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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Monday, June 7th, 2004

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: 68-72

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Spent a few days on the lake for the WON. Lots of small fish with fish over 4# being very tough to come by. Lots of 4"-13" fish. Bad winds on the lake Sunday have the water clarity poor with visibility ranging from 1-3 feet. Spawn seems to be 95% complete with lots of fish in the post spawn mode already. Fish were spread out depth wise from 2 feet to as deep as 20 feet. In 5 days I had only 4 fish over 4# and caught from 20-100 fish a day (lots of non keepers). Of the bigger fish the biggest was 11.35# and came on a jig out of 20 feet off the end of a dock. Next biggest was a 5.5# that came on a frog from 2 feet. Had a 4# on a drop shot off a dock and a 4.5# on a jig off a retaining wall, both out of 4-6 feet of water. I would classify the fishing for Clearlake as tough right now, although you can catch lots of small fish in some areas. Still lots of shad and bait in most areas so the fish are well fed.
      City: Brentwood

      Tips: Jigs and soft plastics were the ticket for me. I did have a few crank bait fish and a couple blade fish, but the jig and drop shot bites were more productive.

  • Sacramento County
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      Water Temp: 73 - 74

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished the back sides of wind blown rocky points with big success. Fish were all on larger rocks in 5 to 7 feet of water. Caught a nice 3 pound spot and a couple 1 1/2 pounders before the wind came up early and sent us packing for the day!
      City: Sacramento

      Tips: Senkos, Senkos, Senkos

    • By

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: threw spinner for a couple of hours in the shallows - no takers, too much damn wind. Threw a laminate colored senko, awesome color!! caught one dink, thats about it. Theres no good cover in this lake, nothing!
      City: san jose

      Tips: Theres alot of small bass in this lake, if your lookin for dinks fish a yamamoto grub, or a four inch roboworm - I'm hog huntin'!!

Sunday, June 6th, 2004

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

      Report: Anybody have some tips for a couple of guys coming up from the Reno area for the day? We're just lookin' to have some fun, get away from the old lady, and catch some fish. We're used to fishing Shasta, Clear Lake, and Oroville. How can we get some fish in the boat?
      City: CARSON CITY

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

      Report: fished small cove, northwest corner of the lake - threw shad colored spinner all day, landed some dinks early in the morning. Mid-afternoon hooked up to a fish must of weighed between ten and thirteen pounds, beautiful fish didnt land him though, he unbuttoned about four feet from the boat. I thought for sure that would of been my largest bass yet! a lot of recreational boat activity, over-all not a bad day.
      City: san jose

      Tips: spinners in 4-10 feet of water - look for obvious ambush points.

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 73.5 F

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished north of Ladds/Buckley Cove just off the Stockton Deep Water channel. My fishing parter and I landed 12 fish for the day biggest going 5 lbs. Best 5 would have weighed just over 10 lbs.
      I mainly threw a Yamamoto dark green pumpkin with black flake lizard, Texas rigged. My partner fished a core shot 5" senko in dark green pumpkin/chartreuse tail, weightless. Found all of the fish on rip rap banks, with submerged wood. 5 lber came off a submerged tree top on a point in 6 to 8 feet of water. All the bites were light!
      City: Manteca

      Tips: Work your way through the little ones and keep an eye on the line for the light strike.

    • By

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished from Potato to Mildred. Caught half a dozen, maybe one keeper. Threw all the standard baits, but nothing seemed to work. Lots of wind. Not a good day.
      City: Dixon

  • Sacramento County
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      Water Temp: 73 - 74

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Another typical Sunday on Folsom Lake. No top water bite again, but the Senkos in the trees continued to be the ticket. Watermelon seemed to the the best bet all day. Today was a day that reminded me why I don't fish Folsom on a weekend, too many jet skis and waterskiers for my liking! I guess I will stick with my regular Monday on the lake by myself. Lots of fish around the rocks in about 7 to 10 feet of water in the North arm, and all in the trees in the South.
      City: Sacramento

    • By

      Water Temp: ?

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: First trip to Mather and brought the float tube. Fished from 5:30 to 7:30 pm and landed 3 and missed one other. Too windy to fish weightless so I fished mojo rigged tubes, black w/ red flake right against any decent cover. Nice place and I will be back.
      City: Roseville

      Tips: Throw right against the weed mats and my strikes were when the tube dropped.

