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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Saturday, July 31st, 2004

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 80

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Clear Lake is incredible!!! Stayed in Nice and went out solo Sat and had a guy who hasn't bass fished on Sun morning. Didn't have to go far to start with a 5 but that was the biggest for both mornings. The rest were 1-3 with some dinks thrown in which totaled somewhere around 15 to 20 each morning (lost count after 10). Lost a big one Sun morning, couldn't get him turned at all and he was in a gnarly dock area. Threw top water and got one blow up and that was it (looked perfect for topwater but couldn't get it going). Big Cut Tails got the big fish, Senkos worked of course, and had great success on a lucky craft pointer covering water. Handed the drop shot rod to my buddy who didn't know what to do and every 1 pound bass within 10 miles decided to hit it. It seemed unfair at times since I had to keep unhooking them. I got the bigger fish though.
      City: San Carlos

      Tips: Since I didn't know the lake at all except for the map that I had and the reports from NCBF I tried a little of everything and it all worked (exept buzzin, why I do not know). The best pattern would have been sticking to low hanging wood docks with tules and other aquatic cover near by. The fish seemed to move back and forth between these two ambush spots. Just a killer lake!!!

    • By

      Water Temp: 80

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Stayed a week at Clearlake, with my wife and kids. I took a guest, of the lodge, out with me on my Ranger, Sunday the 25th. He is from Zimbabwe, Africa and working on his ph.D., at Berkeley. He had fished from a rented boat the day before and from the dock that evening without any success. When I asked him how he did, he said that he didn't think that this lake (Clearlake) had any fish. WRONG...

      With my wife's encouragement, I asked him if he'd like to join me at 6 A.M., the following morning. I told him to just bring himself and that I'd supply the tackel. We went out to Anderson Island and within four hours, he had caught 20 bass. His largest was a nice 3 pounds. He, his wife and daughter left later that morning, feeling a whole lot happier.

      I just e-mailed a photo of him with his fish and great smile.

      I was blessed the following morning while I fished with my wife. I landed an eleven pounder on a Fat Free Shad. I went onto catch an 8 1/2 pounder on Wednesday and a nice 4 pounder on Thursday.

      I gave another guest, of the lodge, a Fat Free Shad, who like the earlier guest had no luck. I showed him where to go, on his map and gave him a few tips. This guy was all the way out here from Chicago on vacation with his family. He too had the time of his life, just hours before leaving to go home.

      Overall, our family caught over 200 bass ranging from several dinks, to lots of 2's and 3's. I had caught well over 100 during the week. My thumbs are both really sore from holding the fish while removing the hooks. We kept and ate four and gently let the others go, even my Hawgs. I'll be back in three weeks or so with my brother and some new gear...
      City: Fairfield, CA

      Tips: Cast towards the shore using crank bait (citrus colors best)and bring the lure down slowly and evenly. Give it a jerk or two in order to break up the patern. Berkley 4" Pumpkinseed Worms worked well too!

  • Alameda County
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      Water Temp: 78

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Got on the water late, around 9:20 fished the south side for a while with spinnerbaits and jigs with no bites. Hit the weeds on the south end with rattle traps and caught a few fish. The biggest going close to 2lbs. Nothing big. Ran down to the other end of the lake at 10mph and fished the damn. Three other boats were already fishing it so i knew i wouldn't get a hit. Started to come back up the west side and hooked up with a 3 pounder of a baby bass shad rap. Lost a small smallmouth on the same bait. Fished a long time to only catch a few fish. Ended up with 7 fish for the day. Two guys i talked with hammered the catfish. Nice ones, i saw them.
      City: Boraga

      Tips: Don't get there late. Fish weed edges with chrome rattle traps. Didn't get one fish flippin. Weird day. Good luck to all!!!!!!!!!

    • By

      Water Temp: 72

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Tough day. Had great expectations with the overcast sky. Started with top water. Picked up three aggressive bass on PopR and a Chug Bug. The top water shut down quickly. Switched to a carolina rig and picked up two more and that bite shut down quickly. Tried dart head worm and brass n glass and hula grub but nothing. By 10:00AM the game was over. I think the fish moved tight to cover and I didn't follow. I continued to work the outside weedline and the fish went somewhere else. Again, tons of suspended fish. Don't seem to know how to make them bite. Met a tournament angler who only had one fish all day but it went 5 lbs on a drop shot. Talked to others who got blanked. One old guy had ten cat fish however.
      City: Foster City

      Tips: If what you are throwing shuts down don't continue to throw it like me. You have to quickly recognize that just because you caught a few on a bait that the pattern may not hold up. This is my biggest weakness as a bass fisherman - not wanting to admit it is time to switch. Go with top water early and switch to something else like a jig if you have not gotten a fish in the past 20 min. When the sun comes out around 10:30 and the bite shuts down then go home- its over.

