Fishing Report

Limit:

Sunday, July 21st, 2024

  • Solano County, California
    • By

      Water Temp: 79

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Launched at safelight from the East Delta on a high outgo. Targeted the main river for emergent grass. Caught a couple on topwater but they were small. Tried the bends on the main river to figure out if they were set up in front or behind the current. Ran that the better part of the north to the south for a couple dozen on topwater. Bite got a lot tougher aftter the tide switch.

      Tips: Seems like every day their setup is changing.
      Whopper Plopper, Buzzbait and Frogs

Sunday, July 14th, 2024

  • Solano County, California
    • By

      Water Temp: 81

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Hi all... Launched out of Lazy M yesterday evening. Went North to Holland Cut and it was pretty windy when i arrived. Started with a white spinnerbait around tule's. ( I can't spell toolies...lol) Caught some decent fish with that. The tide was still going out around 3 or 4. So I started throwing the ol topwater.... boooooom booooom booooom....never put it down the rest of the day. Amazing topwater bite is happening now. The water is warm, the frogs are croaking at dusk. Just an amazing place to be in my mind. (most of you know what i speak of) Just amazing..!! I will be honest, when I was younger I used to follow Dee to see where he would go. He knew I was following him...But he always would stop and talk about the 'Amazing' opportunities there are to catch fish. Most of my spots are his, and I respect the fact that they were shared with me. So I owe a lot to that man. His spots will be in my Lowrance(mind) for as long as I am here. And let me tell you that they produce good fish almost every time I visit them. Thanks for the knowledge Sir. I caught some fish and remembered where I came from. Thanks for reading my banter...Love you all.

      Tips: Buzz bait
      Frog
      Popper
      Plopper
      Amazing !

Thursday, June 27th, 2024

  • Solano County, California
    • By

      Water Temp: 75-76

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Launched 6:15am, mid-low incoming; started with bluegill pattern squarebill; brother started with plopper, lots of blowups but only boated 3 12"ers and 1 about a pound; crankin had pretty good opening bites, several 10-12"ers, then got better with a few 1 lbers up to a couple 3 lbers; slowed a bit so threw wacky stick worms and Roboworm nekos. Landed a few more 1 lbers. I wanted to try throwing an inline spinner with a 3.3" keitech; managed a couple 12"ers and then a 2 lber. First time trying inline spinner for bass, was kinda neat! Brother caught a few on the bluegill crankbait and wacky stickbaits; buddy got his on LV500, letting it hit grass tops and snapping it out. He also got a few keepers on dropshot and Yamatanuki in green pumpkin. Overall a decent day having fun just hooking up; didn't care if they were 12" or 1-3lbs, just had fun getting fish on the hook.

      Tips: As always I don't think I'm qualified to give tips but here's what worked for us:
      - bluegill pattern squarebill (Megabass S-Crank, 1.5 Secret Gill color)
      - Shad Rap 7 (also bluegill and pumpkinseed) used to go deeper fishing ledges
      - In-line spinner with 3.3" keitech (Picasso All Terrain 3/8 oz white)
      - Berkley General 5 and 6" wacky and t-rigged, Junebug and Green Pumpkin
      - 6 and 7" Roboworms neko-rigged, MMIII
      - LV500 lipless, Sexy Shad
      - Whopper Plopper 90 and 110, Loon and Bone
      - Yamamoto Yamatanuki - Green Pumpkin

Monday, May 13th, 2024

  • Solano County, California
    • By

      Water Temp: 70-72

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Launched Paradise 6am; low incoming. Worked quad buzzbait for about 30 mins and picked up 3 decent 1 lbers. On missed blowups, followed up with a Hula Popper and picked up a few, but mostly were juveniles 10-11"ers, but followup with a popper still worked. Tried crankin' with a red/orange craw 1.5 but not a lot of takers, still picked up a couple; switched to Livetarget matte bluegill and they seemed to like that one better. Eventually switched to dropshot with 6" MMIII; after losing a bunch on the jump, I realized I was using the wrong hook because I was trying the snell method instead of palomar knot. The hook was a Hayabusa Muscle Spin wacky hook which looks like the Nishine drop shot hook I use with a snell knot. But the angle of the hook on the Hayabusa leaves it open to unpinning if used for dropshot. Once I changed to the Nishine DS hook still using a snell, no more lost fish. I did use the Hayabusa for wacky stick worm (General) and caught a few with no unpinned fish. Just won't use it for dropshot! Wind was blowin' pretty good so off the water by noon.

