Northern California Lake Fishing Report
- Almanor Lake
- Berryessa Lake
- Cachuma Lake
- California Delta
- Camanche Lake
- Casitas Lake
- Clear Lake
- Diamond Valley Lake
- Don Pedro Lake
- Folsom Lake
- Iron Gate Reservoir
- McClure Lake
- New Melones Lake
- Oroville Lake
- Perris Lake
- San Luis Lake
- Shasta Lake
- Sonoma Lake
- Almaden Lake
- Almaden Reservoir
- Amador Lake
- Anderson Lake
- Barrett Lake
- Black Butte Lake
- Blue Lakes
- Bullards Bar Lake
- Calero Reservoir
- Camp Far West Lake
- Chabot Lake
- Chesbro Lake
- Collins Lake
- Contra Loma Lake
- Coyote Lake
- Del Valle Lake
- Dixon Lake
- Eastman Lake
- Guadalupe Lake
- Hennessy Lake
- Ilsanjo Lake
- Indian Valley Lake
- Kelsey Bass Ranch Lake
- Lafayette Lake
- Lake of the Pines
- Lexington Lake
- Loch Lomond Lake
- Los Banos Lake
- Los Vaqueros Lake
- Mather Lake
- Mendocino Lake
- Mendota Slough Lake
- Merced Lake
- Millerton Lake
- Modesto Reservoir
- Morena Lake
- Murray Lake
- New Hogan Lake
- Nicasio Lake
- Oso Lake
- Pacifica Coastline
- Pardee Lake
- Pillsbury Lake
- Pinto Lake
- Piru Lake
- Quarry Lakes
- Radio Lake
- Rollins Lake
- Ruth Lake
- Sacramento River
- Salt Springs Lake
- San Francisco Bay
- San Justo Lake
- San Pablo Lake
- Shadow Cliffs Lake
- Shastina Lake
- Skinner Lake
- Soulajule Lake
- Spring Lake
- Stevens Creek Lake
- Trinity Lake
- Tulloch Lake
- Turlock Lake
- Uvas Lake
- West Delta
- Whiskeytown Lake
- Woodward Lake
- Woollomes Lake
- Yosemite Lake

Saturday, June 5th, 2004
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Clear Lake
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Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)
Report: I threw a 1/4 speed trap from 5:30- 8 am, Picking up 20+, Biggest one was 19inches ( around 4-5 lbs) . I fished Pirate cove and fished a 200 yard stretch in a float tube. even caught one on a white buzz bait, single blade, I would like to thank Walton's for hooking me up with current fishing report.
City: Gold RiverTips: Bigger fish were caught on the end of the docks but fish were all along the docks.
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Coyote Lake
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Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)
Report: Well, I see none of my compatriots want to own up, so I'll do the telling. Four of us out there on Saturday night at the damn, and not one fish! We tried just about everything, and tried multiple sites, but nada. We blame it on the near full moon and recent trout plants. All the fat girls were full of planters, why would they want to chase down a facsimile? Still a good night of fishing with friends, as our Terminator/Gov'nor says "we'll be bach".
City: SJTips: None, we sucked.
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Lafayette Lake
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Water Temp: 67
Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)
Report: My uncle caught a 12.6 bass using a minnow. We were despert. I seen over 20 bass over 10 pounds. No joke.
City: Elk GroveTips: Try swim baits, but if you wanna catch a trophy, bring some jumbo minnows. You could catch the state record. Castaic doesnt have shit on Lafayette.
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Oroville Lake
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Water Temp: 70
Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)
Report: Went to Oroville to fish the Anglers Choice Semi-Pro on June 5. Played the numbers game and spent the day on the Cul-em-rite. Caugt fish on topwater(spittin' image), rip-baits, hulas, and dropshot. Caught my first 2 largemouth on this lake both were in the trees and caught on a Roboworm 3 inch leach in Aaron's Magic on a dropshot. Caught some fish on the hulas in motor oil and brown with black flake. We caught many fish (lost count) mud lines made by all the boat traffic were the best for numbers using the drop shot, especially later in the day. Caught a fish on each of my last 5-6 casts, sure makes it hard to leave. We weighed in 5 for 7.79 with a .2 dead fish penalty that ended us in 7th place, 7.81 would have tied for 5th. Big fish was 2.24 and I think 8 something won it. I have heard of schools of roaming fish and finally saw them in 2 different coves on the lake, kills you when you know 1 solid bite will give you the win and you see about 10 of them just cruisin and none will bite. Talk about frustrating. All in all it was a good day. We spent our day in the Middle Fork but I think the bite was the same all over. Lots of healthy fish, but the decent bites were hard to come by. Anyway these lakes are not our forte and the learning curve is steep, but we will keep plugging. Now back to the Delta for some froggy action.
