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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Saturday, March 14th, 2015

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 65 degrees

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished out of big break on Saturday and the bite was on! Fish were staging due to the dramatic increase in water temperature over the last week. Caught a RECORD 37 bass in 4 hours, largest was 6 pounds with the rest in the majority of 2-4 pounds. Not much wind, highly overcast most of the morning. Fished wacky using Zoom trick worm, really slow.
      City: Orinda

      Tips: When you think they are out there, get out there.

    • By

      Water Temp: 60-68

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Launched out of Russo's at 7:30. Fished staging areas. Threw reaction baits but better quality fish came on jig and senkos. Nothing better than two lb. class fish though. Couldn't find the big mamas. Video here:

      https://youtu.be/25myFDSLCTY
      City: San Mateo

      Tips: I think the fish might have been a little more scattered given the cloud cover we had. Probably should have covered more water instead of grinding away with the jig and worm. Didn't see any beds in Franks and Little Franks yet.

Friday, March 13th, 2015

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Clear Lake this week 3/11/.2015

      Conditions

      What a difference a week makes. Talk about transitions? Well, we’ve seen three or four up here in the past two weeks alone. We’ve gone from what was a pretty consistent “good” bite to one that’s not all that great right now.

      Changes

      1) Well let’s see, two weeks ago we had water that was still in the low 50’s each morning, climbing
      into the mid to high 50’s by the end of the day.
      2) We had no moon to speak of and the bite was really good through noon on most days.
      3) Boat traffic was way down.

      Now, all of the above has changed dramatically. Water temps are now in the mid to high 50’s and they’ve ranged into the mid 60’s for several days prior to this rain.

      Then we had the full moon and that really changed things, with the bite dying early each morning. Great for the night guys, with the warming water temps and the full moon the night bite took off big time, with a number of anglers reporting multiple DD’s each evening.

      This weekend will make three weekends in a row for tournaments and the resulting pre-fish has the shallow fish extremely jittery. Not really un-common for this time of year but with the unusually clear water for this time of year the fish seem to be a tad bit spookier than normal.

      Forecast

      Who knows, this has already been a weird pre-spawn and I suspect it will continue. Everyone is asking the same question. Why? Again, who knows? I suspect it’s mainly due to how fast the water warmed and then all of the changing conditions every third day or so. The lake went from 52 degrees or so (PM temp), to 64 degrees in 8 days.

      Right now you can move around and find fish in all stages of pre-spawn depending on the area of the lake you are in. Once we get a week of steady weather on the dark of the moon, things should improve. We’ll see, but that said, it’s still not that difficult to catch 15-20 fish a day and have 15-23 lbs. to show for your best 5. It’s the big girls that have become a bit more difficult to pin down right now.

      Want a big fish? Let me throw this out there. If this past full moon is any evidence of what will come on the next one, I’d reach out to a night specialist a book a trip. I know I’m planning on being out there. Below are a couple of specialists you may want to contact.

      M and P Night Fishing- Marty 530-308-8453
      Larry Hemphill-530-674-0276
      Clear Lake Guide Service- Carl Keller 707-543-6677

Thursday, March 12th, 2015

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 60-62

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fishing the past two days during the rain storm of Wednesday and the wind storm of yesterday provided great action for numbers. During Weds rain, fish were up shallow in the tulle groves gorging themselves. Thursday, although bluebird skies early, the winds really helped the bigger fish bite and fish were set up on the transitions in 7-10 feet. Thursday we caught six fish between 5 - 6.5 pounds on a variety of baits, Biffle bug, Wadda Jig, Kut-tail, DS Robbo worm and Big Hammer SB.

      Tips: During cloudy overcast skis, look for em up in the tulles roaming. Clear and or windy days, think grass beds off big points and secondary edges in the flood ponds, islands & lakes. Reaction bite still not strong on a regular basis, but ya can stumble into a feeding frenzy early in the morning if ya guess right on yer location. Move around, don't hang in one area too long if ya ain't gettin bit. Bite is good all over the Central and East Delta.

