Submit
Report

Northern California Lake Fishing Report

Limit:

Monday, June 15th, 2015

  • Alameda County
    • By

      Report: Bass fishing has started to pick up and many bass anglers are catching them each outing. If you are fishing for bass, the early mornings and in the evenings, mostly on plastics, jigs, hula grubs and top water will be your best bet. If you do want to try your luck a couple good spots to fish for bass are; near the island or the tulles by Raccoon Point. Please practice catch and release for bass, as they are not stocked into the lake and their population depends on you!

Sunday, June 14th, 2015

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 74-77

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Would I be smart enough not to guide on a summer Saturday?? I guess not! So, out of Pleasure Cove, I guided 3 young guys - who spoke Japanese the whole trip - with a bit of English! In spite of the pleasure boat activity, I had a second good trip at Berryessa in a few days. I took them on a milk run over half the lake and found some good quality post-spawn bass! This was their first American bass trip and they put together an 18 1/2 lb limit - one of the guys landing a 5 pound largemouth. This trip we fished shoreline structure as well as off-shore structure. After a good morning bite, as was on my last trip, the bigger fish were caught around noon to 2 pm. We didn't fish mudlines as many do, just structure around the 10 to 25 foot depth. They only caught 3 dinks and 3 or 4 smaller keepers. About 7 of their bass were 3 to 5 lbs, including a 3 1/4 lb hybrid smallie/spot. Beautiful fish!! They lost 2 big bass as well, but landed their other bass with lots of skill. One of the fellows was a top bass fisherman in Japan.

      Tips: Since there were 4 in the boat, I was planning to start them with 6" Robo worms. They worked so well we just stuck with them. Several colors were good, but again, MMIII was the best color. I had them using a Texas rig the whole time. Drop-shotting didn't work as well. That technique usually works better as the summer progresses.

Saturday, June 13th, 2015

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 75

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Got on the water at 6:30 and ran to Little Franks only to find out my trolling motor was dead. Back out on the water again at 10 and started fishing the breaks then the tules. Got a couple keeper sized stripers including this 6lber: http://youtu.be/sPR9pq02Z58

      Tips: For a cheap dinner hit the breaks on the flooded islands!

Friday, June 12th, 2015

  • Solano County
    • By

      Report: From Otay Michael Photos can be seen here: http://www.westernbass.com/forum/some-pics-from-past-few-times-out-the-delta-t96343.html
      Just got back from the Delta a couple of days ago. Got to go out two times before last weekend
      (taught a photo class in Napa). Once with my buddy up there, and once by myself,
      then two times this week, Mon. and Wed. (glad I did not go out Tues, man it blew didn't it?).
      First day I backseated on his boat, and we got 50 we figured (me 20) on just about everything,
      and ran from Paradise to Discovery and back. Of course it was a long day, so we had time, as
      5 am. till 10 pm at night is a lot of hours. But what fun, but the wind in the afternoon made it
      tough. No biggies that day, but lots of 2's, 3's and 4's. Lost a couple of monsters at dusk. Got
      them on crankbaits, d/s, spooks, buzzbaits, frogs, gunfish, chatters -both white (he)and black-blue (me). Pix http://www.westernbass.com/forum/some-pics-from-past-few-times-out-the-delta-t96343.html
      Next day I went out of Tower Park, my usual, and as I was beat from 17 hours the day before
      (and handling a flat when we go back on my trailer) I did not start till about 3.

      I went all top, buzzbaits, and got them all on that, except for a follow up fish on the Senko.

      Here's some from that day (more scenics, as no bass went over three).After three days of giving my photo class in Napa I was back out. I stayed with friends in Davis
      so it took awhile to get to Lodi and get the boat, then to Tower Park, so I started at 7.
      It got up to 103, wow,
      I did not even thing about it getting that hot, as I got into a frog bite mid-day- open water/ sparse tulles.
      By 3 pm I realized, with no wind, I was about dying!
      Back to Tower, took a break, had a beer, rested an hour, then got back out.The nicer one this day came as the sun got lower.

