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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Monday, October 20th, 2003

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 70-74

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Went ishing last week ished brannons island and i threw a chug bug and my partner threw a skitter pop got about 8 ish then we moved down a little more threw a spinner bait got about a 2.5 er then no more threw a rootbeer colored senko and managed to get a nother 2.5to3.00lbs ish Moved to sycamoore and got a ew dinks caught about 20 we got out there about 5.00am and ished till 11.ooam
      City: Yuba city

      Tips: Top water is working work it slow and then ast good luck

Sunday, October 19th, 2003

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 66-67

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Spent the day on the south end o the lake and in the narrows marking a lot o ish and bait on the graph, but couldn't get any to bite. We tried just about everything. The reaction bite was dead, worms, jigs, nothing. Finally, at 1:30 I caught a 2# spot and 2# smallie on a drop shot. 20 minutes later my partner catches another spot just under 2#. A good way to end the day and get rid o the skunk. Anyone else ishing Berryessa?
      City: Rohnert Park

      Tips: It has been a really tough bite lately. Fish slow and be patient.

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

      Report: Brian Kettler took me up to Cachuma or some bass ishing. Started o in Cachuma Bay in the morning. Fished the shoreline in one o the Eastern coves when Brian noticed some shad dimpling the surace back inside. He told me to throw up in there. I was using a 3 inch Prizm Blue 'chovy Big Hammer swimbait rigged on an un-skirted buzzbait head and it didn't make it 3 eet beore it was sucked under by a nice 3.5 pound bass - which turned out to be the best one o the day. The rest o the day was tough with just a ew ish in the 12 inch range on crankbaits and 3 inch Steve's Shad colored Big Hammers rigged on 1/4 oz. Hammerhead Jig Heads. A ew other anglers got ish on plastic worms but it appeared that overall the bite was relatively slow.
      City: Santa Barbara

  • Alameda County
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      Water Temp: ?

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Bass ishing has been excellent at Chabot. I've been on the lake 3 times over the past 10 days and each time I caught 8-10 bass in about 3 hours. The largest was 3 and hal pounds and the majority are in the 1-2 pound range. The place to be this time o year is Alder Point. The reshly grown weeds provide plenty o cover and oxygen or bass. Most o the bass I caught are near the bottom (10-12 eet). The bass are hitting on plastic worms and luke all day long - literally rom 8am to 5pm. Occasionally they would chase ater crank baits. My nine-year old son is learning how to drop shot and having a blast. Chabot bass ishing should be good till mid-Nov.
      City: San Leandro

      Tips: Drop shotting with a size 1 hook, 1/4 oz sinker, 8-lb test line, and either watermelon 5" Robo Worm or 4" Yamamoto red/black lat swimming worm. Fish slow and don't set the hook too soon. I also had success with a 5" Zoom silver luke and purple Norman deep diving crank bait.

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: 67

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: i live in marin so i let my house at 6am, and got to the lake at 8, so started ishing with a bill dance at ree shad i picked up somewhere, and i caught 6 all together til about 11am,all around boat docks in about 10 eet o water. i think it was a un day, mostly cuz i was doing better than the tournament isherman in there $40,000 bass boats, and im in my tricked out aluminum boat. Eat that.

      Tips: I hear it was slow, but i had a cool day on that shad crankbait. well, good luck, catch and release only.

  • Yuba County
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      Water Temp: 69

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: I guided a husband-wie team Saturday and we wound up having a great trip, thanks to some high clouds and a little wind. With water so clear and no shadows at Collins, a clear, sunny, calm day can be tough at Collins. But the conditions were good and we started catching bass as soon as we started at 11 am. He caught one on his irst cast with a tube bait. Most o the day however we split-shotted Camanche Jack's morning dawn 4 1/2" worms and they worked all day. I drop-shotted one nice bass on a Yamamoto Kut-tail worm and missed three more. We wound up with 23 bass with Mrs. Client catching the largest - ishing out o the wrong side o the boat!! Her spotted bass was right at 2 pounds. Most o our bass averaged 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 lbs - mostly at with shad. We did catch 3 largemouth, but they wern't very big. We ished the main body islands and west side. Most o our catch was in 20 to 30 eet o water.
      City: yuba city

      Tips: The lake still hasn't turned over and probably won't or a ew days. I did see some school o bait at the 20 oot depth. You have to move around a lot at Collins to ind productive areas. The jig bite did not happen - to early I guess.

