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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Saturday, July 24th, 2004

  • Alameda County
    • By

      Water Temp: 73

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished from 0630AM - 1:00PM. Caught 7 nice fish with one at 4lbs and the rest at 1.5-2lbs. Picked up one SM on a PopR early. Nothing else on top water. The other fish were LM caught on crank and carolina rigged plastics along the weedlines in 13-17 ft of water. Picked up one in an mudline on the fall. Tons of suspended fish but tough to catch.
      City: Foster City

      Tips: Try top water early. Fish steep drops and weed lines with soft plastics. The bite seems to shut down around 10:00 AM so go early or late. Nothing happening in the middle except the water cops stopping everyone in sight.

  • Tuolumne County
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      Water Temp: 79-81

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: We fished from the Canyon area down to Rogers creek. Lots of 8-11" fish. We caught a few keepers up to 15". All on plastics, from brush hogs to 4" worms in craw pattern and shad pattern. Fish were from a foot to fifteen ft.
      City: Delhi

      Tips: Try the bigger rocky banks. Fish slow also.

  • Mariposa County
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      Water Temp: warm

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Float tubed saturday night with my wife at McClure from dusk till 12am.Best 30 went 10lbs well maybe. Seriously had to go through alot of fish to get any decent fish. Best 5 probably only 12 lbs. Spots everywhere did not realize so many fish here. Most fish were caught on a split shot and 4"senko #180 in 10 to 25ft. But the biggest were all caught on blades Black and red all these fish were right on the bank to maybe 10ft off the bank.

      Tips: trailer hook was a must as fish wre short striking the spinnerbait

  • Calaveras County
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      Water Temp: 78 to 80

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I fished a night tourniment 7pm to 7 am with the Santa Clara Bass Classics, I think we had 10 or 12 boats. Air temp 95 watertemp 78 to 80. The fish were deep in the day and on the bank at night looking to feed. Only 2 limits caught I had one and 3rd place for 9.5LB.
      City: Fremont

      Tips: The fish are feeding in the bottom with one top water. Tx rig small worm and dart head dark grubs will work. Work them, SLOW, SLOW , SLOW.
      Good luck

Friday, July 23rd, 2004

  • Santa Clara County
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      Water Temp: 76

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: miseed a few on frogs, fishing the matts. caught a nice five pounder on a crank bait.

      Tips: never give up

    • By

      Water Temp: warm

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: went out at around 6 this morning. fished mostly of north shore. i was using drop shot with a purple roboworm. i caught the first 1.5 past the long strip of weeds. shook it once and caught it. caught a 3+ of the north dock. i casted down and sat my pole down to put on sunscreen and all of a sudden my pole bent and i pulled t on the dock. caught a few more using drop shot to in front of lagoon. it was a good fishing day.
      City: oakley

      Tips: if nothings working try the drop shot, it worked good for me

    • By

      Water Temp: warm

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Was visiting my old home town of Pleasanton and decided to hit the back pond with a good friend on mine. What happened to the water back there? I could not see the big rock anymore in the middle. We did okay and caught 10 total dinks throughout the day. It seems that Senkos or lizards are still working back there. It has been over two years since I was last there. Can someone tell me what the trick is now back there to be productive?
      City: Austin, TX

      Tips: Make sure you tube does not have any holes

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

      Report: I enjoyed fishing Trinity last Monday so much I couldn't wait to fish it again.
      launched at Trinity Center at 0400, yes it was still dark but I wanted to test the topwater bite before first lite, this time I crossed the lake to the east bank about halfway to Hay Gulch, trolling motor on 50% I started north , not one blowup until it started to get light about 0515 I was throwing my jointed Jitterbug first fish a 2.6 sm then a 2.0 sm next my best of the day a 5.2 black then I had trouble with my rods and line I was using, I spent the next 1/2 hour, the best 1/2 hour to fish topwater rerigging and asking myself why me? Switched to a grub on a darterhead at 0630 and started catching fish on almost every cast, this continued until about 1030, I had 2- 2.0 , 1-2.7 and 1- 3.0 smallmouths and a 2.4 black plus about 30 others less than 2 lbs. Fished two more hours with no takers until I ripped a 2.5 sm. Back to the ramp and home to Redding, What a great day!
      City: Redding

      Tips: be ready at gray light!

Thursday, July 22nd, 2004

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

      Report: Fished Franks Tract from Ten o'clock on caught about twenty fish ranging from 1.5- to 3.5 with a Hawg coming on a weight less worm. The estimated weight was over ten pounds
      City: Martinez

      Tips: Fish near the pockets in the weeds by tules

Wednesday, July 21st, 2004

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

      Report: I will be taking the family up to Collins 7/25 - 7/30. Any recent info that you would be willing to share will be greatly appreciated. I have had my boat on the lake a couple of times without any great success. If you prefer to privately email please do so. Thanks in advance. Scott
      City: Newark

  • Sacramento County
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      Water Temp: 80-82 deg

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: denny and i went out at 4:30pm, hott at 104 deg. we went up the north fork and found some non sking water just passed the floating bathroom on a point with small rocks. fished in 20-30 ft of water using a split shot with a 4" leach, landed three spots and one smallie. found more skers than bass. the water is dropping to fast, we will not have water later. moved to anderson island on large rocks and found bass that were not hungry. the boat traific makes it hard to stay in the zone. just before dark we moved on a bank that has stick and grass and used a white buzz bait. got four blow ups, hook all four and lost them. It looks like the fish are having a hard time find there new homes when the water is dropping so fast.
      City: rocklin

      Tips: fish slow and deep off rocks near points and shaded areas. use a small worm.

