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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Monday, May 10th, 2004

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

      Report: PS we also got J mac's cell phone # from wife he had turned it off!!! we drove 4 Hrs to pre fish the lake and he didn't have the class to even call us to this day.I guess he wanted to go Salmon fishing with his Friend! Some pro guide!!!. again do not recommend to any other future pro member use this guide.
      City: Alameda

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      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Was to meet johnny Mac for guided fishing trip @ 5:30am. we arrived at 4:30 am from alameda slept in car waiting for Johnny mac, woke up at 5:40am no johnny no call.called his phone no answer, drove around Brige bay. no Johnnny, Called again wife said he left to meet to clients, 6:30 see someone drive to launch drove over to see 2 perple in aluminum boat with salmon gear, called wife again asked what kind of truck johnny had she said dakota, it was johnny mac leaving to go fishing with someone else, no call or nothing Johnny Mac you suck!!!!!! we rented a boat @8:00am (that what time they opened) caught a couple of spots.never recommend J mac to anyone!!! you know who we are Johnny you drove right by us you@#$$%#%^%%^
      City: Alameda

      Tips: Don't use Johnny Mac!!!!

Sunday, May 9th, 2004

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      Water Temp: 71

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: got at the lake at 530 pm. Went straight to west side willows, found the largest trees and fished them. Ended up landing around 15 fish and hooking and losing 20. Hooks werent working to well, had a chance of catching about 40 fish between 3 of us. Pretty good fishing
      City: Orland

      Tips: worms, catch and release

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

      Report: You do not need a special permit on this lake anymore. Believe it or not, I have seen boats launched here, but you could use inflatables or tubes. Right now, I would be throwing Senkos in the tules and shallows for bedding bass or dropshotting 4-6 inch worms in an oxtail or margarita mutilator color.

Saturday, May 8th, 2004

  • Napa County
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      Water Temp: 68 degree

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: New to this forum, here's my take, alot of SM basses caught on spinners 1-2 lbs of the shore. I didn't get into a boat or borrow my buddy bass boat (he sold it) so I decided to fish off shore around Markley cove. Alot of bites for SM basses, didn't hookup any LM basses at all using spinners, cranks, plastics and anything else in my tackle box. They'd probaly went DEEP beyond 15+ feets of water, but the action is great from 7am to 6pm all day. Spinners, cranks, plastics all work plus weightless crawlers. Alot of bluegills everywhere, maybe the LM basses are hitting live fishes... didn't get any minnows, don't want the hassle of carrying a bucket around on shore! Great action.. catched and released all day with SM basses, caught a few crappies with my spinning outfit too, didn't bring my lunker rig, I don't fish lunkers until summertime when they'd are hungry trying to get their weights back from spawning.
      City: Concord

      Tips: Lunkers from shore... FORGET IT! Not possible unless you have a boat. Smallmouths everywhere tossing spinners, plastics, and live crawlers. No size but a few 2 pounds females. Get a ultralight outfit and do some bluegills and crappies fishing! Trout bites too with floated worm slide sinker rig... forget powerbait, trouts don't believe in the stuff at Berryessa.

  • Alameda County
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      Water Temp: 65

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Caught 6 fish - 3 LM, 2 SM, one trout. Caught one big 6.8lb LM on the first cast of the morning into 2 ft of water near a log along a bank using a senko. Caught 2 more senko fish good size and took 2 on a carolina rigged brush hog. The 3lb trout was taken on a drop shot rig in 8 ft of water. Fished the morning for 4 hrs. Bite was strong for the first hour to 8:00. It shut down completely after that except for one small fish taken on a weedline with a ripping a jerk bait close to noon.
      City: Foster City

      Tips: Fish are shallow early. Once the sun comes up move to outer edge of the weed line and throw carolina rigged plastic in 15-25 ft of water along drop off or weed point.

    • By

      Water Temp: 70

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Water level is very high now. Fish are off the banks. Caught one L.M. approx. 3.5 lbs. on a carolina rigged Zoom lizard in the south end outside a tulle bank in 10 feet. Worked my way up to the north end eventually. Caught 4 more nice smallies in Heron Bay. The wind was pretty strong. I was throwing a 1/4 oz silver/black back Rattle Trap in quite muddy water. Medium speed retrieve. Lost one big one too.
      City: Sam Ramon

      Tips: Fish the wind blown banks and pockets. Back off the bank.

