By: The Fish Sniffer Staff December 29, 2006 Last Issue Throwing a plug near Mildred and this 16lb 8 oz lunker nailed my bait. She put up quite a ferocious battle for about 4 minutes. I released her as she looked to be pregnant. Should’ve probably mounted her, oh well! This goes out to all you guys that keep your big fish, those are the fish that make the babies our kids will catch, you will have to make sacrifices and return these breeders back into the wild to produce more. The bigger the fish the better the genes passed along, remember that! Rod Reiswig

 SHASTA
The surface water temperature at Lake Shasta has fallen to 53 degrees and this has prompted both the bass and trout action to intensify. The bite should now continue to improve until the water dips below 50 degrees.

“The bass fishing has been really good,” reported Randy Doyle at Phil’s Propellers. “We are catching big numbers of bass and we are beginning to see some larger fish up to 4 pounds. I fished a turkey shoot out at the lake yesterday and it took a little over 11 pounds to win. I caught a 3.5 pounder and that was the largest fish caught.”

“When conditions are calm and the surface is glassy, working plastic worms rigged on darter heads is the way to go. When it is overcast and there is some chop on the water rip baits and other reaction baits will work pretty well,” continued Doyle.    

OROVILLE
Black bass fishing is still slow. “Anglers are still catching a few fish on reaction baits,” noted Chuck Rice of Oroville Outdoors, “but the majority of fish are being taken on jigs and spoons at 40 to 50 feet deep. Brown and purple are the best jig colors.”

Most of the fish go 1 to 2 pounds, with a 4 pound spotted bass topping a recent tournament. Anglers can expect to hook a lot of fish in the 12 to 15 inch “slot” limit.    

CLEAR LAKE
Larry Hemphill, fishing guide, experienced solid bass fishing on his latest trip to the lake on December 20. He caught and released 4 fish weighing a total of 17-1/2 pounds, topped by a 6 lb. 1 oz. largemouth, while fishing from 4:15 pm to 5:20 pm. He enticed the bass with Lucky Craft rip baits and brown/orange an purple Rod Strainer jigs

“I took a dinner break at Konotci Harbor Inn, went back fishing and landed 7 more fish,” Hemphill noted. “The combined weight of the five biggest fish I nailed that evening weighed 22 pounds, 2 ounces. I fished after dark with lack and red and black Brush Hogs. The majority of bass were 2 to 2/2 pounds. The water temperature was 49 to 50.2 degrees.”    

LAKE SONOMA
Bass fishing has been “fair to decent,” according to Scott Green at Outdoor Pro Shop. “The fish are running about 2 plus pounds on average and boaters are catching fish shaking worms or jigs in the trees and pulling crank baits or rip baits over the flats,” he noted. “Look for the bass to be holding around 20 feet deep.”      

COLLINS LAKE
According to Kathy Hess of the Collins Lake Recreation Area, Larry Hemphill of Yuba City fished the lake recently and ended up catching 7 bass to 5.2 pounds. Earlier in the month Hemphill was hooking bass while working a drop shot rig, but on his latest trip, Rod Strainer Jigs accounted or all the fish caught.    

FOLSOM
The water temperature at Folsom Lake continues to hover in the middle fifties. As a result, the lake’s bass continue to hold in deep water, while the trout remain scattered from the surface to 25 feet deep. Experts agree that the fishing would improve if the temperature would drop, encouraging the lake’s gamefish to move within close proximity of baitfish schools.

”I was out on Folsom Lake with a client last week and the fishing was just horrible,” said fishing guide Larry Hemphill of Yuba City. “My client managed to catch two fish while working plastic worms, but I wasn’t able to get a single bite. We say quite a few schools of baitfish, but we didn’t spot any that had bass holding around them.”

He added, “I think the current cold snap we are experiencing will improve the fishing as long as it stays cold enough long enough to drop the water temperature down around 50 degrees.”    

CAMANCHE
The cold weather hasn’t deterred anglers from catching limits of quality black bass at Lake Camanche.

For example, 7 boats going out in the Sacramento Bass Truckers Tournament of Champions came back with limits of bass, according to Chris Cantwell at the Lake Camanche Recreation Company.

The winning team weight of 13.55 pounds was caught by the father and son team of Bob McCorkle and Bobby McCorkle.?? Robert Kelley caught the big fish, at 3.20 pounds, on a Robo Worm.    

DON PEDRO
Not many bassers have hit Pedro, but Jigs Bait and Tackle has heard of some decent dropshot action. “There has been very light pressure for bass at Pedro,” stated Jigs. “Drop shotting an Ayu Robo Worm at 40-50 feet deep has produced a recent 20 pound limit - so if angler do hit the lake it should be a good day.”    

MILLERTON
Anglers are reporting a slow bass black bass bite and even slower striper activity at Millerton Reservoir, according to Merritt Gilbert of Valley Rod and Gun.

“It has been really tough lately,” Gilbert reported. ”Most anglers are only getting a bite every other hour.” Millerton’s bass continue to be scattered as they chase bait and anglers need to keep moving to find them.

Gilbert reported that most anglers are looking in water 40 to 60 of water to locate bait schools, and then dropping shad colored plastics on a drop shot rig to get them.

He did report that a few spinnerbait fish are being taken in the afternoon on windblown banks, but the bite is extremely hit and miss. The average spotted bass being caught is from a pound to a pound and a half.      

PINE FLAT
 “The bass bite is not that great right now,” said Gilbert. “Spotted bass have gone into their winter havens and things have become tough.”

Gilbert said that the bass will still move around with the bait, so an area that produced today could very well produce nothing the next day. He suggested that anglers use drop shot rigs with shad colored Roboworms, or Bassectomy Lures Spot Removers. Either lure would do also well on a darter head rig. Fishing for bass will be hit and miss, unless a school is located, then catching a few fish in the pound and a half range could be expected.