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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Wednesday, January 21st, 2015

  • Shasta County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Good morning Shasta Lake!

      Another sunny day here on the lake. Currently at 55 degrees and almost dead calm with a small ripple on the surface.

      I am planning on getting some aerials in the near future...can't wait to show all of you!

      Until then, enjoy your Wednesday, the weekend is right around the corner wink emoticon

      Lake Level Report (01/21/2015 at 6 AM)
      Lake Elevation: 954.89' (112.11' below full pool)
      Lake Elevation 2013: 936.25' (133.75' below full pool)
      Storage: 1,958,765 af
      Outflow: 3,002 cfs
      Inflow: 6,286 cfs
      Precipitation (24 hr @ dam): 0.00"
      Precipitation (Season @ dam): 34.32"
      Precipitation (2013 Season @ dam): 2.83"

Monday, January 19th, 2015

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 49.5 Degrees

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished Big Break on Sunday. Took the Fog on, weather warm outside. Minimal wind. Water was real muddy. Put in at low tide, incoming. Most fish hanging on the bottom, we tried to coax 'em off the bottom with jigs and spoons but to no avail. Threw into tules with no return. My buddy caught one striper on a blue flapping hog, about 15 inches.
      City: Orinda

      Tips: Stay home and watch the Super Bowl. The water isn't going to clear for at least a week or two.

  • Butte County
    • By

      Water Temp: 50

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Went out today with Clark for a half day of fish. Burr, still cold, but now foggy! can't seem to pick a good day. We managed to catch 7 fish, 6 spotted bass and Clark got a silver salmon (coho) not a big one but decent at about 16-18" or so. Slow bite, ever so slow. At least the water temp came up a degree from last trip. Come on spring, tired of winter bite.
      City: Magalia

Friday, January 16th, 2015

  • Shasta County
    • By

      Report: Fishing up at the lake has been great! The bass are still feeding pretty shallow on main & secondary point's and flat's. The best bite has been on 1/2 oz. & 3/4 oz. jig's or 6" worms on 3/16 or 1/4 oz. darthead's from the shoreline out to 28'. Darker colors such as brown, brown & purple, black or black & blue and using some type of scent such as Bassfeast have been the key to getting more bite's on jig's. The best worm colors have been Mojave oxblood, Warmouth and Blue crawler.

      Lake Levels as of this morning
      Shasta: 113.40' from full pool
      Trinity: 134.36' from full pool
      Oroville: 181.66' from full pool

Wednesday, January 14th, 2015

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 48

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Slow Day - I fished many of my favorite spots in the east delta for a couple fish. I threw the whole tackle box at them for nada until about 3:00 p.m. when I finally woke up a couple using a white homemade soft plastic swimbait. The largest was 3-1 and the smaller was 2-5. I used all of the typical winter type lures and tried to slow the presentation way down but most of the day was just spent exercising my casting/flipping/pitching arm. It was a bit cool and overcast but nice to get out there at any rate.
      City: Stockton

Tuesday, January 13th, 2015

  • Butte County
    • By

      Water Temp: 49 +

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Went out for 3 1/2 hours and got cold, damn wind blowing like hell. Hard to hold the boat steady at most fishing locations. I hate days like this, and seems the fish did too. I got 2 spots, both a tad shy of 15" and that was it for me. Went home with my ego dragging, still dragging a day later. It's supposed to get colder!, maybe go next Monday if it warms any. Saw very few fish on the fish finder, where did they go?
      City: Magalia

      Tips: Dress for cold and wind.

Sunday, January 11th, 2015

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 46-50

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Weather: Clear Skies, Cold air temps
      Lake Level: High to low tides\Best Depths: 3-5 on rocky flats, 8-12 in the deeper grass beds.
      Much of the River this past week has been very stained, locating clearer backwaters is a challenge still with the dying hyacinth still floating all over the river. Fishing has been tough, with bites few and far between. Dropshotting very slow with a 7" Ro
      Big Bass: 3-5 on rocky flats, 8-12 in the deeper grass beds.
      Nothing over 4 pounds the past week.
      Guide Information: WWW.CoochsFishing.COM\Name & Number: Cooch's Fishing 925-732-3293

      Tips: Darker colors are producing best in the stained waters, find clearer areas and lighter colors will produce.

    • By

      Water Temp: low 50's

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: trap baits,blades n jigs. chartreuse color baits
      City: lafayette

    • By

      Water Temp: low 50's

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: trap baits,blades n jigs. chartreuse color baits
      City: lafayette

Friday, January 9th, 2015

  • Butte County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished today from 8am to noon. Went to the end of the west fork mostly to see what it looked like, not much water, mostly barren slopes. Slow bite, got 7 spots tossing worms working them slow. Largest right at 15", other basic fish at 13-14" or so. Most fish taken in 25-30 foot of water. Not going in this area again for a long time. Back to north fork for me.
      City: Magalia

Wednesday, January 7th, 2015

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 47-51

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Gee, No reports in the last 5 or 6 weeks. Must be no one fishing! OR, all the bass have been live welled to the north end. OR, they are in a funk! I have said this before - it takes a real man to make this report - and it's not the first time! The great thing about the trip was talking to Dan Issac at Clearlake Bait & Tackle as he reminded me that we were at the same Jr High school in San Jose - he as student and me as teacher. I had forgotten that! I was thinking surely the bite wasn't as bad as he and everyone was saying. Well - it was. Actually, the bite was fair - we got 6 of them in 5 hrs. My friend Mike landed the only one we saw - about 9 inches - just before dark. Our 5 bites were good ones but they would not hold on - lost them on the hookset. Mike did bring one half way in but she came off, he thought about 3 or 4 lbs. We hung it up about 9 pm in favor of hot coffee at McDonald's!!

