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Monday, April 11th, 2011

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    Water Temp: 50-55

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished from 4 until sunset. Caught one little dink dragging a dark green plastic critter, one 4-5 pounder on a wacky senko and a 3 pounder on a chartreuse spinner. Nobody out, but it was a little chilly due to the wind.
    City: Cotati

Friday, April 8th, 2011

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    Water Temp: 55 to 58

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Arrived at 7am and the gate was open this time,Fished until 2pm . Started with a chartruse spinnerbait with painted blades Nailed two nice fish in the first half hour moving down the north bank slow roling it in 10 feet of water.The breeze died about 9am so I started throwing dingers. Caught fish all day long.Biggest close to 8lbs. most in the 3to 4lb. range.if you dont use smelly jelly you wont catch any. The water is high and muddy.
    City: Santa Rosa

    Tips: Wcky worm the banks out to 10 feet and garlic Kick Bass..............

Wednesday, April 6th, 2011

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    Water Temp: N/A

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: got up to yorty creek around 9:30. the gate was open and the wind was blowing hard. pounded around the corner and tried to find some calm water. went all the way up to skunk and only found one small area to fish for about an hour with no luck. decided to call it a "windy day" and headed home.
    City: santa rosa

Monday, April 4th, 2011

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    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Went out to Yorty today got there abut 9:00a.m about an hour befor they decided to open the gate .I fished the sunny side in the back caught my first fish on wacky about 1 1/2 lbs. The next fish an hour later I caught on a texas senco 3 lbs. 30 min later i managed to pull a 4 lb 10oz LM off of her bed with a watermelon red and black flake baby brush hog. It was a pretty good day in all i caght 4 fish in about 3 hours.
    City: Healdsburg

    Tips: there is alot of fish on the banks my advice is to pick one thats not to spooky and try puttin somthing right in front of it and workin it real slow.

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    Water Temp: N/A

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: the water level is dropping about a foot a day and clearing up. found areas of green water with 5 feet of visibility. fished the skaggs spring road side, all the way to the north end. found fish, using a spinnerbait, sitting on grassy humps off of wood. tight up to shore in the wooded coves. fished hard all morning for one nice largemouth.

    moved out to the steeper banks on open water and found a nice smallmouth bite. fish were chasing fingerling shad against wind blown points. picked up two really nice smallies on a mid running crankbait. shad pattern finish. all fish had huge bellies and were eager to fight.
    City: santa rosa

    Tips: tip of the week: fish one day, pleasure boat the next. the water is warming up and the weather has been beautiful. careful of the floating timber spread throughout open water. there are whole trees still floating out there.

Saturday, April 2nd, 2011

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    Water Temp: 57-59

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Wow, talk about a lot of water. Never seen the lake that high before. Looks like they are pumping it out as fast as it comes in. Nice day on the water, started in the main lake, too windy so moved to Warm Springs. Managed to catch a couple fish in transition areas. Fished mainly the jig and D/S, but the jig was the winner. Wind seemed to die down later in the day, too bad we couldn't stay longer. Good times on the way!!
    City: Santa Rosa

    Tips: Fish deep brown water, try reaction baits with transitions areas. Avoid the main lake when it is really windy. Also, if you are in a canoe know where you are going before you venture out into the main channel otherwise you might get lost. I guess they found the Marina though, didn't see them later.

Friday, April 1st, 2011

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    Water Temp: 52 -64

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Just what the doctor ordered... a beautiful day at the lake. Sunshine thoughout the week brought the water temp and the fish up. The lake level is still high, but down about 6' since Sunday (the highest I've ever seen the lake). Started off in Yorty Creek, fishing the sunny side's with the boat in about 20', throwing Drop Shot next to trees and submerged bushes. My son Sean hooked up 1st with a 3.2 large mouth on a Oxblood Roboworm, then I picked a 3 lber up on a Morning Dawn w/chrt tail. Sean got two more, then we moved to Cherry Creek and started throwing a Chrt/Wht Spinner bait (Silver/gold Willow blades, slowed rolled) off the edges of the flats and picked up 6 fish (nothing over 2.5lbs). Caught all these fish just outside of the weeds 5' - 10' deep, had a lot of misses too. Went to the backs of some of the fingers in Cherry and didn't see or catch any fish. Headed to the dam and Zach picked up a smallir on a white Spinner bait. Nice day, sure beat going to work.
    City: Pacifica