      Tips: As always, not qualified to give tips, but here's what worked for us:
      - quad prop buzzbait - white with white spunk shad trailer.
      - 1.5 squarebill in red/orange craw (just a couple on this one)
      - 1.5 livetarget squarebill matte bluegill (they seemed to like this one)
      - dropshot with 6" MMIII - only 6" from sinker to hook length.
      - wacky stick worm - 5" General in junebug and green pumpkin

Monday, May 6th, 2024

  • Solano County, California
    • By

      Water Temp: 61-63

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: On the water 6:30 launching from Paradise. Cold morning with medium to strong breeze and current (high outgo). Initially started with jointed wakebait; 1 hookup, 10"er, plenty of little "nips" but could tell they were just little juveniles. Switched to red craw squarebill and two 8-10"ers immediately grabbed it. Buddy also hooked up 17.5" striper; we thought it was on but we were wrong. Nothing else for next couple hours of kitchen sink junk fishing. Brother finally caught a keeper on wacky senko. Nothing else after that. When fishing plastics (dropshot and stick worms), got lots of little bait-stealer taps but nothing sizeable. Wind died down by about 11am but we were through; I'm sure if we stayed the whole day we would've eventually gotten a decent bite window but we don't have options to choose and come at different times of the day/evening; early morning is what we can manage and it's always our luck that the morning we get follows a cold front as was this past weekend; this early morning didn't pan out. Hoping for steady warm weather and I believe our fun will happen.

      Tips: As always said, I'm not qualified to give tips, but here's what we tried:
      - jointed wake bait (Mikey Jr. / Bomber ) = 1 juvenile and plenty of subtle nipping but no real takers
      - 1.5 squarebills in red craw and shad = couple of juveniles and striper
      - wacky rigged 5" stick bait The General = 1 keeper and lots of bait stealer nips and taps, nothing of any size
      - dropshot 4 & 6" roboworms, MMIII, Junebug and Aaron's Magic = goose egg but alot of tiny taps, no take
      - 3/16 and 1/4 oz underspins with 3.8" keitech and horny toad = goose egg
      - black frog = goose egg
      - bladed jig in both shad and red/orange = goose egg
      All the above is what we've done well with at this time of season but obviously not every time :) ... again, my belief is that we were limited to a cold morning and I'm pretty sure if we had the whole day to get to that few degrees of warmup later in the day or late afternoon, we would have encounted the bite window(s). Just sayin'.... still have plenty of warm days/weeks comin' and lookin' forward to it! Tight lines/bent rods everyone!

  • Tuolumne County, California
    • By

      Water Temp: 65

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished the houseboat area in the kayak yesterday. Water clarity 8-10 ft. Rained in the morning about 2 hours then cleared up started catching fish. Dropshot, small swimbait and ned rig bite was good once the rain stopped and the sun came out. Lots of dinks, largest fish today was 2.9. Fish came out of 5-18ft

Saturday, May 4th, 2024

  • Amador County, California
    • By

      Water Temp: 71

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: by StanL » Sat May 04, 2024 4:39 am

      image2 (1).jpeg
      I really had a great time today fishing at Lake Camanche with the newest member of our team. Earl Dalton IV and I want to say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. This guy is a hammer ????.

      We picked up two spinning poles, one with the dropshot, and one with a Frenzy Nail. Both with a 6 inch worm and that’s what we threw all day long!

      Thanks to the color shading on the HumminBird Lakemaster Plus chip it made staying in the 12 to 15 foot range a breeze.

      We targeted main lake ledges, any place that had shallow water and deep water close by seemed to be the ticket.

      We caught and released over 25 fish! We decided not to target the spawning fish that were shallow so all the fish we did catch were spots.

