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CA DELTA REPORT
Updated -4/11/2006
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Rain Rain Go away

Dan Mathisen Outdoors I think Fred Dorfman said it best in his report this week, " Don’t let the premiums lapse on your flood insurance and keep working on the Arc!"
All this rain has the delta in the worst shape I can remember for April. The Dept of Boating and waterways has the River Closed through friday at noon. Most I talk to say they wouldn't be surprised if that was extended. Forget the Tides as the Run-off is making for some great Sturgeon action in the West Delta and San Pablo Bay. While the new slot limit has most Sturgeon anglers disgusted there are still those the get them in the slot (46-56 inches). Barry landed a 54 inch fish this past Sunday.

As for the Bass fishing before the closure, Wow! 40 pound bag wins 100% this past weekend and 25 pounds doesn't get you a check! The blacks are still staging and were providing for some Huge limits. Prior to this lastest pounding raing we had decent limits but not since the muddy water blew the river out!

 

Rio Vista - Isleton

Bob’s Bait Report www.themasterbaiter.com

Rain is not stopped yet. It will continue in the coming days. There are too much water in most of the rivers, reservoirs, and underground. Ground is saturated with water and it can’t absorb any more. That is the reason for higher than normal water level in most of the Delta channels. In Sacramento River, where the water current is much stronger during outgoing tide, this makes fishing from the bank harder than ever.

This is normally best time for striped bass fishing in the Delta. Last weekend was the best weekend ever since February with number of striped bass and sturgeon were caught along highway 160 from Decker Island to Isleton Bridge, and along Mokelumne river from highway 12 bridge up to Wimpy marina. The water was still very muddy. Therefore, pile worm or bloodworms were the best bait to catch striped bass with this water condition. I went fishing at Mokelumne River on Saturday afternoon and saw number of good size striped bass was caught at this spot. I got number of good bites but finally landed 25” striped bass and two good size channel catfish on frozen shad. The fresh and frozen shad were not available in most of the bait supplier. Only Bob’s Bait store is still carrying frozen shad since it stocked very good last year.

Tom Gonzales from Sacramento just casting his pile worm out for five minutes then got very good bite. He set the hook and fought for fish about 25 minutes. He finally landed 55” sturgeon. This is first time ever he landed sturgeon.


Even though water level is higher than normal; striped bass fishing should be best at this time of the year and will last through May.

The coming days should be better than the past when raining will slow down and water will clearer. Fishing will be very good for both striped bass and sturgeon in the Delta channels.
Best luck to you and have a great coming weekend.




The Wilson Files- Mark Wilson

Sunday, March 26, 2006...Fred Hicks went striper fishing with me today down by Decker Island to Collinsville. We trolled Bombers in the morning for 11 hits for 5 keeper stripers from 5# to 8# and 2 lost fish. We bait fished sardines in the afternoon for another 3 keeper stripers to 5#, 2 shaker stripers and one broken off fish. The water is clearing, but probably won't last long because of last Friday/Saturday's rain, and is warming. The water started out at 52 degrees and warmed by the afternoon to 56 degrees. If the river will stabilize, we should all start catching stripers. And, I did see Mt. Diablo today. Good luck. Catch you later - Mark.

Sacramento Area Report - by Jack Chapman

Sacramento CSBA Report (04/05/2006)

No Report

Hook Line And Sinker Report
Robert from the Hook in Oakley reports.
No report

Fish Hookers Report

Will this rain ever go away??? The Fish 'n' Fool IV was out last Saturday and Sunday for sturgeon and did quite well. On Saturday his goup of 3 people caught a 66 inch sturgeon and 85 inch sturgeon, of course, both were released because they were too big. On Sunday the group of 4 fishermen caught a 6 foot sturgeon, a 7 foot sturgeon, a 59 inch sturgeon and finnally got one that they could take home at 50 inches. The sturgeon fishing has been very good. The water temperature is right and the sturgeon seem to be hungry. All the fish hit very aggressively. The best bait has been salmon roe. Most of the sturgeon were caught in Montezuma Slough but there seems to be sturgeon in many areas.

The striper fishing has been slow because of the bad water conditions. This is usually the time of the year that we are gearing up to catch the spawning stripers on the troll. The river is way too dirty to think about trolling. Baits are hard to find for striper fishing with the conditions. You could take some sardines, bullheads; alive or dead, shad; if you can find some frozen, or ghost shrimp are some of the baits that you could try in these water conditons to attract some of the stripers that are making their way up river. Hopefully, in a week or so this rain will stop and the river will begin to clear. This spring run of stripers could last through June this year because the water is warming very slowly. We will have to see what the next few weeks bring to the river.

The sturgeon fishing should remain as good as it is now through the spring. Some of the big sturgeon are making their way up river to spawn. The water color and clarity is not very critical for the sturgeon fishing and catching. The good baits continue to be the lampry eel and salmon roe.

