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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Saturday, July 17th, 2004

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      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished along the dam from about 7am to 10am. Used only a white spinnerbait with gold blade and landed one .5#, one 1.5#, and lost about a 2#.
      City: san jose

Friday, July 16th, 2004

  • Amador County
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      Water Temp: 81

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: I guided two great people - college sweethearts - who just wanted to fish Amador from a boat. They both LOVE to fish and handle spinning outfits like real pros! She amazed me - only one miss-cast the whole trip and she could reach the next cove - sitting down!! Her bait was always on target and would it hit with a soft "plop"! Just amazing! And she caught the biggest bass at 2 1/4 pounds! I was shocked when I arrived at the lake on a Friday afternoon and found out there was going to be a Fri night tournament during the dark of the moon. Wow, what is this world coming too, har! I believe this was a club from the Loomis area - great guys and very respectful on the water. I think, hearing their reports, we were all in the same boat - lots of smaller bass biting but no big bass. The terrible weed situation makes finding the big bass difficult and we had a southern front move in which usually slows the big fish bite - at least that is my experience. I think I heard someone land a quality fish because we saw the flash from the camera go off. In spite of all that we did land 9 or 10 bass with our five biggest at a little over 9 pounds. We each had a bass over 2 pounds and she lost a good one before dark and I momentarily hooked a big fish after dark on a 10" Power Worm. We caught our 3 biggest before dark, shaking 6" green craw worms on weed breaklines. The sunset was worth the price of admission (well, maybe!). I was surprised that some of our hits were very aggressive - there just wern't very many of those. We had a lot of hits after dark, especially on the black 7" Power Worm. He had the hot stick - landing 6 bass and a bluegill! I'll bet he missed 20! We really had a great time on a beautiful evening!!
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: I tried to get the big bait bite going but it did not happen. We got most of our bites on points and weed flats that had a dropoff from about 10 to 30 feet. Wednesday evening the fish were fairly active in the evening on the surface, but not last night. The mornings seem to be best this time of year for surface activity because the surface water is lightly cooler. Try throwing a Yamamoto shad colored grub into a school of feeding bass - that sometimes works better in the summer than a topwater lure does. The bass are chasing shad up from deeper water and then going right back down in the evening. You have to throw to them immediately or they are gone.

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

      Report: Fished friday and saturday evenings starting at about 2 pm. Fished from shore at the south end of the lake. The water is dropping and the bigger fish seemed to be holding up under the millfoil. My partner and I brought in around 20 fish, the biggest just over 5 pounds. Plenty of fish in the 3-4 range. All fish were caught on a texas rigged baby brush hog; with the exception of one caught on a white spinnerbait.
      City: Sunnyvale

      Tips: Try tossing your soft plastics into the weeds/garbage along the shoreline or on the flats, you just might catch da biggun!

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      Water Temp: 73-74

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: I was the first boat on the water. Threw a buzzbait for the first hour and got 3 blowups and 1 decent fish. Went back through the same area and got 4 more on a texas-rigged worm. As the sun came up I carolina-rigged the main lake points and got 3 more. All fish were 1-3 lbs. Off the water by 11:30. Fun day.
      City: San Jose

  • Alameda County
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      Water Temp: unknown

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: hummmmmmmmmmmmmmm.........first time i been to this lake. fished a couple of spots on the right side of the lake and not a bite...lots of grass and fry..tossed out jigs, drop shot, and a crankbait a little all from shore. didn't make it to the damm, but sre wish i could have found some deper water. i seen a lot of picturs of big trout and a pic of one big bass....so i'm thinking either i rent a boat of throw a big swimbait...any info is appreciated.....
      City: san francisco

      Tips: don't give up!!!

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      Water Temp: N/A

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: It costs 4.00 for car or truck and boat 4.00 is it.
      the lake is open to night fishing also now. good luck.
      Don.
      City: dos palos

      Tips: Crank!