    • By

      Water Temp: 76-79

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Boy, was it a grueling day!----Late start....got 5 fish for three people. Tried drop shotting, senkos,frogs and cranking. Hit points coves and mudlines...Proven set up drop shotting..all small fish 9-11 inches all deep-12-25'. There are some serious weed mats, yet nothing ont the frogs-saw the mats swirl a couple of times and one hit. All reports from Norcalfising.com said it was game on...well we were all wrong-till next time Melones here we come.
      City: San Jose

      Tips: Fish hard and get there early-

  • Shasta County
    • By

      Water Temp: 81.6

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: went in at packers at 2250, slight push out of the north and a few bassboat trailers in the lot, air temp a cool 74, lake at 69 ft down, dropped the troll motor right off the bat and started throwing at the island out in front of the Packers float and got 6 small fish right off, moved down the west bank out to the point near the gap for the next hour with a few hits but nothing in the boat. Started seeing a few other bassboats moving back into packers at midnight and got a good fish on outside Packers at midnight that went 2.68 and another not 5 minutes later that was slightly bigger. The ten boats that came in then went to the float for the first of a split weighin(Redding Bassers) and I fooled around back on the island for a bit for 4 more small fish and a 1.8 just after they left again at 0200. A super nice evening out and only saw one skier out by no name, water level stil heading south at a good clip, got out at 0215, air temp down to 68. all my fish came out of 12-17ft of water, a bit different than normal, got no bites right at the bank.
      City: Redding

      Tips: B and S twintails in melon pepper and black root beer on 1/2oz football heads and no skirts.

Friday, July 30th, 2004

  • Amador County
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      Water Temp: 80+

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished a night tourny, i didnt do so hot, caught one on a black senko with charturse flake. My mistake was fishing deep. The guys who placed were fishing shallow
      City: concord

      Tips: Drop shot bite's good, wacky rigged senko worked too. The bass are eating crawdads up there so try crawlike colors

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

      Report: My brother and I fished from 8:30 AM to around 3:00 PM. Caught fish all day long, most on split shot plastics (6" lizards and worms) in 5' to 12' of water, a few on carolina rigged tubes. Dinks to 3 lbs.
      City: San Jose

      Tips: Fish the submerged points and along the weed line.

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

      Report: According to Western Outdoor News they just recently stocked lafayette with bass. Most likely planters that you were catching. Good luck!
      City: Folsom

    • By

      Water Temp: warm

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Launched Float tube's from dam, Friday after work, we (me & buddy) fought the white water caused from the high winds that afternoon and my bubby lannded the first fish, a dink, drop shotting a robo worm. My 1.5# came about an hour later, also drop shotting a robo worm in about 25' water. My second fish came about 10min later in the same area. It was smaller, (again drop shotting)Buddy landed his second fish about half hour later. We worked the HWY17 side.
      The wind never let up. It made for a wet back in my case! At least we wern't skunked!
      City: Scotts Valley

    • By

      Water Temp: 82

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Met my buddy Kentuck on the lake at about 10:30 and he had already hit 3 boils and nabbed 2 fish. Boils were pretty active up till around noon then died off at the south end. Strated resurfaceing around 1430 and stayed active until dark. Most boils were small and did'nt stay up long.Some large and smallies chasing shad as well. We left around 9 with a few fish in the boat and had a triple on our last boil.
      City: Woodfords

      Tips: Anything that looks like shad.Get on them fast and dont cut off the other guy. Watch out for ski traffic.

Thursday, July 29th, 2004

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 74

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Two person guide trip with learing how to fish outgoing and low tides and an upcoming tournament. Looking for quality fish we started with top water poppers and all chartreuse persuader buzz bait and persuader assassinator souther shad spinner bait. 1st fish was 4.5lbs and the next was alittle over 4lbs on the buzz bait then a few smaller ones 1-1.5 fishing weed flats with the high outgoing tide as we were looking for better fish we targered islands with weed flats covered with water and then as the water went out we targeted the edges and when the tide got really low we fished the real deep edges with the boat in 15 ft or more of water and working the bait form the edge to about 10 ft. Using these methods we landed 5 quality fish form 3 to 4.5lbs about 20lbs for the day. We had about 40 fish for the day and 25 or so keepers
      City: Con

      Tips: All the quality fish came on the Persuader Buzz bait or the Doc Waters Tube

    • By

      Water Temp: ?