Both of our boats will remain at The City of Pittsburg Marina through the month of May, for sure, this year. I will keep you informed here when the Fish 'n' Fool IV will move to San Francisco Bay for live bait fishing and the ocean salmon.

Give us a call if you would like to try some of this fishing!

Flash Fishing Report www.flashfishing.net


A bit about Captain Steve, Captain Steve fished the San Francisco Bay since 1970, when his grandfather would take him out to the old Berkeley pier. He bought his first boat in 1980 and got his Captain's license in 1997. He enjoys small groups (no more than 6) and gives personal attention to all. Having 2 young daughters himself, he is especially patient with children on the boat. Bring your own equipment or use Steve's top of the line equipment. Steve has impressive state of the art commercial electronics on the boat to optimize your fishing experience! And yes, we went to the same High School, Welcome Capt. Steve!

Steve reports, "I went back up to Montazuma today, 4/2/06. I had Jordona Santigo and Gina Dumpit from Martinez Bait shop. We had a good day ,quit a few missed bites. A lot of fish on the sounder and a lot of jumpers. Jordona did battle and beat a great fish. The fight went about 35 minutes. After about 15 minutes the fish made a jump about 20 feet behind the boat, it was great. She tired the fish to a point were we could lay her in a long net. Then we carefully lay her on the deck and measured and took her photo. All 3 of us quickly lay her back in the water and watched her swim away. She took salmon roe on the outgo.
She was 70” and had a 30” girth. Enjoy the photo


Same details as above.

Capt. Steve
Flash
Sport Fishing

 

 

FishDelta.com now brings you out of area reports as well!!!!!!!

 

Melones Trout Bite After The Storms

Angel Camp-The bite seems to turn off before a storm, and pick up again right after a storm. Bank anglers are still out-fishing trollers, since the trout are in the coves. Many of the trout that are caught are ready to spawn and full of ripe eggs, or are post-spawn. Trollers had best luck in the main lake, or in major coves such as Angels Cove. Trout seemed to have moved slightly deeper- most are being caught at 25-40 ft. deep. Shad-patterned or firetiger Apex or Needlefish are working well, or tie on a crawler/spinner combo during or after a storm. Use a shad scent on your lure, or try the new Pautski’s Krill scent. Use Sep’s Sidekicks or a dodger, but not flashers.

The bite has been very good, with 2-4 pound spotted bass, as well as some quality largemouths being caught. Many anglers report 20-40 fish caught and released in a day. With the water temperature warming up, bass are moving up into shallower water, especially the spotted bass. Major creek arms with running water are a good place to look for actively feeding fish. Carolina-rigged Zoom Baby Brush Hogs in green pumpkin or watermelon/red flake, brown jigs with brown or purple trailers, and spinnerbaits are all enticing bites. Many trout trollers are picking up big bass in the main lake, where they are chasing feed, and not oriented to structure. Dragging a rainbow trout #12 or #16 Huddleston Swimbait over the top of long points in the main lake can catch some of these larger bass. Please remember to practice catch and release always, but especially this time of year, when bass are preparing to spawn. Removing a pre-spawn bass removes thousands of potential fish from the lake. The Department of Fish and Game does not plant bass, so it is up to us to maintain the bass fishery!

New Melones Lake is currently holding 2,041,200 acre-feet of water, and is at 84% capacity. The lake is full and beautiful. The lake level held steady again this week, at 1,056 ft. above sea level and only 32 ft. from full capacity. Surface water temperatures have warmed up a little, and are approximately 52-55 degrees. Water is clear to slightly muddy in the creek arms.

 


Lake Pardee

April 12, 2006 VOL 06/12

Fred Dorman, Staff Writer e-mail lakepardee@volcano.com

<*(((---<

Water conditions: The water is still going over the spillway and heading for Comanche by way of the Mokelumne River. Not as much debris in the Recreation area today but I would still be very careful in the Lake proper. Visibility improved slightly to 7 feet at the Marina. Water temperatures are 52 degrees at 20 feet and 54 at surface.

Weather: Don’t let the premiums lapse on your flood insurance and keep working on the Arc!

Trolling: The fair weather last weekend encouraged a few hardy souls to drag some lead core or monofilament around for a while. Sounds like most had to work hard to put them in the box, limits were tough. The poor water visibility probably has a lot to do with the slow bite. If we ever get a break in the rain the water clears quickly once the sediment settles out. The white buoy outside the Narrows and the area right in front of the River Mouth are a good place to start. Trout are still taking the bait near the surface at 5 to 20 feet. Equipment and methods are unchanged; try flashers followed with a night crawler, small lures or bugs tipped with scented corn or grubs behind dodgers or sidekicks. Most are paying out 75 or 100 foot of line behind the boat and trolling slow. Seems red and fluorescent orange lures are more visible in the murky water.