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    Water Temp: 55

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: THE LAKE IS CLOSED AT YORTY CREEK DUE TO FLOODING.............
    City: Santa Rosa

Wednesday, March 30th, 2011

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    Water Temp: N/A

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: arrived at yorty creek at sunrise to a locked gate. saw the ranger on the way out as was informed the parking lot was still flooded so i headed to the marina. got in the water around 8am. fished the no wake zone opposite the marina and south to the narrows with no luck. continued west to the back fingers and fished those all morning. i was throwing a half ounce spinnerbait and a 3/4 ounce fat free shad, deep diver. tried the wood, the grass and the creeks. not a bite all morning. conditions seemed perfect. i may have been fishing too fast.
    City: santa rosa

Sunday, March 27th, 2011

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    Water Temp: 52-56

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Saturday Hank and I got on the water around 9am. Lake Sonoma came up about 10 feet since last time I was out here a couple weeks ago, and it was already at full pool then. There are submerged oak trees that are usually never it the water. All the storms we’ve had lately really muddied up the arms, but the main body still had around 3 foot visibility. Hank caught a three pounder first thing on a 3/8 oz jig with a smallie beaver. It came out of 20 feet of water on a rock pile near the marina. We went back into the warm springs arm and fished the running water from the creeks entering the lake. I caught a couple 2lbrs flipping a 5in white tube. Then Hank caught one around 4.5lbs one the jig. Some of the creeks had warmer (55 deg.), and clearer water coming in. Those were the ones that were holding the fish. We went back to the rock piles around the narrows and I caught a 2.5lb smallie on a 3in Dry Creek Tube. At this point in was about 3pm and we decided to make the run up north to see if our creek pattern would work there. After hitting about 20 creeks, we finally found one that looked good. I flipped the white tube all the way in the back and stuck one close to 9lbs, my largest out of Sonoma. By the end of the day we had around 22lbs for our largest 5 bass. Because of our success we decided to fish the Marine Unlimited Tournament on Sunday. It was cold and drizzly all day. We started off on a rock pile and caught a 1.5lb on a jig. We spent the next couple hours fishing rock piles, but only caught a couple short fish. We moved to the creek pattern, but I could tell that the air temp was too cold. The water coming in was the same temperature as the lake. We hit just about every damn creek in the lake, and finally at 1pm a caught a 5lbr on a Texas rigged Brush Hog. It was in the creek next to where I caught the 9lbr the day before. We continued to bounce around the lake fishing creeks, but had no luck. With about 5 minutes left, we were fishing right by the ramp, and caught a 2.5 lb smallie on a jig. 3 bass totaling 9.2 lbs was the total weight. I was quite disappointed with the results, but to my surprise, we still ended up finishing 6th place out of 38 boats. Almost half the boats blanked and only a few caught 5 fish limits. Sunday was definitely a tough day, but with this warm weather we are getting this week, things should really start turning on!
    City: San Bruno

    Tips: Please visit www.russnyders.com for more fishing reports, videos, and info on Northern California Guide Trips.

    <a href="http://www.russnyders.com/">Rus Snyders Guide Service</a>

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    Water Temp: 50 ish

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished marine unlimited yesterday caught 3 keeper smallies and one largemouth. All on dropshot.5 short fish as well. Fish were in 10 feet or less, the deeper fish would not bite. The fish on the bank were white from being in deeper water.
    City: Cloverdale

    Tips: Once you find them stay with the wind and those fish. With cold rising water steeper banks will hold fish as fish rise vertical with the water.
    Dropshot and jigs, no bite just pressure. Stay with your area in these type conditions.