  • Amador County
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      Water Temp: 70+_

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: went fishing on saturday from noon untill 5:30pm.
      Rented a boat at the marinia. nice people. fished and fished NOTHING. Came sunday, 6 June 2004. Gates opened exactly at 5:00am. Went to the marina. Saw very large trout jumping out of the water. I mean very large. Three total. Had my son cast and cast and cast. NOTHING. Rented boat. Drove the entire lake. looking for BASS. Yeah right. The only ones you will see are around the docks!!! NO FISHING ALLOWED THERE.
      I tried everything I bought. Top, bottom, middle side etc. The only fishing i seen was TROLLING. I my son and his girlfriend cought a sunburn and nothing else. Maybe we were to hungry. Checked Pardee website. BIG BASS caught 2002 june 17th. So i was a week early and two years to late! I don't know everyone it will be quite a while before go back. Booked a bass trip for clearlake. SMILES TO ALL OF YOU!!
      City: North highlands

      Tips: Bring sunblock and lots to drink. check the cleaning station for tips on what to use. good luck!!!

  • Westchester County
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      Water Temp: unk

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Hit the lake for a couple hrs on Sun. and got some nice cats out of Horshoe. I had to go with a floating system by some trees but I could not get a bass from the same area.....strange. Total was 3 fat cats about 3.5 lb ea.
      City: San Leandro

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

      Report: I arrived at Tannery Campground on Thursday the 3rd with high hopes of big smallies. I've never even seen the lake before and when I did a huge smile came across me face. I didn't get there untill 5:30 p.m. so my buddies were already on the lake so I set up camp and by the time I was done they were back for a break before the late bite. Stories of big smallies up to 4 pounds started coming out as they stuffed food away as fast as they could. I launched my boat by 6:30 and was getting my first taste of Trinity Lake smallies by 6:45 Almost every point we hit had a nice smallie on it. We were throwing dartheaded and texas rigged worms with a fish being landed every few min. All the fish the first night were smallish but the numbers made up for it. I did have a nice one get off right before dark when I switched to a crankbait. On friday morning we pulled our boats up to the trinity center and launched up there so we could hit these rock piles I've been hearing so much about. We got out a little late but it didn't seem to matter much. My brother-inlaw landed a nice 3.3 pound smallie in the first few minutes. A bit after that he nailed a fat largemouth and then another largie, he must have caught five fat largemouth before I had my first real fish, a nice 3 pound largie. We left the piles with that one smallie being the only big smallie we caught. We went back to camp and re-fueled for the night bite. We hit the bowerman arm ( I think that's the name ) at about 6:00 pm and fished untill dark catching a lot of fish but still no big smallie for me. We lost another big fish right by a memorial site right before we went in that night. My bro-inlaw said it was 5-6 pounds but I couldn't tell because I was reaching for the net as soon as I saw it jump. We woke up a little earlier on sat. and fished all arond the south end of the lake. It was so tuff we went back early. We ate some food, took a nap and we headed back out to the memorial for the last chance for me to get a real Trinity Lake smallie. We fished for a couple hours landing a few fish but still NOTTA. It was right about 8:45 pm when I decided to go back to the crankbait that I had the big one on the first night. Right away a smallie nailed it. 2.4 pounds. I was thinking alright a nicer fish but still not what I drove 3 hours for. In the next 4 casts I caught a fish. This went on untill about 9:25 when all of a sudden BAM!!!!! I knew when it hit that I had finally hooked into one. I didn't see the fish for ever. But when I did I started shaking. It jumped about four times and everytime it did I was prayin it wouldn't spit the crank. We netted it and took a few pictures then released it. It went 3.6 pounds. I was so happy I couldn't shut up. I got back to the trolling motor and was re-living the catch when WHAM-O It felt like I hit a stump. In shock I set the hook and holly cow another one! As soon as we netted it the hooks fell out of the mouth. " That one is bigger " my brother says We snapped a few pics and let her go. The scale was going back and forth from 4.2 pounds to 3.15 pounds so we called her 4. I sat down and laughed at the fact that I had spent three days throwing worms with no luck on the big one and then just a few minutes with a crankbait I had landed over seven pounds of smallies in just two fish. We fished untill 10:00 pm and then called it good. On sunday I drove all the way home to Paradise with a feeling of satisfaction and a smile that up untill 9:25 sat. night I thought I wouldn't have. All I can say is good things come to those who wait.
      City: Paradise

