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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Thursday, April 8th, 2004

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 63.2

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Cody got two over 4 pounds today and Partner (me) caught a 6 and several 2-3 pounders today in the Mandeville area.
      City: tracy

      Tips: All came on Reaction Innovation baits and Revenge Blades...

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: 56-59

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Spent the past 2 days with clients at a well behaved Clear Lake. The shoreline was beautiful, birds were singing, and the lake was calm or slightly breezy. Wow! The fishing was very good if you pretended you were fishing Oroville or Shasta. We caught 21 fish on Wed and 14 on Thurs - all except 5 at the 1 1/4 to 2 3/4 pound size - about a 2 pound average. And they are footballs. Also saw some small bass from last years spawn - another good sign. We saw everything except large bass and carp for that matter. Water is clear enough to see some bass if you look hard. They just havn't moved shallow yet, at least at the noth end. The early warm spell didn't speed up the spawning cycle because, I believe, it came too early. Now the water has cooled again because of the latest cold fronts, and as the previous post suggested, the spawn will be in later April or in May. Soft plastics and jigs worked well for us, as long as they were worked slowly. One of my clients on Tues caught his first bass on a jig, and another, and another, etc! He was very excited!! He was using the brown/orange Rodstrainer jig with #180 Yamamoto grub. I was using a purple/black/blue Rattlin' Weapon jig with #157 grub. Both worked well. I had one of the clients use a chartreuse jig which is good for shallow bass. He did hook a big fish but lost it. I lost a good one too. The black/red baby brush hog worked well in the afternoons, as did a Zoom cotton candy lizard in the clearer water we found. Berkley Pulse worms (6 inch) and Dead Ringers produced a lot of fish. We found males as shallow as 2 feet. The Senko bite is getting better - we caught several using colors #221 and #222. Most of the fish were 6 to 12 feet and tight to cover. We caught some moving worms slow through tules and I caught one rippin' and one on a Terminator spinnerbait first thing in the morning in offshore tule beds. Thurs client loves to rip but we got no more doing that.
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: As I mentioned, fish were tight to cover, fairly shallow, after 11 am. One good pattern was to find shadows at the corner of a wall - a bass or two were always there. Drop-shotting didn't work too well for us - didn't get many on pilings. The fishing for big bass will improve soon. Remember, Clear Lake takes longer to warm up because of the wind factor and because the nights are cooler at 1300 feet.

Wednesday, April 7th, 2004

  • Amador County
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      Water Temp: 63-68

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Had 3 trips sat/mon/tues,all three wanted (just to catch bass)size was not important so we splitshot,dropshot,brass&glass and pitched senkos from 0-18ft.Used roboworms,flash-trix,3.5 happy-hogs and 5in senkos.Most fish caught were in the 1.5-2.0 lb class with a couple that went 2.75 they came out of deeper water.If you want to go for BIG fish trow swimbaits basstrix,stocker trout,castaic the bigger the better 12in plus,until youre arm falls off!!!
      City: RV park at lake amador

      Tips: (Blue sky)tough bite,overcast days bass bite really turns on also when clouds cover the sun,pitch senkos right on shore and shallow stick ups next to deep water.

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 60+

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Went on a guided trip with Dave Gleibe and caught fish just about everywhere we stopped. Probably 20+ fish, avg 2-3lbs with largest 6lb4oz. and lost another one around 6lb. Fish taking worms, jigs and spinnerbaits. Water very muddy and fish holding tight.

      Tips: Still had to fish very s-l-o-w. Nothing on cranks or top.

    • By

      Water Temp: need temp guage

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: for the first time took "BASSBUSTER1" all the way out to Big Al's. it took the 20 hp merc. 45 minutes to get me there. that evening the wind was blowing pretty good and was unable to work my jigs or plastics effectively. tryed spinnerbaits and cranks there and through the five mile zone. no bites. by 6:30 started back for ladd's and waited for the sun to go down. using zippers and wild things by 10 pm hooked 7.6, 6.0, 3.4 pounders and missed a couple more on red/blk jigs. it was a good night.
      City: stockton,ladds

      Tips: the night bite is improving as the larger bass are moving shallower. all hooked in 3 ft. or less of water.