City: San JoseTips: The main points held fish but it was the points within coves that we really put the fish in the boat. If you have a young one that wants to fish get a dropshot with a small green worm/leach and fish the mudlines, after getting used to the soft bite you should be able to put a bunch in the boat. loads of fun.
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Quarry Lakes
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Water Temp: warm maybe 68-7
Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)
Report: Well another day at the ponds ive been fishing here since before the fence was put in 19 yrs ago and this place has had good ones in it before i think if they made it MANDATORY catch and release this lake could improve tremendously !! i was here opening day and saw 8# smallies taken out i was pissed cause those were not planted the were natives anyhow today i got 3 largies and 2 smallies none over 3# so this place may come back around but its gonna take alot on ALL of us to keep it good! catch and release is a must here please let them go !! maybe my luck is karma who knows
City: fremontTips: try jigs black with red in horseshoe near swim lagoon early and from island to north shore towards the trout fisherman's side.smallies came from a black with blue denny brauer super tube
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Shadow Cliffs Lake
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Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)
Report: fished the back island pond we caught 8 bass. 4 on a craw & shad crank bait, 1 on a blue spinnerbait, and 3 on a texas rigged 4 inch pink worm. good day of fishing
City: Morgan HillTips: crank baits were working good but u have to fish them slow or they will just dive down into the weeds unless u can find some open water with no weeds
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Shasta Lake
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Water Temp: 60
Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)
Report: You two, Jerry and Bryce, are obscene in talking of those worms like that.. Smile/Hee Hee, just
joking. On a serious note, Bryce, that #23 is working well here on Almanor and I will try it on another lake and tourney on Sunday. Looking forward to giving the others colors I got from you
a try also. Will let you know the outcome and what they ate. Bill K
City: Eagle lake road
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Sonoma Lake
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Water Temp: 70-71
Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)
Report: Headed out around 5 pm Saturday evening to avoid all the ski boats. We decided to start up the Warm Springs arm since I haven't fished there in a while and before I could get the trolling motor in the water, my buddy Max was reeling in a fish. Then on my first cast I caught a 12" bass and 2 cast later a 14" keeper. We were both tossing blades and continued to catch about a dozen fish up to 3 lbs within our first 30 minutes. The wind was howling all evening which made it very tough. After dark the bite really slowed down and we only managed a few fish. Off the water around 12:30.
City: Rohnert ParkTips: Reaction bite is going strong around the windy points. Fish in the evenings to avoid the boat traffic. For plastics, try brush hogs or grubs.
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Tulloch Lake
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Water Temp: ?
Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)
Report: SPENT 1 NIGHT AND 1 DAY FISHING TULLOCH OUT OF FLOAT TUBES WITH 2 OTHER FRIENDS WE FISHED DURING THE DAY AND DURING THE NIGHT. WE FOUND FISH DURING BOTH TIMES. ALL SMALLMOUTH EXCEPT MY BUDDY GOT 1 LARGIE. ALMOST ALL FISH CAME ON DARTERHEAD GRUBS A FEW TAKERS ON TOPWATER COLOR CHOICE WAS HIT AND MISS GREENS, WHITE, GRAY ALL SEEMED TO WORK. WE ENDED UP W/ ABOUT 60-80 FISH BETWEEN THE 3 OF US. NIGHT BITE WAS BEST FOR ME. WE DIDNT COVER MUCH WATER BUT THE WATER WE DID FISH THERE WERE SOME FISH THERE. MOSTLY SMALL FISH WITH A FEW 12"-14" HERE AND THERE BUT STILL A BLAST.
