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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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  • Solano County
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      Water Temp: 57.9

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Man, what a difference a couple od days makes. Just when that water temp was screaming up to 63-65 degrees Tuesday & Wednesday, it drastically dropped on Friday back down to 57.9 first thing in the morning and seemed to never climb much more than a couple of degrees. This made fishing a lot tougher on two guide trips Friday & Saturday. We were able to find about 25 keepers each day with a big fish of over 6 pounds each day. These fish really backed off and we had troubles getting em to eat the Senko on Friday, with the exception of our first three fish, up in the tulles, after that, not another bite, not even on Saturday. We actully found more fish on points in about 8-15 foot of water, we could only catch these on brown jigs with pork trailers. The bite really seems to git better towards the later part of the day when we have these cold fronts move through.
      City: Oakley

      Tips: If they ain't where you were catching em yesterday and it got a little colder, back off and go look for them. Where I found fish on tulles fer two days, I found em 300 yards off the bank out in the weeds in the flats. Same thing held true in the narrow sloughs, only have to move 20 yards and fish deeper.

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      Water Temp: 54

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished the hook t.o.c. - managed to pull about 17 pounds each day. It was good enough for second place (we missed winning by ounces. We had no one pattern, we pulled into any one spot and threw a spinner bait, if we got no bite we would throw a crank bait and wham, or we would chase both with a worm and thunk! It seems if you pulled into an area and threw the whole tackle box you would get paid. Chartruese spinnerbaits, mustard colored speed traps and 6" black worms thrown in stained (not muddy) water. Try launching or running south for clearer water. Hope this helps you boat some fish.
      City: Pinole

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      Water Temp: 52-57

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished New Bass with partner TommyP. Tough bite for us. We managed to boat 3 fish for 8#'s. Two fish on a white spinnerbait with white blades one on a senko. Fish were very shallow in 2' of water or less. We had to find stained water instead of muddy water for the fish.
      City: Belmont

      Tips: Find stained to clear water

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      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished sherman, fish are there but finicky. A baby smoke senko pitched into the tullies & worked all the way to the boat worked.

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      Water Temp: 52

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: went flippin and caught 1 fish on a jig 2 fish on a senko all in 5' or less in the tules. pitching lure a good 2-5 ft into the tules seemed to be the trick.my last fish was my first 10 pounder ive ever caught it was a nice fish one that i will remember the rest of my life.
      City: oakley

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      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Left Mossdale launch ramp around 10:00 A.M. got into a stripper bite around noon downriver about 4 miles. Hooked into 11.2 pounder, 8 pounder, and 7.5. Split shottin jumbo minnows off the bottom. Talked to a few boaters that were trolling crank baits with very little success. Hope this is a sign of improvement. It's been tough in this area for the last several months.
      City: Manteca

      Tips: Use live bait.

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      Water Temp: 49-51

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: last sat, went for an exploration and prefish with Mayday. Found fish in one area, stuck three in an hour all nice, boated two, biggest went 3.5. explored the rest of the day, mostly west and big break break area. Nothing. not a bite even. flipped, jigged, plastics, big plastics, cranked, ripped. I guess i'm just not in tune with what they want. Saw some nice areas for later.
      City: belmont

      Tips: naddah from me! i can't figure them out either!

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      Water Temp: 48+

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished the Bass Fed and drew the one and only Bobby Barrack!!! I won't give details because he has the 100% Pro/Am next weekend but I will say he is one heck of a nice guy and a mega stick. His casting alone sets him appart from most pushing me to excel in my own abilities. His decision making was right on the money never waisting time in unproductive water. We cranked, threw jigs and did a few other things and got the bites. Unfortunatly not all the bites made it back to the boat, but thats fishing. Couldn't have hoped for a better day.
      City: mtn view

      Tips: It was a tough weekend for most, if not all. Be patient and fish the water thouroghly

