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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Monday, March 22nd, 2004

  • Trinity County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: About John Grays asking us not to get to close while fishing. I come up there 1 week a year, I wish I could fish it every day like him. There are a lot of fish in the lake John. If you are fishing the named spots, baseball field, tailing
      you have to share, you do not own the lake. I have
      also never taken a fish home from Trinity. Catch & release, enough for every one.
      City: Sacto.

Sunday, March 21st, 2004

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 62-65

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Caught 16 fish total. 14 keepers to 2.5lbs, with two dinks thrown in. Mostly smallmouths, mostly males, making beds. 3-8ft depth, all came on dart heads, with 4in plastics.
      City: Vallejo

      Tips: Go fishing, it's fun!

  • Santa Clara County
    • By

      Water Temp: 58

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished along the dam from 11:30am - 4pm and eventually started catching some on a Texas-rigged brown pumpkin lizard. The largest was 2.5 lbs and I ended up with 3. I also found a rattlesnake along the shoreline, so be very careful, if you're out there. Luckily, I heard the rattle. It was only 1.5 ft from where I was standing.
      City: Saratoga

      Tips: Didn't have any luck with the green or red colored plastics. Brown worked for me.

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 64

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished both days this weekend, Saturday and Sunday were a complete flip flop for me. Fished with Pat in the 100% event, our start spot produced 4+ hours of nothing but one 13" dink. Although we did see a few 2 pounders on beds in the back of the slough. It wasn't until the tide dropped and we moved out towards the San Jaquine River that we began to find a couple areas with some fish. We only caugh three, 4+ on a zipper, a 4+ on a jig-n-pig and a 9.33 on a 9L Senko. 19# for four fish. Today was just the opposite. First stop on today's guide trip with Rich McHugh, we're tossing the Senko and Zipper, after 40 minues of nothing I pig up the jig and flip it in there and whack a 7 pounder. I catch 4 more fish down this bank, a 4,5,6 and the 10lb 8oz buck. we caught 20 other fish all day, only one of them was a keeper that Rich caught on the 9L Senko, but it went 7lb 2oz! Fishing this weekend was great, but catching is a lot tougher than it should be!
      City: Oakley

      Tips: The fish are moving up, but only in select areas and no two days in a row are the same right now. There are some fish on beds right now, but the vast majority of these are 2-3 pounders from what I have seen. There are some key big fish areas where the giants are moving in, ya just gotta go fish a dozen spots over two days ta find a couple were ya can git yer bites. The River is FAR from being wide open.

  • Alameda County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Been having a little luck, a bass or two. Small, about pound or pound and a half. Best for me has been plastics, sparkly silver pink grub and black and purple worm. I use shad spray. Don't know if it's helping. Also, I use a crawdad crankbait and have had a few fish follow it in. Think I talked to Coolcatt and Bassanator the other day on the lake. Hope you are having more luck than me. When can we expect the lake to heat up? It seems the warmer the day, the better the luck I've had. Hope it gets hot in a hurry.
      City: Danville

      Tips: Reel super slow.

    • By

      Water Temp: 62-64

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Pajaro Valley Bass Clubs March Tournament, 21 anglers, many quality fish weighed in. My 8.47 was looking real good for BF until the last angler weighed in his winning limit of 21.70 with a 12.43 kicker(pic on our website)caught 1 hour before weigh-in. A 7.86 was also weighed in. Most of the quality fish were caught flippin plastics or jigs or jerk baits. Several 4's and 5's were caught but only 2 limits.
      City: Watsonville

      Tips: Fish were caught just about everywhere in shallow water on just about everything except swimbaits.

  • Tuolumne County
    • By

      Water Temp: 70

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished coves and cuts in Middle Bay. Ripping and spinner bait produced only one then switched to split shot worms. Boated about 30 w/the biggest going 3.5 lbs.
      City: Delhi

      Tips: Fish were on secondary points 15' to 20' or back end of coves 5' to 10'. Best color for us was green weenie and in the afternoon a green weenie w/chartruese tail or baby bass.

  • Sacramento County
    • By

      Water Temp: 58-60

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: What was the tourney on Sunday? Like the previous report, I had guys cut me off from a cove I was heading into. They had to speed up fast to do it too, in a 5 mph area. That lake seems to get pounded with these guys. What ever happened to an enjoyable day on the lake? Got 5 fish in 15' of water on plastics...one about 3#. Very subtle bites...just pressure. All released. DFG guy at Dyke 8 ramp said not many fish caught. This lake is at least 5 degrees colder than others around here due to the snowmelt coming into it. Lots of folks out enjoying the weather in their boats. Busy boat ramp on the way in in the early afternoon, with lots of folks still arriving.
      City: Sac

      Tips: Feel the pressure and set the hook.