City: SANTA CRUZTips: FISH LATE AT NIGHT IF YOU CAN STAY UP WITH THE BIG BOYS. DONT HOOK YOUR BUDDYS FLOAT TUBE IT CAN START LOTS OF PROBLEMS AND MAKE FOR A QUIET FLOAT SESSION FROM 11PM-3AM. SORRY GUYS I HAD TO FISH. BY THE WAY ALL YOU OTHER FISHERMAN THAT ARE THERE WHY NOT TRY POSTING A REPORT SOMETIME IT HELPS EVERYONE THANKS.
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Friday, June 4th, 2004
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Berryessa Lake
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Water Temp: 70-74
Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)
Report: Fished from 2-6 pm at some submerged trees. Got 9 fish- 6 smallies, 2 largemouths and a real nice spotted bass. They were all keepers except the first one - it was 11 1/2 ". Got all the keepers on a 5" watermelon/red lizard t-rigged. The biggest one of the day was 2 pounds exactly.The wind seems to really rev them up. I had a 13-14" smally chase the lizard for 20' all the way back to the boat- nipped the tail 3 times but wouldn't swallow it! Just go.
City: napa
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California Delta
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Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)
Report: My father and I hit the water around 8:30am out of lads. We fished a couple points that were productive in the past my father caught the most using senkos. We went further back into some quiet parts of the delta and I decided I wanted to fish my confindence bait. I tide on a speed trap and through off of some tall standing weeds. BOOM felt like a freight train hit my reel. After a brief fight trying to keep it out of the grass I pulled out a 23" 6.6lbs large mouth. My largest fish to date. You could see she was just post spawn or she would have weighed a lot more. Her sides felt hollow.
City: MantecaTips: Fish your confidence bait. We checked all of the websites and everyone said senkos were the way to go and the bite was bad. My father caught all his fish on senkos about 7 if I remember right. I think I caught 2 on senkos and 2 on speedtraps including the 6.6.
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San Pablo Lake
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Water Temp: 72 degrees
Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)
Report: Fished all day from 6:30 am to 8:30 pm. The basses were jumping when I got in and heck of anxious setting up my rigs. I started with cranks and had alot of followers, then switched to spinnerbaits and alot of followers, still no takers so I went smaller... spinners roostertails and bang a 1 lber nailed it but no hookset, I saw the fish and it spitted it out in front of me on the dock... they'd all were still jumping feeding, I'd wonder if this is breakfast for the basses feeding on bugs... lol, make me wanna try fly fishing. I didn't get a solid bite until 8pm, weightless plastic was useless all day. Caught 1 2 lber at 8pm which I released to fight another day. Trout fishing been slow too. A bank guy using catfish bait caught a friggin 7lber .. no picture for him cause the concession was CLOSED after 7pm but he weighted her at 7lbs. He told me she bit around 2 feet from shore. The dude kept the fish and decided to eat it... lol, I wonder what so good about basses, damn meat is tough and tasteless IMO, crappies are the best eating fishes in the sunfish family. Besides, most LM and SM basses are internally fill with mercury. Folks, better catch and release than getting sick eating basses. Oh well... that was it today for me just 1 solid bite around the boat launch. I didn't see any fishes around the tules but alot of shads feeding on bugs all morning.
City: ConcordTips: Don't waste your time getting up early cause they'd ain't biting until late afternoon when you get solid hooksets ... after 3pm is a good time to start and fish till San Pablo closed which is 9pm, a good solid 6 hours of bass fishing.
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Shadow Cliffs Lake
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Water Temp: Nice
Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)
Report: Wow, fist time this year. Started in the back isloand pond at 7am in my kick boat. Kinf of slow. changes ponds 11AM. had 8 fish. Nothing large. Started east end of the long pond. Found the fish. I was fishing too shallow. Once I started fishing off the drop off in 10 to 15 feet of water I really started killin'um. From 11 to 4PM I had 40+ fish. they hit anything I could get that deep. Jigs, plastics, Senkos, blades. Didn't matter. Larger I had 3 or 4 to 4 bls. It was a good call changing ponds and going deep. Very fun trip. I saw two other tubes out there. all were catching fish.
City: LivermoreTips: Deeper water. Slow presentation.
Dark colors, Plastics.
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Thursday, June 3rd, 2004
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Anderson Lake
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Water Temp: 69-70
Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)
Report: Went out for a couple of hours first thing in the morning. Caught 2 in the north end right away on a Senko. As the sun came up I fished texas rigged Roboworms in about 15ft of water and caught 4 more. Biggest was one of the Senko fish - just under 3lbs. The rest were 1-1.5lbs. Off the water before 11AM.
