"The bass bite has been hit and miss up at Clear Lake this week," reported Scott Green of Outdoor Pro Shop in Rohnert Park. "I fished Monday morning and threw Snagproof Frogs for a total of five bites and 3 fish landed. The same day, Steve Seals reported catching 15 fish up to 4 pounds while flippin' Zipper worms around the weed beds on the north end."

According to Green, the weeds are now very heavy on the north end of the lake and fish are moving under the weeds shortly after the sun hits the water. "On the south end, anglers are fishing topwater baits early, then switching over to Senkos during the day," he added. "I also spoke to one of our local anglers who caught a few fish cranking Speed Traps over the top of submerged weeds in the Konocti area."

"My latest trip to Clear Lake was Monday evening with Steve Ameral of Santa Rosa," reported Larry Hemphill of Larry Hemphill's Guide and Instruction Service. "We landed five fish for a total of 16-1/2 pounds topped by a 6 pound, 6 ounce fish caught by Steve."

Hemphill said Ameral caught a 4 pounder, a 3-1/4 pounder and the 6 pounder. "I caught two fish and they were small ones weighing 1-1/2 and 2 pounds," said Hemphill. "All of Steve's fish were caught on black/chartreuse Power Worms and I caught my two fish on a tube bait and a Dead Ringer. We caught the fish in 8 to 15 feet of water at Rattlesnake Island, Buckingham and Konocti."

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"The salmon season re-opens July 20, so we'll be running morning and afternoon trips every day," reported Valerie Thornton of Anchor Charters. "We ran rockfish trips this weekend and limited out on black and blue rockfish and averaged about a fish per rod on the lingcod."

Thornton added, "The Trek II had full limits on their last trip before the closure and two of their fish were over 40 pounds. We also had a couple reports of albacore taken way offshore last week, so that's a good sign of things to come."

"Our salmon trips had near-limits to limits of fish averaging 15 to 25 pounds off Point Arena this weekend," reported Josh Admire at the Noyo Fishing Center. "We also ran a couple rockfish trips on the Rumblefish and El Patron that came back with full limits of rockfish and quite a few lingcod.

Admire said the best rockfish action has been found to the north of Westport. "They're fishing shrimp flies and bars in 60 to 100 feet of water," he explained. "The rockfish are mostly blacks and blues and the lingcod are running 8 to 15 pounds."

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"It's been sizzling on the river, with water temperatures reaching over 70 degrees, so fishing for steelhead on the North Umpqua is out of the question until the water cools down," stated Scott Wolfe of The Big-K Guest Ranch. "When we start fishing for the steelhead, I plan on throwing out bait and side drifting plugs to entice the fish."

Until then, anglers have plenty of smallmouth action to keep them busy on the water, with the typical trip producing well over 100 fish, according to Wolfe. Scott is finding the top action while using black and brown worms and top water Bass Assassins.

"We occasionally have days that produce top water action throughout the day, but top water fishing has only been effective early in the morning with the recent heat wave," noted Wolfe.

Twelve-year-old Lucas Nordeen of Sacramento accompanied his grandfather, Russell, for an outstanding bass trip on the Umpqua with Wolfe. "Lucas himself boated 85 smallmouth to 3.5 pounds, along with all the fish that were caught by his grandpa," said Wolfe.

"It's just about time to get out and target salmon on the river, but that won't come around until the beginning of August," said Wolfe. "Once we get a shot at fishing, we will troll cut plug herring for the chinooks."

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"The bass bite slowed down a bit during the hot weather, but there's still plenty of action early in the morning and at night," reported Brian Benson of Phil's Props. "As for the trout, the heat is effecting the fishermen more than the fish. There's been a steady bite on rainbows at about 60 to 70 feet deep."

According to Benson, the trout action has been very good in the Pit River Arm, the main Body, Big Backbone and the McCloud Arm. "Most anglers are trolling Cripplures or Hum Dingers behind a dodger for trout running 1 to 4 pounds," he said. "We haven't had many reports of salmon, but the few being caught are down deep around 100 feet."