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      Water Temp: cold

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Guess a bad report is better than no report at all, so here goes. Sunday at 11:00 A.M. the wife got fed up and let me go fish, Launched out of Del's and fished till 4:30. Real tough for me. One crank bite in Italian, missed it. Ran to Little Mandeville, promising myself to work on pitching a jig, after an hour of nothing, got to a small point with wood in 6-8 feet of water and a little current - looked perfect! Pitched the jig into the middle of the tree and then slowly crawled it over limbs, when I felt the line slowly start to move off as something had picked up the bait - no bumps, ticks, or taps, just slow solid pressure. I reared back and learned a hard lesson - don't try to cross their eyes at point blank range with 20 lb superline on a G-Loomis 7 ft heavy action rod with the drag cinched down tight. KAPOW! fish and jig gone! Shoot! (or something like that was exclaimed.) That was it for the day. Noticed fatigue cracks in front and back of boat, took it to dealer and it will have to be shipped back for warranty work, so I will be bike riding and surfing for the next month or two. Y'all save some for me when I can get back. Better luck to everyone else! God Bless, Rob T
      City: Half Moon Bay

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      Water Temp: 48+

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: 4 fish all on jigs, one over 8. Not one fish under 3#. Look for new water, you never know what you'll find.
      City: Mtn View

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      Water Temp: cold

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished half days Saturday and Sunday. Saturday launched from Hook and went into a deadend slough with slightly clearer water and caught 5 blackies from 2-3.5 lbs - all solid fish, but no monsters. Lost a larger fish right at the boat - odd story on that one, at the inital hit, it felt like a bigger fish, and as I was fighting it, I felt a big yank, and suddenly the action of the fish fighting changed. When I got it to the boat it was hooked near the back! It shook off as I watched in amazement and swam away. Missed another 5 or so hits, and caught one small striper. Figured the missed fish may have also been stripers, but hard to know. Fish were cranked with Norman's Little N in red in 10 feet of water off rock/tules. Needed good depth and slow retrieve. Fish hit soft and were sluggish. Launched from Orwood Sunday, trying new water (again). Wind and weather were tough in my tin bote. Fished Rock Slough a couple of hours with no bites. Ran to Sandmound, pitched jigs, no luck, started cranking outside weedline, and wham! one really hit it hard! The fish took off, screaming my drag which was set tight - I knew it was a striper, so i backed off the drag in order not to break the line and relaxed to enjoy the war - following the fish around the boat, letting it strip drag with heavy head shakes down deep. When I finally goet it up to the surace, I couldn't see any stripes on the fish and then realized, this thing was GREEN! Quick! get her in the boat! When I put her on the scales she pulled it down to 7.4 lbs. I was already having a great day, and this just topped it off! My biggest proper Delta bass to date. Flagged down a guy and got him to take some pics, then released her where I caught her. A fine clean fish, hit and fought REAL hard, hence my thinking it was a striper at first. While the weather is lousy, and the bites are slow, this is still my very favorite time of year to be on the water for green monsters - Prespawn feeding for the big ones is near, and I can't wait! Best wishes to all, and God Bless, Rob T.
      City: Half Moon Bay

      Tips: Could not get the jig bite to go. Nor was slow rolling spinnerbaits good for me, but I think my confidence is just down on those two methods. I know I can get a fish or two on the crank bite, so have been sticking with it in order to identify new water.

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      Water Temp: 44

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Lauched out of The Break with my ABA Partner Dave at 6:45, To foggy to run, so we fished around The Break. Flippin/shaking plastics on a very very slow retreive. Water was 44 and air 37.Very cold morning, but we still caught 4 bass
      City: Fremont

      Tips: fish slow

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      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished with Bill Henderson from Alaska we caught 4 from 2 to 5 5 lbs all on 2 on 4 inch worm, 2 on 1/2 oz jig with 6" yamoto grub. You dont need minows to catch these fish just fish slow. Very windy until late in day.

