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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Saturday, February 28th, 2004

  • Butte County
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      Water Temp: 47-52

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: well, inailly gettin the boat back out and not a good start. Managed to get 2 today one one was 3lbs and the other 1 lb.Everyone told me to ish deep but it didnt work or me.So i ished in 2' to 5' o water and got em on a shad pattern spinnerbait. Should be turnin on reel soon.
      City: sacramento

      Tips: purple shad spinnerbaits

  • Shasta County
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      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: great ishing day got out late around 2pm but the weather was great. only second time ive ished this huge lake but i always seem to hook up here whether im ishing around the dam trolling or trout, or shooting the coves or bass. tried my luck in the mcloud coves caught a ew small bass in some o the shallower o the coves i could ind. was shooting some crank baits and some strike king spinners, had best luck on spinners in 15-20 eet o water in the smaller, shallower coves. saw the boat next to me hook up twice while i was ishing one o the coves near them, shortly ater i hooked in to a nice 2.2lb largemouth, caught another small one sha tiny ortly ater. ished more random coves with no luck. traveled back towards packers bay where we lanched at and stopped periodicly and ished coves and hooked up with another small bass and a buddy i was with inally hook up with one.overall a great day..
      City: red blu

    • By

      Water Temp: 47.6-49.7

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: In at 0630 at Bailey Cove, air temp 39, lake at 19.86 and muddy in coves, ran over into the lower McCloud and the mouth or 7 by 9AM, irst 2 on blades and the attest was a 2.8 smallmouth, had 5 more on jigs and no dinks. best ive went 12.58 and they hit the jigs with a decent "thump". Lots o debris especially out in ront o bridge bay and around the bubbles, not a lot o big stu but huge clumps o small stu in scum lines. Most o the stu you need to worry about was blown to the banks the past ew days. Got out at 1030 with 40 rigs in the lot at 60 degrees, wind out o the north at 5-7. Very pleasant morning.
      City: Redding

  • Sonoma County
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      Water Temp: 52

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Launched at sunup and pulled out at noon. Weather was perect all day long

      Tips: Fish slow. I burned lest than one gallon o gassoline. Use dark colors - I used dark green (my Grey Ghost). The very sot outished my irmer baits. The very small six inch worms worked better than my larger worms - not sure why.

Friday, February 27th, 2004

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 53-54

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Some guys are catchin em but no luck or me out o Lazy this aternoon till 4 on high tide. Fished Widows/Italian or a couple o hours. Drop shot, Texas rigged lizzard, and jigged but not gettin this winter/spring thing at the Delta. I hear about the limits and 25 lb. bags but 0 or 5 trips in 04. I saw A ish caught right in ront o me...a dink but a ish. Texas rigged brush hog blk/red
      City: San Leandro

      Tips: A guide maybe. I I knew the trick I would share it. Good luck Mikey

    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Hey good to see that they put this lake on here. As the current Largemouth Record Bass holder let me tell you a little about the lake. O.K. so I got lucky and caught a 6lb Bass there in December. I have fished the lake 2 times for Bass from a boat and 2 times from shore so I am no authority. Sorry to see that Sturgeon Kid got hosed on the boat rental. As far as the lake it is good sized with not much shore structure. This lake is packed with trout so the Bassin should get good soon. I cruised it with my portable fish finder and found some great underwater structure in places. I tried to find as much info as I could about the lake before I went for the first time. Not much info out there. I did read that when they filled it there were 9 farm ponds that were absorbed. Rumor has it that they shocked the ponds prior to filling and there were largemouth in some up to 9lbs! SO maybe there is a huge one in here already. The lake has great potential and gets very little fishing pressure. Half the lake has no shore access and you can only put rental boats on the lake. This along with the insane boat rental prices will keep pressure on the lake low. If you want any more info or have some to share drop me an email.
      City: Walnut Creek

      Tips: Small plastics splitshotted and the good old drop shot.

Thursday, February 26th, 2004

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

      Report: John Gray,Do you ever catch ish under 4 pounds? Keep it real.
      City: sacramento

      Tips: Go ishing with John.