  • Sacramento County
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      Water Temp: 75

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: The lake is more like a puddle at this time. We had trouble getting the boat launched due to the dock had not been moved down far enough with the water level at least 45 feet down from normal pool level. My 9 year old son Colin had a banner day catching 4 bass all on a 1/4oz silver Kastmaster. All the bass were in the rocks and very shallow. There was no wind to speak of and the lake was quite. Off the water by 12:00 noon, a good day. That's right he out fished me today so I won't go into my catch (1) information. Don't laugh Andrew, it happens to the best of us!
      City: Sacramento

      Tips: Take your children, they will teach you a thing or two. Patience is a virtue!

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      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Showed up to work at the satellite station to find my work time had been changed to start at 11 am due to striking techs. With about 4 hours to kill, I started walking the banks with a brush hog and a blade. Caught a couple dinks on the blade right off on grass edges in shallow water, and got a few more on the brush hog a little deeper, including one about 4 pounds off a channel break headed toward the grass flats in the back. Saw something interesting. There was balls of bass fry EVERYWHERE back there. I know this lake stays fairly cool due to being so close to the coast, but I would have thought fry balls would have been long gone by now. I think I'll go back out after work to chuck some stinkos on the fry balls and see what happens. This was also the clearest I've ever seen this water with about 4 feet of visibility on the western side.
      City: Middletown

      Tips: Watch your footing. The water is already pretty low, and there are loose rocks and dirt all the way around, and it is easy to be put on your butt if not careful. The bright side to the low water is that you can easily steer clear of the poison oak that abounds around this lake by staying well below it.

Thursday, July 15th, 2004

  • Napa County
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      Water Temp: 78 degrees 8 fe

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: went too campell cove today for some crappie.fished in boat for a little while using a red and white jig didnt catch any.found a nice shore to fish off for some catfish.hooked into a HUGE CATFISH but as i got him near shore he broke my hook.i did catch 2 baby catfish , blugill and a baby bass.
      City: san bruno

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 74.3

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: They are running the pumps at grant line.
      they are also draining the levee that broke.
      the water in the south ends look like the winter
      rains. just like chocolate milk. worst day i've had all year.
      City: LIVERMORE

      Tips: go north young man.

  • Shasta County
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      Water Temp: 79.6

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: in at packers at 0440, air temp 68, lake at 55.6 ft down, flat calm, went to the hump up at Packers with a surface bait and fooled around it till I could see to run and no bites. Went over into the mid Sac and continued with different surface baits and couldn't get anything to go until 0530 when I hit a stretch of bank that coughed up 5 spots on 6 casts but they were all near clones at 1.4 lbs. Got on some steeper stuff and got the jig rod out and immediately got bit good and in comes a 3.14 spot. Continued down the bank and managed one more by 0630 when the ski boat crowd got started. Went on back to packers and got out. Last fish was 30 ft deep. Water has cleared somewhat in the main body of the lake.
      City: Redding

  • Trinity County
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      Water Temp: 75

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Had clients here from La La land and had a great day. Yesterday I fished for a couple of hours early and found good smallies on steep walls down in mid lake area. Went there early this AM, nothing of note. Tried a couple of main lake points, same thing. Yesterday fish seemed to be relating to stumps in 15-20', today when we finally started getting bit it was on nothing banks. They caught several real nice smallies and almost all of them were caught within a couple hundred yards of where they had been recently but were on banks that were devoid of structure or cover. Basically the last place you'd expect to find fish. I guess if I understood why these fish act the way they do, I'd be out playing with Kevin and the boys. The fish today were caught on Gitzits and Pro Worms. Finally the Morning Dawn bite has started and if past years are any indication it should only get better.
      City: Weaverville

      Tips: If I were going out tomorrow, I would go down he bank until I saw the last place on earth I'd want to fish and I'd start there, of course tomorrow they'll probably have moved back onto the stumps. Thanks Tanya and Bruce, you guys are why I love my job.