    • By

      Water Temp: 62

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: First time post but I felt I really needed to do this. Took my 3 year old girl out for a couple hours on Sunday. Getting frustrated because I have fished this lake for years and know how to get them but found it tuff for the third time in the last four outtings this month. I had one good day 2 weeks ago when I landed 7 in 3 hrs, then it has dropped off. Looks like there is a ton of pressure out there. Every cove has a boat in it or on the point, including the weekdays.Catching the fish right now is not my big concern, however the tourney fisherman I ran across this weekend is. I was fishing the main body near beeks bight towards the back of a cove. As I was casting and approaching the cove with my trolling motor and tourney guy came racing into the same spot that was 20 yards and heading in that direction. I was thinking what the heck." is this idiot doing??? As he slowed down, he stopped the motor and was heading for his trolling motor about 20 ft from me. I had to say something so I yelled out " Hey, I was going to fish that cove". His response to me was " well I have 1500.00 riding on fishing this cove." I yelled"so what, I have a little girl here dying to catch a fish!" His response was" Hell, I guess you think that is more important." So he then turned around and blasted out of the spot. I know not every tourney fisherman acts this way, but at Folsom lately, it seems like they think they own the lake. It happened to me on thursday last week as well, but the guy claimed he was just looking. funny thing was he started fishing once he passed me. I was considering trying a tourny but lately after my first few outting this year, I really don't think I want to be a part of the maddness. Fishing is a way for me to escape my daily grind, for fun, to think of nothing else but to catch that darn bass, and I love it. These guys out on Folsom have lost that, and now all they seem to care about is winning a few thousand bucks. Get real, man, if you need the dough that bad, why in the hell did you buy a 30,000 boat??? Thats all I have to say, but I really enjoy this forum and I hope some of the tourny fisherman out there read this and start respecting the guy out there who is trying to have fun, espiecally if there kid is with them.
      City: el dorado hills

    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: To the gentelman from Modesto replying to cn. I agree with most of what you said about moving the fish and boat traffic and such. However, your completely off target on a couple off issues. First of all, I have never fished a tournement, I have never transported a bass in my boat nor kept a bass. I do however, have a bass boat with a 200 OPI MAX, I need to get around the lake too. I fish strickly for fun. I feel the whole tournement thing is a little silly, a bit obsessive, but what ever. Mixing financial issues with fishing does not interest me. I relax out there, not interested in weigh ins and such. I do fish hard, but for enjoyment, not money. I'm not knocking the tourny guy though, to each his own.

      When I need food, I go to the gracery stoor. I leave the bass in the lake for myself and the rest of the fishermen, to provide enjoyment for the next trip. We don't have to expliot it just because it there do we? It's people who expliot that cause government to regulate everything. I mean not only fishing, but everything. Look around. We practically live in a police state because people cannot act responsibly. I agree with you that keeping a fish once in a great while will have litte impact on the fish popualtion. But remember, there are those who will exploit the situation, they ruin it for the rest of us. Everyone is not as reasonable as you seem to be. I think we should leave the fish in the lake. If people want to catch their meals, go to those places where you can pay per pound for each fish you catch, you know those private fisheries. I think they even have them for bass fishing. I suspect they will only take, take, take if it's free.
      City: Sacramento

  • Butte County
    • By

      Water Temp: 57-60

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I had a nice trip Saturday, taking a grandpa and 14 year old grandson - teaching them how to worm fish. This was not a "teach the lake" type of trip - we just wanted to learn to put fish in the boat. So we headed up the middle fork and just fished a few areas that I knew held a lot of bass. I had them try to rip in the morning and grandpa got his first doing that - almost 15". I decided we were going to split-shot most of the day and it continued to be an effective way to catch bass. After missing several, they started to get the hang of it and put many in the boat, all spots in the 13 to 15" range and a 14" smallie to boot. The grandson got a special thrill when he hooked a 15" salmon on a worm. That thing jumped 4 times and really was a 'wild thang"!! I caught about 6 myself, including a 2 lb 2 oz spot. We caught 20 total plus 1 salmon. They probably missed 20-25 more bites. They hooked a lot of bass but the bass "hooked" them too! They fell in love with bass fishing and as usual, I enjoyed seeing family members grow closer as they share a beautiful day on the water!!
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: We used Camanche Jacks "early dawn" worms in the 6" size, and Berkley Power and Pulse worms in 4" sizes in several colors. Junebug was good. We looked for staging areas. Sand and clay cuts with small rock were the key. We got bite in every area we fished like that except one. Not bad! Lots of action all day. I felt good about that since the lake is being beat to death with tournaments.

