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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Saturday, August 7th, 2004

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

      Report: Went out to fish today for the first time at this lake because I heard of the recent bass plant. I fished from 7 AM to 2:30 PM.
      I thought I gonna get skunked. I tried almost all my lures and worms.
      I thought for sure the senkos would work, but they didn't work texas rigged.
      I decided to try drop-shotting them wacky style, then BAMB! On my second cast toward the middle of the lake I get this 17in bass! I didn't keep it. I just took a picture and let her go!
      City: American Canyon

      Tips: Drop-shot wacky style w/4-inch senkos. They didn't like the 5 in.

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

      Report: WOW! I went out with John Gray, "The Maine Guide." I think you can safely call him "The MAIN Guide." I have been out on numerous trips over the years with bass guides, and I can safely say none have been as great as John. It is really a shame he does not get as much positive press as lesser guides I've been with on Berryessa, Collins and Clear Lake.

      We landed 10+ smallies on Saturday in less than idea fishing conditions. I had low expectations as it is August. In just a few more hours on Sunday we landed a few more including two 3+ pounders.

      If you are thinking about fishing this lake ... go out with John. He knows this treasure lake like the back of his hand. The fishing, scenery, wildlife, and education is well worth the price. I just cannot stress this enough.

      We caught fish with crank baits, topwater Pop-Rs, jigs, and rubber worms & grubs. John put me onto my first topwater, crankbait and drop-shot catches of my life. This lake is well worth the drive!
      City: Sacramento

Friday, August 6th, 2004

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: 74

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: If any of you readers are contemplating on getting out to Clear Lake, get there ASAP!!
      I had the pleasure of hitting the Lake with guide Len Kovats of Wheatland. He said he would put us on some fish and boy did he deliver that promise. We started off in Jago Bay first thing in the morning. Within the first hour we had a limit that went about 18#'s. Wow was the bait on. A chartruse blade and a brown jig was the ticket. Next we headed over to Sunshine shore. Within ten minutes we had a pair of five pounders in the boat, all out of less that two feet of water, unbelievable. Next we fished Red Bud. It was hot too! Three and four pounders just seemed to jump in the boat. He hit Windflower pt. and got on to a pretty good pattern of four and five pounders on both the jig and a deep diving crank. We also fished Henderson pt. where the crank bite was HOT!! Every five casts or so were were pullin in three to four pounders. Got a nice 6#+ out of an off shore rock pile by Rattlesnake island. We ended the day back in Jago Bay where we cranked the hell out of them. Wow what a day!! We ended up with the best five going 27#. Too many fish to count. We were culling 4.5# fish. I know those four and five pounders aren't much (What Clear Lake can normally produce), but I never tire of catching those, they fill a day nicely. Great fishing, Great guide, great day! Thanks Len, it is definately a day for the books. After a day like that, I am still left with one question though, When can we go again??
      If anyone is interested in a guided trip to Clear Lake with Len please e-mail me and I can pass on the information. Thanks-now go rip some lips!
      E-MAN
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: Focus on rocks!(expecially around reeds and grass) and gravel bottoms. The wind was blowing (surprise) and the fish were within 1'-10' of the wind blown shore. (Key) A medium retrieve on both the blades and crank seemed to work the best. Throw a jig!! Brown or black-doesn't matter. We paired them with many different Yamamoto grubs and caught fish all day. Len also had a little secret thing he does-but you'll have to talk to him about that! GOOD LUCK.

    • By

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: This is not a report I just need some fishing tips my Buddie and I are going to clear lake this sunday its gonna be my first time going to this lake. So I could use,.. actually I need help on this lake. I'll be fishing on float tube. So please e-mail for some tips on where to go whats the hottest lure/bait everything that you can share me on this lake Thank you.
      City: San Francisco

      Tips: Don't worry I practise CPR catch photo and release, tight lines angler fishing is all about having fun.

  • Yuba County
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      Water Temp: 79

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Slow fishing and small fish. No topwater bite at all. Caught all spots on dropshot rigs and texas worms near the dam and around brush piles.

      Tips: Spots spitting up crawdads. Use anything crawdad color. Lots of bluegill around brush piles for the kids.

