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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Wednesday, March 10th, 2004

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

      Report: it was my first time out and i arrived on the water around 630am....boy o boy it was windy. i didn't get to fish frank's tract even tho i wanted too with all these stories i hear. but owells next time. i ended up with four bass and my friend 2 . all in all it was a great day.
      City: san francisco

      Tips: i think if i was to go up there again i would go get a long flippin rod. like 8ft or 8'6"...i really was interested in those "in the back" holes of those tule islands.

    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: hey boys took my grandson out today and saw them same boys in that alum. bucket soakin them shinners they put at least ten blacks in the chest i called the poachers hot line with no response we are loosing big females to the frying pan i think the only answer is to boycot all bait shops selling shinners these boys are always at or around the wrecks at big break i feel in my soul they are taking more then there limits daily
      City: concord calif

      Tips: keep an eye on them and use those cell phones

    • By

      Water Temp: ?

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Launched out of Orwood late today. Battled the wind for about 5 hours. It was brutal! Me and my partner managed two fish, the biggest was pushing 5 pounds. Can't wait for that water to clear up a bit! Good luck out there!
      City: Oakley

      Tips: White and Chartreuse blades in sparse tule patches on rocks. Also stuck one on a sweet beaver, sprayed grass color

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: unknown

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished the afternoon in the Rodman Slough area of the lake. Tons of carp rolling everywhere, but not a ton of bass!! Had a gorgeous day to fish - warm, almost no wind - but only managed to put three ~2 pound fish in the boat over a three 1/2 hour period, all on a 1/2 ounce chartreuse spinnerbait. Had a follow from a 10 plus pounder, but she wouldn't take the bait. Biggest bass I have ever seen inthe water!! Saw a nice bald eagle while I was out there. thanks to ross at Tackle It in Lakeport for the help.
      City: San Francisco

      Tips: blades, seemed to work alright, although with the high skies a different bait might have been worth fishing harder. I threw a senko a little nad didn't get any takers. Didn't even try ripping, but I have heard that should work as well.

    • By

      Water Temp: 66

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Been out a couple of times in the last week. Fished all the usual places. A couple of dinks. Water is really dirty. As we pulled in boats were leaving. No one we talked to caught fish. We were already there so we gave it a go. Once the water clears up a little it should turn on.
      City: Gilroy

      Tips: Go to Anderson

    • By

      Water Temp: 65+or-

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Tried it again-this time with my dad. Today I managed 3 and dad caught 1. 1 on a darter,1 on a ripbait and 2 on senkos-both of the senko fish were a tad over 2 lbs. I guess I just dont have the hot hand this year yet-yalked to 2 guys and they were doing "pretty good" on flukes which looked to be in alewife. 9 boats already on the water when we got there at 830. STILL did not see 1 fish in the shallows as hard as I looked,but both the senko fish came off trash pushed up against the shore. Hope this helps somebody out-Tight Lines.
      City: Chowchilla

      Tips: AGAIN ANOTHER boat in the closed zone and so blatant....they saw us coming across the lake and snuck back into the open area and as soon as they could tell we werent rangers or the warden right back in the closed zone they went! I just couldnt enjoy it constantly looking over my shoulder for the law could you?

    • By

      Water Temp: ?

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Well, I hit the old pablo for the first time this year. I should have brought SP Rob because I got my ass handed to me. Not a bite all day. The water is up really high with tons of floating debris. I tried all my usual favorites with no takers. I did troll for a bit and managed to bring a 5lb trout to the boat. I talked to a few people on the lake and there was no joy from what I heard. I talked to a guy I knew from years past and he commented on this website and the new guide in town. We had a good laugh. I did get a few emails after my post about the new guide and they were all positive and funny. They all agreed that he was a joke. A years experience? I mean do you have a photo albumn that you show to perspective customers? Is your huge 6lb fish on the cover? If I were to hire a guide and pay him good money I want him to come highly reccomended and have more expierence than I do on a given body of water. If you are the man SP Rob start posting some photos on here. Oops I forgot you have to get some customers first. Good Luck
      City: Walnut Creek

      Tips: Beats me, the lake is in pretty bad shape right now. Visibility was less than 6 inches when I was there. When in doubt book a trip with Sp Rob you will get at least 20 fish.