Wednesday, July 14th, 2004

  • Shasta County
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      Water Temp: 80.5

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: went in at Packers at 2045, air temp 88 and a slight push out of the south, nobody at the ramp and not to many rigs in the lot, ramp down to 2 lanes, the ones nearest the float only, just went down the north bank throwing top water and caught 7 by the time I got to packers point but all very small, caught my personal best for the smallest when a 3 1/8 inch spawn of the year spot grabbed a junior spook, kinda makes you wonder what he was going to do with it. moved out to no name and the gap is not usable anymore, only about a foot and a half deep, the islands at Bridge Bay is up and connected to Beaver now so there is scads of parking near the north ramp now. Worked a jig around the sandy stuff in the gap and no bites, moved back into Packers on the south side and caught 2 more dinks and then stuck a decent fish that went 2.86 on my 3/4 oz jigs with a B n S twintail in melon pepper. Tried some other stuff with no takers and fished back to the ramp just enjoying the cool evening, out at 2330, airtemp at 70 with a slight breeze now out of the north.
      City: Redding

      Tips: looking forward to the new moon, things have been much better(for me anyhow) about 3-6 days after the new moon.

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      Water Temp: unknown

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: caught 4 fish at dusk while fog was coming in. Wind was howling as usual. all caught on a variety of things. 2 on blades and 1 on spook. other was caught rippin. Walked side away from dam. all 14" to about 2lbs.
      City: penngrove

      Tips: Try rippin. always catch a bunch of 10"-14" on them.

Tuesday, July 13th, 2004

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

      Report: going to fish berryessa for the first time this coming saturday on july 16th any tips on where to fish onshore. i do not have a boat so i need advice on how to catch bass on shore
      thanks
      City: stockton

  • Shasta County
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      Water Temp: 80.8

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: in at jones valley at 0445 with johnny mac as his boat is in the shop, started throwing some top water right off and got bit roght off on 2 but dinks only, went to the jig rod but only managed 5 more and all of them were dinks too, last fish came at 0620 and we fished till 0930 with no more bites, nice morning and the skiers didn't get going till 9am. B n S twintails in melon pepper again and spooks.
      City: Redding

Monday, July 12th, 2004

  • Santa Clara County
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      Water Temp: 72-76

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Gotta wonder why the rangers here are such kooks. A guy intentionally almost hit me on his jet ski and almost nailed my trolling motor. I was pissed, went to the ranger to tell him to do something about it because I'm trying to stay out of fights now. He didn't care. He was jusy done tieing his boat to the dock and he didn't want to untie it to help me out. He said there's nothing he could do. So I just took off and went up to the jet skier myself and was just waiting for his smart ass response so i could tackle him off his jet ski, punch him in the face and then tie a rubber band around the throttle and let it ghost ride into the shore. But he said sorry so I let him off. This time. Rangers are quick to give you a ticket but when you need help. They could give a shit.
      City: San Jose

      Tips: Jigs, and deep diving cranks off points and submerged weed beds.(5-18ft) My buddy got a nice 4.5-5lbr on a crankbait right at closing on the rock wall in about 3ft of water.

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

      Report: Some good news for our anglers. A reliable source of mine went to Del Valle this weekend and talked to the park ranger and told him that they WILL NOT be closing the lake and they're all keeping there jobs. Great news for our local fishery.If I get more details I will pass it on. By the way, he also told me that the bass fishing is good. See you on the water!
      City: Fremont

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      Water Temp: warm

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: went out and fought the wind on my pontoon boat , I tried almost everything in my arsenal and the only thing that seemed to work were watermelon and red fleck senkos tossed deep into the bushes where the dinks were on the attack , I hooked six and landed three hogs (none of them over a pound) all the big fish were way deep in the bushes in about a foot of water and did not want to have anything to do with me, so I left
      City: santa rosa , ca

      Tips: keep at it , they are in there and they will bite when you least expect it

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      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Can some people start participating and put some input in please. I need the help
      City: santa rosa

      Tips: please