Recent success: Rocky Green (no info) got a 5.57 lb German Brown this weekend. I met Randy and Bob this afternoon and included their picture just because they looked like they were enjoying themselves and they didn’t think I’d do it!

Shore Anglers: Quite a few anglers working the lagoon behind the EBMUD boathouse this afternoon. The Launch Ramp and Stony Point landing have both been good lately. Chartreuse and rainbow processed bait and eggs cast out about 30 feet should work. If the water visibility improves chrome/blue casting lures and black and green wooly flies also do well.

As of 04/12/06 a total of 20,000 lbs of trout has been planted by Lake Pardee and the California Department of Fish and Game.

Good Luck—Tight Lines

For information or reservations call (209) 772-1472


CLEAR LAKE LARGEMOUTH BASS...

A strange thing happened Thursday, there was no wind or rain and the sun was out! However that's over now, back to the abnormal weather. The bass are still biting and the water temperature is all the way up to 50 degrees. Ugh! Bass are on hold for the spawn which will start when the water gets around 60 + degrees.

Clients this week did very good catching bass to 6.10 pounds. Most were caught on minnows in the north end in water around 4 to 10'. Thursday's "sun" brought a lot of 3 to 7 pound bass up closer to spawning areas and my clients caught 31 bass with the best 5 weighing in at 30.4 pounds! I talked to some other fishermen and they were doing well on swim baits and another was getting them on spinner baits. Water clarity in the north end is ok in most areas and in the south its very good. All-in-all the fishing is very good on most days, just keep at it, it's bound to break for the better in the next week or two? "Set the hook" and keep a tight line! Richard Pounds

As of 04-05-06 Lake level is just 6 inches below flood stage at 8.5 feet

Dan Mathisen Outdoors is now booking Dates for Clear Lake Trips April 17th through 27th.

 

Bass Bite Picks up!

Wallace- The bass bite has definitely started to pick up again after all the stormy weather in the last few weeks. Robin Mourse, from Alameda, reported catching 11 bass on Thursday, 14 on Friday and 7 on Saturday. He was fishing near the Narrows and also near the dam, using chartreuse/white spinner baits, hula grubs and plastic worms. He reported that most fish were in the 10 - 20 foot depth, and the big fish for his weekend was a beautiful 5 pound largemouth. Another group reported catching numerous bass in the Lancha Plana area, up to the highway bridge. They were finding fish in 15 - 20 feet of water, and bass were taking Baby Brush Hogs in green pumpkin color as well as on black/brown jigs.

After another week of mixed winter weather, spring sunshine arrived on Sunday along with plenty of fisherman. Trout continue to be found 20 - 30 feet deep on the bright sunny days and closer to the surface on the cloudy overcast days. On Thursday one group of fishermen reported catching limits of nice trout up to 3 1/2 pounds. They were trolling at 20 - 25 feet deep between Hat Island and the dam, using orange grubs behind a dodger and black Power Worms behind a dodger. Another group reported limits of trout along with a couple of big crappie. They were trolling near Hat Island in 30 feet of water using Fire Tiger Apex lures, Rapalas in silver/black and Rainbow Runners. Another group of fisherman were catching their limits of trout trolling Uncle Larry's spinners with a piece of nightcrawler. They were trolling from South Shore Harbour to the dam, at about 25 feet. Bait fishermen are starting to catch trout at Dike 3, south of the spillway. Anchor in about 30 - 35 feet of water and drop Power Bait to the bottom. Due to the stormy weather this week, reports from the south shore pond and north shore day use area have been scarce. Power Bait and Power Eggs are always one of the best baits to use when shore fishing at Lake Camanche. Cripp lures, Panther Martin spinners and Magic Bullets are your best choices of lures to try.

The crappie bite has been slow to take off this spring due to all the storms and cold weather. We've had a few reports of fisherman catching crappie around docks, submerged trees and stickups. Minnows and mini-jigs are the best bet for bait, and Camanche Arm, Causeway Cove, and Lancha Plana are great places to start.

We encourage all anglers to stop by either marina and share their experiences or comments, let us take your picture, or put your story in the weekly Fish Report. We encourage e-mail questions, or comments, and I will reply to all e-mails that I receive here at North Shore Marina.

Lake Camanche's current elevation is 221.28 feet above sea level, a rise of 2.36 feet since last Sunday. The lake should rise slowly this week Water is currently flowing into Camanch at 3120 c.f.s. and water is flowing out at 900 c.f.s. Surface water temperature at the dam is 55 degrees. The water is clear with a Secchi reading of 15 feet.

 

 

Pennies on the dollar for fishing rods, reels, baits, lures, and more? You be the judge!

 


 
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