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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Wednesday, August 11th, 2004

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 80-84

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Well, somebody has to break the news - Clear Lake has slowed down! Catching 74 today in 5 1/2 hours is just not up to what happened two weeks ago - of course when I was guiding at Berryessa when the fishing was great at Clear Lake! If this was a slowed day, wow - I bet the fast days were really something! I had a real treat today - fishing with a tournament buddy since I was already there. I let him run the electric and I just enjoyed life and my sore arm from setting the hook so much. Fishing in the back of my boat was fun!!! We fished all over the south end but did find some good schools of bass. We caught them mainly on crankbaits, jigs, and dropshotting. The 10" Power Worm again was a winner as it was yesterday. I ran out of black so I went to red shad and that worked just as well! We both fished jigs and got quality bass but I wanted to try to get better quality, so I added a Mad Man craw to the back of my 1/4 oz brown/orange Rattlin' Weapon jig and I got 2 around 3 1/2 and big fish for the day at 4 1/2 lbs. The action on cranks around 10 am was nearly unbelieveable - my partner I think landed 7 in 8 casts! He was hot!! We were targeting suspended bass rather than ones on the bottom. I don't want to say more because of his tournament responsibilities. We wound up with 18 1/2 lbs for the five biggest. Yesterday I guided a gentleman for his first time on Clear Lake and we found the fishing good for awhile, but with no cloud cover (we had some of that today with a breeze) and flat water it got a little tough. The crank or frog bite wasn't as good as last week. Unfortunately, he got lost in the morning and we had to start 45 minutes later and that hurt our numbers I'm sure. I remembered a previous trip when I started later and had gone to the 10" Power Worm. History repeated itself and the bass up to 4 pounds were all over it yesterday. He caught 5 in a row up to 3 pounds on the big worm. They were still hitting it in the afternoon. Jigs were good too. I got four hits on a white spinnerbait - two BIG bass - but they wouldn't really take it. Amazing. We wound up with 22 in the boat and about 42 left in the water - lots of missed fish. Today they were much more aggressive with a breeze. Fun, fun, fun!
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: I totally agree with Curtis's recent report about night fishing. I went out for 2 1/2 hours last night (did you expect me to sleep?!) and had three hits - no fish! For those fans of my carp theory - not a single carp rolled until I left at 1 am. I'm sure the bite - if there was one - was after 1 am. I just fished around Rattlesnake and there was no fish movement at all. Hot weather can change fish patterns in a hurry. While the day fishing is still wonderful, the numbers of big fish are down. There are still occasional lunkers, but they are hard to find. With fishing like this - who cares! All these bass pull like lunkers!!

  • Alameda County
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      Water Temp: 79

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Got on the water at six ten. Chug bugs were the ticket. Only lasted for about forty minutes. Switched over to drop shot and landed two fish between a pound and two pounds down around the damn near the rock wall. Fished the damn and didn't land a fish for the first time ever. Went down south and threw chrome rattle trap along weed edges. Picked up a few dinks. Threw frogs with only two blowups. Landed one close to three pounds. Fished the cove where the creek comes in and only caught one fish on a spinnerbait.
      City: Boraga

      Tips: This lake is the shit. Finally starting to learn some good spots. Haven't been skunked yet. Can't catch a decent smallie to save my life. Any advice would be greatley appreciated. Thanks

  • Sacramento County
    • By

      Water Temp: 78-80 deg

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: we got in the water a 4:pm, hot at 108 deg. made afast run up the south fork into the 5 mph zone. found a tall rock wall on the north side in 25 ft of water. jim ryan and denny howard each got a largemouth 4.8 and 5.5 the first cast using a worm split shoting. then a 3.0 lb the same way. headed up to salmon bridge, found water 63 deg, came back to rock wall and picked up 2 dozen dinks with worms. found not top water. good for as hot as it is. look for fish on steep rocky banks and 25-35 ft of water.
      City: rocklin

Tuesday, August 10th, 2004

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 77.7

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Great Day Fished from Mildred South, Frogs and spooks all day. The big fish went 8 pounds on a spook. Clients caught fish on Revenge Spinnerbaits and Dominators.
      City: Tracy

      Tips: Outside weedlines with spooks do the trick, shaded weed pockets with current for frog fish! Hint Modify your own frog!