    • By

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: My good buddy and I took a trip to the delta today. We had heard the bass fishing was good. Good! It was the most unbelievable fishing experience of our lives. We were told to fish a wieghtless senko. The day started out ok. We caught a few average sized bass. We spotted a break in a levee, our boat could just slip through this small opening, we had entered this open area I dont know the name of it but it looks like a shallow lake. We fished around the whole thing for the next six hours. We had no Idea the delta had fish like this. We caught Six bass between five and eight pounds. lost an even bigger fish at the boat. i have never seen a black bass that big, It had to be over ten pounds. We also caught numerous three to four pound fish. Man can they pull!!! Needless to say we cant wait to go again. The delta is awesome!!!
      City: Sacramento

      Tips: six inch senko, Fish in trees and around weed edges. Also caught some fish on a spinnerbait.

  • Tuolumne County
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      Water Temp: 64.2

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Out at 3:30p, upriver between bridges. Fished until dark w/ 40+ fish between us. Almost all taken on 4in 082R, splitshot and texas. A few suicide fish on dinnerplates and ripbaits. Perfect day upriver, little wind and no competition. Mostly spots to two pounds (12' to 24'), a few largies w/ two 3.5's from up shallow. Richard, Modesto Castmasters.
      City: Sonora

      Tips: Small worms with red flake. On the bottom. Slooooooowwwww! Spots were clustered in 20 yard areas, largies spread along the bank.

    • By

      Water Temp: 62-67

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Went fishing with Nick Chip in the afternoon. We got on the water around 2:45. Tried for 2 or 3 hours to get out of the wind. We must of fished a dozen different spots before 6:00 pm. We picked up a fish here and there but by no means was it a wide open bite. Most of the fish were caught on spider grubs. Caught lots of red eye's, too. Big ones. All the spots and red eye's still had eggs. Every largemouth we caught had already spawned out. Most fish had pulled off a bit. No fish were on beds or caught shallow. But, at 6:30 pm, we tucked into a cove to get out of the wind, and then the fun began. There was a great top water bite right up until dark. I can't even remember how many fish we caught. We used everything from a Sammy to a Pop R to a Spit'N Image. Nick caught a largie about 4lbs, I broke off a couple real nice ones, too. Most of the fish we caught we between 2-3 pounds.
      City: Sonora

      Tips: If you want to treat someone to a really fun fishing trip. Get out to Melones now. The last hour or so before dark is magic. Start in coves that are wind protected and work the secondary points off main lake points. Have fun!!!

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

      Report: Dont know who changed the format of the fishing reports,,, but SURE glad they did... THANKS...
      City: Woodland calif

    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Anyone was fishing here lately?
      Any info? Tips?
      City: San Rafael

Tuesday, April 6th, 2004

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: high 50's

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Two of us launched from Korth's. Fished the Mokelumne, Potato Slough, and Frank's Tract. Caught 9 keeper bass (most in the 1.5-2lb range) and 3 keeper stripers (4, 5 and 7 lbs). Stripers caught on Rat L Traps and bass on char/wh spinner baits. A lot of action in Frank's Tract fishing the shallows around tule islands
      City: Dixon

      Tips: Toss Rat L Traps into water flow of any pumps that are running. Caught all stripers in 15 minutes at 1 pump when water was flowing.

    • By

      Water Temp: ?? still need

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: finally got off work to enjoy my 5 day easter weekend. PRAISE THE LORD!!!! as the sun was going down and during the twilight I was only able to hook guarding males, using spinner baits and flipping zippers. after dark was when the real fun began. hit most of my night time spots around ladds and started to nail good bass up 6 lbs. figure i had 25 lb. 7 fish limit by 10 pm. watched all the other bass boats come in for the day, i always enjoy that, thinking about my bass boat i want some day. any ways all the larger bass came on red/blk jigs. flippen around lit up docks.
      City: stockton,ladds

      Tips: just go out and have some fun and make the time time lol. i plan to run my custom vaclo bass boat "BASSBUSTER1" as far out as Big Al's in the next couple of days. Time to wake up the 20 hp mercury. OOHHYYAA!!!!!! SET THE WATER ON FIRE!!! lol.