Wednesday, March 11th, 2015

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 57 TO 61.5

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Took my new friend Mario out on Friday it was a beautiful spring day the lake was like a mirror. I showed him different spots on the lake and asked a few fisherman if they had any luck yet and the unanimous answer was the fishing isn't any good. Not willing to give up I decided to try our luck going north to the boy scout camp area. Mario's first cast gave us hope. I thought he had hooked a good size bass but when we netted it we saw it was a large trout weighed in at 3+ pounds (see photo). He also hit a bass wacky style with a senko. Even though it was a tough bite kind of day we had a good time on the water. The following day weather seemed the same but with more fish activity. My largest bass for the day was 5.5 pounds and as you can see in the photos we caught limits and all nice size bass. As I went to get the trailer Albert caught the last fish of the day using a cast master he didn't need a net to land the bass and it weighed in at almost 1 ounce (see photo)!!!!! 'til next week.................................................good fishing!!!!!!
      www.fishingconnection.net If you have any questions or stories you would like to share or if you would like to book a guided fishing trip please email me at bestguide@hotmail.com
      0r call me at 650-583-3333.
      City: San Francisco

      Tips: Find the birds then find the bait then find the fish it works

  • Shasta County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: RAIN!!!

      Albeit, we are not expecting a large amount of precipitation, we will take every last drop! The long term forecast does call for a little more sporadic rain through March. April may bring us more wet weather as well. Unfortunately the later in the Spring that we get, the more unpredictable the weather can be.

      Regardless, the lake has rebounded rather well since November. We have risen close to 102 feet to a 58% reservoir capacity! Currently about 34 feet higher than we were last year on this day and we are almost at twice the rainfall totals. Given the water situation that California is faced with, we are not looking bad at all. Once again, Shasta Lake may be the "Oasis of fun" this coming summer wink emoticon


      Although everyone on the lake is waiting for the rain and rising lake levels, we are not staying idle. We are gearing up and planning events throughout the 2015 summer. The Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area is planning to a season long celebration of it's 50th Anniversary with multiple events for the public! grin emoticon

      As more of these events become concrete, I will be sure to pass on the details. Until then...bring on that rain!

      Lake Level Report (03/11/2015 at 7 AM)
      Lake Elevation: 991.32' (75.68' below full pool)
      Lake Elevation 2014: 957.30' (109.70' below full pool)
      Storage: 2,643,952 af
      Outflow: 2,581 cfs
      Inflow: 4,473 cfs
      Precipitation (24 hr @ dam): 0.00"
      Precipitation (Season @ dam): 45.89"
      Precipitation (2014 Season @ dam): 23.31"

Tuesday, March 10th, 2015

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 60

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Foggy in the morning, kept things pretty cool until midday. Caught a couple quality fish at the top of the outgoing tide then smaller ones and short strikes for the rest of the day. Pitched black/blue jig tipped with pork. Video here:
      http://youtu.be/phC51jLHDEA
      City: San Mateo

  • Alameda County
    • By

      Water Temp: 58

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: A couple of big belly female largemouth 3.5# and 3#. Windy and cloudy a lot of the time. Been a while since I've boated 2 over 3# out of this lake. Been tough for me. A guy in a kayak brought in a 10# trout and saw another shore fisherman fighting a trout, but others struggled.
      City: dublin

      Tips: Plastics in the wood for lm.

Monday, March 9th, 2015

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 55/61

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Bounced around from B&W to Franks tract using a punch 'n rig senko rip baits& square bils all producing a different times of the day ,Incoming being the best 5 for 15lbs

  • Butte County
    • By

      Water Temp: 56-59

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I have to agree with the previous report by x man? I guided three young guys who were a lot of fun and good fishermen. We spent our time in the middle fork, and I was fascinated by the "new look" rock formations. Don't often see the structure at 145 feet!! The bite started very slow as we began at 9:30. Moving up the middle fork, about noon, things really picked up. We just fished 6" Robo worms, mostly Texas rigged. Most were 13-14 inches with 2 or 3 of them at 2 lbs. We too had about 9 - 9 1/2 lb for the 5 best. Two of the fellas landed several of the spots and the other landed 2 and lost 200 - or so!! I think he was telling too many jokes - he had all of us in stiches!