Tuesday, July 20th, 2004

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

      Report: snagged me a few largies on a double leafed spinner, pretty good reaction bite. You have to get your spinner to the bottom, try a kneel and reel technique, that seemed to produce. Fish were in the 1-2# range. Caught four that were about eight inches, the damn lure was as big as them.
      City: san jose

      Tips: rat-l-traps and blades!

    • By

      Water Temp: warm

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: went out all day trying all sorts of lures. didn't get nothing though. is there a certain area and type of lure really working right now?
      City: oakley

  • Merced County
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      Water Temp: ?

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Camped out at Basalt over the weekend. First time at San Luis Res. so I talked to the rangers and they pointed me in the right directions. Ended up working Goosehead Point and scratching up a 19" fish on a spinner bait. I also used anchovies and these 1 ft. sea worms that I got from Lucky Larrys these baits only got me small nibblers that would not take it all the way(must of been some small fish). Also, before I had left for this trip I had tried to get some information via e-mail from Coyote Bait and Tackle and got no response. You would think they could respond and help a fellow fisherman out. Anyway, I was one of those bank fisherman and am looking for tips from a any other bank fisherman that has some helpful/valid ideas on fishing this body of water.
      City: Daly City

    • By

      Water Temp: ?

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished SP at about 3:00pm Monday after limiting out on Salmon the same morning. Surprised, I had my limit of bass by 5:00pm. I was tossing a spinner bait and plastics working the area around the launch.
      City: Daly City

      Tips: Worked it slow.....

  • Shasta County
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      Water Temp: 82.7

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: In at Packers at 1845, 95 degrees, lake down to 60ft, 105 in town today. Went just outside to try a little worm fishing, waste of time, tried it for and hour and one bite. Tried the jigs and also had only one bite at 2030 and things ain't looking good. at 2105 I ran to a lower Pit hump that was only a foot deep and caught 8 with about a dozen casts and all on a top water bait and all were small, got back into packers and worked the west shore back in till 2230 and not a single bite. Lots of traffic this evening and the sheriff was busy running down the jet skis and boats without any lights on. area around bridge bay and the pit river bridge very dirty, no mud lines the whole channel was a mudline.
      City: Redding

      Tips: wouldn't know what to tell you today, it was the pits for fish of any size.

Monday, July 19th, 2004

  • Amador County
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      Water Temp: 72-73

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Larry's not telling the whole truth about last Wednesday! I personally netted his 6+ that he caught on a small Yamamoto grub! That fish was really hot, making a couple powerful runs before finding the bottom of my net. The bite had been slow up until then so this fish was a real pleasure....uhhhh....until we saw the whiskers! HAR HAR! Sure does make a slow night fun when you throw in a big cat every once in a while! (Otherwise, I concur with Larry's report!) And, while Larry was catching his bass one that grub, I caught all mine on a 10" Yamamoto grub in black/blue tail and lost another decent one on a buzzbait.

      Larry and I caught a dozen or so fish...many small, and our best 5 would have only been 8-9 pounds. We tried spooks, buzzbaits, worms, grubs, jigs, crankbaits and spinnerbaits. I think Larry even threw a frog for a while...tough bite!!!
      City: Fair Oaks

      Tips: Like Larry said, that "topwater" bite explodes right at dark for 30 minutes and it dies off as quickly as it comes on. Larry's grub was very effective during that brief topwater window. My 10" grub was best after dark and fished slowly.

  • Trinity County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Started out to Whiskeytown but kept on going until I found myself launching at Trinity Center ramp on beautiful Trinity Lake at 0515, Great morning warm and no wind very cloudy. Ran stright across to the east bank, started throwing a jointed Jitterbug, caught my two best fish of the day a 3.3 and a 4.5 smallmouth, tried throwing a spook and clown rip bait no takers, went to a drop shot off a rocky point three smallmouth all little guys, moved up into the tailings throwing a grub on a 1/4 oz. darterhead caught several smallmouth and 2 blacks, none of them were over 2#, tried a jig and got bit but hung up too much so I give up on it, I know I could have thrown it some more and caught some good quality fish, however I don't get to fish by myself very much and I just wanted to enjoy this beautiful lake. A great Day.
      City: Redding

      Tips: same old story, the gray light of morning produces great fish.

    • By

      Water Temp: Yes

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Now you know why I'm so reluctant to post reports this time of year. I hate to think that I'm helping these meat fishermen at all. If any of you Bass guys who are into catch and release want to know what's happening, E-mail me with your phone # and I will call you back. I don't mind sharing this great lake at all. For those meat fishermen, find me on the lake, show me the fish you've caught, release them alive and well, and I'll give you $10.00 for a nice steak at the Wyntoon Store. Those 2 lb. fish you're eating will be 6 lbs. in about 4 years. Why not give em a chance.
      City: Weaverville

      Tips: Trinity Lake is an awesome fishery. Just imagine what it would be like if the Eagles and the Otters were the only ones eating Bass out of this lake.

Sunday, July 18th, 2004

  • Amador County
    • By

      Water Temp: 79

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished from 6:15am to about 11:00am, fish were chasing shad at the first stop near the spillway first cast produced a 2 pound fish on a spook. Kept moving down the bank throwing a shad colored senko and caught 2 more little guys. Searched for more surface activity and found some here and there but like Larry said they come up chasing bait make a few splashes and right back down they go. Bait fish activity almost died around 9:30 so I headed to the damn and started drop shotting a blue craw roboworm caught about 5 more off of the damn including a pair of three pounders(3.0 & 2.9 to be exact) all on the dropshot. I also caught the coolest looking fish I have ever seen almost looked like a blak crappie and bluegill mix, it had some of the most awesome coloring on a fish I have ever seen.
      City: Carson city, NV

      Tips: Oddly enough the bigger fish came on the dropshot. Follow the Bait.