Fishing Report September 29, 2008

On Friday I headed out of Steele Park and at the point across from Spanish Flat I noticed lots of bait action. I decided the time was right to try some top water lures. I threw a white and chartreuse chugger and on my third cast towards the rocky shoreline in about ten feet of water I got smacked by a 2+ pound bass. What a great feeling!!!!!! I love that top water bite. I continued to work the shoreline into the cove and I continued to land some nice size bass. The bass seem to be more aggressive to the crankbaits then to the worm that I have been dragging. Saturday I went out with Albert in the late afternoon. We have been fishing together off and on for the last couple of weekends and poor Albert was not having too much luck. Well he made up for it Saturday by catching a 3 pound crappie and I caught an 8.5 pound catfish and Albert was just fed up with me (he loves catfish) so I told him you can't give up. We stayed at the dock after dark and it paid off big time for Albert, he ended up landing a 16 pound 11 ounce CATFISH!!!!! (see photo) Needless to say he was beyond happy he had always wanted to catch at least a 10 pound fish (any fish!!!) so he was thrilled. Sunday I trolled for awhile with no luck. All in all it was a pretty good weekend and I am just over-joyed for Albert. Friday I had kept a couple of the bass and I had them in a cooler on ice in front of my cabin. During the night raccoons helped themselves to a fish feast and didn't leave any for me. To add insult to injury, they ate the fish on my golf cart and left scales all over the floor. I guess they needed the fish more than I did and I hope they enjoyed it.
'til next week................................................good fishing!!!!!!!!
www.fishingconnection.net If you have any stories you would like to share please email me at
bestguide@hotmail.com or call me at 650-583-3333.

Fishing Report September 22 2008

This past weekend was very successful for bass if you trolled. The question now is where to troll and how deep. Tom and Marie headed toward the east side of the lake and looked for signs of balls of bait in the water. His fish- finder showed there was fish activity between 20 to 25 feet down. He used a pink lady and crankbait to get down deep enough and it worked because he ended up with two nice limits of bass which included a nice 4+ pounder. My wife and I went out for a little while that evening but we didn't do as well. My wife's bass was larger than mine but no real size to speak of. Juan is holding one of the catfish I caught at the dock by the marina. (see photos)
My fishing tip this week is to first find the bait and target the depth. Water is still clear. My recommendation is to zigzag from 15 feet to 30 feet until you find where they are and troll with different depth crankbaits one that goes around 6eet down on the shallower side and 12 feet down on the deeper side of the boat. Please let me know how you did.
'til next week...............good fishing!!!!!!!!!
www.fishingconnection.net If you have any stories you would like to share please email me at bestguide@hotmail.com or call me at 650-583-3333.

Fishing Report September 10 2008

Weather wise lake Berryessa was still Hot, Hot, Hot. It was so hot that I elected to stay on the dock in the shade which was still Hot!!!! My buddy Albert came to join me on Saturday and we spent most of the day catching catfish and carp. Our largest catfish that day was 8.6 lbs on Albert's scale. The fish were busting all around us. Michelle and her husband came down to the dock to fish with us and she landed a first for me. She landed a large muskrat which we netted and within ten seconds it ate through the net completely and was gone. Sorry Albert we know that was your favorite net!!!! On Sunday I fished at the dock again (another hot day) and I was joined by Blake and her boyfriend. Her boyfriend said he would show her how to catch fish and when the score was three to nothing in Blake's favor she told him she would give him lessons. It was Blake's birthday which may acunt for her good luck that day. It was a slow weekend but still a lot of fun. 'til next week..................... happy fishing!!!!!!!!!!!
www.fishingconnection.net
If you have any stories you would like to share please email me at bestguide@hotmail.com or call me at 650-583-3333.

Fishing Report August 20 2008

The last couple of weekends I found that trolling for bass has been the most productive. Early morning I like to troll in 8 to 10 feet with a minus lure that dives about one foot and as the sun goes over head I go into deeper water (20 to 30 feet) and use a deeper diving lure that goes 6 to 10 feet down. The shallower lure closer to shore. While trolling on my son's pontoon boat with my daughter-in-law (see photos) our score within an hour was three bass each. I took our friend Terry and her two sons and daughter out for a couple of hours on my boat (I have included a photo of my boat for those who have asked me what kind of boat I use - a Lund fully loaded). We trolled and had a great day catching bass with the kids (see photo). I spent one evening in my favorite cove and I decided to only use a top water lure. Within an hour's time I had eight nice size bass. Bad part of story is that I threw my favorite top water 'chugger'
into about two feet of water where I saw some activity and sure enough a fish devoured the lure and dragged it to some bushes, my line snapped trying to reel him in and alas the lure never surfaced. I waited for quite awhile and it never did come up. I had that 'chugger' for at least twelve years and it caught me a lot of nice bass even though I have another like it, it's just not the same.
'til next week............................................good fishing!!!!!!!!!!!
www.fishingconnection.net If you have any stories you would like to share, please email me at bestguide@hotmail.com or call me at 650-583-3333.