      The lake level is extremely full. The surface temperature of about 71° with a good 10 to 12 foot visibility.

      I hope this helps.
      Good luck Fishing.
      ????Stan lafever

Thursday, April 18th, 2024

  • Solano County, California
    • By

      Water Temp: 62-63

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Tough but fun day. On the water at 6:30am... already dropping high outgo.... Started out just south of Frank's. Not a lot of bites but decent fish when we did get em to chew. Nothing on topwater (popper, plopper) Went to red craw squarebill and inline spinners (just wanted to try alternative to chatterbait) .... white w/shad Keitech trailer.... managed a few keepers to 2lbs plus a nice 20" striper...kept that one! Paralleled outside weedline, nothing inside the trough so paralleled outside the weedline since the tide was dropping. Also managed a few on red craw and shad squarebills; buddy also managed a few in fairly deep ledge (12-16 sec countdown) on his shad pattern LV500. Brother hooked up a few 1-2 lbers on junebug Yamatanuki. Lost a nice one on dropshot...was taking line fast and broke off at the leader after a couple mins of playing it....never tied on another one and just put the dropshot rod down. Nothing on my 5" General..... had to really work for the bites but they were fun once they hit.

      Tips: Not really qualified to give tips but here's what worked for us:
      - red craw and shad pattern squarebills
      - white inline spinner with shad Keitech 3.3"
      - junebug Yamatanuki
      - shad pattern LV500 (12-16 sec countdown)

Saturday, April 6th, 2024

  • Shasta County, California
    • By

      Report: Good afternoon Shasta Lake!!!
      We are officially above the 10 foot mark! ????
      The permitted businesses on the lake had our annual spring meeting with the Forest Service this week. As promised, I wanted to share some of the information we learned, and it was a LOT!
      LAKE LEVELS - First and foremost was an update from Don Bader, Area Manager for the Bureau of Reclamation regarding what to expect for this year's lake levels. Due to amount of rain and rebound of the snow pack this year, the BOR expects it to another full lake level year! As Don stated, "It is going to come to the top!" It looks as if it will remain relatively full throughout the summer and by Labor Day weekend we should only be at 1020' (47' down). By November 1st, only 1000' (67' down)!!! We will get more detailed projections within the next month or so. This also indicates that our CA agriculture should get 100% of their allocations.
      LAKE DEBRIS - Over the next several weeks as we fill up the last 10 feet of the lake, we do expect the usual seasonal debris flows. However, it should be less than what we experienced last year because we had a high lake level last year, which helps to move the debris down to the dam through natural flow. The 3 years of low lake levels before that had allowed more debris to dry out in a much larger area which caused the massive flows and "rafts" that we saw last year. The Forest Service is doing all that they can to mitigate the issue. Keep in mind it is extremely expensive and requires a number of man hours to coral the debris floats.

Tuesday, April 2nd, 2024

  • Solano County, California
    • By

      Water Temp: 58-60

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Launched 6:15 Paradise, low tide; ran down to Mildred area; tried spook and plopper, only a couple blowups, no hookup. Went to spinnerbait and bladed jig, zero. Tried crank, brother tied on shad pattern, I tried green tomato (red-orange, chartreuse belly)... zero for me, 3 for brother. Ran same rockwall again changing to red. Managed a few barely keepers on the red, brother got 1 more on shad pattern. Went to plastic, 5" wacky and t-rigged stick worms. Picked up a bunch of barely keepers to 1lb, nothing bigger. Was gonna go to 6" but forgot em at home... I've caught 5-7 lbers on 5" so I wasn't too upset about it. Worked a rock wall leading to Columbia Cut and threw my red squarebill... picked up a bunch of 15 to 17" stripers...lots of fun... fulfilled my craving for crankbait hits even though they weren't the bass I was hoping for. Fished Disappointment heading into Paradise and managed only a few more 1-lbers. Dropshot also got us a couple 1 lbers. Somewhat slow day but better than our previous trip, managed only 2 bass in the boat a couple weeks ago. Hoping the crankbait bite turns on for us soon. If it already has for others, that's great!