    • By

      Water Temp: unknown, but wa

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Put in at Big Break with a friend who hadn't fished in 20 years...forgot the trolling motor so got blown around a bunch, but managed to catch 6 fish, 5 on senkos and one on a trap. All but one were in the 2+ pounds range. My buddy caught the first bass of his life (a 12 inch punk with spunk) on a senko...another fisherman hooked on bass!! thanks again to the guys at extreme Angler for giving a mini-report before we set out.
      City: san francisco

      Tips: don't forget your trolling motor...even a little unstoppable drift makes it tough to fish senkos effectively!!

    • By

      Water Temp: 2-4

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Sorry, to use the report page to ask how the bite on the delta has been? haven't been on for about one month. I have a couple of hours to fish tomarrow and i am putting in at lads. I was thinking of not running to far so any tips would be great,,,,,,
      TIGHT LINES.......AL
      City: Turlock

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: 57

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Spent a couple days at Clear Lake w/ Jimbo from Norman, OK. Wind and fronts moving through early in the week made the bite slow down a bit. Averaged ~15 fish/day, largest ~ 4lbs. Most were 2-3 lb footballs, with a few dinks thrown in. Saw no beds, or cruising fish the whole trip. All fish were shallow and very tight to cover. 5-7 feet was the magic depth (tules, tules, tules).
      City: Castro Valley

      Tips: Fish plastics very slow (7X Kut tail in #208, and Super Flukes in Watermellon seed & Smokin' Shad), and very tight to cover. TONS of shad in the Keys and in Rodman. With the warmer weather predicted for this weekend, it might really cut loose, but still seems a few weeks and some stable weather away from busting open.

  • Sacramento County
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      Water Temp: 59

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Went out about 6 am and stayed out all day until about 5pm. Only two damn fish (1.5 smallies) drifting watermelon brush hawgs. I was curious if anyone thinks that the water level changes are affecting the bite. Anyway good luck out there and drop me some advice.
      City: Rocklin

    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: I strictly catch and release also. it actually kind of bums me out to see people keep large amounts of fish. what's the point? not smart to eat them anyways. I mainly fish for trout, but don't bother eating even the small freshly planted ones. If i want to eat trout, i just go down the road to valeriano's and get their non-polluted goods! all the fun is catching the fish and the more let go, the better chance at catching them again.
      City: los gatos

      Tips: tell all the people keeping the fish at the perc ponds that they will get poisoned! check the pictures posted on the web for "kids fishing day" (forgot the url) everyone kept the fish. kids need to learn from better influences like the last guy who posted.

    • By

      Water Temp: 60's

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: SP Rob - Just so you know - that is not me posting anonymously below. I don't post anonymously. I emailed you because I felt like you were misrepresenting the fishing at San Pablo to try to drum up business for your guide service.

      You are the one who brought it back online with your post to the reports that got deleted. Pablo is being it's usual self this year, maybe tougher even than any other year. 4 trips for me and only 4 bass so far. I averaged 1.7 bass per trip over the last 3 years at Pablo. Yeah I fish for big fish. But 20 fish a day there is just about impossible. Maybe you found a school of spots on the rock wall or something on one trip, I don't know. I just dislike false advertising as a principle, and I do know what I'm talking about at San Pablo having fished it 41 trips for 11 fish over 10. This isn't made up info, this is facts.

      If you show me some pics of you in the same clothes with 20 bass over 12" in size from Pablo on the same day, I'll be happy to reconsider my views.
      City: Fremont, CA

    • By

      Water Temp: going tomorrow

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Just an FYI, I've fished this lake since I was a kid. There are big bass here, not alot but big, 20 fish days are near impossible, even for the likes of pros. People stated they have 20 fish days are over not speaking the truth. Again, this is just a general FYI.
      City: San Pablo

      Tips: keep trying, you'll get lucky

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

      Report: The fishing was very slow when you thought that your going slow enought you needed to go even slooooooower. For as four day trip I think I had a total of about a little less than twenty fish the best day I had ten. The fish came in any where from 5 to 45 ft all on worms
      City: MArtinez

      Tips: Fish really slooooooooooooow. Then also try to fish the banks with the sun and zero wind