly smaller fish. We were fishing in 30 to 50' of water
      Drop Shot rig. We are also moving with eltc. motor.
      City: Dos Palos

      Tips: Look for Break lines , you have to meter fish.

  • Shasta County
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      Water Temp: 69.6

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: not a fish report but some advise for those going to the BASS check-in:
      The Holiday Inn on Hilltop is best accessed from the north whether you are towing or not. From I-5, take the 299E(Lake Blvd) of ramp and head west on Lake blvd, get in the left lane and turn left onto Hilltop at the light(Bartels Hamburger Stand on the corner) Go down Hilltop about 2.8 miles and move into the right lane after Dana St. Continue south to the Holiday Inn and turn right onto the property and then left through the lot to the south end and right again into a huge parking area on two street levels. Lots of parking out front for trucks/tow vehicles only.
      City: Redding

    • By

      Water Temp: ???

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: First I want to thank all of you who post and share your information-as a begining fisherman I find it really helpful and generous-THANK YOU!
      I have a club tournament this weekend and would like a few pointers (so I know how/what to pack in by bag and what rods to bring). It seems like it has been slow up there, so I'm thinking split-shot, drop-shot, some finesse jigs??? Any information would be helpful- Thank all of you for your posts and keep up the good work!GOD BLESS
      City: YUBA CITY

      Tips: Any would be helpful!! :-)

Monday, October 11th, 2004

    • By

      Water Temp: ?

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: yeah, what the smart hunter said, he knows everything to fishing this small lake,
      City: s.j.

  • Mason County
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      Water Temp: 70ish

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: went to anderson, caught 5 in 3hrs. fished the shore, lots of 1-2inch shad running the shoreline. My best bet is that the bass are eating them, try cranks spinners robo's and other shad baits to immatate them.
      City: s.j.

      Tips: best of luck

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: 68

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: A good day, not a great day. Me and my partner fished mostly the south end. We caught a dozen fish, the largest was 6.7 on the digital. A couple of three pounders, but we expected more after reading the latest reports. Fish are extremly shallow, in fact almost right on the shore. I caught the 6 on a Cordell Spot. Pattern must be changing with the weather.
      City: San Leandro

      Tips: Clear Lake is one of the few places you can go and hook a 7 pounder and still be a little disapointed. Most of the fish we caught were in 2 feet of water.

  • Sacramento County
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      Water Temp: 71

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I got to fish the windy days at Folsom!! I had two "teach the lake" guide trips - one on Friday when the clouds cleared out at 9 am and a stiff south breeze blew the rest of the trip Gary Dobyns would not have liked that sudden bluebird sky! On a rare Sunday trip for me, we were able to fish for about two hours and then just tried to stay out of gale force winds. My clients yesterday knew the wind would be a problem, but they wanted to go anyway. Actually, after showing them several good areas to work, I decided to take them out in the main body before it was too late. In building swells, I did my best to hold the 520 in place over a big ball of bait at the 30 foot level, just off an island top. I think they were actually giggling as they hooked bass after bass - drop-shotting and spooning. One fellow caught his first spoon fish! I don't know how many we caught there - maybe 10 in 20 minutes, I was throwing a salt and pepper Yamamoto grub with 6# test, jerking it off the bottom, when I got nailed by a hybrid bass of nearly 2 1/2 lbs. I caught two and they caught all the rest. Finally, it was impossible to hold, so I showed them some other main lake areas a quick as I could, then moved to any sheltered water we could find up the south fork where we did catch a few more. One of the clients did make the drop-shot catch of the year - an 8 pound GRIEB!! Getting that bird off was exciting. She was fine, but not-too-happy!! Friday's trip was not so difficult and fishing was fairly good all day. We only fished main body areas with lots of bait. I did get a topwater largemouth (2 lbs) just as the clouds cleared. When you find feeding bass at Folsom, it can be fast and furious! That happened twice in different spots - we had a ball. Spooning was on as was drop-shotting. We ended up with around 25 bass, mostly spots and some smallies.
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: I, like Cooch, was disappointed. In my case with the quality of the bass we caught on both trips. I have been on spoon bites with fish averaging 2 1/2 to 3 pounds. Couldn't find those fish Friday and certainly didn't have many options Sunday. We caught many over 2 pounds, but not over 2 1/2. Jigs would have been good to use, but my clients wanted to learn how to put numbers in the boat in the fall. You will not have success at Folsom without your head in the meter. You need to watch for rocks at the same time!!! Look for the balls of bait to determine their overall depth. Our magic number was 25 to 33 feet. The biggest bass will usually be working bait in areas with the steepest dropoffs. They are harder to find when the lake is this low. Remember, bait and bass are constantly moving - I noticed that between Fri and Sun. Don't be afraid to move around a lot until you find the Magic Area! Tight schools of bait often don't have fish working them. Look for the bass in the bait balls, which should look a little disorganized. Happy hunting!!