      Tips: Not qualified to give tips but here's what seemed to work for us this time out:
      Wacky and t-rigged stick worms - 5" junebug; If I hadn't forgotten them at home, I would have used 6".
      Shad and red craw pattern squarebills and speed traps
      Dropshot using MMIII 8-10" above the sinker

Wednesday, March 27th, 2024

  • Sacramento County, California
    • By

      Water Temp: 56-60

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: As the warmer weather begins to show, it has been hard to think about anything other than springtime fishing. I have been getting my money’s worth from my Ca State Park pass at Folsom Lake over the past few weeks and can say the fishing has been heating up as quickly as the weather. Water temperatures have gone up significantly, with afternoon temperatures hitting between the upper 50’s to low 60’s resulting in the fish following that warmer, shallow water. On my most recent outing, spending only approximately 3 hours on the water, my mom and I were able to put close to 20 fish in the boat. We were targeting flats in 4-12 feet throwing jerk baits, taking advantage of the shallow fish that are looking to feed heavily before the spawn.
      As for the specifics, I don’t believe color was a factor, but our choices were Ayu and Shad. Something to note about throwing a jerk bait is that your setup can make or break your success. I prefer a lighter rod with a parabolic bend, 10lb Sunline Crank FC, and of course my favorite jerk bait with some fresh Owner trebles.
      Folsom Lake has had a poor reputation in recent years, but last year was the best I had ever seen it and it’s on track to repeat or be even better this year. Don’t be surprised to catch a limit of 2.5+lb spots and even a 4-6lb largemouth on trips this spring.
      If you’re wanting to learn more about the fishing on Folsom Lake, I am now a licensed guide and have some open days in the upcoming months. You can find me at @Luke Johns Fishing on Facebook and Instagram or send an email to lukejohnsfishing@gmail.com

Monday, March 4th, 2024

  • Butte County, California
    • By

      Report: BAM Oroville Predictions with Alex Klein
      Fresh off of the Trail's debut at Lake Shasta, BAM Tournaments blasts off into the second stop of the Pro/Am division's 2024 season at Lake Oroville on March 15 -17. It is anticipated that the early spring bass fishing competition will hit the second-largest Northern California reservoir just after another multi-day rainstorm, and if the weatherman is right, anglers be welcomed with mild temps that include highs in the low-70s and nighttime lows hovering around 50 degrees. With less than two weeks to go, the lake is at 83 percent of capacity, with an open spillway. Lake local, Alex Klein and former Oroville Pro/Am champion, shared some of his insights on how the lake would fish.

      "The bite could be really good after the storms," Klein began. "New water is always good, so it could be really good; but they are dropping the lake too.

      "If they are letting more water out of the lake than is coming in, most of the time the fish will go out and suspend off the bank. If there is more rain coming in than what is going out they won't suspend as much; but after this last big storm, the lake was already full and they started dropping it as fast as they could to have room to capture more rain and the snowmelt."

      Klein confirmed the lake has been fishing well all year and predicted that it would take 14- to 14 1/2-pounds per day to win. A sizeable three-day accomplishment considering when he won an early-season Pro/Am in 2023 at the same fishery, it was with a three-day, tournament total of 39.89.

      Although spots are predominant at Oroville, there are some big largemouth available for the taking. The lake record is documented at 14 pounds, 15 ounces and while a news-maker like that hasn't been seen in awhile, double-digits were caught as recently as last year in the spawn.

      Klein noted the lake was currently in a pre-spawn pattern. He anticipates the lake's water temp will have to come up to the mid-50's before some of the big spawners will be caught.

      "That is when the bigger baits will come into play - the big swimbaits, and the A-rigs," he added.

      Klein feels there will have to be a two-prong approach of finesse and reaction to triumph.

      "You'll have to get a big bite or two on a reaction bait, and find a school of quality fish that you can catch finessing throughout the day," he said.

      His advice for a backseater was a good attitude, willingness to learn and being ready to have fun. His bait suggestion was undoubtedly a drop-shot. "It's a co-angler go-to," he said.