    • By

      Water Temp: air temp

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Went camping this weekend at Coyote thisweekend. Let the boat at home since theramp was closed. Water level is distrubinglylow. I you plan to ish it plan on aserious hike.
      City: San Jose

  • Mariposa County
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      Water Temp: UNKNOWN

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: SLOW FISHING THIS TIME OF YEAR SINCE THE BLACKS ARE ONLY SHOWING UP IN OPEN WATER CHASING SHAD SCHOOLS AND WONT TOUGH A RIP BAIT OR FALLING GRUB. THE SPOTS ARE ACTIVE MAINLY IN THE EARLY MORNING 20+ FEET WITH NOT A THING ANYWHERE NEAR THE BANKS AND THEY MOVE DOWN TO 35 FT. AND HANGING ON THE BOTTOM ON MAIN LAKE HUMPS OR ROCK PILES RELATING TO THE RAILROAD BED. I DID MANAGED TO CATCH A 3 LB SPOT ON A RIP BAIT FIRST THING IN THE MORNING UP RIVER OFF THE ROCK PILES, THE BIG BOY HAD TO BE SUSPENDED AS HE HAMMERED IT HALF WAY BACK TO THE BOAT. REALLY NICE FISH AND FAT AS CAN BE. SHAD ARE ONLY ABOUT 2-3" BUT THE SPOTS ARE FULL OF THEM RIGHT NOW. AFTER THE SUN GETS ON THE WATER IT'S DROP SHOTTING OR SPLIT SHOTTING SHAD PATTERN 4" PLASTICS IN 20-35' REMEMBER THE RAILROAD BED THING AT 35' WHEN IT GETS DEAD FROM THE BANK BACK TO THE BOATTHEY ARE ALL OVER THE TV SCREEN 20-35'AND ARE RIGHT ON THE BOTTOM. IF YOU SHAKE IT AND THEN LEAVE IT BE STILL FOR A FEW THEY'LL SLAM IT.BITE DULLED AT ABOUT NOON AND WE WINDED UP WITH 10 OR SO. MID-CAL BASS DREW 10 BOATS, AND FROM THE LOOKS OF IT THE BASS BOATS WE'RE STRUGGLING (PARKED ON MAIN LAKE POINTS AND DROP-SHOTTING) TOUGH TO GET ANY WEIGHT WITH JUST SPOTS COMING UP.LAST WEEK TOURN. WON IT WITH 13 LBS I WAS TOLD BY KEVINTHINK YOUR BEST BET IS CLEAR LAKE RIGHT NOW.PLEASE PRACTICE CATCH AND RELEASE HAPPY HOG HUNTING
      City: WATERFORD

  • Westchester County
    • By

      Water Temp: reezing

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Went out this morning and was working some spook's o the bank. Caugth 2 bass and hung 3 trouts with powerbait. Took em all home.
      City: Fremont

      Tips: Work the spooks nice and slow.

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

      Report: I was ishing at Oak Bottom on Whiskeytown Lake, it was 6 pm. and I wasn't getting many bites useing a ultra-lite set-up I threw on a bobber and a worm, wasn't concerned about what I might catch. And down went my bobber----wouldn't you know it a Bluegil. So I reeled in and about ten eet out, a giant bass leeped out o the shadows and nailed that poor little ish and with only 4 Lbs. test line, my line didn't stand a chance. Realizeing there where Bass out there (eeding) I quickly grabed my other pole(with 12 Lbs. test line) I slapped on a 3/8 oz. Jig (black w/ blue/yellow skirt and a rubber crawish trailer) and lung it out there. About 5 min. later Whamo, line began to run. the biggest Bass I had ever caught,or even seen with my own two eyes or that matter. When I hauled it up I was amazed that there are Bass o this size in that lake. 22in. 6Lbs. 7 oz. the olks at Hinkels market where kind enought to Weigh it or me.
      City: Redding

      Tips: boat ishing is the way to go or most lakes but you can still catch big one rom shore. the Brown trout colored Castmaster work well or trout. or Bass I hear rubber worms but I have yet to catch one rom shore with them, but shad imitator crankbait will usualy sture up a bite or two.

