Submit
Report

Northern California Lake Fishing Report

Limit:

Saturday, July 17th, 2004

    • By

      Water Temp: Warm

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I went out for just bass today. Catfish action has been slow. Caught a 2 pounder with Yamamoto watermelon senko in the morning. Saw it jumping for a dragonfly by some weeds, so i just tossed it out passed and got it my first cast. Got 2 more 2 pounders at the north shore using a red double bladed spinnerbait. I saw many 5plus pounders along the edges of the lake. I threw my senko at all of them but no takers. Any tips
      City: Oakley

      Tips: I got all my fish by casting from shoreline along the edges. Didnt even get a bite casting in the open. So most of the bass are in the shallows along the bank.

    • By

      Water Temp: 71-74

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Started fishing at day break. First stop was 400 yards from boat ramp. Landed a 3-lber on a dropshot rig, right away. Then my partner John caught a keeper and at the same time, I hooked up with a 10-lb+. Took a little longer to land this one, becuase it bit on my lightest rod and reel I own, rigged with old 8 lb test line. We fished all day and caught several nice fish.
      City: San Jose

      Tips: Take your time and fish slow. Dropshot was rigged with the hook at 8" up from the weight. I nose hooked a 4" curled tail or 6" worm. Most fish were in 6 to 10 feet of water. Fished on rock.
      No crankbait fish.
      No spinnerbait fish.
      No swimbait fish.
      No jig fish.

  • Alameda County
    • By

      Water Temp: 73

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished from 0700 to noon. Caught 8 nice bass - 3SM and 5LM. Three of the large mouth were near 3lbs each. Caught all but one on a carolina rigged hog. Took one on a crank. All were caught in 12-18 ft of water off steep drops going to 30ft with some vegitation. Tons of suspended fish. Many of these fish bit during the fall. This is a tough lake to fish - not a numbers lake but quality fish. Many boats, swimmers, kayaks, dogs etc.
      City: Foster City

      Tips: Fish the steep drops on the creek channels with plastics. If you know how to catch suspended fish then use that technique. If not then carolina rigs work with a 3ft leader and some sort of soft plastic. Nothing on drop shot, blades, or senko. Watch out for the water police. They stopped everybody that even looked their way. Go early and leave early.

    • By

      Water Temp: 72

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Gave a fishing report, but wanted to pass some infomation on. The real water police (with guns and not the boat patrol) hits this lake on weekends at about noon. This weekend I seen something I though was impossible. Recovered my boat at noon and this water police was giving out tickets (2), so what new? One never launched his boat and the other just finished launching this craft. Neither one was in the boat?
      City: San Jose, Ca

      Tips: 10MPH, if you have GPS have it on and tell the water police. Of course you may win the speed war, but by the time he inspects your boat you may come up short and have to leave for a safety issue. Go slow, there are folks swimming in the damnest places on this lake. Still glad it will stay open.

    • By

      Water Temp: 74 degrees F

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Been fishing the lake hard for the last month. Greatest bass fishing I have seen in a long time. Broke normal pattern and fish the south end of the lake in underwater weeds. Usally a limit by 9:00AM then spend the rest of the day for Monsters. Three weeks again my kid landed a 11.2 lbs in the same area on a weed break.
      City: San Jose, Ca

      Tips: Using plastics all month long. Texas rigs fished fast to targets, Kid did better fishing it slow all the say to the board. Senko are fine. Follow the fry and big bass are near. Big fish are leaving the area now, but still have a lot of action in 6-12 foot of water.

  • Sacramento County
    • By

      Water Temp: 74 deg

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: The gate at Granite Bay did not open until 6:15 a.m. so I missed the early morning bite. Started with flukes and ended up throwing them until 10:00 when I left.Had a lot of fun missing more strikes than hooking up.Ended up with 11 fish total. 1 ea. 3.5 lbs, 2 ea. 2.5 lbs, 2 ea 2 lbs. The rest were short and small. The best bet for launching is have four wheel drive and launch on the bank. Wear sandals and shorts. the only ramp is a two lane that gets crowded when taking out.I was out last Saturday and left at 12:00 in the afternoon and counted a line of boats 30 deep waiting to launch.
      City: Granite Bay Ca.

      Tips: Rocky points and rock piles 5 to 10 deep. I was jerking most the time and saw most hits. Mix up your presentation.Two of the best fish came on the initial fall.Leave the hook exposed and ratio of hook-ups will increase

    • By

      Water Temp: not tested

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished after 4pm till closing at the 2nd launch with a friend...threw all different color worms, got 2 dinks and missed a hit...friend got a 12 incher dink off a spinner...dead really dead
      City: San Pablo

      Tips: go to sonoma

    • By

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Been here for the last few mornings. Same as another guy here said, a bunch of bumps but no bait took in. Used Scum frog, wm senko, magi worms. Also seems after 10AM no action. gonna try other side of lake tules this week, only been on north side of lake lately. Any info will be appreciated.
      City: Sebastopol

      Tips: Go early

    • By

      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
    • By

      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
    • By

      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!

    • By

      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
    • By

      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!!!

    • By

      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
    • By

      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!

    • By

      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
    • By

      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
    • By

      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
    • By

      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
    • By

      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.