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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Wednesday, April 6th, 2022

  • Santa Barbara County
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      Water Temp: 64

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: You can find what ever water clarity you want. I was out last week and found a stellar bite on steep banks with wood. Most fish were at the mouths of cuts but not in the back. No fish over 3 pounds and no reaction bite to speak of. A 6 inch oxblood light red flake fat roboworm on a downshot hook with 1/8 sinker with about an 8 inch tag line for the sinker. Arron's madness and MMIII all worked.Constant bite on the bluff walls across from the marina in the wind(afternoon) but you need to move along as some spots are loaded and some just a few. I can't say if the bite is late or early but it seems all the SoCal lakes have this problem. I hope I was early and you get into the blade or chatterbait bite like last year. Good Luck

      Tips: we found the bite deeper than expected somewhere around 10 feet and while fishing in wood is best it can be surprisingly costly in tackle.

Sunday, March 6th, 2022

  • Ventura County
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      Water Temp: 57-59.5

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I had not been out in 2 months due to boat maintenance and the addition of a new trolling motor and battery charging system in my Champion. I started late at 10 in the morning there were already gusts of wind. After I got the trolling motor synced up and calibrated I went off for a look see in the deteriorating weather with light rain squalls. I just spent A week on Clear lake and tried as I might I could not force feed the fish on something that works so well there. I picked up a senko and stuck a very shallow fish on my third cast. It was difficult to see because of the wave action but beds are clearly visible in multiple areas. while the wind continued to howl. I fished until 4 trying to find the reaction bite but went home knowing my next trip will be with plastics and swimbaits. It appears the bite is not as tough as I was told and I will only know in a week.

      Tips: The next week will be straight 70's so the water temps and the fish will respond.

Saturday, February 26th, 2022

  • Napa County
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      Water Temp: 50-53

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: I haven't submitted a report in quite a while. The lake has still been fishing pretty tough but is finally showing signs of improving. Decided to try the north end. Started on the west side and creek area marked allot of fish in the 15 to 25 ft range only caught 2 on a jig for the first 3 hours. Nothing on reaction Water warmed to 53 moved to the east side pulled up on a staging area. Started throwing an underspin 2nd cast I get a 3 pounder the bite continued for a while and ended with a limit for 14.5lbs. The wind picked up, so I moved around tried reaction and non-reaction baits with nothing to show for it.

      Tips: They are starting to move up but only in small areas. You have to cover allot of water to find them but when you do they seem to be grouped up. Crawl the bait on the bottom as slow as you can stand, and the bite is very light.

Saturday, February 12th, 2022

  • Sacramento County
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      Water Temp: 50-52

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: I fished Folsom Lake yesterday with my Father-in-law on his Tracker, getting on the lake at about 10:30a. As another fishing report suggested, I tried small swimbaits (hard and soft), drop-shot and grubs off main lake points. I also tried a few different crankbaits in red or chartreuse, pulling them across points. My best (and only) fish was a beautiful 2-1/2 lb spotted bass off a point just passed the earth dam on the main lake, 20 yards off the bank. Setup was a Strike King 1/8oz Squadron Swimbait Jig Head, using a Yamamoto double-tailed hula grub in pumpkin seed (orange), on 12-lb line and a spinning rod. We also fished hazard buoys near launch and on east side of lake across from launch with no bites, but this was around 2:30p so timing may have been off.

      Tips: Too early for coves, stick to the points. Try orange or red colors.

Saturday, February 5th, 2022

  • Shasta County
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      Water Temp: 48-50

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished Whiskeytown on 2/3/22 with my son. We decided to try the mid-morning through the afternoon. Got on the water at approximately 10:30am and went to the big curtain to check water temp and water clarity. Clarity is 18-20' and water temp there was 50. Marked a few suspended fish on several chains at around 40' in 100' of water. We saw 3 big fish on bouys, backed off and gave em about 20 mins and then started fishing. Couldn't get them to bite. We threw senkos, drop shot rigs, keitechs, glide baits and jerk baits along the entire curtain with no bites. Saw one big spot in about 14' of water on a shoal.
      Moved to some other deep water, winter haunts and marked fish on the bottom in 30-40'. Was able to catch several, all about 14", drop shotting an easy shiner at around 40'. Threw the glide bait quite a bit but never had a follow. A week prior I had a 4+ lb spot in the same location come out of 60' of water and nose right up to the bait but she broke my heart and turned down that offering.