Saturday, October 18th, 2003

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 65-67

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Thought I would share my trip with ya started at sae light around sherman this time o year I love the power o some linesides and I ound them this day second cast 10 lbs 15 minutes later 12 lbs did not last long about 1/2 hour or so lost one and parntner got broke o had 10# test need I say more .Then tried to get some large mouth and that did not work to good all small ones .One last stop at the antioch Pge plant and we loaded up on some largemouth biggest only 2 lbs butt a quick limit or sure o the water 1:30 pm ish on
      City: Pittsburg

      Tips: Still learning I got the stripes in good current breaks with rattle traps and the largemouth hit traps as well

    • By

      Water Temp: ???

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Well, we held our KOTL TOC on Saturday. Har Har!! With our 3 top guys...me, tom, and aaron. d:o) We were all expecting to bring in some better weights or this KOTL as we've been catching some real nice ish lately, but the ish proved that they always seem to know when the weekend has come. Tom won it with one ish weighing a whopping 1-9! He caught his ish throwing a popper at a ish we saw eeding on some shad in the back o a cove. I won't give speciics on what cove and what popper he was throwing as it has been catching him good ish all year, so I'll let him spill it i he wants. So Tom was crowned King o the Loma!! I came in 2nd place weighing in a ish that tipped my Rapala scale at 0-13! 5th cast o the day with my Lucky Crat pointer at the edge o branch in the water caught that ish. Ater getting that ish so quickly, I thought that I would have no problems at all putting together a quick limit o ish. Not quite. I caught several ish in the 10-11.5" range, but that 0-13 was the only 12" I could catch. I did however have a 4lber swipe at my pointer FOUR counsecutive times and missed it by an inch or two each time!!! It really got the heart pumping, but he just wouldn't eat it. You could tell he wanted it though...must've been blind in one eye or somethin'. d;o) Well, I inished out our KOTL season earning the Angler o the Year title sliding past Tom by just 2 points.
      City: Antioch

      Tips: Don't ask us...we suck...look at those weights!! d:o

    • By

      Water Temp: N/A

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: This was a late report or Lexington. Fished at Lexington last Saturdaywith a new riend, "Ferdie". I met him at Arastradero lake and he is a verynice gentleman. We started ishing around 8:30AM at the southend. Water there was quite shallow and the action was slow, hookinga only ew "baby" bass. So we decided to move toward some deeperwater. About 10AM, I was able to locate a sudden drop using one o mycrankbaits. Right there, I hooked the irst decent ish. It went 12inch. The second cast at the exact same spot gave me a 16 incher. Ithought there might be a school. Too bad, we got only one dink more.Ater spending about hal an hour there, we moved urther north. Ferdie wasable to get a ew more ish on crankbait and Carolina rigged worm. Butthe ish were quite small. The biggest one might be a pound. At onepoint, Ferdie elt many nibbles on his crankbait but he couldn't get goodhook-set. He thought they might be small ish. So we let that spot.Hal way to another point, I decided to throw a ew more castback to that point. On my second cast, something big was eating myCarolina rigged worm. I elt very heavy pressure on the hookset and it was ableto pull the line out on a tight drag setting. "Fish on" and Ferdie wasrunning back to see this action. Ater a good ight, I was able to lipher. She was 20 inch long and weighted 4 pound. Too bad I didn't carrya standard scale to get the correct weight. Another "should have done" lesson:-( Ater a ew pictures,we released her. (I I have time, I will post the picture in the photosection.) We ished together until noon and I needed to call it a daybecause my girlriend was waiting to have lunch with me. Ferdiedecided to stay longer. Overall, un ishing. Oh, I orgot tomention that it was the irst time or Ferdie to ish at Lexington and he did very well. Catch&Release
      City: Palo Alto

  • Sonoma County
    • By

      Water Temp: 65-67

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished north end on secondary points with grass near drop-os. Boated a limit, biggest going around 4lbs. All ish came in less than 10 eet o water, all on texas rigged baby brush hogs.
      City: rohnert park

Friday, October 17th, 2003

    • By

      Water Temp: 65

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Great day on the watyer...caught over 30 bass in 4 hours with the largest 4# on a spinner bait! That one was caught by Richard P....we caugrt the rest o them on a drop shot rig in the back o a cove. The shad was gathering up in the grass and so was the bass. We got some really nice ish in the creek chanel right on the edge o the grass line. No top water and just a ew on a crank bait.
      City: santa clara

      Tips: Find the bait ish and you will ind the bass.

