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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Saturday, August 23rd, 2014

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 78-83

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: I have to say something positive about the fishing these days - Beautiful water color - everywhere!! Mike Sperbeck and I fished late Friday/afternoon until midnight. We could have left just after dark and our report would have been the same. The night bite is dead here and at Berryessa. I'm sure that will change soon. Mike had fun with the 3 to 5 inchers - hooking one on almost every cast. One could almost walk on the Silversides. What a shame they aren't shad!! During the last hour of dark we did put together a limit - 5 bass for 15 lbs. Since I couldn't land the dinks, I did land the biggest at only 4 lbs on a green pumpkin Havoc bait. We each lost a big bass. We fished mostly in the south end. Never saw a boat of any kind after dark - sort of a private lake thing!!!

      Tips: Our bigger bass were caught on spots with deep drops near shore. We didn't fish any off-shore stuff this trip. Some of you may know that there are only 3 lanes open (not ramps) at Red Bud. Others are shut down because of low water. Launching was fine at the open 3 - though one of the docks is very short.

  • Butte County
    • By

      Water Temp: 78

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: I fished a half day today at Lake oroville. Not a great day, but I did manage to catch 14 fish. One nice 16" spotted bass, one 15" large mouth bass, one 14" small mouth, 9 basic 13-14" spots, 3 catfish, small ones at a couple pounds each. Super windy made fishing tough, especially the ride back to the launch in choppy waters, bounce ya to death in my little boat. Got most of the spots from one location, great honey hole. Bigger fish tended to be deeper.
      City: Magalia

Sunday, August 17th, 2014

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 78-84

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Very interesting 2 part trip Sat afternoon/night!! A doctor from a well-known eastern university was my client. We headed out of the zoo known as the narrows and headed up the lake to Big Island. We started spooning and drop-shotting around the few bait-balls we found. We put 3 nice bass in the boat (average 2 1/2 lbs) along with several other that realized they are now 3 inches long and can attack a 5 inch spoon. My, those Blade Runner spoons work on all size bass!! We worked 10 or 15 spots on and off shore. For some reason I picked up a Senko rod and threw a #301 5" Senko to a steep bank. The sun had just gone down when I got nailed immediately - and I mean NAILED!! After 3 or so minutes and 3 jumps, we boat a gorgeous 6 lb 10 oz largemouth. Where did she come from?? I started him fishing a 7" power worm - my favorite Berryessa worm. I thought I would throw my favorite Storm Chug Bug to see if there was any topwater action. There wasn't except for the next pig that exploded on it and soon broke my line. My favorite bug - gone forever!! Those are probably the best 2 back to back bites I have ever had at Berryessa. Hey - I was batting 500! After dark, the nice lake became the dead sea. We had lots of dink hits and lost one 3 or 4 lbs, and then nothing! Totally dead. Not sure I have ever seen the night bite there totally dead. As we left, the last quarter moon was rising which may have got the bite going some. This time of year with very warm water, the bite often starts at 2 or 3 in the morning.

      Tips: Look for the shad balls and you will find some willing bass. Most of these shad eating bass are the 1 1/2 to 3 1/2 - 4 pound bass. I think the bigger bass will still go after a big topwater bait, buzzbait, swimbait, jig, or as in my case - a Senko. Hard to pass up that spoon bite however - the fastest way to put a bunch of bass in the boat! This is the time of year you need to hunt for the bait and the bass. Lots of new off-shore structure is available for the first time in decades. Happy hunting!!!

Thursday, August 14th, 2014

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 76 to 82

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: This past Thursday Rick and I headed out at first light. My game plan was to go directly to the vineyards and spend most of the day fishing there but the water was pretty choppy so I had to make some changes and we went to the back of the ski school. It was a good choice the water was like a mirror. I wanted to try this new top water lure called a "Whopper Popper" it had good action but no results will definitely try it again. There was no activity of any kind so I decided to go towards the dam and work the narrows. After catching small bass I felt that we should head to another area. We worked the east side from the ranch house to the vineyards the bass were jumping all around us but wouldn't bite. We were in 4 to 6 feet of water and could see them but no reaction to whatever bait we tried. We went past the boy scout camp where the trees come out of the water and the water turned a putrid green color something I had never seen at Lake Berryessa before. At this point we had not one fish in the live well I said to myself enough is enough I am going to let my instinct take me to the right spot. I headed to the west side and believe it or not within an hour and a half we had limited out with bass from 2.5 to 4.5 pounds (see photos)!!!!! The lesson for this day is never give up. We had a great successful day. '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 trip please email me at bestguide@hotmail.com or call me at 650-583-3333.
      City: San Francisco

