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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Wednesday, August 4th, 2004

  • 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.

Tuesday, August 3rd, 2004

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 72

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: This is a day to remember we caught over 125 fish today yes 125 my best trip ever. Two person guide trip Don form Oakley and his brother Mike form NY. We started in Franks with top water Luhr Jensen PJ Pop shad and cartreuse colors along with the speed trap green craw and crystal craw and later switching to bleeding shad. We then hopped around some rock and weed spots switching between the speed trap and a green pumpkin helix we picked up fish on most every spot. Then we went to mandeville and got about 10 and ended up at lunch with 40 fish, wow what a great day but it usually slows after lunch. After lunch form 12:00 to 3:00 we landed 85 fish. We were fishing around Quinmby / Holland area and found some clear water on the low tide and we could see fish every where, I mean tons of fish. using the speed trap we could only catch fish about every 5 casts. I then rigged up a drop shot and caught a fish on every cast. I then gave the drop shot to the client and he caught fish on most every cast for 2 hours we had several triples two of us using speed tran and one with the drop shot. What was really cool was you could see the fish and toss the the drop shot to um and they would bite. Sight fishing in August in th Delta go figure.
      City: Concord

      Tips: Most every fish was caught on a spinning rod with 8lb Sufix ProMix and we never broke off one.
      We drop shotted a lot of fish usuing the broken green pumpkin Helixes left on the deck. I'm sure some will not believe if your one of those too bad you wern't there!

  • Sacramento County
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      Water Temp: warm

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Went out for couple hours before work. Bite was not as aggressive as last saturday. Not much action on surface. Landed one small bass on blue-chrome popper. Three others came on t-rig shad colored grub. Biggest weighed about 2.5#
      City: San Jose

      Tips: Match the hatch. Big fish hit the grub on the initial drop.

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: 77 to 81

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: WOW! Clear Lake is one the best fisheries in the country without a doubt. First time back to Clear Lake since April and I don't know why I stayed away for so long. Fished from 6am to 9:30pm, drop shotting and throwing blades was all it took today. I lost track of how many fish I caught after the first couple of hours, I estimate 65 to 80 fish for the day. Why forearms are still a little sore. Big fish of the day was a 9.0 lb brute drop shottin, with a 7.0 caught just before her. Majority of the fish where in the 4.5lb range to 2.0lbs. A couple of dinks mixed in. Great day on the water, i'll be back next week.
      City: Davis

      Tips: Bring plenty of worms and nothing less than 10lb test spinning tackle, the fish are tough footballs in Clear Lake.

  • Butte County
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      Water Temp: 71-75 deg windy

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Jim and I started from the spillway with the winds blowing 20 + mph, so we headed over into the middle fork for some crankin and blades with no takers off points and inlets. I used a brown/orange jig. We then went into the south fork, found a long deep bank (10-25 ft) using split shot with a robo 4.5" morning dawn worm. Before going home at noon we picked 11 dinks, no keepers. The weekend labor day houseboats were coming out. good luck with the winds.
      City: rocklin

Monday, August 2nd, 2004

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

      Report: Took my nephew and brother-in-law out for their first Bass fishing excursion...Started early with topwater with one blow-up...Switched to brown/purple jig and drop shot combination and began catching solid numbers of 1-2.5lb fish...At 11:00 moved from northeast part of delta to central and started throwing white norman crank and white yamamoto grub on a darthead and caught fish at least every third cast until the tide started to go slack at 1:00 PM. Caught well over 60 fish up to 3.5lbs. Needless to say my nephew and brother-in-law enjoyed the day so much they are considering coming back for additional action before school starts in September.
      City: brentwood

      Tips: Depth, Current, and fast presentation were the ticket. Caught quality fish on rock, weeds, and tulles...What mattered was the moving water and depth...Surprised the topwater bite didn't happen for us, but missed the tide change just enough in the topwater area to turn the bite against us...Fall weather pattern is beginning to appear which for me means WHITE baits are tied on to most of my rods. Crank, jigs, grubs, and drop shot consistently produced.

    • By

      Water Temp: 72

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: 5 person guide trip , double with Randy Pringle we both started in Victoria. Super windy! Everybody using spinning rods. High incomming tide a great time for speed traps 1/8oz(my favorite bait) Tossing a green craw and crystal craw we caught 25 fish before noon along with one over 3 and several 2lbers all down south fishing rocks and weeds. Then after lunch the tide was pretty low so we went looking for deeper rock banks and points to throw the speed trap just hopped around down south and caught another 15 or so fish. I did fish a little during the day using the assassinator souther shad spinner bait and I caught about 12 most small keepers to 2 lbs about about 42 fish for the day and 2 fish over 3lbs
      City: Concord

      Tips: Casting skill is very important the guy in the back was making good casts not great but good he landed 20 bass and the guy up frong was not as accurate and he caught 10.

