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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Monday, July 14th, 2003

  • Amador County
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      Water Temp: 80

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished 7 pm thru 3 am. Lots o topwater action but only one hit - a 2+ on a spook. Next ish came at dusk o Mountain Spring on a crankbait, about a 3.5. Next three ish came on junebug power hogs. Last ish, a catish, was on the power hog. Last three ish were about 1.5 - 2.5 - nothing to write home about. No big ish were out - all missed bites were tail biters and so were likely small. All ish were shallow.
      City: Folsom

      Tips: Give the topwater a try in Rock Creek during the evening.

    • By

      Water Temp: ???

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Well today we held KOTL V rom 1:30PM - 8:30PM, and I managed to snake by Tom by 2 ounces to get the coveted King o the Loma title. LOL. O course, it was only Tom and I, but we had the previous king there to deend the title, so it was all good. I got a limit or 6-4, and Tom just missed getting his limit but still ended up with 6-2. I caught my ish on a rog, drop-shot, and a Super Spook. Big ish or me was only 1-10, he was caught drop-shottin' an Aaron's Magic colored worm. I caught 4 ish drop-shotting, 2 on a rog, and 1 on my Super Spook. Just a bunch o dink 1# ish during the tournament. However, 5-10 minutes ater the tournament was over, I was walking back towards Tom because he said he had a big bullrog going ater his Wiggle Wog, so I went over to try and catch it with my red rog, but as I was walking over the bullrog took o. Well, I made it over to where Tom was so I decided to lip my rog out on the scum just or the heck o it...wouldn't ya know it...I hauled in a 3-9. That ish deinitely would've helped me to secure my lead 10 minutes earlier. LoL. I was scared that Tom was going to snake ahead o me by a ew ounces, but lucky or me it turned out to be the other way around.
      City: Antioch

      Tips: *Ribbit*

    • By

      Water Temp: 75

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Not much to report. What a terrible day. On the water at 6:00 am, not another soul on the water until ater nine and not a bite. Threw buzzbaits, senkos, Pop-R's, blades, Fat Free Shar, DD-22, Snag Proo Frogs and NADA. Maybe the ull moon has em shut o, but this reservoir is starting to get to me. 5 weeks o ishing and one ish. Oh well, it's better than working!!
      City: Sunnyvale

      Tips: Give it your best guess.

    • By

      Water Temp: N/A

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished on Sat July 12, 03 and Mon July 14, 03.On Saturday, ished rom 7-9PM. Caught two on crankbait. They were quite small. Then on Monday, ished early morning. Caught our bass up to 3.5 lbs. All ish were caught on crankbait in about 7t o water.
      City: Stanord

      Tips: Crankbait bite is quite good now.

  • Shasta County
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      Water Temp: 82.3

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Ok River rat here it is, such as it is, last thursday I went out again with Keith rom Medord expecting another nights decent bite, it was great or about 30 minutes, we caught 4 then no more or 3 hours in the upper McCloud, moved south to Shallow point and got bit a ew times and Keith inally got another one on. We got o the water at 1130.Steve called me Saturday wanting me to go ish with him but i told him I hadn't ished in the mornings or some time and wouldn't know where to go. We talked it over or some time and I said "ok". He picked me up at o dark 30 and o we went to Packers or the check in, we were last out and o we went to the middle Sac, I got a decent smallmouth quickly but it hopped o when I tried to swing him into the boat, we ended up with 18 or the day but only 3 keepers, a very poor showing. Lots o guys came in with short limits and small ish.Went out last night, lake just down past 24 t, air temp 90 going in, slight breeze out o the west water temp up past 82. Ran over past silverthorn to ish some submerged humps and got there at 9pm. Got three decent ish quickly with one at 1.83 and another at 2.2. Got tapped a ew times but nothing again until 1230 when the bite turned on, had 14 with one just over 2.5 in a hal hour on a lat connected to this same hump, all came on hula grubs save or one on a surace lure.(Mr. Fullers special) This occurred about an hour ater that ull moon came up. Things slowed down again and I got out at 0200 at 69 degrees and a beautiul moonlite night. Actually had one other boat near me most o the night with 3 olks in it who were staying on a houseboat over in Lori Cove. There was a mass exodus Sunday evening as the Jones Valley parking lot only had about 10 outits in it, there is room or 6-7 rigs in the gravel down by the ramp now.
      City: Redding

      Tips: Big ish on Saturday wa a little over 4, Mr. Minugh had 11.87 lbs, that guy amazes me as he always does well even when the bite is tough. Back to the night ishing or me. I you are going to do it, go out a little later and come in just as the sun comes up.