    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: my brother the would-be kayaker is an idiot.
      City: petaluma

Tuesday, March 9th, 2004

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 56-61

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Wow - summer is here! But the bass don't know it's summer yet. I guided a dad and his 9 year old son today and we had a decent day. The first object was to make the 9 year old a pro caster. In about an hour, he was! He had several bites, but didn't get any in the boat. Darn! He sure enjoyed landing some that I hooked! Dad was just learning to worm fish and caught several nice bass including a 2 lb smallmouth and a 2-2 spot. We landed 13 tournament keepers and one runt. I caught a largemouth just under 2 pounds. Smaller fish have moved shallow in the afternoon but I still see big bass on the meter at 25 feet or more. We caught all our bass on 6" worms by Camanche Jack - green craw, Witches T, and Junebug. No jig or crank bite at all. We fished the narrows and Wragg Canyon. Our five best were a little over 8 1/2 lbs.
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: We tried the back of several coves with out any luck. We found fish on points, secondary points, and walls with afternoon sun and rock. We probably only had about 3 or 4 good bites - the rest were just pressure. Dad picked that up pretty well. I certainly though the fish would be more aggressive after the water hit 60 in the afternoon, but they wern't.

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 58-66

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Water temps went up a bunch. Caught a 2 on a lizzard on Sunday. Asked some of the tournament boats and they also had a tough day. On the 9th I thoght for sure things would heat up but the afternoon got me 0. Things will get better soon.
      City: San Leandro

  • Butte County
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      Water Temp: 54-57

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Well, I guess it's fun being the only guy reporting! One might think a tournament was about to happen. Anyway, a client and I had a wonderful day Wednesday, looking over the lake and catching 15 bass, mostly spots. We did manage several quality fish and our best 5 went a shade over 9 pounds. We spent most of our time in Canyon Creek and the Middle Fork, with a little time in the South. We threw worms and jigs most of the time, with a little drop-shotting. We found several colors worked, and the fish were quite aggressive around noon. We caught bass shallow and down to 20 feet. The wind was a problem in the afternoon, but we just continued to learn new spots and fish them the best we could.
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: We found fish on flats that were near deep water, but not on deep water points. Normally boulders that get warm in the afternoon will attract fish, but that didn't seem to happen on Wednesday. Small rock seemed to be the key.

  • Shasta County
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      Water Temp: 54-56

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Went down to Shasta primarily to set up motel reservations and such for out upcoming week long trip in April, and had an hour or so to kill, so launched at Antlers and turned in on Salt Creek (I think).... Anyway, it was on the little arm where there are a couple of large boat docks with a houseboat from Jones Bay tied up to them.... Tossed a Lucky Craft live pointer in rainbow pattern and caught a 2 1/2 lb spot on the first cast off a minor point.... About a half-hour later, caught my biggest (to date) spot about two hundred yards further along on a nothing-looking gravel bank, altough she hit it about 15 feet from the boat when I paused my retrieve.... Almost jerked the rod out of my hands.... She weighed in at 4.75 on my digital scale.... For me, that is a huge fish, I usually wind up with no braggers, just passable fish...... The wind became a factor where I was right after that, and I decided not to push my luck and hang it up for the day.... Both fish came on the pointers, and both fish hit right after pausing the retrieve....
      City: Williams, OR

      Tips: No tips, pointers worked for me, but back at Antlers boat ramp another guy that I had met earlier said he caught all his on Senkos.... He fished early, I fished late.......Go figure...