      Day four, two days later (Wed) we had that nice storm and rain come thru. Made for great
      topwater bite and I went out from 7 till 5, and got 14, all on top.Because of the long drive (and the crossing the Grapevine mtn in East L.A.,
      I usually bring the aluminum boat instead of the Skeeter. A bit slower but
      saves on gas, both on the road and on the water.Had to end early (5 pm) so I could start my trip back, to get through L.A. early enough
      to beat the morning rush, about 3 am and home to San Diego a couple of hours
      after that. Fun times, can't wait till August when I get to go up again, frog bite should be wide open.

Wednesday, June 10th, 2015

  • Butte County
    • By

      Water Temp: 74

      Report: Launched at lime saddle about 5:45 am, headed back in at 10 am. Decent day, headed from lime saddle and hit the north fork headed to the main lake, got 32 fish, 10 fish in the first hour. Largest a nice 16" large mouth, the other a 15" spot, with all others 12-14" basic size range. Fish were tight to shore, or deep, depending on the location. Glass lake for the first 3 hours, light sprinkles of rain, light breeze the last hour.

      Tips: wacky weightless senkos got 3-4 fish, all others on roboworms, brown colors.

  • Shasta County
    • By

      Report: Good afternoon Shasta Lake!

      Wow, what an interesting past 24 hours it has been weather wise!!! Yesterday we had a high of 109 and sunny at our location. Within 1 hour, the sky became dark, dropped nearly 30 degrees, high wind gusts, and had a huge lightning and thunder storm with sudden downpours!

      Currently we are at 92 degrees with 45% humidity (a bit muggy with the evaporation of the rain)...there is hardly a breeze and the water is as calm as can be smile emoticon

      This is certainly going to be an interested year in terms of water deliveries and storage levels at Shasta Lake.

      If you have noticed the lake level comparisons, you'll notice that the gap is slowly growing between 2014 & 2015. Right now we are 14.30 higher than last year. The water releases have been slowed down due to warmer water flowing into the Sacramento River from Shasta Dam. A lower start level and lack of snow pack (melt-off) have warmed up the lake temperatures. This rise in water temperature has caused significant concern for the fisheries, hence the cut back in water releases. This of course will keep the water level dropping at a slower pace than last year.

      Now, on the other side of the coin, we start this season with the majority of CA reservoirs at far lower storage levels than we did last year (see the graphs for percentage comparisons). With the other CA lakes having depleted the majority of water, one could only assume that Shasta Lake will have to buffer the water deliveries. This would result in a faster draw down rate than we experience last year. This will remain to be seen as we head into the summer months.

      In the next couple of weeks the BOR should be releasing new predictions on the draw down levels of Shasta Lake. I will be sure to post once I receive them. wink emoticon

      Lake Level Report (06/10/2015 at 10 AM)
      Lake Elevation: 976.41' (90.59' below full pool)
      Lake Elevation (2014): 962.11 ' (104.89' below full pool)
      Storage: 2,346,600 af
      Storage (2014): 2,083,788 af
      Outflow: 5,741 cfs
      Inflow: 2,451 cfs
      Precipitation (24 hr @ dam): 0.00"
      Precipitation (Season @ dam): 49.43"
      Precipitation (2014 Season @ dam): 30.53"

Tuesday, June 9th, 2015

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 80

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Clear Lake this week 6/9/2015


      As I write this piece we have rain and lightning in Hidden Valley, and higher winds have dominated this afternoon. Wednesday morning’s California Open launch will be interesting to say the least.

      Forecast for tomorrow is high winds, lightening, and rain in the AM hours, with a high temp of just 82 degrees, not what the sight fishing guys wanted to see for sure. Forecast for Thursday and Friday are much better wind wise with higher temps returning by Friday afternoon. Hopefully this is good news for the fish caught, and we do not see another 100+ fish mortality rate like last year’s tournament produced.

