Depending upon your skill level and your budget, at this time of the year you can try a whole variety of baits and if you stay with anyone of them for any length of time, you will eventually catch fish. I personally like to use a five inch Zoom watermelon candy worm rigged wacky style on my drop shot rig. Other colors such as Robo worms MMIII and Oxblood colors will also work. I also use a 3/8th's to a 1/2 oz jig with a Yamamoto twin tail trailer in watermelon red or brown n Orange colors and work it through the sparse tules. Another great trailer for the jig is Reaction Innovations sweet beavers, my color choice here is the ""Big Texan"". Using a shakey head jig with a Zoom Trick Worm in either watermelon candy or watermelon Red is another good bait for working the edges of the tules. Our water temp has only been reaching up 52 degrees so the key is to fish really slow with your baits. The warmer the water gets the more active the fish are going to be and the bite will get better. My customers this past week used minnows on a "slip" bobber set up. We didn't catch huge numbers of fish but the ones they did catch were solid fish in the three to five pound range and once hooked these fish are ""strong"" and fight hard. Keep in mind that all the female fish at this time of the year will have eggs in them and I encourage you to take a picture of these fish and release them as soon as possible. That's it for now, feel free to ask questions or leave comments on this section.
The latest rains have brought the lake up almost a full foot. Hopefully we will reach the five foot level on the Rusmey gauge soon. The good news is that the shoreline tules now have 3 to 4 feet of water on them and the bass have started to move into the tules to feed and to prepare for the upcoming spawn. The next few weeks will see baits like the senko, a jig with a crawdad type trailer and a drop shot all working. Most of the fisherman on the lake this past week have been throwing a variety of swimbaits and Alabama rigs. With the storms and cold fronts moving through almost daily this past week, the overall bite has been slow. The major feeder creeks are running muddy and you need to try and find the clearer water for better success in catching fish.
Depending upon your skill level and your budget, at this time of the year you can try a whole variety of baits and if you stay with anyone of them for any length of time, you will eventually catch fish. I personally like to use a five inch Zoom watermelon candy worm rigged wacky style on my drop shot rig. Other colors such as Robo worms MMIII and Oxblood colors will also work. I also use a 3/8th's to a 1/2 oz jig with a Yamamoto twin tail trailer in watermelon red or brown n Orange colors and work it through the sparse tules. Another great trailer for the jig is Reaction Innovations sweet beavers, my color choice here is the ""Big Texan"". Using a shakey head jig with a Zoom Trick Worm in either watermelon candy or watermelon Red is another good bait for working the edges of the tules. Our water temp has only been reaching up 52 degrees so the key is to fish really slow with your baits. The warmer the water gets the more active the fish are going to be and the bite will get better. My customers this past week used minnows on a "slip" bobber set up. We didn't catch huge numbers of fish but the ones they did catch were solid fish in the three to five pound range and once hooked these fish are ""strong"" and fight hard. Keep in mind that all the female fish at this time of the year will have eggs in them and I encourage you to take a picture of these fish and release them as soon as possible. That's it for now, feel free to ask questions or leave comments on this section.
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In my last report I mentioned a big tournament coming up and promised the results. Once again 7 out of the top ten finishers reported using the "Alabama Rig"" for a large part if not all of their success. There were two fish over 9 pounds caught in that tournament and the winners had 56.86 lbs for their best ten fish that they weighed over the two day tournament. Conditions were tough to fish in with especially "Strong" winds on the second day. I decided at the last moment to jump in to the tournament with my former team partner. We did not fare well and finished in the middle of the pack out of a 113 teams. The average weight per fish caught in this tournament was an incredible 4.24 lbs.