Wednesday, February 25th, 2004

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

      Report: Gave it a shot today looking or big ish and got one on a Lucky Crat Moonsault CB 350. About an 8#... OK, so it had whiskers, but it was a lot o un. I was thinking I had the lake record on my hands and was yelling at my riend to get the camera out.
      City: Folsom

      Tips: The rains raised the water temp but today was pretty clear and cold. Just need a little stability weather wise and the lake will start to produce.

    • By

      Water Temp: Cold

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Despite some rain and a little wind my buddy and I decided to give shadow clis a shot on our day o. we ished rom 6:30-10:30. Tried the back lakes throwing a brown worm and red senko with no luck. Then we hit the main lake on the second dock and caught a bass on a large krocadile. The lure was maybe 10t o the dock and deep. We tried the ar dock and I got a good bite o the red senko but no more ish were landed. Good luck & stay dry
      City: Danville

Tuesday, February 24th, 2004

    • By

      Water Temp: 55 and up

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: we dicided to stop by CFW and give it a try. the water i up to the top.only managed a ew ish around 2lbs on 6'' straight tail in june bug..the water is a bit murky still.only ished or about 4hrs so we didnt get a chance to ish my spots.ound the ish in about 10' o water.
      City: sacramento

      Tips: the bass we caught seemed to be eeding on baitish,there bellys were ull.the lake should heat up and when it does you better hold that rod and not look back.typical plastics work...baitish = bass!

  • Napa County
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      Water Temp: 50

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Visited Hennessy earlier in the week ater the heaviest o the rains and ound it so chocolate-colored that I just turned around and went home. Came back Tuesday, and the color had turned somewhat greenish so I decided to throw a little rom shore.Started out at 2:45 pm at one o my lucky spots with no success. Tried another area that looks good on the road up to Chiles Valley, but again, no luck. I was thinking o heading home, but stopped at another spot that has been good to me. Tied on a black jig that I had recently repainted with a purple kalen's grub with lakes in it. I decided to add a worm rattle or a little extra noise. Got a real light bump on the irst throw toward the edge o some dried up tules. Threw back to the same spot and the bait just got hammered. Brought it to shore and the largemouth measured 19.5 inches, 6.2#.Switched to my other rod, rigged with the brightest colored spinnerbait in my bag. About 20 minutes later, stuck a 3.5 on this rig. This was caught on the other side o the same stand o tules.For the rest o the time I was there, I just kind o switched back and orth between the two rods and caught one more largemouth that hit while quickly reeling in to throw another cast. This one hit the jig setup but was only 12 inches.Fished about two hours total and headed home.
      City: Napa

      Tips: Read Larry Hemphill's article on ishing chocolate water. I put a worm rattle in the grub or noise, and replaced the gold willow lea blade with a chartreuse Colorado on the spinnerbait. Thanks to his suggestions, I think the little adjustments I made to the baits, and throwing to heavy weeds were the dierence between a little and no success.

  • Trinity County
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      Water Temp: 44-46

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Thought I'd go up and beat the storm. Glad I did. On the water @ 8 and started picking up nice ish by the Ballpark right away. Checked out a ew avorite holes and ound ish everywhere I went. South wind has packed the tailings up by the river with debris so turned right around and went back to the ballpark and picked up where I let o. Don't know why I let there in the irst place. 9 ish total 2 smallies and 1 Lm, all over 4 lbs.(I've got pictures) O the water by 10:30. Fun morning.
      City: Weaverville

      Tips: Mr. Mellow please contact me, I seem to have misplaced your #.

Monday, February 23rd, 2004

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: unknown (?52?)

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished out o Frank's tract today - turned out to be a nice day even though the ish didn't cooperate much!! Only landed one bass - 2.1 lbs - just outside o piper slough in rank's. Had a nice ollow by a 7-10 pound striper in Sandmound, but just couldn't coax any other ish in the boat. Got a lot o help rom the men over at the new Extreme Fishing store in Oakley - Tim, Gary, and Chris are all great people and more than willing to help out with a point or two or those novices (like mysel). Thanks!!
      City: San Francisco

      Tips: Seems that the word on the street is reaction baits - spinners worked well over the weekend or a lot o people, and cranks are bringing in their air share (at least by report!!).

