Fishing Report

Limit:

Monday, October 11th, 2004

  • California
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      Water Temp: 75

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Tubing Guad, on the water 4:30 pm began throwing raps, jigs and sencos until about 6:00. No bits but the deer, wild pigs and what I thing were a pair of juvenal red tails, they were doing the coolest display of flying in low and skimming the water with their talons trying to grab a fish, they were about the size of a red tail but their coloring was more black than brown with their chest light grey to white.
      Anyway back to fishing soon as the sun was off the water, started draging 7" worm and hit into a 19" large mouth in about 20' of water, ten minutes later a 20" less than 10'off the shore. Then right before night fall BAM hooked into something really good, fought him for a good 5 minutes, dude even spun my tube around a couple times, 23" must of been close to 6 - 7 pounds conservative summary 3 fish 15 pounds, just one of those evenings!!!
      City: Alameda

      Tips: Small resevior, probabaly in fall pattern already Dark plastics, on the bottom, 15' - 25', topwater should also produce between now and winter lock down. Tough lake was out a month ago and only one hit.

  • Shasta County, California
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      Water Temp: ?

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Concerning the ramp at Packers, just got off the phone with the man in charge and they are waiting for the level to drop a bit more, maybe a foot or so, then the Packers Marina people will pull out and the mud will be removed by attacking it from both sides of the hump that has formed at the bottom of the ramp. They did manage to get some out in the lane nearest the ramp and intend to get after the rest of it at about the 101.5 ft level. We are presently at the 100.8 ft level and the level has hovered around 100ft for nearly 8 days. You can get in and out but only one boat at a time. Centmudi is still in good shape, Jones Valley is in good shape as is Sugarloaf. Hirz bay is out of the water, bailey Cove is high and dry and antlers is out. The tough bite continues, the shad are still all over the place.
      City: Redding

Sunday, October 10th, 2004

  • Napa County, California
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      Water Temp: 59-61

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I just read Rich's report before posting this one, and I have to agree - this is transition time and the fish and bait arn't as easy to locate as they were a few weeks ago. My client and I started out of Markley about 7:45 am - a little later than I wanted. He got tied up in a construction area and was a little late. Anyway, the first point we started in the narrows had bass in 2 feet of water, chasing shad. We ripped bass up to 2 lbs plus a nice one on a jig. That lasted about 10 minutes and they were gone. As Rich said, points 2 thru 100 (that's what it seemed like!) produced nothing for the next three hours. The X-19 screen was mostly bare, except for suspended carp. About noon, in the main body - east and west shore, we started getting some action and actually ended up with a good five fish limit of just under 10 pounds. Our biggest was a 2-13 largemouth and we caught 13 total. We targeted rocky areas with any kind of ledge or drop-off. That was the key. We did find a technique and color that definately worked the best, but my client is fishing an upcoming tournament so I need to be quiet about that. I can say that there really was no hot spot - just a fish here and there. One area did produced 5 bites and we landed 3. I guess that would be the hot spot of the day. But with fall fish movements, that could be a cold spot the next day!
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: The fishing conditions were excellent - warm and cloudy with very little wind. After the great start, I thought this would be the day of days! So much for that thought, though I'm not complaining. My client learned a lot and we had a fun day. Some of the fish we caught were shallow because of the clouds, but some were as deep as 40 feet, too. Don't hesitate to move around a lot - you may need to during the next month.