      Tips: Jigs, Yamamoto Flappin' hogs, and Brush Hogs provided our only bites. We have fished the Henderson area for three times in the last several weeks and have only had 2 bites. Must have been there the wrong days - yea - that's it!! Guess the bass liked all their new low water homes and decided to stay there!!

Monday, January 5th, 2015

Sunday, January 4th, 2015

  • Mendocino County
    • By

      Water Temp: unknown

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Lake has come up to near 70% from around 35%. Looking like a lake again instead of a puddle. Lots of woody debris in the water especially the east side so watch out. Both ramps should be open now, I launched from the south ramp and they said the north ramp would be open in a week. I trolled around 20-25 feet with spinners and spoons and did some casting and didn't get a bite, from mid afternoon til dark near the dam and the east shore and where the river comes in. Still a nice day on the lake. A pro bass fisherman caught 3 in the east side shallows fishing slowly with rubber worms and jigs. Hopefully it will get better this spring for stripers and the like. Fish on!
      City: Willits

      Tips: Fish slow and shallow or wait til spring

Saturday, January 3rd, 2015

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 45-50

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Muddy water everywhere. Cleaner water in flooded islands and dead end sloughs. Found a spot with healthy grass and 5 degree warmer water. Marked fish but couldn't get them to bite. Two stripers elsewhere inside island and on break. Those were the only two bites we got all day and they were both an inch short! I caught mine on a jerkbait. My cousin caught his using a fly rod and some sort of tiny little buck tail jig. Saw another guy on a break pull out an LMB using a fly rod as well.
      City: San Mateo

      Tips: I can't fish slow enough to catch fish in the winter. I'm guessing if you can slow down you'll have better luck than me.

Friday, January 2nd, 2015

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 52-55F

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: COLD!! Saw 22F on the road in to Capell. Ramp and lake are in good shape (slightly stained, not really stained). Bounced around main lake stuff early for one really nice spot. Spent the rest of my time in the Narrows, w/ plenty of company! Bite was good - several solid spots and a couple good smallies - no dinks at all.

      Tips: All fish came on jigs in 10 - 30 feet (Hemphill Special-look it up). Main lake and secondary points. Some points had 'em stacked up, others had none - sometimes on the sides, sometimes on the tips. Cover water and keep the jig moving.

    • By

      Water Temp: 52-55F

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: COLD!! Saw 22F on the road in to Capell. Ramp and lake are in good shape (slightly stained, not really stained). Bounced around main lake stuff early for one really nice spot. Spent the rest of my time in the Narrows, w/ plenty of company! Bite was good - several solid spots and a couple good smallies - no dinks at all.

      Tips: All fish came on jigs in 10 - 30 feet (Hemphill Special-look it up). Main lake and secondary points. Some points had 'em stacked up, others had none - sometimes on the sides, sometimes on the tips. Cover water and keep the jig moving.

Thursday, January 1st, 2015

  • Butte County
    • By

      Water Temp: not sure the wa

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Launched a lime saddle, ramp was good. Very long walk to you parked rig. 29 degrees at 8am, warmed up to 41 degrees at 4pm. Frozen was the word of the day for the fisherman. Never got any good fish, caught 30 + fish. Bite was way off. Fished the west branch and north fork, saw quite a few boats. need warm weather to get the bite jumped started.
      City: Chico

      Tips: dress warm, including warm shoes.

    • By

      Water Temp: 49

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: BURR, sure was cold fishing today. One heck of a windy day on the lake. Tried my new pants, bomber hat, gloves, which made it ok fishing for me. Slow bite, fished mostly the lime saddle marina area and half way to north fork. Tossed worms and managed just 8 spots, largest right at 14 1/2 inch, all other the basic 13" size. Most fish looked good, getting fat from just hanging out watching us fishing fools try to catch them. All my fish were 25 to 30 foot down, other then one at about 15 foot mark. Hope the winds let up for better fishing this next week.
      City: Magalia

      Tips: Anyone looking for a fish partner, let me know, lets do some fishing. Take your boat or mine, works for me. Mine a small 14ft Klamath, slow, crowed, but it catches fish. Email me at Jewelweaver@earthlink.net

Monday, December 29th, 2014

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 50 - 55 by the

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: not alot to report for my brother and I. Had the day off and had not been to Berryessa in a long time. Figured it would be clearer than Sonoma. Water clarity was fishable, stained more in the creeks than the main lake. Fished Pope and Puta, the north end and some of the east end and then a little in skiers. Jerk bait, jig, chatterbait, crankbaits, swimbait, splitshot and even a drop shot. Fished 5 feet to 25 feet mostly. Steve got one fish in the creek area, 20ft ofwater, on a speedtrap had a wierd short fight and when it came up it was a trout. Not a bass but better than not getting bit. There were about 10 boats out there no idea if any had any luck, didn't see any caught. Started late, around 9:30 and finished at 3:30. Water is definitely high enough to launch safely, capel is open. A little wood on the lake but not much. Cold outside, sun barely made it out behind the clouds maybe out an hour or so all day.

      Tips: Don't do what we did.

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 48-53

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Weather: High Pressure, Blue skies, no wind
      Lake Level: Normal, incomming to out go afternoon.\Best Depths: Most productive depths this week for blackies has been in clearer water, lottsa grass at 8-12 feet. Still catching a lot of schoolie stripers in 2-5 feet up in the flats and around the tulles of the flooded islands.
      The post frontal cold weather made fer very tough fishing this past week. Water temps fell below 50 to 48-49 the past four days and much of the River is stained to very dirty. Morning bite has been nonexistant with the exception of picking off a few schoo
      Guide Information: WWW.CoochsFishing.COM

      Tips: Winter is definately here, gotta slow WAY down and fish methodically for bites.