    • By

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: continuing from last report for temperature, in some places also 70s. Temperature makes a big difference! i was feeling the water the entire time and i only caught fish in the 70 degrees water!

      Tips: just put your hand it. if its warm enough to make you want to jump in then fish it, if its cold, move.

    • By

      Water Temp: some places: 50

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Not bad for my first time at Lexington. Float tubed with a friend to practice for a tourney coming up. Mainly dropshotted with Zoom flukes and other lures. Caught two bass 2# and 3#. i was aiming for fish bigger than 13inches because thats the minimum for the tourney. The 2lb. was 12inchs and the 3# was 13-14inches (wouldnt hold still). The 3# jumped, it was cool. 2nd and 3rd fish i ever caught in a float tube! Going back next week! And probably more often too because my dad can get KPIG radio up there.

      Tips: dropshotting, try different colors until you get that one color.

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

      Report: DESPITE FORCAST TURNED OUT TO BE A GREAT DAY GOT IN ABOUT 10:30 ISH IN THE MORNING AT BRIDGE BAY TRAVELED UP THE MCCLOUD ARM AND STARTED FISHING THE POINTS AND JUST BASICLY TROLLING THE SIDE . LANDED A SMALL BASS ON THE FIRST CAST NEXT TO A LARGE LOG USING A STRIKE KING SPINNER . IT BASICLY SET THE DAY UP FOR US FISHED UNTIL ABOUT 6:30 AND LANDED 12 FISH ALL WERE FAIRLY SMALL 1-2 POUNDS WITH ONLY ONE I BELIVE TO BE OVER THAT BUT IT WAS A FUN DAY . THE BEST LUCK WE HAD WAS USING A SPLIT-SHOTTED(ABOUT 2 FEET) NIGHT CRAWLERS IN COVES, NEXT TO TREES. ONLY CAUGHT 2 OF THE 12 WITH PLASTICS CAROLINA RIGGED.
      City: RED BLUFF

  • Sonoma County
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      Water Temp: 58-64

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Started late at Sonoma today (06:45) because of a tournament I had heard about. Ran up the lake to get out of the wind and fished really clear water. Found fish immediately and by 07:15 we had 10 bass in the boat. This included one that went 6.2 lbs. We only fished about a mile of shoreline before leaving at noon. We ended up catching 41 bass up to 7.5 lbs. Our biggest 5 fish weighed 28.7 lbs. What a day. There were a lot of 2, 3, and 4 pound fish. The bass were from 5' down to 20'. Mostly on north facing banks with wood, rock, or a substrate change. Didn't catch any bass on blades,cranks,or dropshot. Everything was on plastic. Lost many fish to wood...again. Best colors 194J,221,and 186. Being out of the wind was much easier for detecting light bites.
      All in all, the fishing was too easy and very predictable. Almost every stick that we fished had fish on it. Anyone fishing must have produced some hefty limits of very large bass and I can't imagine the tournament anglers catching less than 20 lbs of bass each. A post from them every now and then would be nice.
      City: Santa Rosa

      Tips: Fish heavier line in the wood. South facing banks were best. Anything that feels strange...set the hook.Try and match color to the bank color. Green didn't work on clay banks. Stay barbless.
      http://www.sonic.net/sheehy/FishingFolder/LakeSonoma/LakeSonomaPage_1.html

    • By

      Water Temp: 70

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: went out at about 7:45 AM and went north off of the dock. Fished senkos off the first island in the channel and got nothing. Went to far north island and got one 3 pounder. Then went back to channel and got another one at about 2 pounds. Fished senkos all day up against cover.
      City: santa rosa

      Tips: Fish senkos up against cover and take it real slow, and they will hit it.