Sunday, July 13th, 2003

  • Amador County
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      Water Temp: ?warm

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: ished the same tourny that phil was talking about. preished the week beore and had one keeper so i should o known the bite was going to be tough. i just didnt know how tough there was probroly 15teams with 0 ish me being one o them. bite was just horrible. it was the irst time ive ever not weighed in a ish. hopeully the last too. almost 15# won it or 5 ish. 2nd was almost 12 with a 8+kicker. i caught alot o ish they were just all 9inches long.
      City: orangevale

      Tips: dont know how i can help ya. i you want to have some un bring an extra light rod and dropshot the shallow tullies the small smallmouths are stacked up in schools o about 50 or so.darthead dropshot

    • By

      Water Temp: 78

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished a club tournament on Sunday. Partner and I had pre-ished a ew weekends beore the event and ound that the topwater bite was good or one or two big ish, beore the sun hit the water. Once the sun was up, we caught quality ish (several in the 4 to 5 pound range) on jigs and Carolina-rigged plastics on points in the main body at a depth o 20 eet or less. Natural colors seemed to work the best. Tournament Sunday was a little dierent. We caught one sickly looking smallmouth (covered in sores and rotting lesh) on a Chug-bug. We threw topwater or another hour, but we couldn't get any other bites. We started ishing the C-rig, jig, and drop-shot. Caught a 2-pounder and then a nice 8-pounder on the ootball head jig. We had our three ish at 8:15. That was it or the day. Our weight was just under 12 pounds.
      City: Sacramento

      Tips: We ound ish holding near schools o bait on and around points at about 16 eet. Several times we got too close with the boat and saw the bass we were trying to catch, so we let and came back a little later and made long casts. Long casts seemed to be the ticket.

    • By

      Water Temp: 75

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Folsom bass team tournament. 22 boats 44 isherman. One limit o bass. Several boats recorded no keepers. One nice 8 lber was caught drop shot. Other unknown because no ino reported. Winning bag said top water and dart heads? Fill in the blanks? I caught my 2 keepers cranking shade pockets near green bushes. Several small bass hit 4 inch and 6 inch worms drop shot. Overall a very tough bite or all.Pre ishing I could get several keepers ripping wind blown points. Extra boat noise might have put most ish down? Neat not to have jet skiers and skiers with boom boxes. $17.50 or two anglers is a little high but the lake is real clean and a outhouse in every cove.
      City: orangevale

      Tips: Go on a week day. Everything works then.

Saturday, July 12th, 2003

  • Yuba County
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      Water Temp: warm

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Got out to bullards about 4.00 ished till about 8. caught about 10 small spots tossing worms brown and green but it seem any color worked. Started throwing crank baits or better ish got one 18 inch and another 16 inch and then more small ones. not to oten you can catch a 18 inch spot, and at bullards that's a miracle
      City: b-v

      Tips: lakes crowded lots o skiers

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: warm

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Got out early...irst light. Fished Dissapointment and deep water channel rocky points...threw traps and topwater..no takers. Switched to white blades at sunrise and managed a ew small ish along dock edges and rock points. Had 4-5 pounder come un-buttoned next to a dock. Very ew cruisers, but man.... IT WAS HOT!!!!
      City: Stockton

      Tips: Slow rollin blades really seems to be the ticket right now....( at least til the rog bite turns nuts) ruby brush hog was decent as well..

    • By

      Water Temp: 74

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: went ishin on ri, launched at 5:30 with the well known bass pro bobby baracks. i had a great time irst o all. we went striper ishin caught some nice ones on topwater. Then we went roggin on the matts, and got aew good ones. My dad wasnt catchin anything so we started worm ishin and caught over 30 ish. Alittle windy, but good ishing.