Saturday, March 26th, 2011

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    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Went up to yorty today to check it out , I had to walk down because the gate was locked due to flooding. Ive never seen it this full the parking lot was under water i fished for about a half hour with no bites useing a 3:16 blue gill swim bait untill I got rained out. It should get alot better soon when we get some good weather.
    City: healdsburg

    Tips: It needs to warm up and clear up and the bass will be slammen.

Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011

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    Water Temp: 48-51

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Went fishing, caught fish. Hopefully this weather holds up and they keep biting. No real pattern, just kind of hit a mis. Tried to stay on main lake areas and then headed back into creeks. Most fish seemed to be in transition.
    City: Santa Rosa

    Tips: Fish the main lake areas looking for transitions. Any bait will work as long as you paid 4.95/pk. or more. Really, bait doesn't matter, they will come out with another one the catches fish down the road at some point.

Friday, March 11th, 2011

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    Water Temp: 52 TO 54

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Caught 6 fish all on yum dingers in 10 feet of water.All in the 2 to 4lb range.
    City: SANTA ROSA

    Tips: Garlic scent and dark colored dingers.

Monday, February 28th, 2011

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    Water Temp: 49-52

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Saturday the 26th myself, and two other anglers, Nick and Steve, got to the Lake Sonoma at around 7am. We had post-frontal conditions, with partly cloudy skies and a light north wind. The water temp was 52 degrees with 2-4 foot clarity. Our first stop was a big flat with a few scattered rock piles, in the Warm Springs Arm. The bite was on, and in the first 20 minutes of the day we landed 7 bass, a mix of large-mouth and small-mouth. We fished 3/8 oz. jigs and Dry Creek Tubes fished in 15-25 feet of water. The key was to find those larger rock piles, and make sure to drag the bait as slow as possible. We put a few of the bass in the livewell, for pictures at the end of the day, and a couple crawdads got spit up. They were light brown with bright orange claws. We matched our jigs and tubes accordingly and worked our way through the narrows, stopping to fish any of the points that had rock. We picked up a few more small-mouth bass, all around 2lbs. From 10am-2pm, the bite got tough for us, we didn’t catch any bass, but Nick caught a nice 4lb steelhead on a crankbait. We then made a move towards back of the Warm Springs Arm. We found a couple rock piles that were stacked with fish. All were large-mouth bass, with the largest one going just over 4 pounds. By the end of the day we had caught a total of 20 bass. Monday the 28th was quite a different day. A cold storm had just arrived as we pulled up to launch the boat. There was a south wind and a heavy mist, which created a drizzle type rain that never let up all day. Right away I noticed the water temp had dropped a few degrees to 49. Ron and I fished all the areas through the narrows, where we’d been catching some nice small-mouth on Saturday, but only managed a couple tiny largemouth. It seemed many of the bass were suspended of the bottom. We worked reaction baits (spinnerbaits, ripbaits, and crankbaits), but had no luck. We went towards the back of Warm Springs to fish the rock piles that were productive on Saturday, and caught two more large-mouth on jigs, both were about a pound and a half. I dropped Ron off at the ramp at around noon and my friends, Hank and Chris, met me at the ramp. We fished around the narrows for a while but couldn’t buy a bite. For some reason this weather front really shut off the small-mouth. We then bounced around to a few new points in the Warm Springs Arm that I haven’t fished lately. All the spots were secondary points with rock. Using jigs and spinnerbaits (3/4 oz. white skirt/white blades), we caught a few more large-mouth. They weren’t as schooled up like they were before, we would hook one fish every half hour or so. By the end of the day we caught 12 large-mouth up to 3 pounds, and no small-mouth.
    City: San Bruno

    Tips: Please visit www.russnyders.com for more fishing reports, videos, and info on Northern California Guide Trips.

