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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Tuesday, March 23rd, 2004

  • Santa Clara County
    • By

      Water Temp: 62.0-65.0

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fishing is solid with numbers of fish shallow both post spawn and new fish moving in. No big fish on this day but many in the 2-3lb range. Some fish on beds but sight fishing is tough with the water clarity and recent wind this week but I did see some.
      City: San Jose

      Tips: stay shallow.. look for fat new fish moving up on secondary points and breaks. All our fish were cought 2-12ft on jigs and also the Senko when the wind would permit.

  • Yuba County
    • By

      Water Temp: 60ish

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: my second trip this year here and actually gone to troll for trout, but after reading the reports and the sucess i havent had for the big plants still leaves me scratching my head and wondering what the heck we are doing wrong. when up there two sundays ago but didnt get around to bass fish that day. i think there was a tournament that day anyway since the lake was flooded with speeding boats all day, but this time was much less crowded on the water. however, early morning weather blanketed ongoing fog and trolling trout tactics once again didnt work, and the wind picked up as i headed for the east side to get some bass fishing in and wait out the wind. stepped up on the bank behind a row of trees with water from 1 to 12 feet, first cast with Senko was picked up by a small spottie hugging one of the trees. i thought this looked promising, especially after wasting all morning cruising for trout(trolling really is borning but yet we still do it). about 25 minutes time and working the rest of the trees, caught and released 6 more bass, all spots except for one largemouth. the biggest was actually a 2.5 spotted bass that eluding me on two strikes,the following 3rd one got me hung up on a 4 foot submerged tree branch that i ended up reeling in to the bank, but the little girl just kept hitting(i did change color of Senko i was throwing) and on the 4th pick up i finally hooked and landed her. good fighting bass too. i could see the missed strike damage she had taken on from the previous misses, but glad she was aggressive. that half an hour made the trip to Collins worth my while i guess, and i think i will forget the trout fishing next trip up here and just bass fish. i guess i am still avenging the 10lb+ rainbow i lost two years ago due to a fouled up drag way back in the inlet pass the bridge. i was actually bass fishing tossing the same color senkos i use pretty much everywhere i go while my brother was trout fishing with the funny power bait(but heck, the stuff does work!) and when the trout busted the surface i was in shock to see how big it was while my bro turned his head and shouted "what the heck was that?" my drag on my spool was screwed up somehow and would not adjust,just stuck, and as the huge trout darted straight for me, made a guick right and headed to some huge rocks, i regretfully pulled my pole hard left to get her to change direction, but as my line tightened and pole bent.....snap! bye bye with 8lb test. i threw my pole down in anger and the rest of the day was shot. but that fish is the only reason why i still continue to trout fish here. otherwise, i would stick to bass fishing. i dont know how many times i have had crappy trout trips here, and ended up driving up to Lake Francis up the hill just to get my satisfaction of feeling a fish on the end of the line. i wish that little lake had some kind of bass replenishing program and make it catch and release, i would even pay to fish there just cruising around with a trolling motor. me and my buddies have caught numerous largemouths fishing from the banks of the small coves and also out in the water near the islands and the far side. one of my buddies actually pulled out one short of 6lbs, and considering the lake was drained and restocked like 3 years ago, a bass over 5 was astonishing. Id like to see a nice drop of florida strains like collins has been getting and make it a catch and release bass lake, but unfortunatly that will never happen, because the lake is too small to attract any real bass fisherman, and cant have big boats or gas motors anyway. but it is a fun place to stop by. i even see alot of tournament guys who drive up there after a buttkicking at the larger lakes in the vicintiy. Dont forget to check out my buddy, Fish Chris' bass sight at www.trophybassonly.com if the dont already know about it. great site and good people to interact with. peace. craig.
      City: yuba city

      Tips: the heck with the collins trophy trout, this lake could become a great trophy bass lake, if is wasnt so overwhelmed with spotted bass that still out number the fast growing florida and northern strained largemouth my many times over.

  • Sacramento County
    • By

      Water Temp: unknown

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Got out on the water at 4:30pm with buddy, Aaron, and we caught two 2+ spots on lizard and tube. Saw fish blowing up on surface, not concentrated but throughout the cove so I picked up the superspook and got a 3+ spot next to a willow. Found some dead wagasakis on the surface and upon examination (squeezed the little dudette) and eggs came squirting out. Guess that is what they were eating. Moved to Rock Garden area and picked up another 6 fish on the spook including a 3 lb. smallmouth. The wind picked up late but didn't seem to affect the topwater. Aaron threw a blade but no dice. I know it would work if we had more time.
      City: Citrus Heights

      Tips: Fish are everywhere they should be.
      Go fishing because you can.

  • Butte County
    • By

      Water Temp: 63-62

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Late start with bearing trouble on the trailer. Caught nice fish on repala and senko. Fished in 1-6 foot of water. Saw lots of carp shallow with a few bass.
      City: Oroville

      Tips: Be patient, find where the fish are staging and moving up, that's the zone to be in!

    • By

      Water Temp: ?

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: First time on the lake in 6 months. Fished from shore, landed 4 bass to 2lbs. Lots of huge bass crusing the shallows, had a couple whiffs with trout swimbait on 3-4 pounders. Fish were on senkos and senko jigs. Only saw a few beds, and they are difficult to fish from shore.
      City: San Diego

      Tips: Get a boat, and fish very very slow

Monday, March 22nd, 2004

  • Alameda County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished Bass Cove for 2 hours and alder point for one hour. Saw one 10+ female but she was extremely spooky, dissapeared as soon as I started fishing for her. Came across a 4-5lb bass on a stringer. The guy said it was his first time bass fishing and he caught it on some type of minnow imitation crankbait. I pleaded to the guy that she was probably full of eggs and that keeping fish her size is what makes chabot so tough to catch bass. Anyways about 10 minutes later he threw it back and she swam off with a lot of energy(eventhough she was on the stringer for a while). I was relieved, I can't stand seeing bass kept, especially that size. I didn't catch anything except 2 really small bass.
      City: San Leandro

      Tips: Fishing is still slow. The females aren't active. You really have to work for bites.

    • By

      Water Temp: 64

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Jay, I know how you feel. Went out Monday the 22nd, not real good. Very windy, missed a few bumps, but no fish. Only two other boats out there, and two headed out as we headed in about 1pm. No bass. No that I read the previous post, I feel a little better, knowing I fished right after a tournament. Yeah, that's it, they took all the good fish from me! Not really, I just sucked. Switched to trolling for trout just to catch some fish, nothing there either. Water is still very stained, flotsam heavy at the windward side of the lake.
      City: san jose

      Tips: Still probably works with all the usuals, just have to be patient I guess, allow for some slow action at times.

    • By

      Water Temp: ?

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Me and a friend caught 10 bass on Brush hogs. All were 8" to 13". I lost a big fish when we first arrived, came unbuttoned after a short fight
      City: Burlingame

  • 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.