    • By

      Water Temp: 69-72

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: I had a very enjoyable and successful guide trip Saturday with a newly married young couple and his dad. This was her first fishing trip - and she is hooked - no doubt!!! She loved it! The brief front had just passed through and the morning was crisp and breezy, not the best conditions. Fishing started slow out of Markely Cove - we did catch a few in the narrows. Most of the tournament boats must have gone up north - didn't see many. We decided to head up north too. As the morning wore on, the fish got bigger, including 2 spots at 2 1/4 pounds each. At l pm I felt my brown/purple 4 1/2 inch worm get bit and then stuck in a rock. I gave up and tried to break my 8# test Berkley XL - suddenly the rock moved and even jumped out of the water - twice. In the boat the largemouth weighed 4 lbs 2 oz - a nice surprise! We wound up with 8 smallies, 6 spots, and the quality largemouth - 15 total for 12 lbs 4 oz. Hearing the exciting yells of the young lady catching her first bass, a 1 3/4 lb smallmouth was really worth the drive. The afternoon turned out to be beautiful and we really had a great time!
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: We only fished worms, Texas rigged and split-shotted. Drop-shotting just didn't work for us, nor did spooning. The jig bite was off too, at least where we were. But worms in purple ghost, purple/brown, and morning dawn/chartreuse tail, all produced many bites. The hits were very subtle most of the day, so naturally, my clients missed many fish as they were learning. Dad lost a big bass that really broke my heart - drag was too tight. We caught most of our fish in the 20 to 25 foot range, though the 4-2 was in 15 feet! Pretty shallow for a bluebird day. We fished mostly points. Walls didn't produced much, though dad lost his big one on a wall in the narrows. The split-shot rig was by far the best presentation.

  • Lake County, California
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      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished the ClearLake BASSMASTERS Bass Derby yesterday (Sat, 10-09-04)and the wind kicked our butts. It was cold a windy but we had a really good time. First I would like to thank the ClearLake Bassmasters for hosting such a teriffic event. Front start to finish the event went very smoothly, truely professional-Great Job guys, everyone involved deserves a special THANK YOU.
      Secondly I would like to send my thanks out to my partner, Len Kovats. Thanks Len for such a wonderful experience and the sacrifices you made to keep us on the fish in those horrible conditions. It really takes some extreme conditions to test a boater and his boat-and let me tell all of you that the saying is true, "Nothing Rides Like a CHAMPION!" that was more than obviously clear yesterday. That boat handled the wind and water wonderfully. The fishing deck stayed stable even in those conditions. But the ride back to weigh in truely separated the men from the boys. We were in the rattlesnake island area and had twenty min. to get back to Libray Park, no problem on a nice day but when the wind is 20 mph+ and 2-3 ft. swells it is a ball bustin' ride. That ol' girl (The Champion Boat) had her work cut out for her, but she came through, we made it with 3 min. to spare!! A true Champion! Great Job Len, that ride back was not for your novice captains, I was scared $#@*less but survived to write this post.

      The fishing was good. We had 47 teams show up to fish and we all caught 193 bass (wich 193 were released alive and healthy)good job to all anglers and the release boat staff, job wll done! The average weight for the tournament went about 2.5 #'s, the big fish was a beast, 9.5 #'s caught by my fellow Yuba City Club memeber, Jackie Cox-way to go Jackie!! Len and I finished in second place, with a weight of 18.6 #'s, big fish was 7.5 caught on a Margarita Mutilator, dropped shotted around hydrilla and docks. We caught all our fish drop shotting and crankin' red craw, shad patterns and a parrot/ fire tiger colors. It was a rough day but most anglers seemed to catch fish, thanks again to the ClearLake Bassmasters for such a wonderful tournament!
      City: YUBA CITY

      Tips: We fished wind blown points and deep docks that offered at least one additional form of cover,rock or weeds ect... We fished deep diving cranks (above) and bounced them off the bottom from 5 ft to 12 ft. The docks we hit with a drop shot, rigged mostly with MM and Aaron's magic, not shaking it too much, one or two pumps then let it sit for awhile then repeat. Good Luck, hopefully the wind goes and lays down for awhile!

  • California
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      Water Temp: 66.5

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Launched late, 9 A.M., started at the north end in the weed beds with pumpkin/red flake senkos ....no takers. Then I tried Jay's tip and threw white senkos ... still no takers. Moved to east side and tried jigs and spinnerbaits. Nothing. The wife and son tried nightcrawlers, but kept getting half of the worm bit off, with no indication of a strike. Other anglers were catching 1 or 2 small fish on tube worms and dropshot. What does it take to catch the big fish in this lake? Or any fish for that matter!!!Off of the lake at 4:00, not wiling to try an evening bite ....
      City: Prunedale

      Tips: I wish I could give you one!