    • By

      Water Temp: 53-54

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: WENT OUT OF PACKERS BAY AND FISHED THE SAC ARM. IT WAS A GREAT DAY ON THE WATER.THE MORNING WAS SLOW WITH TWO FISH. THE BLOND GETTING BOTH OF THEM. 1 DINK AND ONE 2 1/2 LBS.BOTH FISH CAME ON 4 INCH WORMS IN OX BLOOD COLOR. PULLED IN ON A FLAT ON THE SAC AND WE FOUND THE MOTHER LOAD.THE FIRST 5 CASTS WE HAD 5 SPOTS WITH THE BIGGEST 4LBS.ALL ON JIGS. WE CAUGHT 10 FISH OFF OF THAT FLAT IN ABOUT 15 TO 20 FEET OF WATER SO THE FISH ARE MOVING UP ON THOSE FLATS.I CAUGHT A 4LBER A COUPLE OF DAYS AGO IN A CREEK CHANNEL ON A JIG SO THAT MIGHT BE A GOOD BET FOR A KICKER.WE ENDED UP CATCHING SOME WHERES AROUND 30 FISH WHAT A DAY. OUR BEST SEVEN WOULD BE SOME WHERE AROUND 16 PLUS LBS WITH THE 4LB KICKER. SHASTA LAKE IS TURNING ON BIG TIME. I DID BEAT THE BLOND ON THE CATCHING END THIS TIME BUT NOT BY MUCH
      City: ANDERSON

      Tips: JIGS WERE CATCHING MORE FISH THEN WORMS TODAY,FIND FLATS AND FISH THE JIGS SLOW THE LAKE IS ON THE RISE AGAIN CAME UP A FT OR SO WHILE WE WERE ON THE LAKE TODAY.

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

      Report: got on lake at 9 30 caught 1 fish small saw the biggest fish of my life swim by. got out around 2 30.
      City: san bruno

Monday, March 8th, 2004

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 54-57

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Thought I would see what all this warm weather has done with the fishing. It wasn't a numbers day, but quality was the name of the day. The third cast of the day on a long sloping main lake point yielded a 13 pound 13 ounce monster largemouth. I caught no more fish, but did not care.
      City: Fairfield

      Tips: Lure- Lucky Craft Pointer. Well worth the extra money

    • By

      Water Temp: 55-60

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: launched at markley about 9:30, threw spinnerbait for a while, no hits. Switched to medium norman crank-bait. I was targeting wind or wave swept points in the narrows and at the mouth of the big lake. Caught about a dozen, lost 3 more. Largest come on back to back cast, first fish 2 lb smallmouth, 2nd 3-3half largemouth, with a clone trying to grab crank right back to the boat. Also caught few small fish on the steep rock lined banks in same areas, north side of course.
      City: sacto

      Tips: "go fishing"

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Went out in late afternoon and fished back sloughs where the water tends to be a little clearer. Managed to hook a few good fish one that tipped the scale at over 5 lbs. Looks like females are starting to move - ones I caught had some girth.
      City: Sacramento

      Tips: Threw dark colored 7" Brush Hogs over fallen timber close to the shore - the thicker the better.

    • By

      Water Temp: 55-56

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Sorry to use this in the report page, but i am struggeling on the delta. I THOUGHT things were to be heating up out their, or is it just a tough bite right know....

      Any help would be great.
      City: Turlock

    • By

      Water Temp: 61 then got to

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Hey snaggel tooth give me a call! I got to the lake some time after noon. fished till 5. lost 2 fish but landed a nice 4.0 lb. bass. found some fish on the fish finder in the chanel but expected to see more. I got the big fish in the shallows on a flat.
      City: Santa Clara

      Tips: senkos in dark colors. Jeff get the float tube out and go fish next wensday!

  • Alameda County
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      Water Temp: 56

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Me and rich were running late for the early trout bite ,we luanched at 10:45am and headed for the dam area to see iff we could catch a bigin on the troll.We spent 2 hrs trying to figure it out still nothing doin.. 12:45pm and heading for the snack shack for a quick bite at laest we were bitting haha..1:15pm back to the boat and giving them everything we had to offer from trolling rappalas, roostertails, kastmasters, bait fishing crawlers and powerbait
      4:00pm we just about gave up and i we were on the northwest side of the lake just north of the snack shack the i said to richard(lets troll 1 more time up to the dam) and head fer home when ZZZINNNGG hey i think i got a big old trout it jumped out of the water twice, i was shocked!!!..That it wasn't a trout it was a big old largemouth hittin a rappala broken back,so at least i didn't get skunked at delvalle hahaha..
      City: Oakland

      Tips: try trolling 3inch silver brokenbacks for bass during the end of the day just right side of the the shade heading north to dam also flippin them to the shore twitchin may work well also green/orange 2inch rappala shalow divers start early for the trout bite bye noon the bite stops