      Tips: When I found the right LOCATION lures and the right color"s it made a world of difference 2 limits in over an hour.WOW

Tuesday, August 12th, 2014

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 75

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Launched out of Russo's at 7AM. Already really windy. Found out later there was a small craft advisory on the west delta.

      Hit the breaks but got blanked. Crossed over to the NW stretch of rip rap to get out of the wind and got bit on top water and jerk bait. Caught em on drop shot the rest of the day. Missed a big one on Sammy and frog. 15 for me, 19 for the boat but no big ones.
      City: San Mateo

      Tips: Like deepv, I'm not one to be handing out tips. Still trying to figure out why i'm only getting small fish. Happy to get tips though!

Monday, August 11th, 2014

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Launched out of Paradise Point around 6am on a high tide. Fished right across the ramp in Bishop Cut. Started throwing a spook but got nothing to go while my partner was hooking up on a popper. He landed a 2lb and one that was 3+lb. I put down the spook and tossed a green chatter bait over the weed line and got hit instantly, all fish within 2lb-3lb. Decided to leave into White Slough and fish the islands and was hooking up consistently with the chatter bait still. Once it started getting hot we slowed down and threw senkos(Bama Bug), catching a few that were real tight to cover. We then moved into Honker Cut and fished the grass mats with frogs. Got a lot of blow ups but no hook ups. Finally decided to go into Disappointment Slough and fish the grass mats in there with frogs and hit the pockets with senkos. Once again got some blow ups and finally a couple hook ups with my partner landing the bigger fish of the day going 4.4lbs. We left at 2:30pm because it got too hot. Overall not a bad. Lots of fish, but nothing too big.
      City: Sacramento

      Tips: Fish are active in the morning. Cover water with reaction baits. When it gets warm, slow down and fish cover that is near deeper water. Frog bite is finally starting to kick in so throw the frog out there.

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 79-86

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Wow - I'm glad I'm NOT one of CLum's kids after a bad fishing trip - LOL!!!! I, too, have experienced the slow bite at Clear Lake, though we got a few. I took 3 young men Sat from 5pm to 1 am - out of Red Bud - fished up to Henderson. The word must be out - very few bass boats. Ran into a few guys fishing a club tourney out of Marysville. Saw one of my friends land a 4 pounder at dusk! Always fun to see someone you helped get into bass fishing having success!! We also got into a minor bite at dusk with one guy landing two in the 3 to 3 1/2 lb range. We got a few small ones also. After dark, out comes the night gear for their first night fishing experience. Black lights are not as "cool" in a full moon. The "downer" of the trip happened about 11 pm as one of the guys lost a big bass as it got close to the boat. He probably didn't set the hook hard enough. Bummer!! Henderson Point was deserted, so we fished there in some shadows. Another guy did finally land a nice 4 lb+ bass about midnight - probably hooked in about 20 feet of water. A few more missed bites and one more nice one in the boat before heading back.

      Tips: Obviously - during most of the 24 hour day - the bass and bait are off the bank except for very short periods and an occasional stray shallow bass. The Silversides didn't even show up 'til about midnight. Not much wind action to add oxygen content. We used mostly Berkley Havoc baits and 10 in Power worms. The worms attracted the bigger bass including the big one that was lost. I fished a jig some and it failed!!! All bass hooked were on some type of ledge leading to deep water - even the little ones!