      Water temps remain high, 73-82 degrees depending on the area, and yes, the dreaded algae is here mid-lake south. Still, the winds and lower temps should help this as well.

      Patterns? Junk fishing seems to be the word, and is definitely what we experienced this past week as well. Squarebills, punching, soft plastic topwaters, drop-shotting, trashfish, Chatterbaits, Carolina rig etc etc, and you never know what may bite!….. This pattern will likely continue through the end of the month, with the bottom contact bite improving as we go. I HOPE!

      Results, 10-15 keepers a day is not unusual, and an average bag is around 15lbs, still much better than most lakes would produce during post-spawn. I suspect we’ll see 6-10
      Bigger bags each day in the Open, then it will be the 12-15lb average bags that dominate.

      Good luck everyone!

Monday, June 8th, 2015

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 68 to 78

      Report: Fishing with Sid‏
      The past week was a fisherman's dream the weather was great and the bass plentiful. I had a few trips set up for the week the first was Carl and his brother-in-law Dave. We caught bass up to four pounds and one three pound trout. The next day I took out David and Brandon who is fifteen years old had a good day caught limits of bass to 4+ pounds and a trout. That evening I got a call from David that the y had such a great time could I take them out again the following day which I did. It was a great fishing day again with huge bait balls all over the lake we were catching bass like crazy. I took out John the following day and headed straight to the area where the bait balls had been the day before. We were back to the launch ramp by two o'clock after catching over twenty bass the largest 6+ pounds. It was non stop with all the bass being caught in the top ten feet of water and we were fishing anywhere from 40 to 120 feet of water. We were able to cast just about anything and it worked. What I enjoyed the best was using a wacky worm set up smeared with "Procure Scent" any flavor seemed to work and casting it into the bait ball and watching the bass smack into it. My friend Dr. Randy came up for a day of fishing and I told him the fishing was great all week and I hoped it would continue. The night before the wind had picked up quite a bit and it scattered those wonderful bait balls so I had to look for them. I trolled the big rocks by Monticello Ski School using my favorite blue and silver crank bait and he stood at the bow casting a top water chugger and on his eleventh cast he got slammed but didn't react fast enough so no fish. We headed to the Ranch house next and saw some bait balls but nothing like the days before and with no size to speak of bass. Next I headed to the stumps and then the Vineyards with no luck either. I decided to try one more area past the bridge and past the boy scout camp where the trees are sticking out of the water and Randy loved the area. I set him up with brass and glass with a wide gap hook and a senco worm using crawdad garlic Procure scent texas rig and on his second cast into the trees he set the hook on a 3+ pound bass. He ended up catching some nice bass in this area and told me he loved this spot. Please enjoy the attached photos.
      'til next week....................................................................good fishing!!!!!!!!!!!!!
      www.fishingconnection.net If you have any questions or stories you would like to share or would like to book a guided fishing trip please email me at bestgiude@hotmail.com or call me at 650-583-3333.

      Tips: Tips: the lake is 33 feet down lots of bumps and stumps that you never knew are popping up