The latest rains we have had has brought the lake level up about 3/4th's of a foot but unless we continue to get some major rainfall, our lake level is going to be down over last year. The fish are starting to move into the spawning areas and the bite overall will get better and better as we move into April. Besides the Alabama rig and the various swimbaits such as the osprey, or river to sea Swave, the normal dropshot, jigs, shakey head worms and senko's are all starting to put fish in the boat. Currently by far the best option for catching fish if you prefer to use them is the jumbo minnows. My best trip this past week was a catch of 17 fish, they missed another six fish and they caught all of those fish in one small area. Fishing at this time of the year with rain off and on and with frontal conditions changing frequently, the fishing can be good one day and off the next day. The biggest fish caught this past week was a 7lber caught by Mike Middletown from Shasta Lake Ca. He wanted to try the Alabama rig, he worked hard for several hours with no success but finally hooked into the 7lber and that matched his over all personal best fish he ever caught. Be sure to check out the latest photo's remember they are in date order of how they were taken and clicking on any photo will bring up the information about the trip and show you the date of the trip. Feel free to use the comment section on this report and let me know your thoughts. Thanks' Bob Welcome to my "New" website. To those of you who have visited my old website often over the years, I hope you find this new one easier to navigate and more informative. I will be posting here often giving you updates on the fishing, offering the best techniques and baits to use plus giving you the latest conditions for the lake.
I know that many of you who have fished with me in the past frequently visit the site and review the latest photo's to see the size and amount of the fish we are catching. My photo tab is set up in date order, simply go to the photo page and click on the photo's and you will see the date and the amount & size of the fish my customers caught. If you fished with me anytime over the years, we saved your photos and they can be found under the photo archives. Currently, (3/13/12) we are getting some badly needed rain but unless we get some massive rainfall amounts, we are going to have a below normal lake level for the year. What this means is that we will probably have clear water conditions and also the fish will have to spawn more offshore and more out in the open since the Tule areas along the banks will not have enough water on them for the fish to spawn in. Clear water conditions for me means you need to have a ""Quiet" approach, make longer casts, and possibly even use lighter line with your baits. With the fish starting to stage in their typical areas on points and secondary points and the mouths of creeks, a variety of baits are working now to catch them. The Months of March and April are really great months to get out and target big fish and use some of your favorite baits. The senko will really come on strong these next two months, plus the normal drop shot rigs with four and six inch worms rigged either wacky style(in the middle) or nose hooked will put fish in the boat. Swimbaits such as the top hook Osprey in the "light hitch" color, the Little Creeper Trash Fish (made here locally) the River to Sea S wave, and the Huddleston swim baits are all good choices. Many other stand by baits such as jigs, jerkbaits, and lipless crankbaits will all work. It doesn't get any better when you can use such a variety of baits to catch fish and this is certainly the time. The Live bait bite is always a sure thing and my customers have been catching solid fish in the three to six pound range on a regular basis. I am sure you have heard of the ""Alabama Rig"" if not you have now. This rig has been catching some phenomenal weights for the tournament people with their best five fish averaging over 30lbs. There have been at least six tournaments held so far this year that it has taken over 30 lbs with a high of 36 pounds for the best five fish to win. All of these winners have credited the """RIG"" and swimbaits for their success. I have invested a lot of time and money in testing and working with a variety of baits and rigs. I recently signed on as ""Pro Staff"" for the ABT Lure company and they make the best rig on the market. You can check them out at www.abtlures.com. This coming weekend, 3/17 & 3/18 there will be an annual tournament that's been going on for years that should draw around 100 boats. It will be a slug fest with almost everyone throwing some type of a "Rig"" Records could be broken, I will keep you posted on it. If you want to catch some big fish and possibly several fish and you have a boat and the gear, tie on a couple of your favorite swimbaits, a River to Sea Swave, a couple of ABT Alabama rigs, and target the pre spawn areas. You are going to need some muscle/joint relief after using these rigs all day long. A day of fun, relaxing fishing, tie on your drop shots, senko's, jigs, or use live bait and you can still catch big fish. That's it for now, check this section often for reports and fishing tips. Feel Free to comment at anytime. Thanks' for your support, Bob |
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