Thursday, February 29th, 2024

  • Amador County, California
    • By

      Report: I had a chance to get out with some good friends Earl Dalton, Derik Dalton, and Chris Gambal.

      We fished at Lake Pardee. This lake is a cool place because it’s full of big smallmouth and it also has some giant largmouths. This lake closes in the fall for several months out of the year. So when it opens we always try to plan a trip.

      When we put the boat in, the surface temperature was a little over 50° and if you’ve ever been to this lake you know it is super clear!! Which means I would usually start looking deeper on points and breaks.

      But this lake always amazes me me how shallow they will get. My buddy Earl started off throwing a Rodstrainer
      spinnerbait and caught the biggest fish of the day but after the sun got high we started poking around and figured out that we had to play the shade game. What that means is you go around and fish every little bit of shade that hits the water. It could be from the banks or it could be from laydown trees in the water or just anything that makes a little bit of shade can hold a fish.

      The baits that worked for us were an ED’s Lead Ned Rig, a spinnerbait and a half-ounce Bass Union jig.
      I hope this helps. Good luck fishing luck fishing.
      Stan Lafever

Monday, February 26th, 2024

  • Yuma County, Arizona
    • By

      Report: At Alamo Lake (report courtesy of Sportsman's Warehouse), Senkos, Wacky and Texas rigged are always a favorite. Any craw-shaped plastic will do well here as well, either Texas-rigged or on a jig. Some better ones are the Strike King Rage Bug and the Googan Bandito Bug. Fish deeper waters where available. Grubs at about 20-40 feet deep should do well. For catfish, you can use any mixture of stink bait, chicken liver, or hot dogs to catch them. Using live blue gills as bait will also work to catch bigger flatheads. For crappie, crappie jigs and tubes are the way to go. Crappie Dapper Plastics have been a great soft plastic bait to use. Pay close attention to water clarity and be sure to check in on weather and wind reports.

  • Maricopa County, Arizona
    • By

      Report: At Bartlett Lake (report courtesy of Sportsman's Warehouse), the crankbait bite is slow, but dropshot and Texas rigs are producing fish. The best bite seems to be later in the day. Remember, bass can be caught around boulders and in brush lines on Senkos and spinnerbaits. The lake is 49% full. Be careful when launching. Crappie is just starting, try around the Yellow Cliffs with 1/16-ounce jigs and 2-inch Kalins. Slow trolling can work well. Catfish are becoming active. In the days and weeks to come they will be lurking the shallows in search food. For channel cats, use live worms, stink baits and chicken livers. For flatheads, load up with big line 20-pound plus, fish 5-15 feet deep with live worms, live bluegill of small carp. Rig up a Carolina rig with 1-ounce egg sinker to help keep your bait on the bottom. Fish from dusk to dawn.

Thursday, February 22nd, 2024

  • Butte County, California
    • By

      Report: by basstrophy » Wed Feb 21, 2024 11:24 am

      Most of the day, the lake was calm and slick with a few drops of rain only lasting a few minutes at most. The water temperature ranged from 47 to 49 degrees with the air temperature stretching from mid 40’s to the upper 50’s. Lake Oroville has the tallest earth-filled dam that was completed in 1967, the dam reaches 700’ above the Feather River and is 900’ above sea level.

      Lines in was at 0730 (7:30am) with lines out at 1500 (3PM). The fish had to be submitted before 1530. Once all the fish were submitted and the judging was completed, Joseph Silva won with 83.00” besting second place by 2.25”. Silva used the Strolling technique to catch his winning limit. He rotated through four different fluke style baits to entice the bass to bite. After doing his homework with map study, Silva found an area that had a few shallow humps with deep creek channels nearby. His morning run took around 60 minutes to arrive at his calculated location. Silva used his Garmin Live Scope unit to target suspended bass in the 15 to 20-foot range of water near the hump structures he located.

      “I had my 83” by noon and never culled the last three hours of the day.” said Silva, “I focused on the larger returns skipping the smaller returns to catch the larger fish.”