    <a href="http://www.russnyders.com/">Rus Snyders Guide Service</a>

Friday, February 18th, 2011

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    Water Temp: 52-54

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Despite the freezing temperatures, the bass fishing at Lake Sonoma was surprisingly really good. I was supposed to head up to Clear Lake to do some filming on Friday, but Hwy 29 was closed because of nearly a foot of snow on the summit from the previous day. Luckily my buddy Hank was able to get a “sick day” from work, so he met me at Lake Sonoma at around 10:30 am. We were in between storms, the sky was clear, there was a light south wind, and you could still see last nights full moon in the sky. Water temps were in the low 50’s and had about 3-4 ft visibility. We idled toward the Warm Spring Arm, and started fishing before we even got out of the no wake zone. It only took 10 minutes to get our first four fish in the boat, three smallmouth and one largemouth bass. All were in the 2-3 lb. range and came off the same point. A 3/8 oz. football jig (brown/red) with a Reaction Innovations Smallie Beaver (California 420) as a trailer was the hot bait. We then moved to another point across the way and caught a few more bass on the jigs, including a nice 4.5 pound largemouth. All the bass were sitting in 15-25 feet of water, and were in areas with a mix of rock, wood and a ledge. It was now around noon, and the next storm front was beginning to move in as the sky darkened. We hit a few more points in the area, but it seemed the fish began to turn off a bit. Hank had to head home, so I dropped him off at the boat ramp at around 2:30. I went back out and started fishing the area just passed the no wake zone. Finally at around 4pm I caught 2 more bass, fishing a steep rocky wall, one largie and one smallie. Both came on a Lucky Craft Staysee 90 (Table Rock Shad). I then bounced around to a bunch of similar looking areas to try to duplicate the pattern, but had no luck. Right before dark I managed one more smallmouth bass on the jig.
    City: San Bruno

    Tips: Please visit www.russnyders.com for more fishing reports, videos, and info on Northern California Guide Trips.

    <a href="http://www.russnyders.com/">Rus Snyders Guide Service</a>

Saturday, February 12th, 2011

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    Water Temp: 53

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished the 12th and 13th. Tough fishin'. Moved around a lot trying different terrains, working jigs, drop shot, plastics, some deep, slow crank baits. Couldn't find a pattern. Missed a few because of some over-aggressive hook sets. Soft bite! Otherwise, skunked two days in a row. Trolled for steel head on the way out of Warm Springs in desperation.
    City: Rohnert Park

    Tips: A storm front was off the coast on this beautiful weekend. My hopes weren't high but skunked? Sure is a pretty lake though and there was hardly a boat on it all weekend. It was a good day to test props!

Sunday, February 6th, 2011

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    Water Temp: 56

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Caught four fish between 11:00 AM and 2:00 PM, 2-1/2 lbs., 3 lbs, 3-1/2 lbs. and 4 lbs. in that order. I wonder if I'd fished the rest of the day if that pattern would have continued? Caught on 1/2 oz. jig and lizard. The four pounder was caught on a jig and reg. sized brush hog.
    City: Rohnert Park

    Tips: Winter fishing...all solo fish. Moved around a lot looking for rocky points with submerged brush. Fishing from 32'-35' of water toward the points, dragging slow, not jigging. All caught in about 20'-25' of water. Soft bite so lighter line and sensitive 7' rod did well.

Monday, December 27th, 2010

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    Water Temp: 53-55

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: 4 of us went to Sonoma out of our kickboats. Fished main lake and we all caught a mixed bag. Smallies were the main fish as thats what we were targeting. Caught fish as shallow as 2 ft and as deep as 40. Mainly dropshot, jigs and senkos. 1 Steelhead caught on a blade. Was a perfect day on the water for end of the year!
    City: Santa Rosa

    Tips: No reaction baits, all finesse. Dropshot, jigs and senkos. No distinct colors was very random. Look for rocky bluffs with shallow waters and deep dropoffs near by. Use your electronics they were key!!

Monday, December 13th, 2010

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    Water Temp: 57

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Tough bite today. Had about 10 bites between the two of us. Missed a few and and our 5 best was 13lbs. Checked a lot of areas today and the fish did not really want to play. Just keep moving is all I can say until you run into something. Only a few boats out there today. It was perfect. That will all be different on Saturday Xmas tourn. Lol.
    City: Petaluma

    Tips: The thing I like to do is stay moving and look for the hot fish(fish that want to play). Sometimes going back to an area(that you like and you think has fish) that didn't produce earlier might turn on later. Pay attention or you will miss those valuable bites that are hard to come by right now.