Sunday, August 10th, 2014

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 72-74

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Started at the Moke around the corner from B&W about 630am, outgoing tide...started crankin' and got a few dinks and almost keepers. Switched to black neon senko and boated a fat 3.12. Continued throwing senkos boating mainly 1 lbers and smaller. Partner continued with his 1/8oz bleedin' shad rat-l-trap and picked up a bunch of almost keeper to 1.5 lbers. Ran up to Sycamore but only managed 2 keepers and a bunch more almost keepers. Threw the popper frog and about 5 solid blowups that pulled under but no hookups. Prolly me. Back to the Moke and fav tule islands and threw parallel outside the weedline and picked up a few more solid 1-2 lbers. Total keeper size was 11; total fish on the hook - about 45+ due to about a 1/2 mile worth of fun hookups with shaker stripers 12"-14" hittin' our cranks...they were just on a bitin' frenzy, 2-3 hitting the lure. We were hoping for a keeper somewhere in there but not a one, just a lot of fun....have many cuts and punctures in my hand from just trying to get the hook out of them and releasing 'em. Fun day!
      City: folsom

      Tips: As stated previously, I'm not qualified to give tips, just what sorta worked for us. When we mainly hooked up dinks and almost keepers on the crankbaits, we switched to senkos and finesse worms (curl tailed robo and blk neon senko 5"). Slowed down and picked up plenty but cuz we were cravin' the crank, we threw the traps but mainly dinks. Still a fun day!

Thursday, August 7th, 2014

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 80.6

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Ted & I fished Sunday thru Weds fishing south. Boy, it was tough We fished from around 7 pm to 4 am each night, averaged about 4 fish a night. We caught the majority of fish on jigs & Texas rigs. There was no reaction bite for us except 2 blade fish caught at the same spot on consecutive nights. (I think it was the same fish as it was the same size & had a hole in his mouth where I hooked him earlier!) They were on or near rocky structure in about 12-15 ft of water. We fished deeper but no action for us. We managed a 5.5, 4.9, 4.8, & 4.2 for the bigger fish. The rest were between 2 - 3.5 lbs. We got our strikes fishing very slowly. We threw cranks of all sizes, blades, swimnbaits, senkos, worms, creature/craw type baits, frogs, & jigs. The best plastic action we had was texas rigged double wide beavers & yuki bugs. The most exciting action: a young otter grabbed my frog & tried to run away with it. I yelled at it like it was one of my kids & it dropped it! We fished Jago, Konocti, dollar, Buckingham, shag, rattlesnake.

      Tips: Move around & you just have to keep throwin! There is a ton of Silversides & all of the fish we caught were fat except for one with a big head & skinny body (the 4.2) It was indeed slow for us, so you might look for better opinions than what I have to offer! Lol Will give it a try in about 3 more weeks!

  • Butte County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished today from 6 am to 10 am. Slow bite, went all over the darn lake and ended up with 17 fish total. 1 15" spot, 1 15" LM, 1 14" small mouth with super bronze golden color, 3 catfish 2-3 pounds each, 3 sun fish about 1/2 pound each, big old dudes, all the rest of the spots were right at 13". Lake looks terrible, with water so low. Bidwell ramp will close on 8/20/14, so better get your fishing done soon. Word is they will get a one lane gravel ramp at the damn?? might need 4wd to use it.
      City: Magalia

Monday, August 4th, 2014

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: 85-88

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: I guess I should do a report since no one has fished the lake since clum's last report! Actually, this one is 2 days late - took a day off from the computer!! I think I should give up night trips - the day bite has produced most of the quality bass for my boat this year! I took a newby to bass fishing Saturday, and we suffered in the heat together! Hopefully he understands Clear Lake a little better now and learned some techniques. He did have 2 bites, but missed them. I had 4 or 5 bites and did manage to put three in the boat - again, all on jigs! My first bite was about 10:30 am, about 25 feet deep, and went a hair over 5 lbs. After a 3 pounder, I had a heavy bass on but lost her. About 12:30, dying in the heat, a skinny 4 1/2 pounder ate the jig. Again, all bites about 25-30 feet deep. We fished from Jago Bay to Henderson Point.

