“It was pretty windy on my last trip to Berryessa, but my two clients, John Montagh of Albany and Tim Moppin of El Cerrito, and I did well on smallmouth, largemouth and spotted bass,” disclosed Larry Hemphill, fishing, guide. “We caught and released a total of 19 bass, topped by a 3 pound largemouth.”

They caught the bass while fishing Robo Worms in Prism Shad and Morning Dawn patterns in 10 to 25 feet of water in the Narrows. They also enticed fish with 4 and 6 inch Berkley Power Worms in green pumpkin.

“Bass are hitting plastics and crawlers off the shoreline,” confirmed Dino Righetti at the Spanish Flat Resort. “Lots of campers are landing bass in front of their campsites. The big island area is also producing bass as well.”

Anglers have brought lots of rainbow trout into the marina lately. “Anglers trolling Needlefish and Apex lures from the surface to 15 feet are bagging limits,” said Righetti.

King salmon fishing has busted loose on Berryessa. "The two clients fishing with me on Wednesday, April 23 landed limits of king salmon to 17-1/2 inches" said Rene Villanueva of Steelie Dan's Guide Service. "We also released two clean, beautiful rainbow trout."

Villanueva trolled with threadfin shad and Double Flutter Spoons behind Shasta Tackle Sling Blades in the main body by the dam. "We started trolling at 15 feet and then went down to 60 feet to catch the fish later in the day," he stated.

Crappie fishing is slow. For your best chance for hooking crappie, use jigs or minnows on the bottom in Capell Cove, advised Righetti. The surface water temperature is 60 degrees.

Salmon fishing is closed and rod and reel rockfish fishing has yet to get underway, but that is not keeping Noyo Harbor charter boats off the water. At least one charter operator is keeping busy by offering divers the opportunity to target abalone, rockfish and even crabs.

“We had a great trip yesterday,” reported Captain Randy Thornton of Telstar Charters on April 27. “I took out a group of divers and we started off getting limits of abalone up to 9 inches. Then some of the guys used spear guns to harvest three quarter limits of rockfish. My guys didn’t get any lings today, but the lings tend to move in and out. They just weren’t around today, but one guy did whack a big cabezon. We rounded out the day by doing some crabbing.”

“In the future I’m probably going to restrict our trips to two things like abs and crabs or abs and spear fishing. That will give us more time to concentrate on what we’re doing without jumping around so much,” continued Thornton.

“Yesterday we headed down to the south. I have a trip today and I think we are going to go up north and try our luck near Pudding Creek. Visibility is between 30 and 40 feet, which is really good, so I’m expecting good results,” added Thornton.

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According to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, anglers have been catching good numbers of springers while fishing the area between Scottsburg and Elkton. The water temperature in the river is still low, but rising. Warmer water will cause the kings to push up the river.

On the North Umpqua conditions have remained good over the past week. Most of the action on the North Umpqua comes in the form of steelhead, since good numbers of springers have yet to move that far up the river. To date, 9,100 steelhead have passed Winchester Dam. Anglers are reminded that all wild steelhead must be released and that only fin clipped hatchery fish may be retained.

Few anglers are fishing the South Umpqua, but those that do make the effort are catching steelhead and some of them are dime bright fresh run fish. Drift boaters should focus on the area between Canyonville and Roseburg, while bank anglers will find the best opportunities at Templeton Beach, the Myrtle Creek Bridge, Stanton Park and behind the Seven Feathers Casino.

Scott Wolfe of the Big K Guest Ranch has been spending most of his time targeting springers on the Lower Umpqua with good success as well as traveling up to the North Umpqua in search of steelhead.

Wolfe has encountered some early season smallmouth bass, but that bite is just starting. The bass bite should be very good within 3 or 4 weeks, once the water temperature has a chance to come up into the comfort zone of the bronzebacks.

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“The trout fishing is getting pretty good particularly for browns,” reported Gary Miralles of the Shasta Tackle Company. “The McCloud Arm and Bridge Bay have both been producing browns up to 5 pounds. Cripplures have been getting most of the browns for me, but I’ve hooked some on blue Matrix Paddle Tails rigged behind large Sling Blades too. I’ve been putting Pro-Cure Super Gel in the garlic and shad scents on my lures when targeting browns.”

“Salmon fishing has been good in the Dry Creek Arm. The last time I went after salmon we ended up with several fish up to 21 inches in length. The salmon are holding from 100 to 150 feet deep. Matrix Paddle Tails rigged behind Sling Blades have been working well as have glow in the dark Cripplures. In the deep water it is also a good idea to go with a glow in the dark dodger,” added Miralles.