      Tips: I would like to say sorry to John Gray who was nice enough to offer me some info on the lake but I forgot to call him on wednesday night when I said I would. SORRY JOHN

    • By

      Water Temp: 60-65

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: went out today with a buddy caught 23 on lemonade senkos fished over by the boat ramp all day awsome day fishing biggest was 5 pounds smallest 3 pounds those lemonade senkos really do the trick
      City: san jose

      Tips: fish with confidence

  • Shasta County
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      Water Temp: 71-77

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Me and Eric had a two day tourny at pond #1..one day in the mornign one day at night..needless to say Eric killed me with over 12 lbs combined I ahd around 9..I ahd big fish which was a bit over 3..caught fish on jigs and worms..earth toned colors seemed to be the ticket on both..the morning bite had us throwing pretty shallow around wood cover..the night bite was tough becasue of a really bad wind, we had to fish deep, and eric got the fish..good job buddy
      City: redding

      Tips: 1/4-3/8 oz brn jigs....4-6" worms in watermellon, arrons magic red flake, or oxblood

Saturday, June 5th, 2004

  • Amador County
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      Water Temp: 75-77

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished from 7am-1pm. Warm day, only got 1 on a worm. It was almost 2 lb. Went out again before dark. Got 3 as the sun was going down on worms in Cats Cove. Nothing to write home about. Stayed out until midnight. Nothing. Went back to our campsite only to find out some campers raided our site when we were out. Pissed us off. We're pretty sure it was the hispanic group that was camping near us, as our tortillas and tequila were gone. I checked out there campsite after they left Sunday morn. and I also found some of my firewood there too. F-ing punks.
      City: San Jose

      Tips: Shoot first, ask questions later. Lock up your food, liquor, and camp stove/lanterns/tools...etc. Most people camping are cool and respectful, but there are some losers at Amador. I believe in karma, hopefully those guys ran head on into a tree on there way home and are in a coma right now with their families balling their eyes out.

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 74 degrees

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: My buddy and I went out on his bass boat at 2:00 pm last Sunday and it was pretty tough all day. The topwater bites was non-existent, the plastic worm and senko was useless, and we'd didn't use crawlers or minnows cause we'd both had good luck on plastics this season. We'd were heading toward skunk city when we'd decided to hit a narrow around Spanish Flat, lol... we'd saw the biggest bass so far chasing after 2 trouts about 2 lbs around a stump, she was about 26+ inches long and FAT like a barrel, she wasn't spook when we'd troll by using the electric motor, guess she was too busy eyeing them 2 RB trouts hanging around the bushes feeding on shads. So, we'd threw big swimbaits at her... about 12inch RB trying to simulate the trouts, she follow one to the boat and turned quickly, after the first casts of both swimbait she ignored it completely, then we'd switch to cranks, no results, used plastics worms and senkos at her, still no result... finally we'd threw spinnerbaits and bang my rod bent but a friggin 2 lber male hit my spinnerbait, LOL.. I thought I'd had my PB best for this year but a male bass was hiding between the bushes hit my spinnerbait!... after that we'd didn't get any bites at all but taps on the lures by other dinks we'd didn't want. Momma hog was still there around 5 feet of water... yes, 5 feet of water, so we'd really regret not bringing crawlers or minnows cause the live action of crawlers or minnows probaly would of produce a bite. My buddy had an idea... he used a salt water extended Salmon net and netted her from behind. He caught her using a net! LOL.. the momma hog weighted 16.9 lbs and 26inches long with a girth as fat as a barrel drum. It was getting dark around 8pm so we'd photogragh her for his collection book and released momma hog back into the water and around the same area she was suspending at... it was a tough day but we'd both caught 1 fish each. Oh well... netting is legal for carp but we'd were desperate seeing the hawg there and thought it coulda been a lake record! She look like 18+ pounds in 5 feet of water. LOL... if she had eggs in her she'd be at least 18.8 lbs max IMO.
      City: Concord

      Tips: Always bring a good size net cause you will never know it will come in handy.