Fishing Report July 20 2008

Hi everyone!!! This is my first fishing report since before Memorial Day weekend when I became ill and had to have a quadrupel bypass. Fortunately I am recovering well and eager to get back to fishing on my own. This past weekend was a full moon but my family will not allow me to take my boat out yet. My son found a cove in the Narrows where he beached his pontoon boat and spent the day. Just for fun they put out a couple of rods with hotdogs for bait and scored seven catfish and three carp. Saturday my wife and I joined our son and his wife on their boat and headed towards the same cove. Unfortunatley that spot was taken so we found a similar cove. Using my wife's secret formula of corn meal and vanilla extract I lay on the back of the pontoon boat enjoying the sunshine and holding on to the fishing rod. Everyone else was in the water when I got hit big time. I yelled for help (I'm still a little weak when it comes to reeling in a big guy) and my daughter-inlaw reeled the fish in for me and my son netted it. It turned out to be a six pound carp which gave us a great fight on four pound test line and light rod. When we got back to the marina I stayed at my boat and fished for awhile. I was joined by Nick and Scott and we had fun catching carp to eight pounds. I am very proud of Nick. He is ten years old and he caught three good size carp and his friend Scott helped him net the fish. That evening Nadar and his cousin caught five catfish no size to speak of on hotdogs. Nick and all his friends caught a carp near the cabin on hotdogs. My neighbor at the Marina and his father went out to the east side of the lake today (Sunday) and trolled between 20 and 30 feet using a lure that went down six to eight feet and caught twelve bass up to 2.5 pounds. Last week using the same system they caught a five and an eight pounder. Hopefully I will be abl o start using my boat again by this weekend and have some great stories to share with you. 'til next week...........................................good fishing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
www.fishingconnection.net If you have any fishing stories you would like to share please email me at bestguide@hotmail.com or call me at 650-583-3333.

Fishing Report May 5, 2008

This past weekend I got to the lake late Friday afternoon. I set off to my favorite cove for the late bite. I threw my chugger at least fifty times until I got my first top-water fish and then for about an hour (from 8 to 9 PM) every cast was action. The following day I went out with my wife and we used plastics only for the bass. We caught a few and lost a few. The bite was tough becausethe bass are on their nests and did not have any interest in feeding but only in protecting the nests and teased us by moving the lines before we could set the hook. I went out later in the evening with my friend Albert and we had better luck. Once again I was looking for that evening top-water bite but nothing happened until around 8:30 PM. I was throwing a chugger and Albert was throwing a Zaro Spook and we just kept hitting fish. We landed a limit in no time. Fish were jumping all around us but not all bass. During the day light Albert threw Cast Masters at the boiling fish and they turned out to be trout. Hooking them was no problem for Albert but he had a hard time landing them. It turned out to be a great night (see photos). Sunday I went out for a couple of hours on my own. The wind had picked up and I decided to troll most of the morning. I used a crankbait that only went down about two feet and hooked up around nineteen trout. The water temperature ranged from 65 to 67.5 degrees. If next weekend is warmer, I look forward to a great fishing weekend. In the photo Albert is holding an eight pound catfish.

'til next week......good fishing!!!!!!!!!!!!!! www.fishingconnection.net If you have any fishing stories you would like to share please email me at bestguide@hotmail.com or call me at 650-583-3333.

Fishing Report March 23, 2008

Easter weekend was just perfect at the lake. The weather was great, the water was clear and the fish were biting. Friday I headed out to the vineyards at 11:30 with my wife. We had a limit by 1:00. We were both using brass and glass with a 5' senko (I keep telling you it works!!!). After she brought in her second fish, I figured why should I be stubborn I switched to her color senko and sure enough I started to catch fish. The conditions were perfect and I followed my own advice. On Saturday I took Tom and Tony out for the day. We trolled from the ranch house to the vineyards with no success. We fished the vineyards for over two hours with no bites. No matter what bait we tried..........zilch!! What a difference a day makes. I decided to try my favorite cove. I had Tom and Tony start by bouncing a split-shot and minnow on the bottom. The first two fish that were caught were under size. You should have seen their faces when I let those two fish go. The bite picked up and we began to enjoy ourselves. They landed two good size crappies and a limit of bass (see photos). At about 1:30 I threw a brass and glass with my wife's favorite color senko into a recess in the rocks and was hit immediately by this five pound four ounce bass (see photo). After taking two pictures, I released the fish and I thought Tom and Tony were going to jump over board to grab it. They were happy with all the fish that they were going to take home. Sunday my wife and I went to my favorite cove for a couple of hours. We both used the brass and glass with the senko and landed a few nice fish no size to speak of. All in all it was a good fishing weekend and I hope it continues to get better and better. 'ti next week......................................good fishing!!!!!!!! www.fishingconnection.net

If you have any fishing stories you would like to share please email me at bestguide@hotmail.com or call me at 650-583-3333. One of my friends from the Highlands caught a 12 pound bass fishing from shore this past week (photos at Steele Park Marina).