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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Wednesday, September 3rd, 2014

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 74-75

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished portions of Hog Slough and the South Mokelumne River. Plenty of willing bass but not much size. The largest went 3 lbs. but there were several in the 1 ½ to 2 ½ lb. range. Used several baits including soft plastics, cranks, frogs, and spinnerbaits. By far, the most productive lure was a chartreuse/white spinnerbait. Square billed cranks (both homemade and commercial) were next, with red outscoring white by a few fish.
      City: Stockton

      Tips: Mid-week after Labor Day proved to be a good time to go – I think I was the only boat in Hog Slough!

  • Butte County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Launched about 6 am and off the water at 11 am. Much better day today then last trip. 19 fish total,1 16", 1 15", most of the rest 12-14
      ", with a few dinks under 10". Also got 2 catfish, 1 at 5 pounds, 1 at 4 pounds. Looked like total of 6 boats on the water. I caught a spotted bass for the second time today. Nice fish, but noticed a second line coming out of his mouth, got my hook out and then the second one and saw it was a rig I use, not many other do, so retried the hook and bobber stopper for my Carolina rig to use again. So yes, they are caught more then once by the same fisherman.!!!
      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 No boat, then lets take my small 14ft Klamath and catch fish. Small, no room, but it catches fish!!!

Sunday, August 31st, 2014

  • Yuba County
    • By

      Water Temp: 76

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: The day started out slow but progressively picked up ... Fish were from 60 feet to 1 foot deep ...mainly spinner baits , drop shot and darter head ..caught fish all day with best 5 going for about 18 pounds
      City: sacramento

      Tips: Work the mud lines

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 74.5

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished out of Russo's on Sunday. Out at 7AM, High tide at 9:45. Fished the Tules right outside Sugar Barge and had one hit on a frog. Shot over to the North Side and no takers. Hit the RIP RAP caught two stripers close to keeper size. Shot over to Mildred fishing with flappin'hog and wacky senko in and outside the weed line. No takers. Lots of wake boats out of control. Back to the North Side of Franks to fish the rip rap and caught another 8 schoolie stripers (caught on a stay-see rip) and one 2 pound large mouth on a rattle-trap (blue and chrome)during close to low tide. Off the water around 3PM.
      City: Orinda

      Tips: Big Boats throw Big Wakes. When the bite is on focus on safety first.Get off the platform, turn into the wake and hold on.

    • By

      Water Temp: 74 degrees

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: (Video here: http://youtu.be/__L7I4khgIs)
      I was lucky enough to get the kitchen pass to go fishing twice in one weekend! Launched out of Russo's at 7. Briefly fished a couple breaks and picked up some shakers. Hit the rip rap with very little luck. Tide went slack so we ran out False River and picked up a striper on a chatter bait. Went back to Franks and hit some tule islands. Started getting more shakers when one shook a treble hook a 1/4" into my thumb. Yowch. Ran back to Russo's where Chuck showed me how to "pop" it out with some braid tied around the bend. Really handy trick. Didn't feel a thing. Thanks Chuck!

      Headed back out and picked up 4 more keepers to the east of Franks and on a break at Mandeville. Called it a day with thumb showing no signs of infection! 15+ fish for me, 20-25 for the boat. Nothing bigger than two and a half pounds though.
      City: San Mateo

      Tips: Ok *this* time I got a tip: There's a reason they're called shakers. Just grab the shank of your treble hook and let them shake off. Really. It's not worth it. ;-)

Friday, August 29th, 2014

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 74 degrees

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Launched late out of Russo's at 9AM. Immediately hooked up on shaker stripers at the breaks, ~10 in the first hour. Top water black bass on east/west rip rap just north of Franks. Punched submergent grass around tule islands for quite a while with no action. Switched to jerkbait and caught a bunch more. 30-40 fish in the boat but again only a handful of keepers to 3lbs. 3ozs. Video here: http://youtu.be/wYY8MzPi_kw
      City: San Mateo

      Tips: Never bet on a 3 legged horse. ;-)

Thursday, August 28th, 2014

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 78-83

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I finally got the "Spoonmeister" Rick Tietz out of the Blade Runner Lures shop and onto a lake. And a break from his new love - Stripers!! We hit Berryessa about 11 am and fished most of the lake in the next 8 hours. Anytime someone fishes with Rick, using his spoons, side by side, they will see him put on a spooning clinic! Luckily, I have seen many of his clinics!! The spoon bite all over the lake was fairly good and is picking up each day. Find the shad and you have probably found the bass! Smallies were on the menu yesterday and we (mostly him!) caught 30+ and 2 spots and 1 largemouth. These smallies were averaging 2 1/2 to near 4 lbs. I lost a smallie at the surface that might have gone 5 lbs. We had to always look at the meter to find the position of the bass. Sometimes they would school about 10 to 15 feet off the bottom. It is possible to spoon BELOW the bass. Remember - they can't see down if they are suspended. They will be at the level of most of the bait. We tried topwater as the shadows formed and I am now 0 for 2. Lost another good topwater bass - the only hit we had. Could not get a Senko bite.