      Tips: the hotter it gets, the better the rog ish are. catch and release only, good luck.

  • Alameda County
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      Water Temp: 72-76

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished rom 6am to about noon. Caught 8 bass(6lm 2sm),1 cat(my irst), and a monster bluegill.4 o the bass came on a yamamoto spider grub on a 3/16 oz ootball head. The others came on a dropshot with a berkley bungee worm in green pumpkin.(including the cat and bluegill)All ish were caught rom the 15 to 25 t depths. Good day.
      City: gilroy

      Tips: Vertical banks 15 to 25 t deep.

  • Lake County
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      Water Temp: 75

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Went over July 4th weekend. First time on Pillsbury in 8 years, and irst time with a "real" boat. Logging road is generally OK, but has rough stretches... took 45 minutes to go 9 miles, but I'm careul. Only caught 13 bass over almost two days, plus several squaws and 5 rainbows in the back o one creek arm. I avoided ishing between 11:00 and 3:00 both days. During high sun periods, bass were hitting either tubes or grubs on a split-shot rig in 2-10 eet o water. Backs o creeks held smaller ish, rocky shorelines larger. They didn't seem particularly attracted to wood versus rock. I didn't spend any time in the North-end shallows, since all the people were around there. My best ish were two over 4 lbs, and one 5 lbs 10 oz. From 1 hour prior to sunset to dark (and in early morning) I had better success on black, double-willow spinnerbaits... nothing ancy, just bass pro cheapies. Would have been an even better trip, were it not or the jet-skiers and waterskiers. Why do they all love AC-DC at high volume???? Pillsbury is much more popular than I remember, but I only saw three or our other bass boats. Catch and release, and tight lines!
      City: Cupertino

      Tips: Daytime: grubs/tubes in dark, natural colors on split-shot rigs. Texas-rigging was noticeably less eective. Try shades o brown to imitate the color o Squawish. Evening: dark spinnerbaits, ished shallow.

  • Shasta County
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      Water Temp: 79 degrees

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Spent 4 days at Shasta ishing just a ew hours a day rom approxamently 7 pm till 10 pm each evening. Lots o ish 13 to 15 inches drop shotting in 20 t0 30 oot rom 7 till dark with a hit on almost every cast at times. Ater dark or just previous to dark I threw black blades and buzz baits parallel to the bank catching quality spots in the 2 and 3 lb range and my best ish going 4 1/2 lbs on a black blades. All my ishing was mainly in the McCloud arm and a little in the Pit arm
      City: Sacramento

      Tips: Drop shot during the day in 20 to30 oot water and then at dark move to the bank and throw buzz baits and blades or quality ish.

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

      Report: I will be at the lake or 7 days starting July 19. Staying in the Trinity Center area. Any recommendations or lures and areas to ish would be appreciated. I know that the lake is high this year and what eects on the ish at this time o the year. I have ished the dredger pilings in the past.Thanks

Friday, July 11th, 2003

  • Mason County
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      Water Temp: 78-81

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Went out with a buddy to Anderson. First time in almost two years. Ramp situation stinks especially with so many people that don't prep their boat beore launching, or don't know how to launch quickly. Very rustrating. Fishing was pretty good considering the water level is extremely low. Around thirty eet below where is usually is. Caught all o our ish on plastics. All ish were small, up to about 2lbs. We had 14 ish.
      City: San Jose

  • Napa County
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      Water Temp: 78

