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offduty 178 posts December 17, 2007 Water: Clarity: Level: Wind: Baro:

Casitas report Lots of bait in marina and deadhorse cove. Bass are feeding underneath shad. They are taking the dying bait as it falls out of the school.

Sacto John 897 posts December 17, 2007 Water: Clarity: Level: Wind: Baro:

Folsom 12/15/07 Went out to the mud puddle formally known as Folsom on Saturday the 15 of December for a swimbait only trip. It is unreal how low the lake is, it is a great time to GPS rockpiles. Got on the water around 9:30, third cast with a Hudd caught a 4 pound spot. Worked the the rock piles along the same section of bank and got railed three more times but they would not load up the rod, most likely smaller spots. Threw smaller swimbaits around the same area and did not get touched. Threw the Hudd again and hooked up almost right away but the fish came off, again a smaller model of spotted bas was the culprit. After the fast action in the morning I hopped around and did not get another bite. It seemed liked the fish only wanted the Hudd, but were not committing to it enough or were too small to eat it all the way. I can not wait for the smaller Hudds to become available, or a faster sink rate on the ABTs or Baitsmiths. As it is now I need a new 8 incher, the teeth on those spots can really tear up a bait.

goletafishin 74 posts November 30, 2007 Water: Clarity: Level: Wind: Baro:

Lings and boscos Went out on the 3/4 day for the last day of lingcod season. I was hoping for my first legal lingcod but I got no love from the lings. Everyone around me were catching em. I did get some decent boscos. I didnt get my limit this day but I caught enough small rockfish and sand dabs to fill an aquarium. I probably caught 15 fish with only 6 keepers, at 300' that is a workout. Had a great time with Sal and Raffa. The burgers were awesome. Hopefully I'll make it out there one more time before the rockfish season closes. Oh ya I think there was a record set. I watched the guy next tome pull up 4 rocks throughout the day. The biggest rock took two deckhands to handline from 300' just because he wanted his jig back. Talk about service.

swimbait 7346 posts November 25, 2007 Water: 54 Clarity: 10 Level: Wind: 0-5 Baro:

Santa Rosa Rockfish I took the 3/4 day trip Sunday on the Stardust with 32 passengers. The trip leaves at 7am, and we headed across the channel to the "potato patch" and the front side of Santa Rosa. Weather was beautiful, chilly, but flat seas with just the slightest bump. We live boated, moving around quite a bit and picking up a nice mix of rockfish on each spot. Over the rails came vermillions, chucklehead, bluebass, gopher cod, treefish, sheepshead, ling cod, sand dabs, and starries. The fish were a nice grade, not huge, but plenty of 2-4lb fish. I went with two tackle setups for this trip. A CTE300 with 50lb Triple Fish braid and 25lb fluorocarbon leader for bait and Big Hammers and an Induron 400 with 80lb braid and 30 leader for metal jigs. With the light braided line I was able to use 6oz sinkers and stay down no problem in the 150-180' depths. The fish ate bait well in the morning, and at the end of the day the bite on iron turned on big time. Capt. Jason had recommended a 4oz red/copper colored jig they had for sale in the landing, and that jig worked amazingly well. I don't have the name handy, but it was one of the cheapest jigs they sold. I caught a few on Big Hammers but it was hard to make bottom with a 2oz head. Need some heavier heads for future. I finished the day with a beautiful bag of reds and chucklehead. Luke and Dane filleted them perfectly like always. No lings or sheeps for me, but there were 4 legal lings to about 8lbs and two big sheepshead about 9lbs apiece. The boat finished up with limits and we were back to the dock at 4:30pm. Just another relaxing trip on the Stardust, catching cod and enjoying the hamburgers :) My sack of cod http://www.calfishing.com/gallery/d/19561-4/Red+Snapper.jpg

swimbait 7346 posts November 11, 2007 Water: 63 Clarity: 3-8 Level: 760.50 Wind: 0-20 Baro:

San Antonio Striper Action Took a trip up to San Antonio this morning. Arrived around 6:15am. Conditions were beautiful, just a slight ripple with ominous skies. I rigged for bass and stripers for this trip. A ways up the lake I see some birds far off. As I get closer it looks like a bird work you'd see on the ocean. Is this good when birds do this? Tried a rattle trap through the birds for about 15 minutes and nothing. Kind of discouraging with so much bait and birds around. Decided to switch to a 6" all white Big Hammer on a 1oz head on 25lb test. A few casts later I got bumped. Next cast I stuck one. Schoolie striper in the boat :) After that it was pretty fast action for about 30 minutes. You had to really chase the birds fast and cast far, but I put 3 more in the boat and missed at least a half dozen more bites. Pretty exciting fishing, although not very sport on 25lb test :) These were my captives after the flurry ended. They were all 5lber type stripers I decided to go back to the marina for ice to keep the fish good. I don't keep fish too often but when I do I like to do it right. Ran back up the lake after getting the ice and the birds had died down. One of those deals where the minute the sun came out it was over. I fished around for an hour or two with no luck until I located some shad pushed back in a little cut. I missed 3 bites, then hung another striper on the Big Hammer. A few casts later I get the weird bite and of course it's a ... catfish. Catfish love me. I put Mr. catfish in the cooler to take his picture, I hate when they slime my boat. Then I tossed him back. Updated captives photo I thought the limit was 5 stripers (it's actually 10 with no size limit) so I made a move and tried for bass for an hour or two. Bass fishing was nill. I just fished reaction. I did pick up another schoolie striper on a triple trout. That's what I get for using a white lure. Stripers get happy when they see white lures... This is what worked today, 6" Big Hammer. I got off the water around 1pm to white caps and post front conditions. Can't wait to cook some fresh striper for dinner.

Sacto John 897 posts October 27, 2007 Water: 62-65 Clarity: 8 feet visabilty Level: LOW Wind: slight AM calm in the PM Baro:

McClure Snakes Fished an Anglers Choice Semi-Pro tourney on 10/27. We started just out side the tires to the left of the marina where my partner had some spook fish hit him the weekend before with me throwing Swimbaits and my partner throwing a spook. I caught a keeper fish on the third cast with a Triple Trout. The fish was 13 1/2 inches long and rail thin. We fished into Piney Creek with no more love on the reaction stuff, so I threw a wacky jighead Trick Worm up next to some standing timber and get keeper #2. This fish was in slightly better shape but still a snake. We fished back out to where we started with jigs and worms for nothing. We made a short run up the river and I hook up with the oddest Swimbait fish I have ever caught. The fish hit the triple trout on the fall, was just over 14 inches long and weighed less than 8 OZ. the fish look liked it was just spit up by a larger bass, which is weird because it had a 3 in baby bass sticking out its gullet. I almost did not want to put this fish in the well but hey a keeper is a keeper. We made another short run up the river to where some of the old bridge pilings are visible and my partner catches a fish off one of the pilings on a dart-headed grub. This fish looked like a trout painted like a bass, long and lean. We make another run up the river where my buddy caught some fish in pre-fish and with me swiching between the swimbaits and the wacky-rig and my partner throwing crankbaits and jigs. My buddy fills our limit wit another snake of a jig fish at which time I start to throw a Hula Grub. At this point the bite gets good for about 2 hours, with me culling out all our snakes with slightly bigger snakes. The balance beam got a workout that day. We decided to head back to where we started the day because that is where my buddy got decent fish to show in pre-fish and it was close to the ramp. We get one good fish to blow up on a topwater and not stick but that was it. We ended weighting 6.29 and finishing 17 out of 36 20.85 won it but they had a 15.20 kicker there were only 2 limits weighed in that were over 9 pounds. I do not know what would cause a lakes bass population to get so skinny, we marked bait and the fish were obviously rooting crawdads up on the bank (precious ounces of crawdad were spit up in the livewell)

swimbait 7346 posts October 7, 2007 Water: 65-70 Clarity: 2-6 feet Level: 738.55 Wind: 0-5 knts Baro:

spaghetti and seagulls Summer and I went to Naci today. This marks the 3rd trip in a row for me out there. There was some question about the weather forecast. Accuweather was claiming a severe weather alert for wind and cold. Weather.com was saying hot and sunny. Rather humorous to compare them. I wore wool socks and it was hotter than heck all day and flat calm. Super high pressure condition, just bluebird and crappy all day. So spaghetti and seagulls, here's how it works: Drive down the lake. Watch for seagulls picking shad on the surface. Stop the boat and trolling motor around until you see spaghetti on the screen. Drop a spoon down and start hooking up non-stop until they move. We did mostly white bass today. If you saw a real thick pack of fish move through, you'd get a double on spotted bass. It happened 3 times. The thin lines are the whites. I'm guessing 20+ white bass in the 1 to 1.5lb range and 20+ spotted bass. Pretty much everything on jigging spoons anywhere from 20-70 feet of water. Mostly in 45. Topwater sucked, reaction sucked, c-rigging sucked. Drop shot could get you a bite here or there. The most pathetic part was that I only landed two keeper spots today for a whopping total of 1lb 12oz. Either I have no clue what I am doing out there, or fishing is just that bad. Also worth noting is that the morning bite was much better than the afternoon. We got on the water at 10am and caught most of our fish by 11:30am. When you were on them, you could drop anything shiny and metal and catch a fish. We capped our epic day when I snagged an anchor rope in 40 feet and decided I didn't want to lose my spoon. 10 minutes later up came the anchor. Too bad you can't weigh anchors in in tournaments... typical Naci spot - 9 inches long Typical white bass - about a pound catch of the day http://www.calfishing.com/files/Images/daily_reports/10_7_07_anchor.jpg

swimbait 7346 posts September 30, 2007 Water: 67-74 Clarity: 1.5 to 5 feet Level: 738.65 Wind: 0-10 Baro:

Transition time at Naci I put in 11.5 hours Sunday at Nacimiento, practicing some more for the first WON team tourney of the year. Water temps ranged from 67 in the morning to 74 in places in the afternoon. Clarity ranged from 1.5 feet in the river section to 5 feet on the main body. Winds were light, conditions were bluebird - high pressure type stuff. Went up to the river first thing. This took quite a while in my little boat. Started a couple hundred yards past the 5's and caught a few small drop shot fish. I didn't like the way the water looked so I started working my way back down the lake, hop-scotching all the way back to the ramp during the day. Did about 30 fish on the day, with 6 keepers. Big fish a whopping 1lb 6oz. Best 5 went 5lbs 4oz. The biggest fish of the day came on inchi wacky on 4lb test. It had the head of a 3lber but the body was just wretched looking. I thought it was going to die from being lifted out of the water. Things that worked were rattle traps, drop shot, grubs, spooks, tailspinners and spoons. Jigs didn't work very well, neither did spinnerbaits or c-rigs. Saw a few guys who were probably practicing for the Western Classic, but not much pressure out there. Big excitement of the day came on the way back to the ramp when some seagulls started picking shad on top which resulted in a half dozen spotted bass and a half dozen white bass. White bass were pound and a halfers. The school fish would eat anything if could get around them. Too bad it only lasted for about 20 minutes. I predict 16lbs for 2 days will win the Western Classic.

goletafishin 74 posts September 27, 2007 Water: Clarity: Level: Wind: Baro:

Goleta report Fished goleta off of goleta beach in my kayak. Drifted from just behind the moored sailboat all the way to the pier for one mackerel. I has been full moon so maybe the halibut have been eating at night. Nice day on the water though and since UCSB is back, good beach scenery to boot. Used 5 inch big hammers with calico cocktail.

MountainBass 520 posts September 23, 2007 Water: Clarity: Level: Wind: Baro:

9-23-07 - Berryessa Got my old man out on the water today finally. Since he hadn't been fishing in about a month or so, we decided to just goof around and catch fish all day instead of going for a few big bites. There definitely isn't a shortage of fish in this lake! We quickly put 15-20 fish or so in the boat on lipless cranks. We just goofed around all day. Fish seemed to be holding to the edges of weedbeds. I caught 7 slammer fish in the afternoon once we got a little cloud over. We ended the day catching about 10 more fish on blades near cappel launch ramp.