  • Sacramento County
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      Water Temp: 56

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: ME AND MY TWO BUDDYS CAUGHT OVER 40 BASS AROUND 15 10 POUNDER THE REST WERE 2 TO 5LBS
      City: ELK GROVE

      Tips: NOW THAT THE WATER IS GETTING COOL USE SENKOS OR JIGS BUT WE MAINLY DROP SHOTED OR IN THE MORNING THROUGHT SPOOK POP OR PROPS

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

      Report: On the water 8 A.M to 1 P.M. Caught 5 our ish. Fish the entire lake using crank baits. 1 ish came in shallow water in a cove and the other three in 10 eet o water on rock points. Not very productive didn't see any stripers boiling.

      Tips: Stick with crank baits and ind the points.

Thursday, October 16th, 2003

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 70

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Launched out o Brannon Island around noon. Hit my irst spot only caught 2 small ish. Today I decided to make the run to White slough because all I've been catching is small ish. Did o.k. Caught a lot o ish but biggest only went 3.9, caught most cranking rock walls with isolated weeds. Had a pretty good buzz bait bite just beore dark. All in all not worth the gas to run to White. Next time I'll stay on my water near Franks.
      City: Vacaville

      Tips: Speed Traps are great this time o year.

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Got on the water around 4:30 A.M. with my dad. His irst time to Clear Lake. Headed to the south end and ished docks using brush hogs and tubes. In the previous months I was on to good ish with both baits. First cast, pulled an 18" ish nice and at. 1/2 hour later, only one other hit but no ish. Swithed to the tube and picked up two more around 2.5 and 3.0 lbs. Dad also picked one up on a tube around 13". Started making long casts with a senko to about a oot o water. First cast...wham!! 6lb 5oz. Just ate the thing...Had to cut the line and leave my 5 ot Gamakatsu in her. Two casts later on the same dock...wham!! 4lb 3oz. And same story, lost another hook. The ish were eating it as soon as it hit the water. Swallowed boore I could set the hook. Continued to ish the south end with the senko and continued to catch smaller ish. Those little guys are sure nice to see all beeed up. As the sun came up we started to move a little deeper and had my dad try a drop shot rig. He did well and managed to get ew nicer ish in the 3lb range. I kept pitching the senko, Tube and Brush Hog, and managed to get ew more smaller ish and one with a little better size at 3lb 10oz, on a brush hog. Headed up north around 10:30 A.M. and tried to look or a crank bait bite.......non exsistant. Took a little 1/2 boat ride to show my dad around the lake and let him enjoy the atmosphere. We were o the water by 12:30....Had a good day but have to cull through smaller ish to get a nice one. 16 ish total and best ive went about 17lbs 9oz or so.......Just keep ishing and they will come.Good luck
      City: Marysville

      Tips: I stick with what I have conidence in. My best advice is to keep conident and don't be araid to mix things up. I hear so much about the crank bait bite going on but I continue to do well with iness baits. I would suggest hitting docks in the south end beore sunrise with a senko. All my better ish came shallow right at sunrise.

    • By

      Water Temp: ?

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Hello boys, have a good nights rest? I missed you. Where have all my wannabee's gone? Did school start again? Oh well someone's gotta do it since the dumbass county o Santa Clara can't igure out how to drain this place ast enough. Every ish I pull out and save rom certain death will go to a better lie in Old Reavis's armpond.
      City: Los Gatos

      Tips: S.O.S. Senco's and 17lb test. And here's a new one. You know the rumor about how there aren't any beaver's in Lexington? Well there aint any Piranha either. Tite lines brothers.