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: me and steph were a little bored friday night so we thought coyote dam sounded just right we made it to the lake at about 4 am it was perfect cought
      3 fish all on texas rigged worms, fish went from 2-3 lbs all nice keepers.it wasn't perfect but really fun, fished till 6:30 am.
      City: Aptos

      Tips: tried jig,topwater,splitshotin,dropshotin,and rippin thank god for the good old texas rig.

    • By

      Water Temp: warm 70+

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Been fishing the freeway side the last couple times according to the last report posted. Caught several small fish on a 1/4 oz. blue/chrome trap, but nothing big until I started tossing a t-rig grub in shad colors. I was not getting bit as much with the trap but they were better quality fish up to 2.5#.
      City: San Jose

      Tips: Vary the retrieve on the trap. Let the grub sink to the bottom and a nice slow retrieve back. Most fish hit it on the initial drop or pick it up on the retrieve. Better fishing when it was hotter last week.

  • Shasta County
    • By

      Water Temp: 81.2 to 82

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: In at Packers at 4:30PM. Ran up the McCloud to Ycotti and picked up a nice 3lber. first thing with a 1/2 oz. football head with a BnS twin tail in #22 Brown Melon. Things went slow after that. Moved across to Greens Creek and started working the points moving down to the main body. Picked up a 2.0 on the same rig with a #23 Melon Pepper twin tail. The total for the night was 10, the best fish for the Blonde in the back was a 1.4 on a darterhead with a #23 twin tail. It was a beautiful moonlite night.
      City: Cottonwood

      Tips: If you are out after dark be sure and watch your speed, the patrol boats are out doing their job.

  • Sonoma County
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      Water Temp: ...............

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: got there at about 8:30 it was nice cold in the morining then got hot at 11:00 the fisging was good but the bitting really hard to hook only cought 1 samllie
      City: south san francisco

      Tips: find a really quiet are try lucky craft and plastics

Wednesday, July 28th, 2004

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 74

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: One person guide trip with Joe. Working on flippin and pitchin technique. Woring the outgoing tide around Franks, Quimby, Mandeville and Holland. We targeted islands and weed edges and after a little trial and error we ended up using the New Doc Waters tube. Was a great bait if you think tubes are only for spring your mistaken. From 6:00 to about noon we landed about 30 bass to 3.5lbs some small one but most were quality fish 1.5-2.5 lbs and about 14lbs for 5. After lunch the flip bite slowed down and we went to cranking the speed trap and caught another 15 or so most all small.
      City: Concord

      Tips: The better fish came form 5-10ft deep on water melon red and motor oil Doc waters tubes

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 76

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: My brother Jack is in from Houston and we have been fishing every day with fishing slow this time of year until our planned night trip to Clearlake. Launched out of M&M and all the reports were no topwater, dragging a purple worm off Rattlesnake and Senkos up until nightfall and then no bite until sunup. We started out near Windflower Point throwing blades and nailed a couple up to 2lbs and then headed for Jago where my brother caught more bass in 2 hours than he had all week. Working the docks and rocks we killed them on jigs. Next stop was the state park tules where Senkos were the item of choice, averaging 1-3 pounders and then when the sun went down, the bite got slower but NEVER disappeared and that probably was due to the good moon we had. Nailed our largest 5.25 pounder at 3AM on a 10" worm near Konocti. When the sun started coming up we started all over again catching one after another until I said we gotta go as I need a break and we finally pulled off the water around 9AM. It was extremely hard to figure our count for the night but a minimum of 50 keepers were brought to the boat, not mentioning our misses. Clearlake is HOT, HOT, HOT right now and you better get out there. We hit it on a good night as the lake was calm all night and made running easy.
      City: Wheatland

      Tips: When they are on Senkos, it doesn't really matter what color you are throwing and we were throwing them weightless. Our 10" MGM Baby Bass were in hogsbreath scent and weighted Texas rig while a 5" purple worm worked slowly near docks and rocks was very effective.

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

      Report: Has anybody been at the lake? I have a tournament this weekend and was looking for a little help.
      City: Livermore

    • By

      Water Temp: warm

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: nice day! water was calm.we fished in the large cove by the parking lot in the evening! caught 2 on a shad crankbait and one on a trout rattletrap. also i was fishing with a popR and had a huge blowup but mist the darn fish, he hit the thing twice but missed both times...gotta love seeing a fish strike a topwater bait...
      City: Morgan Hill

      Tips: use crankbaits, that seems to work the best at UVAS