Sunday, June 7th, 2015

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 68 thru 78

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fishing with Sid
      The past week was a fisherman's dream the weather was great and the bass plentiful. I had a few trips set up for the week the first was Carl and his brother-in-law Dave. We caught bass up to four pounds and one three pound trout. The next day I took out David and Brandon who is fifteen years old had a good day caught limits of bass to 4+ pounds and a trout. That evening I got a call from David that the y had such a great time could I take them out again the following day which I did. It was a great fishing day again with huge bait balls all over the lake we were catching bass like crazy. I took out John the following day and headed straight to the area where the bait balls had been the day before. We were back to the launch ramp by two o'clock after catching over twenty bass the largest 6+ pounds. It was non stop with all the bass being caught in the top ten feet of water and we were fishing anywhere from 40 to 120 feet of water. We were able to cast just about anything and it worked. What I enjoyed the best was using a wacky worm set up smeared with "Procure Scent" any flavor seemed to work and casting it into the bait ball and watching the bass smack into it. My friend Dr. Randy came up for a day of fishing and I told him the fishing was great all week and I hoped it would continue. The night before the wind had picked up quite a bit and it scattered those wonderful bait balls so I had to look for them. I trolled the big rocks by Monticello Ski School using my favorite blue and silver crank bait and he stood at the bow casting a top water chugger and on his eleventh cast he got slammed but didn't react fast enough so no fish. We headed to the Ranch house next and saw some bait balls but nothing like the days before and with no size to speak of bass. Next I headed to the stumps and then the Vineyards with no luck either. I decided to try one more area past the bridge and past the boy scout camp where the trees are sticking out of the water and Randy loved the area. I set him up with brass and glass with a wide gap hook and a senco worm using crawdad garlic Procure scent texas rig and on his second cast into the trees he set the hook on a 3+ pound bass. He ended up catching some nice bass in this area and told me he loved this spot. Please enjoy the attached photos.
      'til next week....................................................................good fishing!!!!!!!!!!!!!
      www.fishingconnection.net If you have any questions or stories you would like to share or would like to book a guided fishing trip please email me at bestgiude@hotmail.com or call me at 650-583-3333.

      Tips: the lake is 33 feet down lots of bumps and stumps that you never knew are popping up

  • Sonoma County
    • By

      Water Temp: 71

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Got to the lake at first light and headed over to Warm Springs. Started with a spook and started catching bass right away. Top water bite lasted until the sun hit the water, then switched to a jig on my Dobyns DX795. Caught a couple small keepers. Had small limit by 7:00 then bounced around until noon and called it a day.

      Tips: Get out early for some great top water action.

Saturday, June 6th, 2015

  • Shasta County
    • By

      Water Temp: 73

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Friday night the wife and I slept on the boat out at Whiskeytown Lake. We fished from sun-up through about 2pm Saturday. We targeted Kokanee salmon using down riggers between 20-30 feet under the boat. Most Kokanee we brought into the net were under 12” however; we did manage to hook and keep two for dinner that went over 15”. Most take downs were on large silver dodgers and pink / orange spoons trailing 16-18” behind the dodger. We tried all color combinations and at different depths but the bright pink or orange is what they wanted this day.

      Between sun-up and 2pm, we caught:

      19 – Kokanee Salmon
      1 - 15 inch rainbow trout
      1 – 2.5 lb small mouth bass

      The bass was caught (accidentally) on a flasher and my father’s home-made lures (orange colored). I say accidentally because while we had our down-riggers set at 25 feet, I failed to notice that we trolled over a knoll or hump that was only 19 feet deep. All of the sudden our down rig balls were bouncing bottom and the lines came off the down rig clips. It was mass confusion trying to pull up the huge weights and my line became snagged on bottom. All of the sudden the wife's pole was slammed hard. I thought it too was stuck on bottom. While I broke off my rig and lost $10 worth of gear, she reeled in a nice 2.5 lb smallmouth.

      Tips: Flashers/dodgers and bright colored spoons. Running 20-30 feet down and about 150 feet back behind the boat. Troll slow 1.00 - 1.4MPH

Friday, June 5th, 2015

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 75-77

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: I had a delightful guide trip yesterday with a father, mother, and their barely 5 year old son - who LOVES to fish. We had a great day with beautiful weather and a quality bite! We fished the narrows and the southern main body. Their 5 biggest bass weighed nearly 17 lbs - including mom's 5 1/4 lb largemouth and the boy's first ever bass - yes, a 3 lb smallmouth! And better yet - on his "snoopy" type rod and reel - wow!!!! He hooked, fought, and landed that bass all by himself. I did nothing to assist him - just netted the prize!! Unbelieveable!! What a thrill for me - and his parents!! He was using a MMIII 6" Robo worm. That was the hot worm for them. Most of their bass were caught in 10 to 15 feet of water near island tops and ledges. Best bite was between 11 and 1:30 pm.