      Tips: Fish in 25-50' with finesse presentations. If you can find a school of 5 or more you can get a few reaction bites. We didn't throw any real big baits but you know those work on the right day, right time.

Friday, January 28th, 2022

  • Shasta County
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      Water Temp: 48-50

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Launched at Centamudi because it's only 10 minutes from the house. Got on the water around 7:30 and fished until noon. Stayed near the dam, and found a lot of bait in one of the creek arms. Continued towards the back of that arm until we found the fish and I was surprised they were only in 14 to 20 ft of water, with some even shallower. My partner started off throwing a drop shot and boated a 3.19# spot on his first cast. I started off throwing a Neko rigged senko, which has never been my go-to bait anywhere really but I am trying to gain confidence in it. I missed a fish, and my buddy had two more in the boat very quickly on the drop shot. I switched to the drop shot, and we were both throwing keitech easy shiners. Immediately started getting bit and we had about an 8.5# limited within 20 minutes fishing.
      A light breeze came up out of the North causing enough chop for me to pick up my float and fly rod. I casted to the bluff wall opposite of the bank we were fishing, and immediately had to pull down with the hair jig running out about 12 ft deep. That fish was a solid 2 pounder. Continued with the float and fly and missed two lift bites, and then hooked several more on it before switching back to the drop shot.
      My partner started throwing a Ned rig as the sun peeked over the ridgeline. He caught two on the Ned rig. I started throwing a jig as the sun hit the water and the fish seemed to suck down into the guts of the creek channel and cuts. Caught a couple on a jig, and missed a few as well. We left at noon with a 10.5# limit on the scale. I was really surprised the bite was as good as it was after 3 days of heavy pressure from the Wild West Pro-Am tournament. We definitely hooked several fish that had been sore lipped three or four times.

      Tips: It seems to be the usual Shasta bite in January when we've had the storm door shut for over a month. Just find fish on the electronics and then don't leave unless you are not catching the quality you are looking for.

Thursday, January 27th, 2022

  • Tuolumne County
    • By

      Report: Glory Hole Sports

      New Melones Brown Trout lake record tied.
      The photo of this Brown Trout just reinforces the fact that New Melones Reservoir remains one of the best fisheries for a multitude of species in the western United States....13.4 lbs, and 32.5". The stars lined up for angler Bobby Aperoch of Yuba City. He had a fight, nearly more than his 6 lb. line and fishing from a kayak could handle. Unfortunately this brown did not survive to be released. Bobby was fishing near the Glory Hole boat launch at 2:30 and was fishing Crappie with a Notorious Jig. He reported his bait was at 50 ft when the brown took his bait. Landing this fish ties the lake record of 13.4 lbs which was caught by Michael Olivera, December 2011.

Sunday, January 23rd, 2022

  • Yuba County
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      Water Temp: 47-50

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: First time fishing Bullards Bar for myself and my son. We arrived at the lake after our 3hr drive, about an hour after daylight. We were giddy with excitement of fishing a new lake to us that of course holds world record spotted bass.
      We launched at the dam and made our way out into the main body. We fished primary long points and deep cuts with running water after studying videos, contour maps and other reports for weeks prior to our trip.
      Started out throwing neko rigged senkos in 35-50' of water and tried to catch some big suspended bass that were at 45' in 80' of water. Also alternated between other neko rig and 3/4oz football jigs on brown and green pumpkin, as well as, dragging keitechs rigged on 1/2oz football heads. Had several good bites on both the jig and keitechs but couldn't connect.
      We made a move to running water and continued our offerings. Working out way into approx. 15-20' of water I switch to a #39 mother's finest 6" worm on a drop shot and stuck a 13" spot. My son caught several more that size and then I hooked and boated a 3.25# spot on the drop shot. We continue to catch fish the rest of the day on running water but no more collie fish besides the 3.25#. All in all we considered the day of success as it was our first time fishing the lake and we were there in January, which is usually an inevitable slower bite, but we managed to catch 9 fish. Can't wait to go back, because the lake is beautiful and the fish are there, we marked a lot of them using mega down imaging, we just couldn't get them to bite. I wish we could have fished for two or three consecutive days to see if there was a difference from one day to the next.

      Tips: Do your homework before going if you've never been to Bullards Bar.