    • By

      Water Temp: 70's

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: fished the back side of Mather and found lots of dinks on senkos and topwater right along the weed lines....got one going maybe 4lbs on a senko out in the main channel dead stickin it. i bet it would be a blast at night out there fishing topwater.

      Tips: fish the weed lines...senkos and topwater!

Monday, August 9th, 2004

  • Butte County
    • By

      Water Temp: 81+

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Had a late day guide trip with a grandfather and two youngsters aged 8 + 10. Fished from 4 to a little before 9 pm...worked the late afternoon shade on the west wall of the slot before the confluence of the north fork and west branch. Caught fish on dropshot, mini-C-rig and darterheads using 3 1/2" Yamamoto kuttail worms (color 323) and 4" Roboworms in purple/brown. Caught lots of small spots (8 under 12"), several in the slot (5) and the younger one caught our only fish over 15"...about 2 1/2 pounds. The boys got a lot of bites that they failed to hook but I just let them keep trying until they learned how to do a proper hookset. All the boys' fish were caught without adult assistance...just a little coaching. Its great to see youngsters becoming proficient at fishing!

      There were a lot of suspended fish on the graph and fish were busting the surface everywhere after the shade had been on the water for about an hour. Couldn't quite trust the boys with treble hooks yet (ouch! Even that IDEA hurts! HaHa!), so we didn't try for the surface bite or crankbaits! All our fish came on plastics on or close to the bottom between 22 and 35 feet deep.

      The boys also spent a half hour swimming in that 80+ degree water...all in all, it was a really fun trip for kids!
      City: Fair Oaks

      Tips: Bite exploded for an hour before sunset and thereafter. While the sun was on the water, the bite was slow. Shade from west banks or from thick mudlines helped while the sun was high. Find shade for active fish in the late afternoon.

Sunday, August 8th, 2004

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 80 degrees 8 fe

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: went camping at spanish flat.caught a couple monster bluegill and alot of 12 inch bass.a baby catch and a carp that almost pulled in my pole but i grabed before it did
      City: San Bruno

      Tips: The weather is hot and the water is low fishing is on the slow side fish have gone deeper because of the 100 degree weather

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: HOT HOT HOT! The past two days the heat sucks. SPent more time swimming than fishing. Frog bite in little franks on high tide is off the hook right now. Landed close to a dozen fish. Nothing big. Missed at least twenty fish. All other fish were on senkos. My partner caught a five plus in fishermans cut on buzzbait early. Over all had a great day. Can't wait to see the results in the Snag Proof tournament coming up!
      City: Boraga

      Tips: Frogs are kicking butt. If its hot with no wind throw frogs. Frog bite sure was on today.

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 77-81

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Had to go try Clear Lake because of all the great reports I'd read here and elsewhere. Launched out of Red Bud at 5:47AM Sunday morning- took my pal Scott along to see if he could break his jinx at this lake. We launched just ahead of a small club tourney (maybe 20 boats) and they were all careful as they passed by my aluminum Fisher that only goes about 29 MPH. Thanks guys- you have a nice club. Anyway we started at a fairly deep rocky point with fish busting like crazy all around us. Tried a spook and a Lucky Craft chart. shad LV500 and didn't get a bite. Grabbed my trusty pig n jig and started in 12' deep and worked in to about 3 or 4 feet before I got my first bass- 14" and chunky. All of the 39 bass we caught were healthy and well fed. Less than 3 min. later Scott got his first bass ever from my boat- a 14" also on a senko. The next one for me was 15.5" and my third was 17.5" and went 2lbs 10ozs also on the jig. Scott's 2nd fish made our day. He sets the hook on another senko fish and it rolls on top about 35-40" out but we are lookin' directly into the sun. Scott fights it for 5 min. and it makes 3 hard runs before he can get it to the side of the boat. It's a catfish- about 13-15 lbs. and maybe 28-30" long. I put on a glove and stuck my hand in it's mouth- well 4 fingers anyway. I had my thumb pinching it's lower lip. We sliced the hook off with pliers- it was not moving at all. Scott was reaching for the scale when it did a huge flop against the side of the boat and shook itself free- I felt pretty bad- his best fish ever and we didn;t even get a picture. We could have tried to net it but the way they roll around it would have ruined the net- the net is not that big. We got a few more bass and then moved to another rocky area. This spot was a small submerged island and I gave Scott his first dropshot lesson. He picked it up right away. We tossed 6" red worms- Robo for me- Magic for him. Here we were getting a bunch of 2 lb. fish and a few 8-10" ones mixed in. Tons of baitfish on top too. We moved over to a 3rd spot to see if we could get into some of the 3-4 lb. fish and we found some but mostly 1.5 to 2 lb.ers. Scott was using his dropshot to get most of his and I was using my double rig. A 1/2 oz. football head with a Yama spider grub with a mosquito hook 12-14" up the line with a red 4 or 6" roboworm. I got 2 or 3 on the grub and 5 or 6 on the worm. This area- another small rocky island with deep docks right next door was awesome from 11;30 'till about 3 PM. We each got 2 more at Shag Rock- 2 on chart. cranks and 2 on the pig n jig. All in all an enjoyable day- wished we could have stayed 'till dark instead of leaving at 4:45PM.
      City: napa