      Tips: There are probably some bass still spawning, but I was looking for post-spawn bass that might be more active for my clients to hook. We only fished Texas rigged Robo worms with 4 people in the boat.

  • Butte County
    • By

      Water Temp: 73-74

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Did a short trip to the end of the north fork, left the ramp about 6 am, stopped fishing about 10 am. Weightless wacky senkos in the beginning, got 3-4 fish, but no good size fish. Went to Texas rig roboworms and fished the day out, ending up with 17 fish, largest a fraction under 15", ever so close. Also one 3 pound catfish on a roboworm, felt the weight and thought, got a good one, till it shook it's head. Very light breeze, but sure was hot at 10 am!! Got a few Paul Krew hand made baits in a 3" minnow, going to give them a try this coming Wed. They look ever so real, got about 6 different colors to try.

Wednesday, June 3rd, 2015

  • Shasta County
    • By

      Report: Good Morning Shasta Lake!

      The crowds are starting to pick up on the lake and the weather is certainly getting warmer! We had scattered showers Monday afternoon leading into Tuesday morning. It didn't drop much precipitation, but it did green up in the area a little! Over the next week it should be in the low to mid 90's with scattered thunder showers.

      Currently it is clear, 78 degrees with a slight breeze.

      Here is another event taking place on the lake. Lake Shasta Dinner Cruises will be hosting their 5th Annual Billy & Patrick Country Cruise! On June 20th enjoy a 2 hour cruise on Shasta Lake with a couple of Redding's favorite DJ's from Q97 Country. More details and link for purchasing tickets can be found by following the event.

      Unfortunately, many of the businesses are getting more calls of concerned guests that there is little or no water in the lake. I constantly see pictures on line from LA Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Sacramento Bee and other news outlets of one of the many coves in Shasta Lake. These pictures happen to be looking up at the muddy lake and very little water in the picture, rather than towards the water and seeing a small section of the 265+ miles of shoreline that we currently have. I understand the media is trying to push the urgency for the drought conditions in CA. However, it can mislead the public on how much water we really have in Shasta Lake and has a devastating impact of perception for the recreation on the lake.

      Please spread the word that we have water, and plenty of it! wink emoticon

      Lake Level Report (05/27/2015 at 7 AM)
      Lake Elevation: 978.70' (88.30' below full pool)
      Lake Elevation (2014): 965.65' (101.35' below full pool)
      Storage: 2,390,724 af
      Storage (2014): 2,146,835 af
      Outflow: 6,220 cfs
      Inflow: 3,023 cfs
      Precipitation (24 hr @ dam): 0.00"
      Precipitation (Season @ dam): 49.43"
      Precipitation (2014 Season @ dam): 30.53

Tuesday, June 2nd, 2015

  • Lake County
    • By

      Report: So what’s going on at Clear Lake?

      Well, for one, the bite has become as fickle as it’s been since late last year. Yes, there are still a few bed fish to be found, but water quality is quickly becoming an issue once again. Clarity is hit and miss from one day to the next, and yes there is the beginning of an algae bloom throughout the lake.

      Prepare to junk fish as they say, as that has been the most productive pattern aside from sight fishing. Everything from buzz baits to bottom walkers are putting fish in the net but finesse fishing plastics slow, slow, and slower has been the bite producing the best “numbers”. I suspect that will continue until this moon is going away, and then watch for the jig and chatter bait bites to kick in like any other June.

      RoboWorms, Senkos, Brush hogs, and Wooly Buggers, drop shotted, nail rigged, darter headed, wacky, or Texas rigged will all produce fish right now, but you will have to weed through the little guys in order to find a quality bite. That said, there’s also a flip/punch bite, and a top water bite here and there.

      Everyone was moaning last weekend about the junk bite, yet BBT and ABA had 25 and 31 lbs. taking top honors in their events, so it wasn’t all that bad! Just look at their results, BBT had the majority of their field weigh limits and I believe in took 19+ pounds to make the top 15 out of their 80+ boat field. I haven’t seen the full ABA results as yet but I suspect they’re very similar.