Sunday, January 16th, 2022

  • Napa County
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      Water Temp: 53-54

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: got 5 bites all day landed 3. all were near primary rocky points, drop shot, and split shot rigs. fished bama rig a bunch, no hits or followers. got 1 hit on a rattle trap.

Saturday, January 8th, 2022

  • Butte County
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      Report: by Rmats » Sat Jan 08, 2022 4:54 pm
      First time fishing Lake Oroville. Found a decent jig bite and caught quite a few on a brown purple 1/2oz football jig with a green pumpkin rage chunk trailer!

Sunday, January 2nd, 2022

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 45-46

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Went out on the northern delta. Foggy early morning and 30* outside temp. We fished till about 1:30pm without a bite. Started with jigs, texas rigs, bladed baits, lipless cranks and spinnerbaits then to wacky rigs, drop shot, even ned towards the end of day. Visibility was 1 foot at best. Tough winter conditions but did explore some new parts of the delta which is productive. Also on a side note we didn't see any signs of striper anywhere.

      Tips: We beat the bank all day. Wood, rip rap, tules and weeds. Maybe the fish are deeper somewhere.

Monday, December 27th, 2021

  • Amador County
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      Report: From Lake Amador Resort
      Amazing what a few storms can do to our lake level! Currently we’re at 20’ from full and coming up fast. We’ve seen 10’ of rise just in the last 3 days looks like the blue dock will be connected to the pathway and we should have 2 launch docks in the water very soon if the rain keeps up Expect to see a large trout stock happen on the next clear day this week

Saturday, December 4th, 2021

  • Lake County
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      Report: by Csuhchris » Sat Dec 04, 2021 4:49 pm

      Struck OUT Friday throwing the big bait at gooseneck and Henderson. Decided to actually tug on some fish and switched to small Keitechs with mega bass swimbait spinning heads. Also, swivel heads with a super fluke. Fish were actually super shallow (2 feet) and have heard anglers are actually having success with small crank baits in water as shallow as 6 inches! CRAZY and the amazing weather is pretty nice as well!

Sunday, November 28th, 2021

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: Cold

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Lake has been flat calm for the last week. Left the boat hooked up to the ball on the shore to void the crowds at the two ramps. Fished Henderson, Shag, Windflower, and Konocti Thursday-Saturday for a few hours. Hudd fish are starting to to be caught. Surprisingly a lot of pressure considering how slow it is… personally I’d go for the big bite considering you’ll get a handful of fish the entire day fishing finesse. Nights are getting colder!

Thursday, November 25th, 2021

  • Ventura County
    • By

      Water Temp: 65

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Shallow bite seems to ebb and flow with the full moon. No deep water reaction fish but I am on consistent fish in 30 to 50 with a wacky worm and a 3/16 sinker. I'll be out tomorrow for some black Friday fishing.

      Tips: If I see fish even as much as 10 off the bottom the slow fall and the subtle weight is a great one two punch until we get a good cold snap for some metal baits.

Saturday, November 13th, 2021

  • Sacramento County
    • By

      Water Temp: 58-62

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished Folsom for the first time in 7 months. Parking lot was empty when I got there and the courtesy dock was pulled halfway up the shore. Fished from the main point up passed the Pilot Hill launch area. I fished only reaction baits catching fish on isolated structure in 8-15 feet of water. Also with the rising water fish were positioned on the edges on the newly flooded grass areas. Most consistent bait was Staycee 90 worked aggressively until coming into contact with rock and stalling the bait. Also picked a few up with a 1.5 silent squarebill with the same stalling technique after contact near the grass. No info on the finesse bite as I didn’t pull them out, but talked to someone who caught a few on drop shot in deeper water.

      Tips: Cover water and fish the rock piles from a few different angles. I didn’t graph or see much on Live Scope in the areas I caught the most fish as they were positioned in the deeper cuts of the boulders, but I worked all the edges before figuring out the fish locations and moved to similar rock piles on both east and west shores. FYI they still as enforcing the 5 MPH speed limit until the lake hits around 400ft.

Saturday, November 6th, 2021

  • Sonoma County
    • By

      Water Temp: 60

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished the main lake areas and caught close to 20 fish. Mostly smallmouth bass using a medium running crank bait, jig and plastics down to 20’. Most of the fish came on rocky banks. Best fish was close to a 3 lb smallmouth caught on a jig. Lots of bait in the water. Water clarity was 1’-3’ depending on the area.