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: 80

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: I did a 5 hour trip with a nice couple that had never fished the south end. They were only familiar with the north end but wanted to learn about structure in the south. We fish much of the time but also spend a lot of time looking at the meter and visiting several areas. We started off with crankbaits, dropshotting and jigs - all produced. I found the parrott color crankbait (blue/chartreuse) to be their favorite color and it produced 3 bass from 3 to 4 pounds. Spinnerbaits did not produce. Near the end of the trip we worked some frogs and my first blowup of the year was a 5 to 6 pounder - that missed the frog of course. My client was using a white Snag Proof frog but soon switched to my favorite green which was working better. We had 12 to 15 blowups, but only landed three to 3 pounds. Some of the bass wern't too big I think. I enjoyed watching these nice people catching bass offshore for the first time as they only has previously worked tules. We fished the Rattlesnake area, narrows, Konocti Bay, and a little north and south of the resort. We landed around 15 - should have done better but in my clients own words: "I've never lost so many"! I told him he wasn't allowed to do that with a guide, har! We did go for quality and our best five were 16 1/4 pounds. Beautiful weather and good fishing!
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: As was mentioned previously, the algae is gone for now - just very stained water. The bass we caught were not deep - even on rockpiles or ledges. While crankbaits are producing larger bass, don't forget your brown/orange jigs. The bass were thumping them!! I threw one out there, let it set while talking to my clients, and nearly had the rod jerked out of my hand. Lets hear it for deadsticking!! You many need to stick to 1/4 oz to keep from snagging all the time!

  • Shasta County
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      Water Temp: 80.5

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: our cooling trend arrived and glad to have it, in at Packers at 1915, lake nearing 71 ft down, breeze out of the WNW at 6, parking lot virtually vacant, ran over to the sac and hit a good stiff wind of about 12 running upstream, fished some rock walls with my first coming at 2020, a nice fat 1.8 and it turned out to be the smallest of 8 for the evening, no bruisers but some solid fish the biggest being a 2.52 and the best five went 11.61. They wanted a skirted jig tonight and all were a bit deeper than normal, the first was 28ft deep the rest came out of 18 to 20 ft on a melon pepper B and S twintail, no topwater takers at all, not even a roll or bump. Very little traffic except for one ski boat and the sheriff. moon came up around 2245 and a few shooting stars appeared, the meteor shower should be at its best on the 12th and 13th this year. Easy trip on plane going back with the moon up. The island just northeast of no name has just come up and 2 of the three poles are knocked down so you might want to watch that for the next few days, when you run for the sac stay tight to no name or give it at least a 1/4 mile berth so you don't hit that hump. The steeper rock was the ticket, in some cases I was standing in 70ft and flipping to the bank, most came on the fall with that satisfying "tick" on my 3/4 oz stuff.
      City: Redding

    • By

      Water Temp: n/a

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Re: Jones Valley ramp problems. I contacted the Forest Service law enforcement agents regarding the problems, and they contacted the Shasta County Sheriff's dept. These incidents need to be reported.........don't shine them on and figure someone else will deal with them. The Sheriff's dept patrols the area and if they know there are problems they will increase the coverage.
      City: Redding

    • By

      Water Temp: 79+

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Got out to the lake around 7. Worked with spinner and picked up a small one.(fattest smallest fish ive seen) Later on fishing lizard and broke one off in tules. Felt like good size. Missed another splitshotting worm. Around 12 started flippin tules with brush hog. Picked up a hog. Around 8 pounds maybe more. (No Scale) Good fish. Buddy picked up 2 fish also. One around 3, one pretty small.
      City: santa rosa

      Tips: Work it real slow, and patient and they will hit when u least expect it.

Sunday, August 1st, 2004

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

      Report: Went out today sunday around sherman island good outgoing tide picked up some stripers too 8.0lbs on rattle traps started to fish for largemouth and it did seem slow too me I got 3 all on plastics one went almost 4.0lbs fun day good to be back out fishing fish on
      City: Pittsburg

      Tips: shad are there so I tried to fish shad type baits it worked

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

      Report: Been reading all of the great report on Clear Lake and had to find out for my self that it was back to the late 80 and early 90's for numbers being caught and it was true. Thanks to Tackle it in Lakeport, Limit Out bait and tackle in the Oaks and Mel Cottons in SJ(yes I do my homework before I drive 3 hrs.) Bottom line drop shot 4-6 inch purple MM II (Roboworm) Mike Folkstad special AKA Lake Mead special. Instead of using 6 lb test like you would use at Oroville or Shasta I used 12 lb test and they liked it better because I tried 6 lb test for fun with same worm and they hit it but not as fast, I think the heavier line makes the worm stand straight out better.
      City: SAN JOSE

      Tips: Fish deep docks with low overhangs with rock near by and hang on. You don't even have to work the worm they hit on the way down. My daughter and I caught 40 + fish to 3 lbs.