Kirk Portocarrero of Outdoor Adventures Sportfishing has begun working the dam area and the Dry Creek Arm for land locked kings with good results. Portocarrero is trolling a variety of shad pattern lures for his fish.

“Bass are really on a good bite, but when a cold front moves through things tend to slow down a little,” related Arnold Fancelli at Phil’s Propellers. “The water is cool so the bass have not moved into the coves yet. Look for them to be holding off main lake points from the bank to 25 feet deep. Mother’s finest plastic worms in Mojave and Ox Blood rigged on darter heads are working well as are tubes and hula grubs. Anglers are rigging their hula grubs on 3/8 ounce football heads.”

“The dam area is booting out rainbows for anglers pulling a variety of different lures in 70 feet of water. Moochers are getting salmon in both Dry Creek and in Digger Bay,” continued Fancelli.

Lake Shasta is currently 60 feet from maximum pool.

Steve Huber of Steve Huber’s Guide Service has been doing some construction on his property so he has not been out on Whiskeytown, but he expects to try for kokanee next week. “I think the kokanee will be up near the surface since the water is still pretty cold in the lake. When they are up near the top they tend to spook pretty easily, so at this time of the year it really pays to troll your baits off side planers,” tipped Huber.

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Ken McKeever of San Jose landed a 5 lb. halibut while fishing a frozen anchovy off the Capitola Wharf. "Anglers also released two undersized halibut," reported Frank Ealy at Capitola Boat & Bait.

The sanddab fishing was good on the last two flatfish trips of the season over the weekend of April 26-27. "Fourteen anglers fished for sanddabs aboard the Caroline on Saturday, while 20 anglers fished aboard the Checkmate on Sunday," said Chris Arcoleo of Chris' Fishing Trips. "They averaged 20 to 30 fish per rod while using jigs, tipped with squid strips, in Monterey Bay."

"Rockfish season should be really good off the Monterey County Coast this year," forecasted Pete Bruno at Randy's Fishing Trips, "based on the excellent fishing that we saw last year. We haven't fished for sanddabs over the past week."

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Fly fishermen nailed rainbows ranging from 10 to 17 inches in the Pit River #3 and #4 sections on opening day. "The salmon fly hatches are starting, so salmon fly nymphs, Prince nymphs, rubber legs and adult stoneflies produced the top fishing," said Steve Vaughn of Vaughn's Sporting Goods. "Spin fishermen are catching quite a few rainbows while using nightcrawlers and Panther Martins in the Pit #4 Reach."

"Trout fishing was pretty darn good at Baum Lake on opening weekend," Vaughn revealed. "Spin fishermen did best on meal worms, nightcrawlers and Kastmasters, while the fly fishers found the top success on midge patterns. The fish caught on the weekend ranged from 8 to 20 inches long."

Serge Kachanov of Sacramento demonstrated his angling prowess by nailing a 19 inch rainbow weighing 3-1/2 pounds while drifting a nightcrawler on April 26.

Lower Hat Creek kicked out wild rainbows in the 10 to 14 inch range for anglers using small nymphs and Wooly Buggers, according to Vaughn.

"Lake Britton smallmouth bass are starting to bite as the water warms," said Vaughn. "Most of the 12 to 15 inch fish are hitting rip baits and Sluggos. The crappie bite should bust loose within 1-1/2 to 2 weeks."

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“I went out this morning and did really well,” exclaimed Doug Neal of Almanor Fishing Adventures on April 24. “I could have had a limit of trout by 9 o’clock, if I wasn’t catching and releasing my fish. I have guided trips scheduled for the next 4 days, so my goal this morning was to locate a good concentration of fish.”

As a result, he decided to concentrate on bait fishing using worms smeared with a 50/50 mix of Pro-Cure Super Gel in the trophy trout and garlic scents.

“I got hit on my first drop of the day before my bait had a chance to get to the bottom. I missed the first fish, but another one hit on the second drop. I’d probably been fishing for less than 3 minutes when I brought the first fish to the boat. It was a beautiful 16 inch rainbow. I caught a couple rainbows before the browns started hitting. In all I brought 6 fish to the boat and one of them was a brown that probably would have weighed about 4 pounds,” said Neal.”

As of press time the lake temperature was holding at 48 degrees. As soon as the temperature climbs into the lower fifties, anglers can expect the smallmouth bass bite to come on strong.

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“The bass fishing at Folsom is good. I’m seeing more largemouths in the catches every time I visit the lake and I think the spawn is about to happen,” disclosed Don Paganelli of Paganelli’s Bass Fishing Experience.