      Tips: Most of the bites this summer have been very subtle, even on a jig. Funny - the big bass that I lost crunched the jig!! The quality bass really seemed to be scattered everywhere - but deep (I'm just talking south and mid-lake). Rocks and ledges seem to be preferred, though I did get my first frog blowup! I think my client saw that good bass can be caught in tough conditions with some hard work, and hopefully we will do another trip in the fall when the bite is more aggressive. Though the lake is dropping steadily, water is in great shape on top and bottom. Little or no algae on top and no green goo on the bottom. When we pulled out about 2 pm, the lake was a chartreuse color everywhere - kind of pretty!!

Sunday, August 3rd, 2014

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 74

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Started late 7:15am at B&W...like El Guapo says, many many trailers in the lot so lots of bassers out. Worked the Moke with lipless cranks and lots of 6"-10"ers but no keeper size. Switched to 5" wacky senkos and started stickin' 1-2lbers. Continued to switch back and forth from senkos to cranks to senkos, senkos getting all the keepers. Ended day with 9 keepers, probably 25-30 total fish but again, other than the 9 keepers and maybe 2 keepers lost at the boat, the rest were either dinks or 11.75"ers.
      City: folsom

      Tips: I never have tips, we're not that great to give em....just sharing what worked for us... when we realized only little ones were hitting the cranks, we threw plastics, me senkos in black neon, junebug, watermelon red, and monster shad (from monterfishing.com)... most on inside or outside weedline or on tule points. my bud's go-to plastic is 4" roboworm with curly tail on a light spinning setup...most days he does this, his hookup ratio is higher than mine... but senkos outhit him this time.

  • Butte County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Shore fished at Lime Saddle today from 6am to 7:30 am. Did ok, got 13 fish. Largest a nice 5 pound cat fish, one nice 15" large mouth (surprise) a huge sunfish, had to be 3/4 pound or better. The rest spotted bass ranging from 10" to 14 1/2" Hope to take the boat out this coming week.
      City: Magalia

      Tips: Anyone with a boat looking for a fish partner? let me know and lets go catch some fish. No boat, then we can take my small 14 foot Klamath. Email me at Jewelweaver@earthlink.net

Saturday, August 2nd, 2014

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 74

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Launched out of Russo's at 6:20. Tons of boats on the water for at least one big tournament. Immediately started catching shaker sized stripers on the the breaks but no black bass. Worked along the breaks but wind came up fast and had to hide behind the tule islands. Stuck a 4.5lber on a jerk bait and caught a few more on drop shot later. 15 fish for the day but only 3 keepers. Video here: http://youtu.be/ka-mRV3B-po
      City: San Mateo

Friday, August 1st, 2014

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 78

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished areas in the east Delta including the San Joaquin and Mokelumne rivers and caught several nice largemouth to 3.5 lbs. More than half were in the 2.5 to 3.5 lbs. range with the top 5 slightly over 15 lbs. I’m trying to learn punching so I spent the first hour or two doing that with no hits (obviously need more work on that technique). I switched to Senkos, both Texas and wacky rigged, and immediately started to catch fish.
      City: Stockton

      Tips: Most fish were in or near shade at the base of tules or under laydowns.

Tuesday, July 29th, 2014

  • Butte County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Launched today at Bidwell marina 6am, fished till 10:30 am, in an attempt to learn the main lake and middle fork for a few hours. First time fishing this section of lake. Did ok, got 10 spots, all at 13-14" and really fat ones, felt big, but not. Also a nice 7.5 pound catfish on 6 pound line. Nice fish. Released all fish to catch again one day. Main lake seems so barren, even middle fork seems that way too to me.
      City: Magalia

Sunday, July 27th, 2014

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: up to 80

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I took out Kevin his wife Linda and their young daughter Kathrine for the day. We had a fun day with Kathrine catching the largest fish of the day weighing just under 4 pounds (see photo). Yesterday I went out with my fishing club "YBAC" for salmon on the "Wacky Jacky" out of Fisherman's Wharf. We caught 10 salmon for 17 people and Pete who complained about his spot on the boat caught 4 of the 10!!!! Back to Lake Berryessa I have been told that there have been bass ranging from 3 to 4 pounds seen near shore which makes me think there might be another spawn by the full moon. Top water lures have been working very well for me in the last few weeks and I enjoy fishing that way. 'til next week....................................................good fishing!!!!
      www.fishingconnection.net If you have any questions or stories you would like to share or are interested in booking a fishing trip please email me at bestguide@hotmail.com or call me at 650-583-3333.
      City: San Francisco

      Tips: chugger or pop r or zara spook are great top water starters yes I love feathers on all the above.