      Tips: Fish very, very, very slow. jigs are my choice

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      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: That kind of language should not be permited on a family web page!!!!!!!!

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      Water Temp: cool

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Fished 3 days out of the Hook last Thursday, Friday and Saturday (Dec. 28-30. Thursday used rip bait on weedlines and managed to put 23 blackies in the boat. Largest was one of my biggest to date from the Delta, near 6 lbs. Most were 0.5 to 2 lbs, with some around 3 thrown in as well. Ripped my typical general area (Taylor) but did not get fish in my regular spots there, so found new water and hit groups of fish, anywhere from 4-6 fish from each spot. While ripping in Big break that day I stumbled onto several schools of schoolie stripers (2-8 lbs). It was basically a hit on every cast for half an hour, and lots of fun. Quit counting, but must have caught 25 - 30 stripers total. Friday intended to go to new water, but fog was too thick for me, so fished barge cove, Dutch, and Taylor. Pulled 21 blackies to 5 lbs, most were 1-2.5 lbs, and a couple over 3 - a little better than the previous day. Better fish came off tule berms with some current. Used rip bait and sluggo, both worked ok. Had to keep moving to find fish. Eventually hit a spot and caught 10 nice bass within 20 minutes, the rest were scattered. Tried jig for bigger fish on docks, not a hit. (I need to work on this.) Also caught 3 stripers from 4-10 lbs. On Saturday had same general day as Friday. 20 blackies, most 1-2 lbs, biggest went 4 (Got my digital scale for Christmas). Two smaller stripers one 2 lbs and one of 10 lbs. Lost a bigger striper when it snapped my line (another pointer 100 gone - ouch!). Then it happened . . . I was working my rip bait along a hydrilla clump out from the bank in a bend on the shallow side, and had just caught two nice blackies of 2-3 lbs. I was using long pauses between jerks in hopes of calling up a bigger blackie, when on one pause I felt I light tap. I took up slack and did my typical sweep set, not too hard, and the fish moved off a little and felt like a better bass, but not too big. As I started to load up the rod to bring the fish to the boat I guess it realized that it was hooked, and I felt several massive head shakes through the rod and said Uh Oh, better fish! Cool! That's when the fun began. I was using 8 lb CXX P-line, with the drag set tight enough for hook sets (I back it off on the fight). When it started smoking through the guides! The fish headed for the channel, making a very long run, and I knew I was not going to stop it, so I kicked the T-motor into high and gave chase for 30 yards or so, still losing line. I then felt the fish dive deep, where it sat and sulked, periodically telegraphing it's irritation with massive head shakes that I could feel in my shoulders, and short drag stripping runs. After about 10 minutes of this I became concerned with the line breaking before I even got to see this thing, so I decided to motor directly over the fish and try to pry it off the bottom. This worked, and shortly big mad striper surfaced, thrashing and making a boil the size of a washtub. I eased it over to the boat, and then realized that I did not have a net, and this thing had a mouthful of treble hooks. Fortunately the mouth was large enough for me to grab the lower lip but stay clear of the hooks and I dragged the beast in the boat, hoping to find the bait that had been lost earlier. I have to confess that I did take this one back to the marina (It was too big for the live well, and it must have looked odd with its tail sticking out of the enclosure.) Got the gentleman at the Hook to take a pic of the fish. THose were three of the luckiest days of freshwater fishing I have ever had - (unlike what happened to me at Clear Lake yesterday!)
      City: Half Moon Bay

      Tips: Wherever I saw evidence of bait, blackies and stripers were near by. I promised myself to stop fishing the usual area after 20 blackies, and hopefully the fog will allow me to get to new water so I don't wear out my welcome in the other areas! You gotta keep moving until you hit fish, then stop and work it a bit. Don't sit on spots that worked previously beating them to death, the fish seem to be moving around a bit.

