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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Friday, May 21st, 2004

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 64 to 72

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Went out with my friend Terry Friday morning launched at Putah Creek fished Pope early with limited success my friend got a two pound fish on a spook caught a few smaller fish drop shotting moved to Putah creek continued fishing drop shot picked up several smaller fish. My friend did pick up one three pound fish on a popper around four thirty on Putah creek. For the past two weeks we have experienced problems with bass boats speeding through the no wake zone. Two weeks ago there was even water skiers skiing on Putah beyond the bouys. I find this disregard for the rules troubling I feel it gives us who follow the rules a bad name. I would be interested in hearing from anyone who has experienced these problems.
      City: SONOMA

      Tips: There are fish to be caught but it is going to be more difficult after memorial day with all the boats on the water and the disregard for the rules.

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: 65-68

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Spent three days on Clear Lake this week for my annual birthday big bass hunt. Found lots of fish, just all happened to be of smaller size than I hoped. Wednesday fished senkos, brushhogs, and tubes in and around tules and docks in the north end. Caught nearly 20 fish, best were in the 4#class. Key seemed to be tule points, and or, the entrance to slough like areas. Day two, fished crank baits hard in the am around the narrows. Caught good numbers, but the biggest was 3-4 #'s. Fished white norman deep little N's, and speed traps. Spent some time in Konocti fishing docks and tules. Started catching some nice 3-4#fish on flukes and senkos, but the wind came up a bit and made fishing those area's pretty tough. Fished soda bay and some other areas again with the speed traps in and around rocks. Best fish was again in in the 4# range on a speed trap. The rest of the day fished the tules with a white Timber tiger and different speed traps. Caught fish, but no size to mention. Day three, marine layer and no wind. Figured I'd try and get some topwater action going....nada. Fished cranks with minimal success. Ended up fishing some around Lakeport and flipping some tube fish up, and ended the morning with taking a few crank bait fish around the rocky point area. I always look here for info before I head that way, so hope this might help some folks. Lake is still pretty full, the fish have a lot of room to hide!!! Water clarity depended on where you were. Never saw any fish on beds (spent minimal time).
      City: Chico

      Tips: Green or brown tubes. Watermelon senkos/orange pumpkin worked well aslo. Speed traps, white or red. I tried throwing blades, only one dink (usually this is my best producer?)Tight lines fella's.

  • Alameda County
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      Water Temp: ?+?=??

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished for 2 hours Friday evening and managed 5 in the boat. 3-3lbers and 2-2albers. Lost 3 at the boat and missed about 6. Was throwing a watermelon senko with a split shotabout 2 feet above the hook. Also got a few on a 6inch oxblood worm on a dart head. All fish hit hard.
      City: Livermore

      Tips: Use the wind to your advantage

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

      Report: Took the tube up to sonoma today. Got in at about 6:15 and fished the marina area. Picked up a total of 11 fish including 4 or 5 smallmouth which was kind of fun. Most were between 1 and 2 pounds with a 3.6 and a 3.0 smallmouth thrown in. Got bit off just about every piece of wood I threw to. They seemed to be sucked up pretty tight to cover in about 2-10' of water. Got a pretty good bite going real early with a buzzbait, and the rest came on senkos and Luckycraft staysee. Most bites were very subtle, so you just had to watch your line. Best part of the day was 3lb steelhead off of a flat on the staysee. Was off the water at about 12:00 when the wind started kicking up.
      City: Rohnert Park

      Tips: They were much more active today than I have seen in the past few weeks, and were sitting on the outside edge of the laydowns. Great morning on the water, too bad the wakeboarders are showing up soon.

  • Trinity County
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      Water Temp: 63

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Went up to see what effect the big releases are having on the fishing. Lake has dropped approx. 2' since the weekend and should continue to drop for another week or so before it stabilizes around the first of June.
      The fishing was better than I expected. When the safety of dam release occured in Mar the bite went OFF. This time of year falling water doesn't seem to effect the bite nearly as much. Ended up with a dozen smallies, the largest at 3 lbs. all caught splitshotting or darterheading Pro Worms. Didn't get a reaction strike but didn't throw it much. Off the water at 10:30.
      City: Weaverville

      Tips: Main Lake points for better fish.