      Tips: We used Aarons Magic, morning dawn w/chartreuse tail, and MMIII most of the time. Also caught a few on a smallie beaver. The steeper rock walls produced the best. It was weird to me that the sandy and clay type banks did not produced any bites. Might be too early for that type of bottom.

Saturday, March 7th, 2015

  • Mendocino County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: After nearly having the lake to myself the last 4 weekends it wasn't the case today. Was hard to find an open spot to fish with all the bass boats. The pressure laid off later in the day though. Smallmouth bite was good. I landed 15 and fished from noon til dark. All were between 1 and 3 lbs.
      City: Willits

      Tips: Bring sunblock and sunglasses

Friday, March 6th, 2015

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 56-60

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Mike Sperbeck and I hit the lake about 4 pm Wed, and the lake hit back with tough fishing. One dink for me and a 1 1/2 pounder for Mike. I didn't expect much of a bite since the previous days of north winds and cooler temps. It got very chilly after dark. I have found around the first of March, there is a fair bite about an hour after dark, It last for an hour or two and then really slows. We got into that bite about an hour after dark. Mike started off with a big yell for the net - something new lately!! I got her in the net on the first swipe and struggled to lift her in the boat - good sign!! He's goin' - "Ten - or Eleven!! I'm going to myself - No way! Well, he was close - 9.83 lbs - roughly 2 oz off! What a beautiful fish (see forum for photos!). I gather my senses and tried harder since I hadn't caught a good fish at Clear Lake in awhile. Ten minutes late I get the same great hit he did. Mine was about 15 feet deep whereas his was about 6-7 feet. He got her in on the first swipe too. She was thicker than I thougt and went 7.16 lbs. A few minutes later, Mike got a hit that he claims was the hardest he ever had. He was thinking monster but I told him that 3 to 5 pounder can give the most violent hits. Who knows? We had a few more bites but could NOT hook them. We finally left about 9;15 pm as he had to get up early Thurs morning. Very slow trip except 2 big bass for 17 lbs!! I'll take that!

      Tips: Most baits we tried didn't work. We fished both sides of the south end before dark with equal non-success. Our 4 total bass came on west side areas. The 2 big bass were caught on double-wide Beaver baits. I had a hit or two on a jig with the new Yamamoto Heart Tail grub - an amazing bait!

Wednesday, March 4th, 2015

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 53

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Back on the lake after an almost four month absence & ran into a tough bite! Started Monday & fished through Weds. We generally fished at night but also put in Tues afternoon as well. We caught some small dinks each day, but the bites were tough to come by! We fished south on the west side of the lake. The highlights were an 8.2 fatty that crushed a blade, but was the only reaction bite we had. Ted had a 6.4 Texas fish & a 4.8 jig fish. All the rest were small. I think we hit the weather wrong & are gonna give it another go in a few weeks!

      Tips: We moves around a lot, the fish were fat & heavy, so they may be a little sluggish? Keep moving for strikes. Since it's Clear Lake, you always stand a chance of running onto a big one! I also threw a 7" swimbait a lot with no strikes!

Monday, March 2nd, 2015

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Wholly COW! March already? Yep, and with each day, and each set of changing conditions, so goes the bite here.

      Last week we started off with nice weather, and it gradually declined through the weekend, as did the bite in most cases. Looking at the weights from the LCCC Tourney this past weekend though and you’d be hard pressed to call it tough. Still, had that tournament experienced the weather we had early in the week, I’m not sure 70 lbs. would have been enough.

      This week the forecast is for improving, warmer temperatures, almost the opposite of last week. It has started out cool, but is expected to warm into the mid 70’s by this weekend, so I expect the bite will pick right back up.

      How about that, 48 lbs. for the top ten or so, and I’m looking for the bite to improve? Definitely, more for overall bite, not so much for the quality. The fish we were catching definitely pulled back. I’m not sure if it was the boat pressure or the cooler temperatures (probably a bit of both) but they did become tougher to find, and stay on.

      Today we had surface temps of 52-57 degrees, and while the bite was tough for the most part, and even though I had a fuel rail go out on the big motor, it was still nice to get out. We had to move around a lot as the bite for us was one here and one there. To be honest, tough for the most part.