    • By

      Water Temp: 54-56

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I have fished this lake non-stop for the last week and today was the best day by far! We hit the north fork this morning at 5:30 and had a few hits on yo-zuri jerkbaits in ghost-minnow but didn't hook up. We switched to Bold Bluegill Roboworms rigged texas and caught a few spots in the slot. After getting our fill on slot fish we went with larger zipper worms in hopes of catching something larger. It paid off right away with a 3 pound largemouth, But that was the only fish to bite the zipper for the next hour. We then switched to (what proved to be the best bait of the day) a Baby brush-hog in watermelon and red flake. We ended up getting into a lot of fish that went 15-17". Our grand total was 36 fish with all but 4 fish being spotted bass. Our best five fish went just shy of 11 pounds. I have a feeling it's only going to get better out there.
      City: Paradise

      Tips: We were fishing shallow all day, only going as deep as 20 feet. The smaller rock seemed to be holding fish better than the larger rock, But flooded tules on points was the major producer. We fished so slow you could fall asleep between each cast. That's the way the fish wanted it,the slower the better.

  • Sonoma County
    • By

      Water Temp: 50+

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Went lmb fishin and got 2 in the boat. Caught 1 2 pounder pitching a senko in weeds in yorty. caught another fishing in brush piles near yorty. Was casting a 1 ounce spinner bleeding shad by strike king.
      City: san francisco

      Tips: fish in brush and logs.

    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: caught the biggest bass of my life at 6 lbs and one more 1 lber. just used a natural color worm and split shotted it in deep water at yorty creek back in the tule area.
      City: Rohnert Park

      Tips: try anything and everything, something will work??

  • Trinity County
    • By

      Water Temp: 50+

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished today with a young couple from the coast and had a great time. The fishing was tough although we caught a few,( I should say she caught a few). Started off the AM with a small smally and soon after,I hear a small voice from the back of the boat saying " I've got a fish on" and indeed she did. The fish jumped clear of the water 3 times in the first 20 seconds and then headed deep. After a few anxious moments I slid the net under a 6lb 10oz LM. Great job Devin you can take my back seat any time.
      I'm not sure why the fishing is so tough when, usually this time of year,it is red hot. The only thing I can figure is that the water temp is at least 6 deg. warmer than I have ever seen it in late March. It either has the fish messed up or I am messed up, not sure which. The weather has been fantastic for the last couple of weeks and has sure been a treat, but I'm thinking that a good cold storm would not be a bad thing.
      The hog was caught on a baby brush hog on a 1/4 oz jig. A couple were caught on a Gitzit and several small fish on speed traps in the tailings, and that was about it. I'll be heading back to the lake shortly and see if I can figure out what's happening.
      Except for the Hog LM, the best part of the day was providing lunch for a couple of lake residents.
      City: Weaverville

      Tips: For Steve: I've said many times that this fishery is too good not to share. All I'm asking is that you let me run my own trolling motor.

Saturday, March 20th, 2004

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 57

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Got into water at 8am, which is pretty late. But manage to bag 8 keepers when all said and done. Mostly hitting in back of coves on plastic worms 5-6". Lots of small ones that were thrown back but good fighting. Biggest was 3lbs+ and avg. 2lbs.
      City: Alameda

      Tips: Plastic seem to work for us, but once in awhile, we throw in spinners, minnows, etc. when it gets slow. Happy fishing!!! Fishing is always happy.

    • By

      Water Temp: 62

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Took my Dad out on Saturday. He loves to fish, but doesn't get to very often any more. We hit some coves and points in the Narrows and got several cranking bomber A's in crawdad color. Nothing much after the sun hit the water. Went to dragging and drop shotting. Picked up several more up to 2.5lbs (spot). Sure liked the look on my Dad's face with his 2lb smallmouth. Didn't have much luck in back of coves. Most fish were inside the primary point. Did well drop shotting dark worms w/red flake in them against the bank with a mud line after the boaters showed up.
      City: Sunnyvale

    • By

      Water Temp: 65

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished Fri. & Sat.. Caught fish in the Narrows, the big island and the east side flats. Mostly spots and smallies to 3 lbs.. Caught a few on crawdad cranks and wht/chart. spinnerbait. Most fish came split shotting 4" worms.
      City: Delhi

      Tips: Most fish caught in very back end of coves or in 8' of water on the flats. worms had to have a chartruese tip for more hook ups. Best colors were grn. weenie, blue ghost, and salt & pepper. Talk to some other bassers who caught good fish ripping and throwing flukes.

    • By

      Water Temp: unknown

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Had a great time fishing the Future Pro Tournament with 140 other boats. Winning weight was 15+ lbs. and several 6+ lbs fish for big fish. We caught fish on dropshot, spinnerbaits, jerk baits and 4" swimbaits to take 20th place. Learned a lot and had a great partner.
      City: San Bruno

      Tips: Fished were biting well in the morning but slowed down when sun hit the water. Fish are all over up against the banks in cove and some points. Good luck

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: mid 60s

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Two person guide trip on Saturday. Had two good fisherman on board...Paul Coseras & Steve Strain both of San Francisco. We had a tough time connecting with fish of any size consistantly. They cought fish throwing blades,senkos and pitching brush hogs..There determination and willingness to stay with it did put some decent fish in the boat before the days end. Thanks guys
      City: San Jose

      Tips: Most our fish were in less than 3 ft in two or three isolated areas with a couple of dead hours mid day.Everyday is different right now.