  • Shasta County
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      Water Temp: 67-68

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Went out for three hours before I had to go to work at Phils..got to the second pond at 6:20 am stayed till 915 am..got 7 keepers all on splitshotted 4" zoom Lizards in wither pumpkin or watermellon red flake..I used a 1/16 oz clamp on split shot and 6 lb P-Line Flourocarbon line...Caught a limit for 9 lbs mostly fishing the slower tapering banks..big fish 2 lbs 14 oz..Last weekend it took 18+ to win the Cottonwood bass team tournament..That was Chris Laskowski, big fish was a 6+ spot..
      City: redding

Thursday, May 20th, 2004

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

      Report: Did good on crank baits and spinner baits.
      City: san jose

  • Alameda County
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      Water Temp: 65 degrees

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: This gotta be the worst lake ever so far for me to fish. I'd try everything in my tackle and zero bites. I didn't even see any cruisers or dinks around the tullies, must be the cold front that came in today, but stand it really isn't an excuse for me to get skunk. Didn't even see any bluegills today, got out early and thank god I didn't waste money on boat rental, guys on boat got skunk too. This is a dead lake, I seen cruisers last year 15+ pounders 3-4 fishes this time of the season, but nothing at all today. Oh well... my first and last for this year at Chabot.
      City: Concord

      Tips: Use everything in your tackle box, give each bait 10 casts or move on, live bait will help but didn't bother today for myself, I've been getting good luck on plastics this year.

    • By

      Water Temp: 59

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Dark green senko around the tullies on the east side of Honker Bay will produce good bites. Got one nice one pounder around 10am this past weekend. Also tried Smithstick jerkbaits and white/yellow spinnerbaits but no luck with either.
      City: San Leandro

      Tips: Toss a 5" senko with 3/0 Gamakatsu offset hook (weedless) into the tullies.

Wednesday, May 19th, 2004

    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Nada, got skunked. For some reason, it is hard to catch bass from this lake. I caught a 5.7lber on Tex rigged watermelon/red flake Baby Brush Hog and two one to 1 1/2 pounders on dropshotting with Robo Worms six weeks ago. I saw many bass fishermen last year but not this year. My all time favorite bait, Senko, didn't work here.
      City: San Jose

      Tips: Slow presentation and finesse baits

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

      Report: Fished the ramp area from 7:00 to 8:30 pm. Caught 2 about 1 1/2 lbs on 6 inch chartreuse lizards. Bottom is getting pretty mossy.
      City: San Jose

    • By

      Water Temp: Average 68

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: First day on my new bass boat. Had one (1.5lb) on a carolina rigged lizard in a cove midday, another one on the same rig off a point. That one(2.3lb) followed my lizard all the way to the top and smacked it right next to the boat. That was mid day. Had hits drop shotting but didn't land any. Bite didn't pick up until about 5.30. Ripbaits (Lucky Craft pointer 78 Ghost minnow) in some weeds. Nailed 4 there(all around 1.5-2lb). Then hit up a rock wall and nailed a 4.3 lbr on a carolina rigged brush hog.
      City: San Jose

      Tips: hit the points and sudden drop offs. Use reaction baits later in the day. Smaller size baits for more numbers.

    • By

      Water Temp: unknown

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Beautiful day on the lake, wish I could say the same for the fishing. Fished the north shore between picnic tables and Yamamoto Point from 8 AM to 1 PM, only producing two dinks on a 4" ROBO worm, dropshot rig. Got about 20 or more strikes, but landed only two, both under limit. No takers on a white spinnerbait.
      City: Belmont, CA

      Tips: Lots of moss on the bottom. Almost impossible to fish any type of plastic on the bottom, weighted or otherwise, unless you know of areas without the moss. Dropshot rig will probably get lots of hits, but I wouldn't expect anything huge. Try a 6" Senko in the Porto-O-San by picnic tables!

  • Mariposa County
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      Water Temp: 64-65

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Wife and I fished Horseshoe Bend area and caught 40 to fifty fish, biggest going 4lbs. Had are threeyear .old grandson helping reel them in.We had one fish hit both mine and my wifes brushhog at same time very good day
      City: Modesto

      Tips: Watermelon brushhogs slow

  • Butte County
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      Water Temp: 67-69

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I think there is nothing more exciting about guiding than to take folks from out-of-state to a beautiful Calif lake on a beautiful day - and have the fishing beautiful!! I took a husband-wife from Tennessee Wed. on a great people day - crisp breeze and bluebird sky. The lake never looked better but I thought the fishing might be tough. They LOVED the view from the dam road - what I call the eighth wonder of the world! We had to start at 9 am because of their schedule. I took them to one of my favorite nook and crannies in the middle fork and he and she both catch one on their first cast! Oh no - a double jinx! Well, it only jinxed her - she really struggled even though her husband and I gave her a lot of help. She missed a lot of fish but did catch another near the end of the trip. He was NOT jinxed and together we caught 33, and believe it or not, 8 over the slot! I caught one almost 18 inches and he caught one over 17 inches (spots)! We didn't weigh them, but I thought I was fishing in late March because of the size! Wow!! We had a great time and they will always remember California fishing!!
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: I really was surprised by the size of the bass for mid-May and bright skies. I'm sure the breeze helped. It made fishing difficult for her, I'm sure. We drop-shotted and split-shotted for the whole trip, using Camanche Jack's early dawn, green craw, and blue smoke worms Also used 4" Berkley Power Worms. The near 18 inch spot was caught on a free-falling #240 Senko in open water. There are tons of suspended fish, but this day there were plenty on the bottom in 20 to 30 feet of water. We targeted clay banks with chunk rock in the middle and south forks. We fished a lot of willows (shadows), but that didn't work well. Most of the fish were in open water. This really was one of the most enjoyable trips I have ever had at Oroville - great people and great fishing!!