      Tips: GO GO GO! Keep moving around "till you find some 3 plus fish and then fish the area completely! And like Jason says " Take lots of (red) worms!!"

    • By

      Water Temp: 82-84 North

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished the late afternoon , night and Sunday the 8th. The fishing has slowed down to about 1/3 over the past 3 weeks. The water has turned a tea colored brown since last weekend. Don't know if this had antything to do with the bite slow down. I did not catch any fish after dark and quit at 11:30pm , too long a week at work. The moon came out about 12:30 so perhaps the bite turned on the second part of the night. Sunday produced about 20 or so keepers but unlike the past 3 weeks I had to work a bit for these.
      City: Sacramento

      Tips: The fish I had been on moved a little deeper and seemed a bit more scattered. 15-27 feet. The crawfish color that wound up in my live well are orange with a little red and tan. Drop shot fat boy minnows in pearch about 12 inch's up worked best. A few jig fish, 2 crank bait fish, nothing on top. Biggest fish 3.4 lbs. Gotta pre fish the Delta so I will not be back to Clear Lake for awhile. There were alot of boats this last weekend and it would be nice to hear how everyone else did.

    • By

      Water Temp: warm

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: gone out a few times last report and gott'n some more. today got a couple off east shore using mm 6in roboworm drop shot style. lost a really big one. got another off lagoon rocks and same with my brother. pulled a pretty good one from boat dock too, just tossed into the weed beed and got one pretty fast.
      City: oakley

      Tips: waters been raised a lot so try new spots like the west cove and boat dock area

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

      Report: Fished North and South Lake for a couple of hours. Stuck a large (5lb)LMB on a black/blue 3/8 oz jig with purple ribbontail trailer. Caught and released immediately. The fish are here - just have to be patient.

      Did see one gentleman with a 12 lb catfish at one of the piers along the South Lake...
      City: Daly City, CA

      Tips: Fish baits deep off of tule points and drop offs. Look for spots along the bank away from the trout fishermen. Fish slowly and downsize when they don't bite.

    • By

      Water Temp: Not Tested

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Its tough to fish san pablo now a days been there for a few hours @ oak point caught 3 trout and 1 bass 1.5lbs on a banjo minnow 4hrs that all I got I wonder where is the hot spot right now any idea? well I'm gonna try again next sunday hopefully luck will change.... Anyway after San Pablo I went straight to get some perch boy was there a perch?! I caught 20+ range 10oz-2.5lbs took home 5 went total 11lbs and thats in less than 3hrs of fishing. thight lines.
      City: San Francisco

      Tips: Before you go fishing try to pass by at any bait and tackle shop close where you live ask for some spot and hot bite. they'll be happy to help you. Perch bite is "RED HOT" just don't forget to bring 2"-3" plastic grubs motor oil and most important is you "tide book" that makes a lot of difference...

Saturday, August 7th, 2004

  • Santa Clara County
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      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Water Dropped quite a bit in the last few weeks and a lot clearer too. Launched at 8am to blue bird skies and rising temp. Tough day for me but scraped up 4 but no size. Marked a lot of suspended fish. Off the water at 11:30 since it looked like a fricking jet ski party out there.
      City: San Carlos

      Tips: Flipped any visible cover to start and got two dinks on a big cut tail. As it warmed up threw a c-rig deep and got another one. Threw a deep crank and got another one. I was all over the place even though its pretty small. Not much to say, hard for me to figure out. Get a reservation and get off the water before everyone shows up.