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      Water Temp: 48

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: in the water just after safe light . really foggy! launched at b&w marina. couldn't see 50 yards. fired the big motor up & just iddled up river 200 yds.threw traps, rip baits split shot, blades, cranks, the green lipped little buggers just didn't want to play. stuck to the above till after 12:00 when the fog finally lifted. fired up and ran down river. threw flukes,picked up one good hit& broke him off on the set. that was the exitiment for the rest of the day. off the water @ 3;00 had a feling that i should have went to Mcclure as i had planned, oh well live and learn.
      City: citrus heights

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      Water Temp: ?

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: CVBC had it's monthly tourney out of orwood on sat. Boy, do we suck as a club!! no limits - best weight was 3 fish for 7.9# - toby - who i was backseating with.. Anyway - no morning bite whatsoever. got all our fish after 1pm in the back bays of disco. cranking shallow. Nothing on senkos, jigs, worms or splitshot.. I fell in the water. Surprisingly, i got out fast enough that i didn't get cold. THank god toby had some extra clothes in the boat.
      City: belmont

      Tips: afternoon bite. look for bait and warmer water. Winter is here. Tried Cruiser (saw cooch there), Middle river, italian and indian - nuthin.

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      Water Temp: cool

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished Saturday and Sunday out of the Hook. Saturday pitched Senko in Barge Cove for over an hour, no hits. Ran to Frank's, cranked rattletrap and norman's little N on weedlines and cuts, no bites there as well. Had heard about good striper action around Stockton, and wanted to take a tour, so ran to the turning basin. Lots of boats, no fish. Decided to head back and fish Taylor on the way out. Got to Taylor late, water was very clear, so decided to try to learn to use a rip bait, which I have only tried from my boat once before on Del Valle, resulting in one smallmouth. It ended up being a very lucky call. I tied on a luckycraft pointer 100 in chartreuse shad, and on the first cast could see the bait working along and over the tops of the weeds, when to my surprise a good bass came up out of a gap and hit the lure! I was so surprised that I missed the fish! On the next five casts I caught 5 fish from 1-2.5 lbs, missed two more on following casts and caught two more after that! 10 hits on 10 casts-amazing! Suffice it to say that in about an hour and a half I caught around 20 blackies from a 50 yard stretch of water, no big fish, the largest was maybe 4 lbs, and most of the rest were 1-2 lbs with a couple of dinks thrown in, but a lot of fun. Unfortunately, got so preoccupied with catching that I did not check the line for fraying, and lost the lure (ouch!). Came back the next day, since I could not believe what had happened, started ripping a ghost minnow, and caught around 30 fish - quit counting after a while. This day the fish overall were smaller, mostly 0.5 to 1.5 lbs, but still the top five would have gone 13-15 lbs. Lost two much better fish at the boat (4lbs plus) - got too casual since at times I was getting hit on every other cast. The fish were bunched up, you would run down a stretch and not get hit, and then once you found one, if you threw back in quickly, more often than not you could pull 3 or four more in. Because of the water clarity I was using 8 and 10 lb mono, and it was a blast to see the fish come up at times and suck in the bait!
      City: Half Moon Bay

      Tips: Tried jigs, no fish, did catch a small one on a gitzit T-rigged under a dock, but if it ain't broke, don't fix it! Ripping the pointer with longer pauses between jerks seemed to get bigger fish. Don't forget to stretch and take some ibuprofen!

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      Water Temp: ???

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: out of mossdale at about 2p.m no luck till about 4 got a nice 4lb largemouth on a broken back rebel in about 10 ft of water
      City: SJ

      Tips: im not the one to give tips but i was working the rebel at a medium retrieve REAL soft hit

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      Water Temp: 50

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Cranked main channel rip rap with delta craw speed trap. Caught and released six fish with biggest going 5.17#. Threw the cranks all day and had two big fish come unbuttoned, they could have possibly been stripers, never got a chance to see either of them. Total of six went fifteen plus.
      City: turlock

      Tips: Crank slow and bounce it off the bottom. If you don't hit the rocks they won't eat it.