    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: hey Juan, what did you use and where(depth) did you catch your fish, I've gone 5 times(@night) with nothing.
      I agree the rules are set for a reason lets all do our best to obey them and another thing hooking a fish deep in its throat doesn't automaticly mean cut the the line.
      I have lost a couple fish when they couldn't equal out and they would float, Tips?
      City: fresno

      Tips: for a fish hooked deep: use locking pliers and grab the eye of the hook from behind (through the gills) the fish and carefully bring the eye of the hook out through the gills.Then let the pliers hang(locking) and with other pliers go in through the mouth and grab the stright cruve of the hook and work it out carefully. Unlock the hanging pliers and FREE the fish with no questions.Thank you!

    • By

      Water Temp: 72

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished Friday, 8/5, in the morning. Tried a lot of stuff without success, and then hit'em on a wacky-rigged black with blue flake 4" Senko in a weed bed. Caught four bass from a little over a pound to almost two pounds. Lake is still falling slowly.
      Fished again Saturday, 8/6, in the morning. I tried Friday's pattern (wacky Senko in a weed-bed) first thing and caught a nice bass on second cast (in a different weed-bed). That was it for me for the day. My son, John, caught five bass on 5" green pumpkin with black flake Senko and a couple on Rapala DT-10 bluegill finish crankbaits.
      City: Monterey

      Tips: The bass are there, mostly in and around the weed-beds, but they are finicky. They'll ignore your lures until you give'em what they want. Keep trying different presentations and different colors within presentations until you hit on what they want that day.

Thursday, August 5th, 2004

  • Shasta County
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      Water Temp: 80.1

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: front moving through, overcast and pleasantly cool. in at Packers at 1910, no activity at the ramp with a 6 knot wind out of the south, ran up the Sac about half way where i was on some better fish the last time out, got to the same spot and no fish, move around a bit and find some aobut a 1/2mile away all stacked up on a steep rock wall and get a good one on that went 2.56 on a 1 ounce jig with a B and S melon pepper twin tail, continued throwing for a bit on this spot and only one more tap. moce south fishig the same kind of stuff and found more fish but nothing would go. ran back south hitting a few humps, some up and some just about to come up and not another single bump, very little traffic and the sheriff was out. Went back towards Packers and stopped on another hump that was loaded with fish but again, no takers. Back at the ramp at 2210, air temp in at 81 coming out at 71 with a slight push out of the north. I thought the pressure drop was going to make for a good bite but it managed to only suspend the fish. Again the fish were deeper than normal, my only fish came out of 28ft at 2004 hours.
      City: Redding

      Tips: thougth I had it figured out, beats me.

    • By

      Water Temp: 79-80

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: In at Packers at 0445. Dropped electric motor and made my way along the east bank of the cove throwing topwaters. Force fed a jitterbug, buzzbait and spook almost all the way to the mouth of the cove without single a strike. Metered some fish on the graph on the second to last point and drop a drop shot on them to pick up a fiesty 1.8# spot. This point showed lots of fish on the graph but spent the next half hour without another bite. Up the Sac Arm trying numerous other points with limited success. Found another large concentration of fish on one point but could only get the first fish to go; the rest must have gotten spooked. Boat traffic way up by 1000 so out of water by 1030. Overall, beautiful day to be on the lake.
      City: Redding

      Tips: Was hoping for a topwater bite in the very early morning but not even a splash on any of them. Fish were concentrated once you find them, but seemed only one would go at each location.

Wednesday, August 4th, 2004

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

      Report: First off a big thanks to Randy Pringle. I have been off water for a couple of weeks, so I called Randy and aksed if he was available for guide trip. Well he was not but he gave me some advice on where,when and how.

      Thats what it took. Got a late start (0800hrs) but had a limit of good fish by 0830 and just slayed the fish all day. Caught a bunch including two over 5lbs on top water, fishing in the middle delta.

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

      Report: Can anyone share some tips for the past 3 weeks at Pedro? What is the bite and where? Please e-mail me, I am going there in a couple of weeks. Thank you!

    • By

      Water Temp: 80

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Went out saturday night and really kicked ass. Caught 6 all together .With a 7.8 to go with that. Fishing is awesome at eastman hopefully they won't drain the entire lake.With all the nice fish coming out of here now is a good time to practice CATCH & RELEASE.See you on the water
      City: turlock

      Tips: Practice CATCH & RELEASE, IT IS SO IMPORTANT RIGHT NOW. LET'S NOT BLOW A GOOD LAKE. I,VE SEEN LOT'S OF PEOPLE TAKING SMALL FISH @#@#@$#@

  • Sacramento County
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      Water Temp: 78 deg

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: quency malone and friends and i went out at 4pm. found our first dozen or more dinks in the main body out near the wind sock going off the point towards the dam. used a 4" white ears warpon worm split shot. moved later to anderson island on the back side, picked up three more some bass. went into a cove then back to rocky point and stated getting 2-2.5 lbs in 10-20 ft. leaches in 4" work. water is still going down, that means less boaters, but more rocks coming up. my other fishing partner jim ryan got a 2.1 lb largie. total bass was about 20, joe miller and tom got some good fish also with split shot. out of the water at dark (8:45pm). not a bad evening after work fishing with friends.
      City: rocklin

      Tips: watch out for new rocks and fish slow with small worms, lizards.