  • Washoe County, California
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      Water Temp: 71

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: that lake does not produce bass maybe 1lber's
      but over all it sucks there aren't different
      structures to fish it's all the same . anyhow
      all we caught where 3 1lbers
      City: BAKERSFIELD

      Tips: maybe try fishing the shadie areas that we missed

  • Shasta County, California
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      Water Temp: 57-70

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: got out today with Jason today..on the water at 630 at Jones valley..up the pit past no ski..got several fish on worms and jigs(3/4 oz brn/brn) and 1/4 brn dartheads with a MF# 38 and 39 6" worm. The reason for the 1/4 oz is that was the only size we could feel the bottom with in the 20-25 mph winds..after only catching 3 keepers up the Pit we headed tword the main lake and hit points ended up getting 10 lbs for 5 fish not bad for this time of year.. out at 430 pm....
      City: redding

      Tips: worms, jigs, and spooks

Saturday, October 9th, 2004

  • Lake County, California
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      Water Temp: 67

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Managed to talk the wife into a fishing vacation at Clear Lake. We rented a little cottage in Lakeport. My boat doesn't really have enough range to cover water, so I stayed in the north end. Fished as far south as the Lakeside State Park and along the northern edge by Highway 20 from Rodman to the Narrows. Weather was clear and calm in the mid 80's from Tues-Thurs, but it got cold and windy on Friday and Saturday. The bite was great early in the week and midweek, seemed to turn off when the weather changed. Just fished the mornings from sunrise to about noon - averaged about 20 fish a day, best limit on Tues went to 15lbs. Otherwise, it was probably around 10lbs a day except for Saturday where all I could manage were a few small keepers.
      City: Newark

      Tips: Flipping green pumpkin senkos into shallow tulles accounted for over 50% of my fish. Had a good gold/gold white/chart spinnerbait bite in front of tulle lines that went on and off throughout the week. Also had luck with texas-rigged 6" worms under shady docks tight to shallow pilings.

  • Sacramento County, California
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      Water Temp: 68-74

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Took Norm and Lucas out to play on Folsom Saturday. Fully expected the overcast day and weather change to turn the fish on. I'm not sure if it did or not, but the catching fell far short of what I expected. We did catch 25-30 fish with the largest being a 4 pound blackie, caught on a One Ton. We did catch one other black on a Norman Crank. Norm stuck a real nice smalley close to 3 pounds on the same Hula grub(he caught the largie too!) The rest of the fish were spotted bass that ranged from a pound to 2 1/2 pounds. Most fish we caught were on bait schools in 10-15 foot of water. As the sun came out and the skies cleared, this seemed to drive both the bait and the bass very deep. We struggle to catch fish after 1:00pm and leaving the main lake area, Norm & Lucas just did not want to fish below 50 feet, and that's where the majority of the fish were when we graphed areas up both the North and South forks. So we ran around exploring major largemouth locals. We only had one taker all afternoon fishing the rock piles of the north fork. Although that 3+ showed his mug, he was not willing ta grab the crank and take a photo opt in our boat. The fish appeared very sluggish on this overcast day.
      City: Oakley

      Tips: On this day, we had to key on the bait fish and some form of a point. Electronics were critical, because if we saw the fish near or in the school of bait, we could catch it. Never caught a fish on a dropshot, Lizards, Hulas and a brown jig-n-pig where the table fair for the day.

    • By

      Water Temp: 68-69 deg

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Only a few fisherman came out in the cloudy cool morning, so Denny Howard and I had most of the lake anywhere and with out shearing the fish. We found bait fish first thing on banks in open water with spots and smallies. With in the first hour we boated 3 smallies and 20 spots. By noon we had moved around finding more balls of bait and larger bass upto 3 lbs. By the time we pulled out of Granite Bay we boated 40 bass using jigs, worms on split shot and drop shot. The water has stayed the same for the last few weeks. Good luck you fisherman at the next upcoming Future Pro Tour tourament.
      City: rocklin

      Tips: try top water, cranks, blades and worms, something will work.