      Moving forward, FPT is here this week for their TOC, then the following weekend BBT
      is here for their Spring visit. Spring has sprung fellas. Break out the big sticks and get after them, or should I say let the sword fights begin!...;)

      Lake level is 4.52 Rumsey, and all ramps are open.

Sunday, March 1st, 2015

  • Tuolumne County
    • By

      Water Temp: 55

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Had a great time with Jim and John fishing this lake for the first time for me. John was a great host / guide. Saturday it rained from launch to maybe 2:00. Managed more fish in the am than later . off the water at 4:00. Sunday was the opposite, sunny skies all day. several boats out there Sunday. Nothing till after 10 that day. Off the water at 1:00. Leader board update Jim 10 bass 2 trout, Dave 9 bass one trout and John 8 bass. Size range under 1# to 2#, probably 1.3# avg. Very fun pre-spring trip. Need more snow to fill that beautiful lake up!

      Tips: Ran into Vince Harris at the ramp, head of Future Pro Tour, Sat a.m. He said he is starting Trout tourneys to go with Bass tourneys. No idea what size won Saturday. Similar format with TOC winners getting a boat! He puts on great tournaments in my humble opinion. Excellent learning experience if you are new into tournaments.

Saturday, February 28th, 2015

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 56-57

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Great bite pretty much all day due to some good tides. caught over 25 fish. our best 5 ended up somewhere between 25.5-26.5lb with a 10.0lb and a 6.5lb. reaction baits in about 5-7foot early and fished slower but shallow in the afternoon.
      City: stockton

      Tips: Check your transition and staging areas often, our second run on a major pre-spawn area yielded the biggun after only a 3lbr earlier. time of day (late afternoon) has been the factor even more than tide, but the sat tide didn't hurt.

    • By

      Water Temp: 56-60

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Launched out of Russo's at 8. Fished around Franks and Little Franks. Caught 6 but only 5 would have kept, nothing over pound and a half. But all the fish were in 1-2' of water. I'm guessing the females were holding a little deeper.

      In this video it get bit just as I'm trying to get a bite of my sandwich!

      http://youtu.be/IgiSMnYUqeU
      City: San Mateo

      Tips: If you want the bucks throw at the bank. I gotta learn to position the boat a little farther out and fish the lure all the way back to the boat. I'm sure I was fishing right over the females.

  • Butte County
    • By

      Water Temp: 53-56

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Had some rain and wind with the front that came in on Friday and early Saturday. Spots want to get on beds, but were put back off with the cold weather. Lots of males right up on the bank 12"-14" fish. Move around a lot, until you find them, when you do there will be quite a few fish.

      use reaction baits to find the fish, then slow down with plastics to catch them. Still having problems finding bigger fish. Our best 5 would of only been 9lbs.

      Water level is down 145 feet. Main ramp at bidwell is open.

      Good luck
      City: Chico

      Tips: Rip baits, shakey worms, jigs, tubes, Arigs

      all the standard colors are working. 2 more week and bite should be wide open.

Friday, February 27th, 2015

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 55-56

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Launched Paradise Point around 8am...headed to Mildred...wind was whippin' pretty good, lots of white caps/SF Bay. Managed a couple dinks on senko and rattle traps. Tried to find some less windy areas but they were mainly shallows (2-4ft on the fishfinder).... decided to move up to 14 mile slough...managed a few dinks on black & junebug senkos... then stuck 2 lbers in a row. That was it.... wind pickin' up, decided to pack it in at 230pm. Talked to another basser and he said they got 1 decent keeper. Tough day.
      City: folsom

      Tips: Not qualified to give tips but senkos were the default go-to bait just to feel a hookup. Hopefully Sunday will be better.

Thursday, February 26th, 2015

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 48/56

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished from 7 to 5 yesterday slow bite we caught 7 or 8 fish nothing til the water got to 55 fish were 2lb to 4/12 lbs on drop shots and small swimbaits around tules

      Tips: We're not tourny guys anymore
      So just stick with the basic stuff til the bite opens up more