  • Leon County
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      Water Temp: ?

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: went out to the good ol lafayette reservoir today fished 12:00 to 7:30 HOW MANY PERCH ARE IN THIS LAKE.how did they get in this lake. caught about 60 yellow perch no bigger then 8 inches.went threw 7 boxes of nightcrawlers!!!every dock we went to we caught perch throw the worm out far couple seconds later u have a perch.HAD FUN!!!!
      City: san bruno

      Tips: throw it out far and u will get a perch

  • San Francisco County
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      Water Temp: ?

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Went fishing for bass for a couple hours and caught nothing. Did see a very large dead turtle. This lake is dead! Must be polluted or something.
      City: Daly City

      Tips: Don't waste your time here.

    • By

      Water Temp: 77.2 - 79.6

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Launched about 9:30a with the purpose of checking out the striper situation.....Some scattered boils that seemed to be smaller fish. They only stayed up for seconds at a time and were pushing the shad at a very fast pace. Landed 3 keeper Smallies while waiting for the stripers. Off the water at 1:00p
      City: Sonora

      Tips: Used 4" worms on split-shot rig from 18 to 25 feet for smallies. All came off of shale points and islands w/ good depth close in. "Load-up" bites - very subtle. R

  • Butte County
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      Water Temp: 79

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I took 8 and 11 year old boys, their dad and his dad to Oroville today for a half day trip - what a crowd in my Ranger 520! We fished the middle fork for an hour and then finished in the south fork. There really isn't much to say - we only fished 6' worms split-shotted. Smoke blue seem to be the best color by far. I did drop-shot a #239 Yamamoto Kut-Tail and it produced a few. Our biggest was only 13 1/2 inches and we had 4 under the slot. We landed about 17 or 18 and had a lot of fun. Quality fish were not biting, though I saw several on the meter. We saw lots of small spots chasing this years spawn on the surface. So, the fish are biting, but quality is lacking.
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: Night fishing is probably the way to go from now on. Because of the crowded boat, I really didn't try any other options. The bite was best about 15 to 20 feet. The boys had a ball and that is what counts! Look for flats in the south fork - they are there! And they are loaded with fish!!!

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

      Report: Whats the cat bite like? Anybody fishing lately?

      Tips: Chicken Livers......

    • By

      Water Temp: 71

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished just the morning again from 6:30 to 10:30 a.m. Scouted some new water in the north arm of the lake, including the dam face and the west bank of the cove by the parking lot. Lots of shad present, but they weren't boiling. Didn't appear that anything was chasin' 'em. Fished crankbaits, drop-shot wacky worm, surface lures, and Senko. Made lots of casts, mostly on the outside edge of weeds and deeper, but only caught one small bass, on a bluegill-finished Rapala DT-10. Other bass fisherman on the lake agreed it was a slow day. Wind was calm most of the morning, only starting to kick up at about 10:30 a.m.
      City: Monterey, CA

      Tips: The lake appears to have dropped a couple of feet again, after having regained some of its water in preceding weeks. The lake has stratified, with the top of the thermocline at 31 feet. There are lots of shad, and many schools of 3" bass fry. There is still lots of very green and fresh weed growth in the 15 - 18' depths.

  • Shasta County
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      Water Temp: 70's

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Got Eric out this evening to the 3rd pond. Tyler and I were having a biggest two ish tourny I got all my ish on lats, dragging either a 6" MGM oxblood worm, or a Witches T Zipperworm. My two ish weighed 4#9# TYlers two weighed 4#11#. He got his dragging worms too. Eric got a 2#1# large dragging a texas rigged watermellon senko 4"...Nice evening.
      City: Redding

      Tips: drag worms, as slow as you can stand..drag..pause..drag pause..there are a lot o ish on steep walls, but quality will come o lats with tullies.