    • By

      Water Temp: 76-81

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Algae bloom is pretty much over. Fished from 7:30 pm on Saturday till 3:30 am, best 5 went 29.6 lbs with the bigger fish on cranks. Everything on off shore rock piles that top out around 10 feet surrounded by 30 feet of water. The bigger fish are packing up according to size now and two 8's came back to back off the same rock pile. Slept from 3:30 till 11:00 am and fished from 11:00 am till 5:00 pm and top 5 went around 18 lbs. Had a 4.76 break the chain on my cul em rite while shaking around. The 18lbs is a guess. Lots of fish every where, mainly drop shot whacky riged arrons magic with red flake. For every 10 1-2 lber you would get a nice 3lb fish on the drop shot. Like last night the bigger fish came on a crank bait. Enjoy while it last , it's already starting to slow down from last weekend.
      City: Sacramento

      Tips: Crank bait , lucky craft deep diver, 20 Feet , in ghost pattern, even at night the white out produces the darker for the last several trips. Cover some water, and if you pick up a good fish slow down and pick it apart, there bunched up by size right now. It's hit and miss, one rock pile will have nothing and the next a school of 6 lbers, gotta move around. Glad the bloom is over.

Saturday, July 31st, 2004

  • Napa County
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      Water Temp: 81-84

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: I hope everyone is enjoying the cooler summer - this night guide isn't! I had guide trips Thurs and Fri nights - both with a lot of wind and very cool temps, especially Fri. It is amazing how the bass follow the weather patterns - Thurs was a little warmer and my client and I caught 2 before dark and 12 after, including a 5 lb 2 oz largemouth that hit a 7" Power Worm shortly after dark. All of our fish were over 13" and we had a solid 13 1/2 lb limit. We did well because the wind laid down around 11 pm which made the fish pretty aggressive. Fri night was the opposite - two brother took their dad on a trip for his 70th birthday and we had a ball before dark. The wind that had blown all day laid down before dark and the smallies went on a tear!! All three caught several bass with dad getting the largest - which was proper - a 2 1/4 lb largemouth. That worried me about the night bite because the bass will anticipate a cold front coming and feed before dark. Sure enough, the wind started after dark - a cold wind - and we only caught 3 after dark - 11 before. So, 14 each trip but we had to work hard for the bites except for the hour before dark on Fri night. That was fun! I had a day trip Tues and it was the slowest summer bite I have seen in some time. We were dragging 6" worms and one of the guys started with a 3 lb spot - wow!! I then got the hardest hit I think I have ever got dragging - and she jumped out of the water withing 5 seconds. Just a 2-10 largemouth that thought it was a 4 lb smallie. Again, wow! We got another spotted bass and that was it - a three fish day. Amazing. No topwater, crank, spinnerbait, jig, dropshot, Senko bite whatsoever. Name your favorite - they wouldn't bite it! Quality was good however - got to find something good!!
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: I only saw a few small bass breaking water chasing bait. Topwater activity is non-existant, at least in my boat. The recent short heat spell may have had something to do with that. The worm bite is pretty good - split-shotting seems to be the best presentation - casting or dragging. At night the 7" black Berkley Power Worm continues to be the best bait - nailing a few bigger bass too. Thursdays client used Dead Ringer worms and got a few, but changed to the Power Worm. Our daytime fish were caught on a green craw worm. We fished the narrows, Steele Park area, Big Island, and Rancho Montecello. Most bass are holding at the 10 to 20 foot range.

  • Santa Barbara County
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      Water Temp: 72

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Trny; caught 5 keepers, biggest 3.72. four fish caught on senkos one on crank bait
      City: lompoc

  • Santa Clara County
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      Water Temp: mid to high 60'

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Over the past week I have made four trips in which I was able to land 25 fish. Five of these fish easily broke the 5lb. marker with one closer to 8. A mixture of buzzbaits, spinnerbaits, jigs and senkos have been the key so far. Activity seemed to be good for me after 5pm until sunset as I started off with senkos and jigs, moving to buzz and spinnerbaits evening progressed.
      City: San Jose

      Tips: Vary your retrieve until you find out what the bass are looking for. By all means, the larger baits are getting the larger fish.