      “I would cast past the fish and let the fluke style baits hover over the fish.” said Silva, “Using 4-pound test helped me present the lure with a shimmy to entice the fish to bite.”

      “I would position my boat in 30-feet of water and cast to 15 to 20-feet of water.” said Silva, “I used a slow retrieve with a soft shake of the rod tip to give the lure the shimmy.”

      Silva found that the fish were set up on secondary points compared to all the way back into a cove or on main lake.

      “I used a 3/32-ounce bait paired with 3” fluke style baits to catch the fish.” said Silva, “The shad color seemed to work better but I would use other colors to entice more bites when the fish became picky.”

      Greg Blanchard finished in second with 79.75”. Blanchard found fishing tough during practice on Friday. He found a point that held several fish during the last part of the day on Friday. On tournament day, Blanchard arrived at the magical point after a 40-minute run.

      “I fished that point all day.” said Blanchard, “I knew there was a huge group of fish there and fishing was tough, so I fished it all day long.”

      Blanchard first used a drop shot paired with a Berkey Flat worm in Gobyashi color.

      “I used the Flat worm in Gobyashi color to catch my first limit.” said Blanchard, “I had to dead stick the bait to get my bites.”

      “I was casting around the point in 10 to 20-feet of water to get my bites.” said Blanchard, “I could see them on my Humminbird graph.”

      “The key to the bigger bites was changing to a shaky head paired with a 5” Berkey General in the cinnamon purple color.” said Blanchard, “I wasn’t getting many bites, but they were bigger fish, I kept the shaky head in my hand the rest of the day.”

      Shaun Leytem placed in third with 79.50” just .25” behind second place. Leytem found little coves with water that had washouts that held fish. He would follow the washouts out to deeper water from 20 to 30-feet deep to get his bites.

      “One of the washouts still had water running into the lake with a tree in the middle of it.” said Leytem, “There was a ton of bait there, I dragged a ¼ ounce ball head paired with a 3.3 Keitech.”

      “I would just barely drag the bait on the bottom really slow to get my bites.” said Leytem, “I would cast out behind me and let the kayak move super slow.”

Monday, February 19th, 2024

  • California
    • By

      Report: by jiggin4bass » Mon Feb 19, 2024 8:13 pm

      Swimbait fishing at the lake off to a great start
      There is a video on fishing MB559 Fishing showing a guy weighing a 13.24 last week his personal best
      Swim baits jigs drop shot and ned rigs are all working. In 15 to 30 feet of water. Trout plant is coming soon

Sunday, February 11th, 2024

  • Tuolumne County, California
    • By

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I finally got a chance to get back to Lake Don Pedro with my buddy Jon House.

      It’s been over 10 years since I’ve been there! But we picked up right where I left off and started catching them. We didn't get nothing big, but we had a lot of fun.

      We caught fish on 1/2 ounce Bass Union Jigs early on. Later we caught them with two things. We used a 4” shad color worm on a dropshot and also a ED’S Lead Ned with a Green Pumpkin FattyZ which seemed to work better when it was later in the day.

      When we got to the lake, the surface temperature was 50° and the water was pretty clear in the main lake where we finished. We caught most the of our fish between the depths of 30' to 40‘.

      Hope this helps.
      Good luck fishing,
      Stan Lafever

Saturday, February 10th, 2024

  • Amador County, California
    • By

      Report: by StanL » Sat Feb 10, 2024 7:24 pm

      Camanche has came up quite a bit the last week or so and has made the Fishing a little bit challenging. I would say your best bet is to try Melones drop shoting a shad colored worm in 30 to 40 feet on island top and main Lake points have been working pretty good. I hope this helps.

Friday, January 19th, 2024

  • Arizona
    • By

      Report: At Lyman Lake (Jan. 19 report courtesy of Park Ranger Donna Hartell), fishing has slowed down. Some anglers are still experiencing success with Lyman’s walleye and channel catfish. Most of the walleye are being caught near the dam in 25 feet of water on chatterbaits and lipless crank baits fished near underwater structure. The channel catfish are biting best on nightcrawlers or anchovies fished on a slip sinker rig