Thursday, July 24th, 2014

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 76-79

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: I guided an adult father-son duo yesterday for their first Berryessa experience. I didn't expect to bite to be real good - mostly because of the recent very cool summer weather, nippy in the mornings. And - it wasn't real good! We hooked two quality bass however. The dad broke one off - probably because of putting too much pressure on her. I saw a glimpse of her - 4 or 5 lbs I think. We fished the narrows early in the morning with no results. Went out to the main body - fishing off-shore structure in a slight, cool north breeze - but a beautiful day! Just couldn't get anything going except for his lost fish, so I decided to fish them near the shoreline weedbeds. Finally dad lands a nice 14-15 inch smallie along with a smaller one, using an Aaron's Magic 6" Robo worm. I had started using a similar color 6" Robo - but nary a bite. Finally - at 12:30 - I get this savage hit in the middle of the weedbed, 3 feet of water, and this thing bolts out to deep water. And I mean I am holding on for dear life! After a line tangle and surviving a tremendous gill-rattling jump (she looked 10 lbs!!), we got a 5 lb 2 oz largemouth in the net after a several minute battle. She must have had a good spawn - not much belly - but LEAN an' Mean!! I would have rather me lose mine and dad land his, but it is what it is. A plug for Gami EWG hooks - my size 4 hook was not in a hook shape when we removed it. Twisted and bent - still held the bass - amazing! They had another bite or two while I tried the spoon bite again. It produced a 4 1/2 inch smallie on a 5" Blade runner spoon. How's that for insult!! At least I have seen a few quality largemouth caught this year at Berryessa. In fact, the overall size of all bass species at Berry has been above average I think.

      Tips: Wonder if I should give up night fishing? The quality of some of the day bass for clients - and me - has been great this past few months!! As you probably know, the main ramp at Markley Cove is now out of the water, so plan on a little more time to launch. The low water ramp is very good however - a little steep. I think we just hit the lake at a down time - a typical event after the post-spawn feed. Summer bass always seem to be more active in a steady weather pattern. Summer storms moving up from the south have always turned off the bite in my experience - especially at Clear Lake. Weather this last week has not been what we need for a stable summer bite. Things should return to normal this weekend - good luck!

  • Alameda County
    • By

      Water Temp: Oops

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Hot weather. Caught a 14" sm on a 3oz., 8" trout imitation off shallow weeds next to a dropoff. The little glutton had the whole striper size treble deep in its mouth. This got the hopeless feeling I was having as I could not get a bite on topwater, deep crank or soft plastics until the wind came up around 9am. Got 3 lm 2# each or less in the afternoon pitching soft plastics around weeds. Fought a monster in the trees but lost it when I lost balance and ended up on my back after the hookset trying to lift the fish out of trouble and maneuvering the trolling motor in the wind. It wasn't the only comical problems I encountered - I think the heat and bright sun had a lot to do with it.
      City: dublin

      Tips: For me, pitching soft plastics to the shade of weeds. Got all fish in south half of lake. Tried north end. Interesting weeds with depth but nothing this time.

Tuesday, July 22nd, 2014

  • Butte County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Worst day ever fishing today. Think it was the weather, thunder storms on the area, tried to rain, high and lows pressure from the weather. I only managed 11 fish today. 3 catfish at about 2 pounds each, one tiny 11" small mouth, 7 spotted bass, 2 at 14", the rest 10-13" Where did the fish go today, beats me!! Lime saddle launch ramp will shut down in a day or two. BUMMER for me. Looks like Bidwell is it till the lake comes up again. Looks like I'll be learning the main lake and middle and south forks now.
      City: Magalia

      Tips: Anyone with a boat looking for a fish partner, let me know and lets go catch some fish. Email me at Jewelweaver@earthlink.net