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: No reports or Berryessa in a month? Fishing can't be that bad! I took two pretty good isherman yesterday or a late aternoon - night trip and while it wasn't outstanding, we really did airly well. It appears that Fridays are nearly as bad as weekends now or boat traic, but it did settle down as evening approached. We started at 6 pm in some o the coves in the narrows area and a client got the irst on a Pulse Worm - a largemouth about 1 1/2 lbs. We traveled to some areas near Goat Island and hit one o my avorite points and we ound 'em!! Split-shotting and drop-shotting were producing smallies and largemouth up to 2 1/4 lbs. One o the clients was nailing them on his Aaron's Magic worm on the drop-shot rig I set up or him. We moved to another good point and never got bit - I couldn't believe it! We moved again and I put a client on the ever aithul Chug Bug topwater and I threw my black buzzbait that hasn't done well lately. The irst cast (over a lat) produced a smashing hit and I boated an 18 1/4 inch spotted bass that weighed 2-11. The next cast by my client produced a tremendous blowup but one o them missed each other - no hookup. I would have liked to see that ish!! We wound up with 13 bass beore dark - all but one good quality. Ater dark I was really disappointed - we did well but not up to Berryessa's standards. We got a lot o those great bites - set the hook - and they get o. We lost several near the boat. There is no other lake where bass have mastered the art o escape at night like these bass have. I have tried to igure it out and I can't. We only caught 7 more and lost over 20 or so. A couple were 2 pound largemouth and one smallmouth. We used 7 inch power worms and Dead Ringers. Many o the open areas were not too good because o the lat water and bright moon. We ound most o our ish on steep banks that had shadows. We all had a great time - at least we had a lot o action - and caught quality ish - our best ive were over 11 1/2 lbs. I slept or an hour and went out mysel at irst light to see i I could get another good buzzbait ish but there was no topwater bite at all and the lake was a bit rough. I did drop-shot a 1 3/4 lb spot and ended with a beautiul 2 lb 5 oz smallmouth - that was un!!!
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: I tried many other techniques last night - steady retrieve and ripping o the bottom with a one ounce Cordell spot lure, jigs, spinnerbaits, and buzzbaits. Only the worms produced or us. I think when the lake drops more, it will put bass out on the structures I like to target at night. While it was a beautiul night - wildlie was dead quiet - no birds, crickets, rogs, ish rolling, coyotes, anything! My clients noticed that too. I listen or those things and usually ind the ishing to be slower as a result o whatever orces cause wildlie to take the night o!

  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: unknown

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished Hog, Beaver, and Sycamore sloughs during the outgoing tide. 3 o us came home with a 15 ish (biggest 4+ lbs). Caught a ton o undersized bass. Most o the ish were caught by cranking a Rat L Trap parallel to the outside edge o the weedline. Tried lipping and throwing Senkos inside the weedline, but only caught undersized ish. Caught a ew on spinnerbait.
      City: Dixon

      Tips: Fish were chasing shad and in deeper water because o the heat. Any Rat L Trap that resembled a shad worked. White spinnerbaits w/silver blades.

    • By

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Been out about 4 times last week ishing the holland tract area.Small ish are plenty and un but the bigger ish I have got are on wood with a senko and way o rock points with a clown trap .The big ish or the week 6.3 lbs on the senko Fish on
      City: Pittsburg

      Tips: Still learning more out there but to me Plastics on high tide and traps o points on low any rocks will catch ish

    • By

      Water Temp: ?

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I went out to the lake at 6:15a.m. I started ishing by the boat ramp using my rog that I tweeked out so it could walk. I got one blowup on it but the bass didn't take it and got another hit a ew minutes later. I got the irst ish at 7:00 on a Pop-R which was just a 12"er. I went over to the cove by the boat ramp and at 8:15 got a 1-10 on the pop-r. Then I got my irst rog ish. A whole 12ozes. Oh well at least I got a rog ish. He almost swallowed it. I ished some loating vegetation mixed in with loating tules with the rog. Ater a while a bass completely exploded on it. It came halway out o the water. It dug down in the tules and spit the hook. It was at least 5lbs. Why is it that you always lose the big ones and not the small ones? LOL. I got another blowup where I got the 12ozer but missed it. I got about 7 blowups total on the rog all day and only got 1. I got a really small one on a buzzer but it came unbottoned. I got one more hit on the buzzerr but it didn't hook up. I let at 4:00.
      City: Antioch

      Tips: Pop-Rs and rogs. I used a Chart. Snag Proo rog and walked it around weeds and crawled and twitched it ontop o the scum. When you get a hit, make sure the ish has it beore you set the hook. Don't be like me and set the hook way too early. Hahaha. I need to work on that. I also used a shad colored Pop-R.