    • By

      Water Temp: 75

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Tubing Guad, on the water 4:30 pm began throwing raps, jigs and sencos until about 6:00. No bits but the deer, wild pigs and what I thing were a pair of juvenal red tails, they were doing the coolest display of flying in low and skimming the water with their talons trying to grab a fish, they were about the size of a red tail but their coloring was more black than brown with their chest light grey to white.
      Anyway back to fishing soon as the sun was off the water, started draging 7" worm and hit into a 19" large mouth in about 20' of water, ten minutes later a 20" less than 10'off the shore. Then right before night fall BAM hooked into something really good, fought him for a good 5 minutes, dude even spun my tube around a couple times, 23" must of been close to 6 - 7 pounds conservative summary 3 fish 15 pounds, just one of those evenings!!!
      City: Alameda

      Tips: Small resevior, probabaly in fall pattern already Dark plastics, on the bottom, 15' - 25', topwater should also produce between now and winter lock down. Tough lake was out a month ago and only one hit.

  • Shasta County
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      Water Temp: ?

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Concerning the ramp at Packers, just got off the phone with the man in charge and they are waiting for the level to drop a bit more, maybe a foot or so, then the Packers Marina people will pull out and the mud will be removed by attacking it from both sides of the hump that has formed at the bottom of the ramp. They did manage to get some out in the lane nearest the ramp and intend to get after the rest of it at about the 101.5 ft level. We are presently at the 100.8 ft level and the level has hovered around 100ft for nearly 8 days. You can get in and out but only one boat at a time. Centmudi is still in good shape, Jones Valley is in good shape as is Sugarloaf. Hirz bay is out of the water, bailey Cove is high and dry and antlers is out. The tough bite continues, the shad are still all over the place.
      City: Redding

Sunday, October 10th, 2004

  • Napa County
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      Water Temp: 59-61

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I just read Rich's report before posting this one, and I have to agree - this is transition time and the fish and bait arn't as easy to locate as they were a few weeks ago. My client and I started out of Markley about 7:45 am - a little later than I wanted. He got tied up in a construction area and was a little late. Anyway, the first point we started in the narrows had bass in 2 feet of water, chasing shad. We ripped bass up to 2 lbs plus a nice one on a jig. That lasted about 10 minutes and they were gone. As Rich said, points 2 thru 100 (that's what it seemed like!) produced nothing for the next three hours. The X-19 screen was mostly bare, except for suspended carp. About noon, in the main body - east and west shore, we started getting some action and actually ended up with a good five fish limit of just under 10 pounds. Our biggest was a 2-13 largemouth and we caught 13 total. We targeted rocky areas with any kind of ledge or drop-off. That was the key. We did find a technique and color that definately worked the best, but my client is fishing an upcoming tournament so I need to be quiet about that. I can say that there really was no hot spot - just a fish here and there. One area did produced 5 bites and we landed 3. I guess that would be the hot spot of the day. But with fall fish movements, that could be a cold spot the next day!
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: The fishing conditions were excellent - warm and cloudy with very little wind. After the great start, I thought this would be the day of days! So much for that thought, though I'm not complaining. My client learned a lot and we had a fun day. Some of the fish we caught were shallow because of the clouds, but some were as deep as 40 feet, too. Don't hesitate to move around a lot - you may need to during the next month.