    • By

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Non-stop, busting loose top-water action made a memorable Saturday for my lovely bride and I. Smallies and Large Mouth bass up to 4 lbs were busting 5" white Zara Spooks and Excalibur Chugs, probably anything else moving on the surface (saw several birds moving across the water like they'd had their tail feathers tickled by a hungry bass!). What a day! Fishing on a point near the big island in 12-18'. Returned on Sunday but the fish were lock-jawed. Beautiful day on a beautiful lake!
      City: Vacaville

      Tips: Wet a hook!

    • By

      Water Temp: 74-78

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Ah, let the night fishing begin!! I guided late afternoon-night trips Wed and Thurs - lots of quality bass and a nice largemouth - 6 lb 13 oz! The Wed trip was fabulous for quality, though we only caught 13 since they had to leave just when the fish were turning on - about midnight. One client started off with our only dink and then caught a 2-10 largemouth. The hot color worm to split-shot before dark was green craw, since the bass are feeding on crawdads. I sampled topwater and got a great 17 3/4" spot on a Chug Bug. But that was it - no more. Couldn't understand it - conditions were perfect for topwater. The worm bite was good and the fish were all over 2 pounds - amazing! I lost one that my 8 lb test just couldn't handle. One the fellows really struggled - missing several fish. Just before we quit, using 7" black Berkley Power Worms, he caught his first 2 keeper largemouth, and on his last cast (I was waiting to put his rod away), he sets on a 2-2 largemouth. We all went home happy! I think these were the biggest post-spawn bass I have ever seen in one trip.

      Thurs night was cooler and the fish really turned on - even the topwater. The quality of bass was almost as good, but we caught several 1 1/4 to 2 pounders also. I saw my first bass of the summer chasing bait offshore and threw a Chug Bug in that direction. A 2 1/4 smallie blew up on it - got it in - Wow! Totally flat belly. Client hooked his first topwater fish ever - a good one - but lost it. They went back to worming and caught a ton of bass. I caught a few more on topwater. Weird bite - we caught all smallies before dark, one spot at 2-5 (17 inches) that a client caught, and mostly largemouth after dark. One spotted bass only out of the 35 or so bass we caught. After dark, I found a dark wall to fish, but I though we would eat then. One guy just kept fishing his worm and the fish never stopped biting for him. Don't know if he ever did eat!! About 1 am I took them to a big fish area hear Rancho Montecello and we all threw our Texas rigged 7" Power Worms. I felt the same tick as I had felt hundreds of time before - set - and thought this MIGHT be bigger. It blew out of the water about 3 feet in front of the black light. That is not for the faint of heart! My client was scared to net it but he did fine. Good thing he did - the hook fell out of her 6-13 mouth! Sideways hook set just don't cut it! Someday I'll learn. Our limit wound up being 16 lb 6 oz - a trip none of us will soon forget!!
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: We found fish on just about any point we worked. If they had a flat - they were better. We keyed in on shadows. Most of the bass would be in 2 to 10 feet of water in darkness. The open water bite during a full moon can be tough. The bites were very aggressive after dark, not so before dark. Berryessa offers lots of areas to deadstick your lure after dark - it works! Remember to fish slow, real slow! I tried crankbaits after dark too, but no takers yet.

  • Yuba County
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      Water Temp: 70

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Kokanee is down at 50 feet in front of the dam. Wedding rings behind a dodger with white corn. Fish up to 13 inches, great day on the water with Grandson.

  • Santa Clara County
    • By

      Water Temp: 65-70

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Launched out at about 3.00pm. The wind was howlin' all day. Hit a 3 lbr right away on a pointer 100. Didn't get anything again until about 6.00. My girl Alicia caught a 2.5lbr on a texas rigged brush hog off the rock wall. We worked the whole rock wall with brush hogs, spinnerbaits and crankbaits. Nothin until about 7.00 when my girl hooked into her first toad, it was takin line and pullin like crazy and all she could say was "OH S%$T! OH SH*t!". Then before we knew it, it unbuttoned. She coulndn't believe how it felt. She was bummed.
      City: San Jose