  • Shasta County
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      Water Temp: 65.7-67.9

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: in at packers at 0520, lake down to 20ft and falling slowly, air temp 56, wind WNW at 8, ran over into the lower Pit and got on a good blade bite with 8 in the first 10 minutes but all small to 1.77, moved over into the middle McCloud and threw a combination fo rip, blade, and jigs got 9 more with a 4.55 spot on a jig, lots of fish being caught but not much size, mud lines pushed by wind were productive, fish came as shallow as 2 ft and as deep as 38ft. 10 more days and the vacation crush starts, already seeing a lot of jet skis and ski boats. Didn't see any debris anywhere this am. out at 1215
      City: Redding

Tuesday, May 18th, 2004

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 69

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished out of Orwood. Launched at 6:30, fished til noon. Fished Discovery Bay, Indian Slough and north of Orwood to Holland Riverside Marina. Lots of good looking water, but no bites.
      City: Sunnyvale

      Tips: Keep fishing, they are there.

  • Sacramento County
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      Water Temp: 68 - 70

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: started the day at 6:00am with little luck. Top water was not the trick. Found bass in the trees in Jack's Shack on watermelon Senkos around 10:30am. Continued the day in the trees with 5" shad, watermelon and purple Senkos....good day! 6 in the boat and off the lake by 1:30pm.
      City: Sacramento

      Tips: Find the pattern early so you don't wast your morning! Tight lines to all!!! Let's keep this a place to share information and stop all the garbage!

    • By

      Water Temp: no idea

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: I fished Soulajule today from 12:00 to 3:00. The wind was howling out there, which made it interesting with my baitcaster. MANY backlashes to deal with and no accuracy at all when casting. I hiked around to the left side of the dam (as you approach the lake) and fished the coves where the wind wasn't nearly as bad. I threw spinnerbaits at first, but didn't get anything at all. I then switched to a shallow running Rapala fat rap (shad pattern) and hooked three in the same cove. All were small (10-14" max.), but they fought well. There were a ton of lizards in the brush alongside the shoreline. I was tempted to throw one of my soft plastic lizards on, but knew I wouldn't be able to cast it weightless with all the wind and there was too much algae to rig it carolina or with a bullet-nose. There was only one other person on the water and he was on the other side of the lake. No idea how he did.
      City: Petaluma

      Tips: Hit the sheltered coves.

Monday, May 17th, 2004

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 72 degrees

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: My buddy a I went out on his bass boat fishing the narrows and coves. Alot of SM bass bites on top water cranks and spinnerbait, mid bites were 5-6 feet down, SM bass were hitting on grub jig too, but NO SIZE beyond 1LB. So, we threw plastics in between boulders and shrubs, bang.. 3 lb LM bass... a few more cast and bang 2lb LM bass, alot of action in the 2-3lb range, we decide to go deeper water and anchor near a dropoff around Spanish Flat... saw the biggest fish in his fishfinder... don't know if it was a catfish or carp kept fishing and dropshotting with plastics, my buddy had a soft peck and he set the hook, bang a 14lb lunker bent his rod like a big snag in the rocks, she fought well trying to break the line going deeper water, we'd weighted her at 14.6lbs at 25inches, apparently the spawn is over and there was no eggs in her but fat/heavy from feeding on shads and crawdads. I didn't catch a lunker but had alot of bites in the 1-3 Lbs range both SM and LM bass. We'd released 14Lber momma hawg back where we caught her so she can fight another day at the same location in the future. Dropshot 10" inch plastic worm... purple with glitter. The cranks and Rat-L will net dinks, weightless plastic didn't work today but the "running" cranks and spinnerbaits had good action all day.
      City: Concord

      Tips: Anchor in 15+ feet DEEP water and dropshot LARGE plastics ... this will eliminate the dinks and entice the momma hawgs lunkers. When in doubt set the hook, use heavy tackle and line, when you are that deep visibilty decreases and braided line is the way to go.