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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Saturday, March 21st, 2015

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 62-64

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Spent a bunch of time fishing from the drop offs but then found 'em in tules shallow. Only managed one decent size fish.

      https://youtu.be/ZKADE5Sf0z0
      City: San Mateo

  • Tuolumne County
    • By

      Water Temp: 62-64

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Club tournament, but there was also a Future Pro tournament going on at the same time. 100 boats launching at the same time with only 1 ramp with 2 lanes open...no good!!

      I hadn't fished this lake since I was a kid so I went in blind. Everything looks the same, all submerged trees. Water was really clear and then when the wind picked up it created at mud line. Lots of 13" fish throughout the day, could not find any big fish. I caught most on finesse, a couple on a shad color swim jig, one on a spinnerbait, and one on an A-Rig (which I ended up losing the rig in a submerged tree). Back seat was catching the same fish over and an over again everywhere we went fishing a finesse worm.

      I went there expecting to through big baits all day, but couldn't find anywhere where I felt like I could cast it w/o getting snagged in the trees. Tough day, I took 8th with 7.72 and 1st was 8.69 with a 2.7 big fish...terrible, when the week before 1st was 30lbs..

      Tips: I can't offer much in the form or a tip for this lake, other than if the water level is the same in the summer I'll be back to throw topwater all day. Green pumpkin worms either drop shot or other finesse styles and be prepared to re-tie all day.

  • Amador County
    • By

      Water Temp: 55-58

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Mike Sperbeck and I made our first trip to this beautiful lake (especially in the spring!) on Wed, and found the bite to be kinda slow. Usually I catch the big smallie when we fish there, but it was his turn this trip. Not a monster, but a solid 4 lb smallie. He landed 3 or 4 other smallies while I got 2 largemouth at 2 1/2 lbs and a smaller one. They all seemed to be at the 10 to 20 foot depth! We really covered most of the lake and found on here and one there! We didn't stay for the evening bite - if there was one!

      Tips: Small beaver type baits worked the best - mostly in green pumpkin color. I caught one of the largemouth on a 6" Robo worm - MM111 color. I forget what Mike was using for the big smallie. Points seemed to be the preferred structure they were using. I think the north wind - though not real bad - did prevent a better bite. It was a post front kind of day!!

Thursday, March 19th, 2015

  • Butte County
    • By

      Water Temp: 54-58

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Forgot to post my last few trips, mostly because I did really terrible for 3-4 weeks prior to today and busy and forgot to post. Getting just a few fish-3-5 per trip, just couldn't find them. Today was better, launched at Lime Saddle and fished mostly north fork north and south of west fork. Just about all my fish from steep rocky banks or narrow, steep points. No fish on basic banks or coves. Managed 10 fish today, with one at 16", and funny, got a giant blue gill, dinner plate size, had to be over a pound. Somehow He got hooked with a roboworm texas style. All other fish basic 13 inch stuff. Guessing a few more weeks 3-4 and the bite will be full on like we all like it. Catching a blue gill is a good sign, both fish mingle together many times and are moving up.
      City: Magalia

Tuesday, March 17th, 2015

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 58-61

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Why does one guide for bass on a day after a 97 boat tournament and all the other fishing boats? Because that is when the clients have to go - so we did!! Actually, the fishing was pretty fair in the main body. I had one pretty good young angler and one that had never caught a bass before - his second bass trip. Well, we got that monkey off our back when his first bass hit the net at 3 lbs - smallie!! The experienced fellow - and probable future pro, caught 3 or 4 with his biggest also a 3 lb smallie. They really were twins. I was showing them some of my favorite baits and colors and did manage a few quality bass - the biggest a 4 lb largemouth. We only wound up with 7 or 8 bass, but a respectful 13 1/2 - 14 lbs. Most of our bites were on various color 6" Robo worms, 4" Berkley Chigger Quads, and similar baits.

      Tips: We fished main body points and ledges. We actually found a few quality smallies in the back of one of the large coves - about 5 feet deep. We didn't throw anything with treble hooks.

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 62-68

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Bass fishing The River continue to be good - Excellent all weekend. The fish are moving up and down in many areas, gotta bounce around till ya find the right group. If yer only catchin 2 pounders all over in less than 3 feet, yer in the wrong area. Best bite all week has been out in the grass flats where ya got 4-7 foot. A variety of baits have worked for us including weightless Yamamoto baits, Flipshotting, T-rig and the Jig. Still not many bites during the day with a blade, V-jig, paddle tail or cranks, Sign show it's comming!

      Tips: Be patient, fish methodically slow and GIT OFF THE BANK! They are not spawning yet, just the juvenile , virgin males are up makin ya think so. It's not about how the weather feels to us above the water, in that River bass' word, they're gorging and getting ready to pass the Winter Transition and go to spring pre-spawn, then we'll git all them staging hens up there!

Saturday, March 14th, 2015

  • Yuba County
    • By

      Water Temp: 59-62

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Cloudy and no wind. Lake like glass all day. 7.25 pounder on first cast(wow), but slow rest of day with some dinks and a 2.25 thrown in.
      City: Reno

  • 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!