Friday, May 7th, 2004

  • Napa County
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      Water Temp: 65-68

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished from 630am until 230pm.The weather was light overcast where I fished most of the day.I started out the day throwing a big chug bug in bone with orange belly,second cast resulted in a 5lb14 largemouth.Continued fishing the flat and picked up 4 more to 2 1/2 lbs.Mostly smallies.Moved to eastside for nada and across to Big Island.Cast out the Big Bug and noticed my fishfinder depth was messed up so as I bent down to reset it I heard a fish hit the bug,set the hook on my best fish from here ever,8lb2oz.Beautiful fish,released,as were the others.10 fish 29.2lbs,best 5 20.40lbs
      City: Dixon

      Tips: Fish hit the chug bug when it was moving and just sitting there.I think the mylar skirt on the rear treble helped.One smallie hit the 3 times in the air before taking it.HAVE FUN

    • By

      Water Temp: 67-69

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished the narrows from 6:30 - 4:00. Caught 40+ fish using senkos, cranks, and drop-shotting. A number of the fish caught had crawdad's still in their throats. The fish were very active. Caught fish all over down to 20 feet. My best day on this lake yet. Biggest fish was a 3lb smallie.
      City: Woodland

      Tips: It didn't seem to matter on worm color this day. But the bite was very subtle.

    • By

      Water Temp: 64 early 71 lat

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Started in the narrows early caught a nice spot on my first cast on a roboworm 6" sculpin fished around big island and putah throughout the day my friend tryed various top water through out the day with limited success they would boil on it but would not take it. We caught four fish during the day on spinnerbaits. Our best success was on drop shot 6" roboworms in the back of coves and on points. We caught 28 total fish our best fish would have went two pounds very few dinks. Quality largemouth smallmouth & spots.

      Tips: It was a very light bite a lot of the time they would just pick up the worm and swim away with it. Saw a lot of fish in the 24' range but got most of our fish right off the shore. Overcast day light wind but for the most part quality fish and a good day on the water.

  • Santa Clara County
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      Water Temp: 72

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished the coves by the dam from 3:00 to 6:30, no luck. Threw chart. spinnerbaits, senkos, lizards, ripbaits. Had one follower on the spinnerbait.
      City: Sunnyvale

      Tips: No tips that could help

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 70-ish

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Just got through fishing the delta for 6 days...4 inpreparation for the Everstart and 2 days of the event. I did best around Middle River and Mildred at higher levels of tide. Caught a lot of spinnerbait fish using a DUH shad colored spinnerbait with one gold and one silver willow leaf blade. Averaged one good kicker fish from (5 to 6 pounds) every other day and the rest were 2 pounders. Caught lots of Senko fish flipping a 9L Senko in tules at low tide (either green pumpkin or watermelon with red/black flake - didn't seem to matter which color). Also caught a few frog fish...all small and about 6 buzzbait fish on the top of the outgoing tide. My partner yesterday didn't have a black buzzbait so I gave him one of mine. We were fishing them over the top of weed beds while there was still about 6" of water on top. He making his first retrieve and after moving about 8 feet, WHAM...this donkey of a fish slammed him. We both saw the fish but unfortuantely it wouldn't hit again.

      On the two tournament days, I caught a lot of fish but they were cookie cutter 2 pounders weighing 11# 4oz on day one and 11# 7oz on day two. Ended up a pound out of the money. Sure needed one of those kicker fish on either day!!!!

      I don't have first hand information on this, but several guys I trust told me they were getting good dropshot fish out in the middle of Frank's Tract.
      City: Fair Oaks

      Tips: The top water reactionbite is starting to heat up as water temperatures rise. Its probably time to start using poppers and spooks at high tide followed by buzzbaits at the middle of the tide and frogs at low tide. Fish are definately looking "up"....saw a bunch of very young ducklings in the area where we got most of our buzzbait fish.

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

      Report: I fished Clear lake May 7 - 9. We fished all over the entire lake. There were carp everywhere, but they were MUCH MORE ACTIVE in Cache Creek than anywhere else.
      City: Los Altos

    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: What is a good lure to use in the A.M. here?
      City: san jose

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

      Report: fished the afternoon/evening mostly around Barrett's and Piney. 17 fish in the boat with 3 broke that broke me off. Fished steep walls mostly.

      Tips: Senkos, spinnerbaits, topwater.