Stripers Show Blacks Get BIG

It must be spring in Northern California as Sweatshirts one day to shorts and T-shirt the Next. Most of the Bass fishing , Wow! The blacks are still staging and were providing for some Huge limits. Prior to this lastest pounding wind we had decent limits but not since the muddy water blew the river out!
Finally the releases from upriver, combined decent temperatures have spurred the bite!

Audie Urbano at Hap's Bait in Rio Vista confirmed the good action. Striped bass fishing was "off the hook" on Monday, with fresh-run striped bass moving into the Sacramento River from Rio Vista and north. The water below Sherman Island and down remains muddy.

"Striped bass fishing is really good right now," he said. "Both bait fishermen and trollers are hooking fish from many areas such as the Old Dairy, Sandy Beach Regional Park and upriver near Isleton. Stripers typically weigh 5 to 10 pounds, with larger one's going to 15 pounds."

Urbano said sturgeon fishing is "OK," as well.

"They're getting sturgeon to 50 inches at Sherman Island, if the wind permits, and from a more protected Cache Slough," he said. "Ghost shrimp and pile worm combinations seem to work best."

Ron Halvorson at Jolly's Bait said striped bass fishing has improved.

"Over the weekend, stripers to 10 pounds suddenly appeared off the Stockton Yacht Club and guys were nailing them by tossing jigs and live jumbo minnows," Halvorson said. "We've also had bass inhale minnows at the mouth of the San Joaquin River and in Fourteen Mile Slough at Village West Marina, so it proves fish are moving in."

The largest fish he weighed was a 22-pounder caught on fresh shad near Mossdale.

Halvorson said he took over the lease at the former Larry's Bait in north Stockton and changed the name to Thornton Road Bait and Tackle.

"I re-opened last Friday," he said, "and have a full selection of live baits and new tackle."

My buddy Tong at The Outdoor Sportsman affirmed the striped bass report and touted largemouth bass with Senkos, some going 5 to 14 pounds. This is absolutely true asl the week started off good

My Client Ken (pitchured right)from Fresno caught and 8lb. and 9lbs. largemouth on his trip Monday with Dan Mathisen outdoors. For the black bass the best part of the Tide to fish seems to be a a couple hours after the flood or Ebb tide. The key while fishing off the BTD Bass Cat was fishing six to 8ft. deep with black and blue Pepper jigs and 6-inch 208 Senkos.

 

Sacramento Area Report - by Jack Chapman

Sacramento CSBA Report (04/19/2006)

No Report

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!

Well we made it out today for the first trip of the next set of good tides. We started at 6:30 am and fished to 4:00 pm. We got the last 3.5 hours of the good ebb and the whole flood.
During the last of the ebb we targeted bass and sturgeon , bass being the primary target. We had all types of bites but 11 year old Arine Khomjany from Mill Valley Landed and RELEASED!! A
42 inch , 29 pound striped bass ,it took a frozen bullhead in 22 feet of water near the Benicia bridge. Then Tammy Wilson from Mill Valley landed and RELEASED !! a 40 inch , 31 pound striped bass, it took a single hook loaded with grass shrimp in the same spot. Water temp was
57 degrees. The wind was blowing out of the west but very fishable. We fished deeper water for the flood and had some taps and pulls but no sturgeon hookups. But I know of some good sturgeon landed and we saw a lot of jumpers. Tammy and Arine each earned a Flash Top Gun hat and a free trip for the bass releases. I will be fishing all this next week and the tides are prime so if you want a chance for a trophy bass, or a good sturgeon now is the time. Enjoy the photos.

Captain Steve Talmadge
Flash Sport Fishing

Same details as above.

Capt. Steve
Flash
Sport Fishing

 

 

Mid 60’s today due to partial overcast and a good stiff breeze. Long range forecast calls for clearing skies and warming temperatures by mid-week. Lake level looks to have come up a bit and stabilized at 10 feet below the spill. Water temperatures have remained the same, 54 degrees at the 20 foot mark and 60 at the surface. Clarity is also unchanged at 15 feet in the Marina.

Trolling: Trollers continue to do well in the same spots as last reported. Most of the activity is still taking place in the River Arm. Most are starting from the River Mouth and working up to Indian Rock. Kokanee catch continues to be good and the average size continues to be very encouraging. Look for fish in the 10 to 13 inch range. I have heard on more than one occasion news of Kokes as big as 15 inches but have yet to see one myself. Lots of nice Rainbows and an occasional Brown are still turning up in the same locations. Depths are the same this week 10 to 30 feet for Kokes and Trout, more downriggers in use lately.  Small lures Sep’s, Midge Wobblers, Wedding Rings, Uncle  Larry’s copper pops and Mad Irishman tipped with scented shoe peg corn and followed with a lime/silver Sep’s dodger.

Bank Fishing: The “Mud Hole” is the spot, the action is hot! Power bait balls and worms get the nod from the more successful bank anglers. Hanging from a surface bobber or floating up from the bottom on a sliding sinker, both are working well. Chartreuse, white and rainbow are the preferred power bait colors.

Bass: Some good largemouth and smallmouth taken upriver at Deer Island and Twin Coves using crank and spinner baits.

 

Recent success stories: Bernie Paule from Mtn. House pulled this 7.96lb Rainbow out of the Mud Hole using a wooly bugger. Sam Marra got this 6.42lb Trout trolling with corn at the Rock Wall. Jame Adley of Sacramento got his 5.30lb Trout trolling a cop car at the River Mouth. Dale Rose a long time resident and dedicated angler got this beautiful 7.80lb Brown dragging a wedding ring/hoochie right across the spillway. Congratulations to all-well done!

 

 

Trout Plants; As of today The Department of fish and Game has planted 2000 lbs, Pardee Lake has planted 27,000 lbs and there were some lunkers in this load!

 

 

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.