    • By

      Water Temp: 69-72

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I had a very enjoyable and successful guide trip Saturday with a newly married young couple and his dad. This was her first fishing trip - and she is hooked - no doubt!!! She loved it! The brief front had just passed through and the morning was crisp and breezy, not the best conditions. Fishing started slow out of Markely Cove - we did catch a few in the narrows. Most of the tournament boats must have gone up north - didn't see many. We decided to head up north too. As the morning wore on, the fish got bigger, including 2 spots at 2 1/4 pounds each. At l pm I felt my brown/purple 4 1/2 inch worm get bit and then stuck in a rock. I gave up and tried to break my 8# test Berkley XL - suddenly the rock moved and even jumped out of the water - twice. In the boat the largemouth weighed 4 lbs 2 oz - a nice surprise! We wound up with 8 smallies, 6 spots, and the quality largemouth - 15 total for 12 lbs 4 oz. Hearing the exciting yells of the young lady catching her first bass, a 1 3/4 lb smallmouth was really worth the drive. The afternoon turned out to be beautiful and we really had a great time!
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: We only fished worms, Texas rigged and split-shotted. Drop-shotting just didn't work for us, nor did spooning. The jig bite was off too, at least where we were. But worms in purple ghost, purple/brown, and morning dawn/chartreuse tail, all produced many bites. The hits were very subtle most of the day, so naturally, my clients missed many fish as they were learning. Dad lost a big bass that really broke my heart - drag was too tight. We caught most of our fish in the 20 to 25 foot range, though the 4-2 was in 15 feet! Pretty shallow for a bluebird day. We fished mostly points. Walls didn't produced much, though dad lost his big one on a wall in the narrows. The split-shot rig was by far the best presentation.

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

      Report: Fished the ClearLake BASSMASTERS Bass Derby yesterday (Sat, 10-09-04)and the wind kicked our butts. It was cold a windy but we had a really good time. First I would like to thank the ClearLake Bassmasters for hosting such a teriffic event. Front start to finish the event went very smoothly, truely professional-Great Job guys, everyone involved deserves a special THANK YOU.
      Secondly I would like to send my thanks out to my partner, Len Kovats. Thanks Len for such a wonderful experience and the sacrifices you made to keep us on the fish in those horrible conditions. It really takes some extreme conditions to test a boater and his boat-and let me tell all of you that the saying is true, "Nothing Rides Like a CHAMPION!" that was more than obviously clear yesterday. That boat handled the wind and water wonderfully. The fishing deck stayed stable even in those conditions. But the ride back to weigh in truely separated the men from the boys. We were in the rattlesnake island area and had twenty min. to get back to Libray Park, no problem on a nice day but when the wind is 20 mph+ and 2-3 ft. swells it is a ball bustin' ride. That ol' girl (The Champion Boat) had her work cut out for her, but she came through, we made it with 3 min. to spare!! A true Champion! Great Job Len, that ride back was not for your novice captains, I was scared $#@*less but survived to write this post.

      The fishing was good. We had 47 teams show up to fish and we all caught 193 bass (wich 193 were released alive and healthy)good job to all anglers and the release boat staff, job wll done! The average weight for the tournament went about 2.5 #'s, the big fish was a beast, 9.5 #'s caught by my fellow Yuba City Club memeber, Jackie Cox-way to go Jackie!! Len and I finished in second place, with a weight of 18.6 #'s, big fish was 7.5 caught on a Margarita Mutilator, dropped shotted around hydrilla and docks. We caught all our fish drop shotting and crankin' red craw, shad patterns and a parrot/ fire tiger colors. It was a rough day but most anglers seemed to catch fish, thanks again to the ClearLake Bassmasters for such a wonderful tournament!
      City: YUBA CITY

      Tips: We fished wind blown points and deep docks that offered at least one additional form of cover,rock or weeds ect... We fished deep diving cranks (above) and bounced them off the bottom from 5 ft to 12 ft. The docks we hit with a drop shot, rigged mostly with MM and Aaron's magic, not shaking it too much, one or two pumps then let it sit for awhile then repeat. Good Luck, hopefully the wind goes and lays down for awhile!