      Tips: Rocky banks down to 20’. Work slow moving baits on the bottom on the rocks.
      Run parallel to the bank with a crank bait for better success.

Wednesday, October 27th, 2021

  • Shasta County
    • By

      Report: From Shasta Lake

      Good afternoon Shasta Lake!
      The lake has not only stabilized, but it has shot up a few feet from where we bottomed out this year. From October 21, 9pm to midnight of October 22 (3 hours), CDEC reported an elevation of 882.24 ft, or 184.86 feet down from full pool. In comparison, we were very close to 2014 elevation when we bottomed out around 177 feet down.
      Interesting information about the recent storms:
      - Highest recorded rainfall at the McCloud location - 5.34" (10/22)
      -Highest inflow was 53,864 cubic feet per second (6am, 10/22)
      -The lake has jumped up 3.78 ft from it's low.
      It is how the storms arrived that has made the unique impact from these storms. Usually it will take several events of rain before the ground is saturated enough to allow run-off and "sheeting" to take place. This year, it happened on the first event. The amount of heavy and steady rain certainly saturated the top soil and even further. So much so that it is raining in Lake Shasta Caverns, you can hear the amount percolating through the mountain in the video.
      With the hydrology back in action on the lake, it promotes other obstacles. The fine silt has turned into a slick mud encasing the majority of the shoreline. The mud is pulled towards the lake through erosion and ends up in the lake. The turbidity of the lake continues to turn the silt & water mixture into what looks like chocolate milk. Some of these valleys have potential for large mudslides, moving hundreds of yards of material in minutes during our deluges.
      What I will point out as an interesting observation is to why the powers that be, were releasing water from the dam almost at the same rate as the inflow. This helps to explain why Oroville jumped 12 feet and Shasta only 4. I have not heard any explanation for this yet, but everyone on the lake is wondering why that happened.
      While this creates a muddy, and almost impossible mess to work in, you can rest assured that the lake is very busy with employees keeping the docks, boats and other infrastructure safe. Yet we are loving every single drop that falls and fills the lake.
      Keep those rain dances up and BRING ON THAT RAIN!!!
      Lake Level Report (10/27/2021 at 12:00 hrs)
      Lake Elevation: 885.73' (181.08' below full pool)
      24 Hour Difference: (UP) +0.27'
      Lake Elevation (2020): 962.75' (104.25' below full pool)
      Storage: 1,271,310 af (estimated)
      Storage (2020): 2,095,094 af
      Outflow (24 hr avg): 4,851 cfs
      Inflow (24 hr avg): 6,657 cfs
      Total Capacity: 22%
      Historical Average: 41%
      Precipitation (24 hr @ McCloud): 0.06"
      Precipitation (Season @ Dam): 7.89"
      Precipitation (2019-2020 Season @ dam): 0.20"

Sunday, October 24th, 2021

  • Butte County
    • By

      Report: by Pat » Sun Oct 24, 2021 7:16 am

      This will definitely put some water in our Lakes. Oroville has come up 2 feet since Friday, and this major storm is still coming. They just opened a low-low-low water gravel ramp at the Oroville spillway. With this storm, the possibility exists that the water will raise enough that it will not be usable. The problem since August has been the water level had this old gravel haul road on a flat area that did not have enough slope for launching. Let's hope it rises enough to get past this flat stretch. The few people that have gotten on the lake have reported that fishing is off the hook. Fish have not see a lure in months! And it is time for the fall feed.

Friday, October 22nd, 2021

  • Solano County
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      Report: Sent in from Alan Fong at Fisherman's Warehouse Sacramento
      Went to the Delta yesterday with Denise and Warren to shoot some video on crappie and look what we caught!
      I caught this carp on my crappie rod with 4# test. It ran out over fifty feet line and under a log. As the carp rested, I had Warren snag the line on the other side log and then I cut it and pulled the line back out and tied a uni-knot and continued to fight the fish. After half an hour I got it to the boat and released it back!
      Denise flipped her PB bass yesterday too!
      Only caught 6 crappie so video was a no go!
      Bass - 1 oz Tungsten with a Brush Hog on a 5/0 Gama round bend hook.
      Carp - 1/16 oz jighead with a 3.3 Kietech. LOL
      If you have more questions or want to talk fishing, come on in to Fisherman's Warehouse.
      Alan Fong
      Fisherman's Warehouse Sacramento
      (916) 362-1200