      This week the fishing pressure is already down, and the fish are getting somewhat of a break up north, but the wind has returned and is doing its dastardly deed making sight fishing nearly impossible to this point. Deeper docks and weed edges are what I would focus on until this moon is gone, and the catfish finish doing their deal as well, then I would head for a rockpile somewhere…….good luck!

Monday, June 1st, 2015

  • Butte County
    • By

      Water Temp: 73

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Launched about 6 am headed in about 10 am, got tired of the wind today. Not a special trip, got 14 fish, with 1 16", 2 15", 2 14 1/2" the rest basic 13-14" variety. One of the 15" was a large mouth, surprised me. Tossed senkos wacky weightless rigs and Texas rigs with roboworms. Both caught fish about the same today, too windy for much senko fishing. Surprised to see the water up to 73 degrees, giant jump up in temps. Headed to end of north fork next trip. Bite seems off a tad today, no idea why.

Saturday, May 30th, 2015

  • Solano County
    • By

      Report: Fishing With Sid my freind rogers email to me


      Hi Folks: A great day on the Delta and a NEW Personal best Bass for me a Whooping 12.8 LBs, 26 inches.

      What a beast caught on a rubber frog at 5 pm, 4 really big jumps 3 ft in the air , under the boat and taking DRAG all the way. She had a problem fitting in my live well ,so I had to take her photo and release her ASAP. I was lucky my friend frank was home he took the photos. I also had a 7 LB bass and some 2s & 3s . Best 5 fish weighted 27 LBs.

      Whippy

      Roger di Fate

  • Alameda County
    • By

      Water Temp: 71-75

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Drop shot around grass point and flats and flippin' creature baits on steep bank cover. Got around 15 bites to 4 lbs.

      Tips: Lake is full...Go Have Fun!

Wednesday, May 27th, 2015

  • Butte County
    • By

      Water Temp: 68-69

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I went fishing today with Jeff, on his boat, launched about 6:15-6:30 am at the spill way. Jeff got the first fish, nice 16 1/2" chubby fish. Fished the area, no more, so moved across the main lake, and in no time had another 16", Around the bend another 15", then another 15", then a 16", a couple 14 1/2" one being a large mouth. It was so good to get into larger fish today. Our best 5 were about mid 9 pounds, or so. We ended up with only 13 fish when we called it a day at 11 am. Of all our fish only 2-3 were the basic 13" size, the rest over 14". Great fishing for the main lake.

      Tips: We fished wacky weightless 6" Senko's in the laminate colors. The larger worms were just too large for the smaller fish. Not a lot of fish, but better size when fishing this way. We fished STEEP banks with deep water.

  • Shasta County
    • By

      Report: Good morning fans!

      Right now the lake is looking calm and we are about 70 degrees...perfect morning for throwing you line in the water grin emoticon

      Although the holiday weekend is over, we still have activities on the lake. Yesterday the Forest Service, Lake Shasta Caverns and Shasta Lake Hotshots helped to host a fishing Field trip with Bella Vista's 3rd grade class. The kids pulled in some pretty nice fish, 3 of which were around 14"!

      This coming weekend will be the Fun in the Sun Day at Jones Valley Resort ( Shasta Lake Houseboating) Spend the day visiting Shasta Lakes finest marinas, enjoy high performance demo rides and see the Jetovator and Seabreacher in action! Contact information is on the posted picture.

      With the weather warming up to the 90's this weekend, I couldn't imagine a better event to go to wink emoticon

      Lake Level Report (05/27/2015 at 7 AM)
      Lake Elevation: 981.56' (85.44' below full pool)
      Lake Elevation (2014): 969.58' (97.42' below full pool)
      Storage: 2,446,595 af
      Storage (2014): 2,218,365 af
      Outflow: 6,999 cfs
      Inflow: 3,146 cfs
      Precipitation (24 hr @ dam): 0.00"
      Precipitation (Season @ dam): 49.43"
      Precipitation (2014 Season @ dam): 30.53"