    • By

      Water Temp: 55 and up

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: ishing was slow...ound a ew in the coves on 6'' straight tails in june bug. the water is still a bit murky and it seems that the bite will get good soon.
      City: sacramento

      Tips: 2 more weeks and the bite will be on i think.....good luck!

    • By

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: went to loma to day. cought 10 and missed 5 more.trout were cought on worms and powerbait near the loogon.
      City: antioch

  • Sacramento County
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      Water Temp: 51-53

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Wanted to post about the 4+ spot I got last week but with only two other bites I thought I would wait until I could get a limit. Fished North Fork and had 13 keepers with two spots and two largemouth over two pounds. Fished rips, tubes, straight tail worms and even a spook ater I saw a second boil next to the same rock pile. All caught ish except the spook. The ish were up shallow (8-12 t)on big lat areas. Mostly, the ish were associated with rock piles on these lats. Talked to a guy who caught a 10 lb limit split shotting Zoom Watermelon/red lake 6 in.(?) lizards in the same depth and in the North Fork.
      City: Citrus Heights

      Tips: The water temp. has warmed a little and the ish were active in the 52.5-53 as opposed to the 51 water I ished. The worm was Carolina rigged and the suspending rip was pulled slowly and paused or up to 10 seconds. Go ishing because you can.

Sunday, February 22nd, 2004

  • Amador County
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      Water Temp: ?

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: ished the bank today and ound 15 nice bass bustin on shad out by the dock...most were 2 1/2-4lbs but Justina did manage a nice solid 6lber on a green mini jig.used silver and white 1'' tubes and the amous ol white mini jig.Good day o ishing over all.well be on the boat soon just gotta inish the loors and some small stu, but at this rate were doing better then most on boats.
      City: Sacramento

      Tips: ish seem to be gettin very active early this year, were ready or the pre spawn!

    • By

      Water Temp: 43 - 53

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Went out Sunday with verteran Northern Caliornia angler Jimmy Mac to try and ind a hog at San Pablo. We took Jim's rig with the 4 stroke and he was resh o a 10+ day at Anderson. Stayed in the south and tried a variety o oers: Senko, black lippy, Jig, blades, buzz bait, spook, jerk bait, even a neon crankbait, Texas rig, carolina, split shot, drop shot. Obviously we never igured it out. Same results on all counts. A big at zero. Really muddy and no one seemed to igure it out. Saw one rench group with a trout and another guy in a Kyack landed a nice trout as well. Couple guys at the ramp said no luck up north either. The only saving grace was it didn't rain. Get em next time!
      City: Paciica

      Tips: Find clear warmer water i you can.

  • Trinity County
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      Water Temp: 44-46

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Got back on the lake again or a while today and ound that the big dogs have moved up. Picked up 4-10 and 4-2 LM and several Smallies over 3. Best 5 on my cul-m-rite, 19.26. Caught 5 LM and 7 smallies and still got home or the last hal o the race. Picked up 1 Smallie on a crank or the only reaction bite but was having so much un with Gitzits and worms that I didn't throw reaction much at all. Weather report doesn't look too good or the middle o the week but it will have to get really bad to put o the bite now.
      City: Weaverville

      Tips: Debris is really spread out in the North end so use care.

Saturday, February 21st, 2004

  • Amador County
    • By

      Water Temp: 52

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: I ished Thur., starting about 9am. Went up Jackson to try the wall but it was very muddy as was Mountain Spings and Rock creek. Being a bright sunny day, I started looking deep on the main body and ound large schools o bass eeding on shad in 40 to 60 t. I caught about 40 ish with a proto type tail spinner,spooning(Duh spoon/key lime & morning dawn) and a ew on jigs bettween 11am and 2pm. Most were 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 lbs and a ew 3-4 lbs. I went back on Friday joined by my buddy Larry Hemphill and ound conditions very dierent, cloudy and light sprinkles. We had a ew hits on jig but they wouldn't pick it up. then we tried spooning but the bass were not chasing shad and very inactive. Larry had to leave about 2pm and I decided to ish more. About 4pm the wind changed and I noticed on my X15 that shad schools were starting to come up rom 60t and the bass were right behind them. I caught a dozen ish spooning in about an hour. Guess they igured they'd better eat beore dark.
      City: Sacramento