He has been starting out in the morning throwing a Lucky Craft Stacy rip bait in the chartreuse shad or ghost minnow color along the outside edges of points. After that bite shuts down, he moves into the coves and switch over to Robo Worms in the Aaron’s Magic color, but grubs on darter heads and 4 inch Senkos in green pumpkin work well also.

“Most days we are getting lots of bites, particularly on the plastics,” explained Paganelli. “If you have a feel for fishing plastics it is no problem to land between 10 and 15 bass.”

Trollers are working the main body near the dam and the mouth of the South Fork for kings up to 3 pounds. The salmon are holding in 40 to 100 feet of water and are hitting white lures such as hoochies, Needlefish, Excels and Matrix Paddle Tails rigged behind 6 to 10 inch dodgers. Most anglers are not getting limits, but consistent scores of 2 to 4 fish are possible. The occasional rainbow shows in the catches as well.

The lake has been rising about 3 feet per week and the temperature is coming up. This has sparked decent catfish action in coves on both the South and North Forks. The cats can be found in water from 10 to 30 feet deep and will hit a variety of baits including live minnows, crawfish tails, chicken lives, mackerel fillets and sardine fillets.

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“The fishing is good for big fish,” disclosed Randy Pringle of the Fishing Instructor Guide Service. “You have to work for your bass, but we are getting limits between 23 and 30 pounds almost every day. We got an 11 pounder last week. I’m fishing with Dan Dunsford right now and he just put a 3.5 pounder in the boat.”

“Over the past week our top bait has been a 10 inch Power Worm Texas rigged with a ¼ ounce weight. Motor oil with red flakes and green pumpkin have both been good colors. The key to getting hit on the worm is fishing it slowly. You don’t want to hop it. Instead just let it set on the bottom and wiggle it. Don’t expect to get a lot of bites. We are only getting from 7 to 15 hits per day, but the fish that do hit are big quality bass,” continued Pringle.

“In addition to using the Power Worms, my clients are also working black and blue Persuader E-Chip Jigs tipped with a Berkley Chigger Craw. We were throwing jigs yesterday and ended up getting a pair of 7 pounders on them,” said Pringle.

According to Pringle, reaction baits are catching few fish at this time. The recent series of cold fronts that have swept through the state have prevented the bass from getting really active and aggressive.

“The bulk of the bass have not spawned yet. The way the water temperature has been going up and down, I think we can look forward to finding fish on beds for the next 2 months,” predicted Pringle.

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“It seems dark purple with a red bloodline is the key color right now,” tipped Rowell. “Margarita Mutilator has been a very effective color; other colors that have worked are crawdad patterns as well as shad patterns. There has also been an early topwater spook bite just about every day.”

Trout trollers will find the best action on Excel shad pattern spoons as well as flashers paired with a nightcrawler tipped Wedding Ring – trolled 35-40 feet deep - at the dam and Temperance Creek areas. Crappie are biting with limits possible in Horseshoe Bend and Piney Creek – look for structure about 30 feet deep.

 “McSwain is making very heavy trout plants, in anticipation of their upcoming derby,” said Rowell. “Trollers working the surface to twenty-five feet deep with Rocky Mountain Assassin spinners paired with a chrome dodger are seeing limits. Bank anglers have bagged fish up to six pounds with rainbow Power Bait in the Brushpile area.”

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“We had a boat limit in no time,” said Daneman. “Five rainbows and five browns up to sixteen inches made for a nice day. My usual set up is a Sep’s watermelon Sidekick paired with a nightcrawler; and that setup caught them all. We worked the backside of the lake – near the inlet – for all of the fish. They are scattered with no discernable pods of fish that we could work.”

Jim Cozzens of Sly Park Lake Resort reported that recent trout plants have improved shore angler action. Mackinaw have been elusive lately, as only a few are showing up in creels, and brown trout are elusive as well. Largemouth and smallmouth bass action is on the upswing.

“Heavy inflows of cold water into Union Valley have slowed down the mack bite,” explained Ken Mathis of Ken’s Custom Tackle and Guide Service. “The bite is way off; anglers will have to work hard for the fish they get. I would still target suspended fish over sandy shoals with stick baits or Ken’s Double Flutter spoons. Anglers will have to cover a lot of water to get into fish.”

Reports show that Loon, Silver and Caples are still frozen over.

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“June Lake kicked out a lot of trout on the opener and so did Gull Lake,” reported John Logue at Ernie’s Tackle. “The biggest trout we heard about on the opener was a 9.14 pound rainbow that came out of June Lake. That fish was caught by a float tuber named Troy Miller fishing with salmon eggs.”

“The second biggest trout reported came out of Gull Lake and it weighed 9.4 pounds. Scott Olefson caught that fish. He was fishing with a small rubber jig. Silver Lake produced a 5.13 pound rainbow for Mike White. He was fishing with a worm,” continued Logue.