City: San JoseTips: Lots of fish to be had this time of year. Fish the steep banks with your favorite plastic baits. Have fun!
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Shasta Lake
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Water Temp: 74 to 76
Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)
Report: In at Packers at 5:30 PM. slight wind out of the southwest. Went up the Sac to Potty Point and fish the wall to the north. Had a few hook ups but couldn't get anything to the boat. I was throwing some new colors and baits I had made earlier in the week. I think it was 7:30 or so before we boated a fish. I ended up with 12, but most were dinks, largest went 1.9lbs. The Blonde only caught 6 and she is looking over my shoulder to make sure I tell you hers ran from 1.5 to 2.0lbs., no dinks!! We used different worms, jig trailers, and a 4" lizard fished Texas rigged. All the plastics were BnS Worms in #23 Melon Pepper, #11 Motor Oil Wine, #30 Fall Craw, #31 Silver Shad(Ginger's worm), and your basic black trailer after the sun went down. Out at 12:00 midnight. Another beautiful night on Shasta.
City: CottonwoodTips: The better fish came after dark on the way back to the ramp in Packers cove. We caught fish from the bank to 25 feet deep.
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Wednesday, June 2nd, 2004
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Berryessa Lake
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Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)
Report: Check this out...www.BerryessaTrails.org. The tree huggers would like to make some changes at Berryessa, and its not good for us fisherman..Any ideas..
City: Penngrove
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Contra Loma Lake
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Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)
Report: Ok so I went out today before work 7-1130 in my float tube. Started out at the island and promptly cought one about 1.3lbs wormin moved, kept moving around got a couple more on the same worm moved found an area that looked too good to not parallel a spinner bait along the tulies see a swirl and feel something hit my spinner so I set and after about 3 cranks the fish jumps and my spinner gos flyin the opposite direction of the fish probably good for at least 5lbs probably more, kept moving along into the channel got a small one at the opening and nothing more back to the bridge. Hit the tulies next to channel pt next and got a decent one in semi open water went about 4lbs and another off the tulies by the rock pile that went 3 or so, Got a few more in the tulies next to the cove to the left of the boat ramp then had to get to work.
City: PittsburgTips: Its muddy near the boat dock and the further you get the clearer it gets, there was a big party type pontoon with guys doing work on some new pice of machinery near the dam dont know what it was though never made it that far out.
Tom
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McClure Lake
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Water Temp: 71
Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)
Report: in the water at 4:30am ,calm darn near full moon.
1st stop top water bite, on but only small fish.
finely triggered a 2.7lb Largemouth to smash a chugger.moved up the river and fished solid rock walls up and back to Barrets several fish ,not many legal. purple seemed to be the color of choice.
City: VisaliaTips: Wait for thre new Moon and fish Mclure it is a much wider open bite.
shakin b8ts , Bassrancher
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Merced Lake
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Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)
Report: Told my son about the bass I stuck at Lake Merced two days ago. He went to the lake in the am before work and found the spot. No bedding fish, no nothing. He cast a few baits around and still nothing. It was early, so he went back at lunch.
The sun was bright, very little wind, good visibility, no fish.
A guy comes by and asks if he's had any luck.
My son says "No, but there should be a couple of largemouth bass on the beds, here."
The guy says "Oh, yeah...somebody told me they caught a couple of nice size bass here - yesterday"
Well.....
City: Daly City, CATips: These bass were guarding a spawning bed. Now, some idiot has taken them both out had apparently had them for dinner.
Please catch and release, that in a few years the
same idiot can take a couple of fish home to eat and there will still be bass for others to catch for sport.
I really should have mentioned that in my report a couple of days ago.
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San Pablo Lake
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Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)
Report: Fished a couple days on this Memorial weekend. 1st day I fished a southbay lake morning bite and grounded twelve bass from 1/2lbs to 2lbs. For the afternoon bite I decided head to San Pablo to give it a try. The bite was real slow there and got nothing. I did see a nice estimated 7 lber that an old man had caught earlier that morning on a crawler, it was dead on a rope. No hope of saving that fish.
City: Daly CityTips: Fished slow....w/plastics
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