      Tips: I did have a few bites drop-shotting a Robo worm. No jig bites! The magic depth for the spoon bite seemed to be about 30 to 35 feet on mostly off-shore bait schools. Lots of bait and bass on way-offshore flats. Steep drop-offs aren't always necessary when spoon fishing, Shad will position on large flats, moving up and down depending on weather conditions. Pick a cloudy day and the bite will almost always be on fire!

  • Butte County
    • By

      Water Temp: 77

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished 4 hours today, just did ok. Tried all new areas fishing for a change. Ended up with only 8 fish total. 2 fish from one location, 6 fish from the other location. Biggest a 15" spot, all other spots right at 14", lost the big one at the boat just before I could net it. Looked to be about a 16" or so. Also got one 13" large mouth. All fish I got were deeper, 25-30 foot range. No bites at all after 10:30 am, so gave it up and called it a day.
      City: Magalia

      Tips: Anyone with a boat looking for a fish partner, let me know, lets go catch fish. No boat, then we can take my small 14ft Klamath, rough ride, no room, but it catches fish. Email me at Jewelweaver@earthlink.net

  • Calaveras County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Started fishing about 12 and fished until dusk. Caught 9 on a jig, and then hit a dry spell as the day reached it's hottest. The top water evening bite on this lake was amazing as I would have multiple blowups on the same cast. I ended up with 18 fish for the day with my best five going for 18 pounds.
      City: Sonora

      Tips: This lake is catch and release only, so there are a ton of 3.5-4.5 pound fish, larger baits will get their attention. The lake is down about 8 feet, and there is DEEP mud near the launch, I got my truck stuck, and I saw one other guy get stuck as well.

  • Sonoma County
    • By

      Water Temp: 75-78

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished small side during morning hours prior to work. Threw spinnerbait shallow along long points and trees. Caught 10 fish, biggest about 3 lbs. When the fog cleared, the bite pretty much shut down. A few boats in the parking lot but I was the only boat fishing the small side.
      City: Windsor

      Tips: Reaction baits in the morning.

Wednesday, August 27th, 2014

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 74 degrees

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Out at B and W marina for the first time with my buddy Tom to fish Sycamore. Got in around 8:15 with an outgoing tide. Caught a nice 1.5 LB on a frog at a point, then another 1.5 LB using a weighted creature bait thrown outside the water plants. Tom caught another two using his infamous purple worm. Low tide was significant and on the way back saw some exposed timber (sunken orchard kind of reminded me of Mildred Island wood). Had some strikes outside the center island tules in some of the open holes between the floating weeds. For the day had 4 in the boat, missed around 4-5.
      City: Orinda

      Tips: When fishing uncharted territory on high tide out, make sure to take it slow back-in on low tide, you never know what's under there.

    • By

      Water Temp: 73

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: We launched out of Russo's at 6am and fished north east of franks track. Top water bite was very good, we were catching both largemouth and stripers. We fished mostly front sides of tule islands
      throwing poppers and whoppers. There is bait fish everywhere being pushed into the tules. when the striper would blow up behind us we would turn and cast into swirl and hook up. We had a lot of fun. Off the water by 11am. Boated 15, nothing over 3 1/2lbs.

      Tips: Get out early... share the knowledge

Sunday, August 24th, 2014

  • Mariposa County
    • By

      Report: by Roscoe » Sun Aug 24, 2014 7:59 pm

      Today I went to ladds from 5:30-12, caught 20 non keepers but catching fish constantly. Got home around 1:30 and went up to Pedro. The lake is down but still a good lake to go fish still. Caught 5 , only 2 keepers but overall the lake is still very fishable. Now heading in I've seen something that I never thought I would see. There was a ski boat up on a steep rock roughly 10' stuck up on the rocks. The guys were injured but were getting medical attention when we came across them. And remember with this drought out fishing spots are getting used by skiers and jet skiers so pay attention fellow anglers and good luck.

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!