“Stream fishing was fairly slow this week due to low flows. The runoff hasn’t really started yet. When it does we expect the stream fishing to improve. At most of our local lakes limits were the rule. If I were coming up here to fish, my first choice would be June Lake with Gull running a close second,” tipped Logue.

“I fished the East Walker on April 26 and the fishing was decent despite the low flows,” related Scott Freeman at Ken’s Sporting Goods. “Since the flow was so low I really had to be stealthy and seek out the areas that had deeper water. Both dry flies and nymphs produced fish for me, but in general flies size 16 or smaller worked the best.”

“The fishing at most of our lakes was fairly slow on the morning of the opener, but things heated up later in the day,” related Jim Reid also of Ken’s Sporting Goods. “The best fishing took place at Upper Twin Lake, but Bridgeport Reservoir was good, too. Most of the guys fishing at Upper Twin used bait while trolling was the best method at Bridgeport Reservoir. The largest fish reported was a rainbow that went 6.75 pounds. The average trout caught weighed between 1.5 and 3 pounds, with the majority of them being browns.”

“Virginia Lakes are still iced over and the fishing there was slow for ice anglers. I expect the ice on those lakes to break up within the next 10 days,” added Reid.

“The Owens is fishing pretty well for anglers working with small dry flies,” reported Dan Farris at Brock’s Sporting Goods. “Small nymphs are working too, but most angler prefer to fish with dries when they can.”

On the upper Owens River fly anglers are reporting lots of action. In the morning nymphs are the ticket, but in the afternoon dry flies are producing pretty well.

Lake Crowley produced limits and near limits of trout for both fly anglers and anglers fishing with conventional tackle. At Pleasant Valley Reservoir the story was much the same, with fly, bait and lure anglers all scoring trout.

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“The trout fishing has been pretty good up here, especially for anglers fishing off the shoreline,” disclosed George Molino at Pyramid Lake Store. “Tons of big trout are being caught at Pelican Point. On April 20, Josh Marks got a 5.8 pounder off the bank near Pelican. On the same day Shane Shafe got an 8.10 pounder. On April 21, Marvin Grear landed an 11.2 pounder while tossing flies from the bank.”

“Boaters are catching a few fish near Pelican Point, but in general the fish are holding so close to the bank that boaters can’t really get to them. The wind has also been a problem. Some days it is just too windy for boating,” added Molino.

At Crosby Lodge, Rich Henley described the shore fishing as being “outstanding." “Over the weekend we had the Hook, Line and Sinker Derby out here and some really nice fish were caught, mainly by anglers fishing off the bank. All the fish in the top 20 spots weighed between 9.4 and 11.8 pounds. Tom Cruz finished in first place with his 11.8 pounder. Paul Anderson took second with an 11 pounder and Scott Anderson finished in third place after landing a 10.13 pounder,” related Henley.  

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“This is the best halibut fishing I’ve seen in the past 6 or 7 years,” disclosed Captain James Smith of California Dawn Sportfishing. “We’ve been on fire ever since live bait became available. On Wednesday April 23 we took out 11 anglers and ended up with 8 halibut and 5 stripers. The next day things really got going and we boated 23 halibut to 30 pounds 1 striper, a 15 pound white seabass and a quality leopard shark for our 11 anglers.”

On April 25, his 18 anglers nailed 42 halibut to 34 pounds. Saturday’s trip yielded 33 halibut and 4 stripers for 32 anglers and on Sunday our 23 anglers got 34 halibut to 31 pounds.”

Captain Joe Gallia of the New Easy Rider has also been enjoying very good halibut fishing at a variety of locations including the Berkeley Flats and Paradise Cay as well as in the South Bay.

On Thursday April 24, Galia’s 11 anglers scored 17 halibut and 4 stripers. His 20 anglers landed 20 halibut and 5 stripers on Saturday, while the 8 anglers landed 16 halibut and 4 stripers on Sunday.

Frank Salazar at the Emeryville Sportfishing Center described the halibut fishing as “very good,” with a few schoolie size stripers showing up, too.

On Saturday April 27, 4 charter boats departed from the Emeryville Marina in search of halibut. The C-Gull II boated 23 halibut to 19 pounds for 12 anglers. The New Huck Finn ended up with 35 halibut to 20 pounds for their 19 anglers. The New Seeker had 32 halibut to 17 pounds for their 13 anglers and the New Salmon Queen’s 16 anglers boated 31 halibut to 18 pounds.

Captain Jim Smith of the Happy Hooker has departed from Martinez for the sturgeon season and is now back at Berkeley Marina going on live bait halibut and bass trips.