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

      Report: Overall had a great day. keeps getting hotter and hotter.Suppost to getting a little cooling trend. Frog bite is crazy right now. I cant believe how good the cranking bite was today. Bluegill speedtraps are the ticket. low tide outside weed edge. I ripped them. One quarter mile stretch had close to 17lbs for five just on cranks
      City: Boraga

      Tips: Cranks and frogs are hot. At least for today. WOrth trying out. Not my normal pattern but it will work. Need to key in on some solid frog spots for the snag proof tourney

    • By

      Water Temp: 71-75 deg

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: fished bishop slough with jim ryan at 5:30am with frogs, buzz and spinner baits, no fish. cut over to white with frogs, speed traps and buzz baits, no fish. at 11:am we were at little potato near h & h marina and found 7 largies with a purple/black jig with a yamamoto grub in purple along the rock banks behind the weeds. no curent at all to find in the delta. used senkos in watermellon/black flake, missed six or more in white slough from 2-4pm, used frogs also no fish. when does this good frog bite start. its hard to a partern tide movement.
      City: rocklin

      Tips: work rocky banks with jigs, white frogs and senkos behind weeds, sometime the space is only 5-10 ft on low tides like today.

    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Went out Early AM 10 1-2lbs- Green Yamamoto Senkos seemed to be the diet of the morning for 10 big mouths- and 15 or misses- need to sharpen the hooks
      City: Stockton

      Tips: No Top water working all under the tules in front of the weed lines. Green and Black Senkos

  • Sacramento County
    • By

      Water Temp: warm

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Went out from 7-10 am with my brother again. Really had to work to catch 12 bass between the both of us. Several were 10-12 inches long but all were fat and healthy. One big one was about 2.5#. The blue sky and warm weather drove the fish deep. No bites on topwater baits, no spinner bait bite. We started tossing shad colored grubs and started catching them but we kept switching colors between blue pearl/black flake or smoke/silver grubs.
      City: San Jose

      Tips: C-rig grubs or swim the grubs after initial drop

    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Caught the Big Skunk at Coyote 8/7/04. Fished the S. end in the PM (float tubes), soft platics offered into the abundant cover. Nothing. Likewise for my main man Jay Hann. Had a hit or two w/ no hook-up. Tried the weeds w/ a white Sumo frog, nada. It was pretty hot that weekend, the bass must have been waiting for night. .
      City: Belmont, CA

      Tips: Persistence! The bass are in there....

  • Sacramento County
    • By

      Water Temp: 73.9 - 74.2

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: WOW, started out with a bang!!! First stop Mormom Island Dam, second cast with a Buzzbait a nice fat Smallie, four casts later a clone!! another fat Smallie bout 1 3/4 lb. HMMMM a pattern? Not Buzzbaited and cranked for about a hour no more!! Moved to a off shore rockpile that Folsom rats know about with these low water conditions on the main body. Fish and bait everywhere!! Dartheaded a nice spot bout two lb.HMMM nothing but decent keepers and it is still only 7:30. Did a lot of moving and graphing of fish but nadda on the main body.

      Ran to my favorite wall just before Jack's, wrong Idea the water not right and the skiers/jet skiers are thick in the South Fork ALREADY!! HMMM made me think I better go back to near the ramp at Hobie to take a peak!!! The ramp was ten boats deep and looking ominous, I chose to get off the water by 8:45.

      I did do a dock talk to a gent that wanted a point I was buzzing early in the morning, take this for what it's worth I put no credence to it!

      He asked if I was staying? No I replied, He stated he had been getting 3's and 4's with one 7 off this particular point in 4 -6 feet of water!! HMMMM water dropping a foot a day fish on the bank!!! Like I said take it for wahti's worth. One thing I will say with these low water level's the fish are going to be congegated and easier to catch this fall and real easier come Winter!!!
      City: sacramento

      Tips: Stick with the tradinational Fosom patterns TOpwater early then find the drop offs and rock piles!!! It is going to be a really fun Fall and Winter with these low water conditions. Back out on Sunday!! See ya there get it early and leave unless you love lake lice and wake board maggots!!

      Mark