  • California
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      Water Temp: 72

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Went fishing Thursday oct. 7th late afternoon caught 3 fish between 3 to 3.5lbs. my partner lost a huge fish @ the boat on a jig. We caught plenty of small ones on plastics, majority of the fish were caught in the back 5mph zone. best times were at dark and after dark.
      City: sanger

      Tips: catch and release!

  • California
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      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished for just an hour 12-1 from the bank with grubs again, and was assaulted by dinkers. It seems like the fish, big and small are tight to the green vegetation.
      City: Hollister

    • By

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished half day from rental boat. Managed to catch two 4lbers on back to back cast. Fish were holding tight to the outside edge of a sunken weed bed. Caught on 6" green pumpkin senko.Great to see so many fathers taking their kids out for a day of fishing. (must of been 75 people fishing from banks)
      City: Salinas

      Tips: Give them. Talked to several boats of frustrated fisherman who were unable to "make a catch". By no means am I the master but if I can offer some advice to up the chances of a dad getting his kids "into the fish",why not?

  • San Bernardino County, California
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      Water Temp: 70+/-

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Some friends took me to a spot on the east side of the lake off the shore. We caught a 18 inch striper, 17 inch large mouth and a 17 inch trout in 1-2 hours on crankbait near floating plants.
      City: moreno valley

Friday, October 8th, 2004

  • Lake County, California
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      Water Temp: 71

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: I guided a fellow in his boat Thursday, showing him how to fish Clear Lake in the fall. It was a nice day and the fishing was fair. Since the lake was calm, the crank bite wasn't good for us. We had several short worm strikes for some reason, most of the day. The worm bite still worked however, again, topped by the red shad Dead Ringer. The last spot I showed him, a little known ledge down south, produced one bite, but she was almost 4 1/2 lbs. The red shad worm did the trick. We fished most of the time, but did a lot of looking and running around. We caught around 12 or 13 bass for a limit near 14 pounds.
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: My clients and I are having more success Carolina-rigging the larger worms rather than Texas rigging. They are a little harder to cast in the wind, but the bass seem to like the worm off the bottom a bit. We threw spinnerbaits a lot but don't think we got a single bass on one. I got out a Senko for the first time in awhile and, fishing them in shade pockets on Henderson Point, caught 2 and missed a good one. My client is a good fisherman and did well. I know he now understands the importance of his meter during the fall and winter season at Clear Lake!

  • Alameda County, California
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      Water Temp: 66-68

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Caught 5 of my fish on 3/8 jigs -brown/brown in 15ft. Fish hit the jig hard. Also caught 4 on a small plastics dropshotting. They lake is going through its yearly draw down. It should start to turn over soon 2 weeks or so.
      City: Livermore

      Tips: follow the bait balls and dropshot through the middle of them.

  • California
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      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: SCOTT: YES I,HAVE BUT I GUESS UNTIL THEY ACTUALLY CATCH THEM IN THE ACT IT DON,T MATTER.AT LEAST THAT,S WHAT I UNDERSTOOD. THE PROBLEM IS THAT THERE IS LITTLE OR NO SUPERVISION. THREFORE IT IS A FREE FOR ALL.
      City: TURLOCK

  • Sacramento County, California
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      Water Temp: 69 D

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished most of the morning near the dam on the first 3 major points. Fished jigs, spinnerbaits,cranks and worms. Decided not to fish dropshot or slip shot and that may have been the reason for NANA! Third time on the lake in 3 weeks and the water is getting lower, much lower. Down to 7 ft in the channel near the old salmon bridge in the south fork. I have yet to figure this lake out and today may have been my last trip to folsom. Fishing just isn't that great on this lake.
      City: El dorado hills

      Tips: Fish another lake......

  • Tulare County, California
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      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Went in the afternoon. Caught a lot of little fish on RattleTraps and Senkos. Caught two in the 15 inch range in 20 feet of water on a shad colored Rattletrap.
      City: Three Rivers

      Tips: Anything that looks like a shad will work. Senkos produce a lot of small bass in the 10 to 12 inch range.