For bass, Benson suggested fishing early in the morning and at night. "You can still catch a fair amount of fish during the day, but it's mostly smaller fish," he explained.

"At night, you'll catch a lot more fish in the 1-1/2 to 2 pound class. During the day, fish jigs and 4 inch finesse worms 20 to 30 feet deep. At night and early in the morning, throw topwater baits, spinnerbaits and dark colored jigs."

No reports of catfish being caught this week, but Benson said this is prime time for targeting Shasta cats. "You shouldn't have any problem catching catfish right now," he said. "Just fish anchovies, mackerel or chicken liver in the backs of coves and creek channels."

"I ran a half day trip this morning and we landed a total of 11 rainbows, 1 brown and 1 salmon," reported Gary Miralles of Shasta Tackle Company. "The lake had a shad hatch a couple weeks ago and we're now seeing a lot of bait scattered all over the lake."

Miralles said they found most of their fish trolling Hum Dingers and Cripplures behind Sling Blades from 50 to 90 feet deep in the Dry Creek area. "We had a couple rainbows in the 20 inch class and the rest were all 14 to 15 inches," he added. "Conditions look very good considering the amount of bait I'm seeing out there. We should have red hot trout fishing all the way through October."

Lake Shasta is holding 3,487,000 acre feet of water, 77 percent of capacity, and the water level is 1028 feet in elevation.

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On July 13, albacore anglers found calm conditions in the morning, though there was some afternoon wind on the way home. "Anglers caught 3-13 fish today with the average being 6 albacore," stated Todd Fraser at Bayside Marine. The tuna hit Jerry Garcias, Dark Cedar Plugs and bait.

On the next day, the albacore boats turned back because of rough seas. "The halibut fishing was good with a few anglers catching 1-4 fish in the 12-30 pound range," said Fraser. "The halibut were caught above the Lighthouse and near Capitola in 30-45 feet of water. A few small seabass were caught off Capitola today."

If you want to go lingcod fishing off the Santa Cruz coast, now's the time to do it. A recent live bait trip by the Sea Stag III produced 15 limits of lingcod and assorted rockcod. The lingcod ranged from 10 to 15 pounds. The anglers fished off Davenport in 80 feet of water.

Ken Stagnaro of Sea Stag Sportfishing emphasized that fishing for rockfish and lingcod remains open in water 120 feet and less.

The Wild Wave had a great rockcod trip to New Year's Island on Saturday, July 13. "We used dead bait, mostly squid," reported Captain Mike Baxter of Shamrock Charters. "The Wild Wave regulars used whole squid and did very well with rockcod limits and lingcod limits. The rest of the passengers used rental poles and shrimp flies to bag limits of rockfish."

The salmon fishing remains spotty. The 18 anglers on the Wild Wave landed 9 salmon while mooching anchovies in Monterey Bay on Sunday, July 14, according to Bob Schmidt. However, the kings were all big fish up to 34 pounds.

Glen Larson, Mike Alves and Mike Alves Jr. experienced an incredible day of salmon fishing off Capitola when they bagged limits of big chinooks on July 13. Their six fish weighed 32, 28.5, 24, 20, 14 and 10 pounds. "They fly lined frozen anchovies in 65 feet of water off the Cement Ship," explained Frank Ealy at Capitola Boat and Bait.

Big halibut honors go to Joseph Carvalho and Ashley Beauregard, who caught a 24 pound, 6 ounce halibut drifting squid off the Artificial Reef. Bill Sherman also successfully battled a 24 pound, 7 ounce halibut the same day.

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Bait and lure fishermen are doing best In Burney Creek above Burney Falls while using Roostertails and Panther Martins, small nite crawlers and crickets. Try nymphing below the falls with PT, prince, gold-ribbed hare's ear in size 16-18 for best results.

"In the Hat Creek Wild Trout Area, good hatches of PMD's and caddis are taking place, along with some sporadic rusty spinners," stated Vaughn.

Baum Lake continues to yield rainbow and brown trout averaging 10 to 15 inches long. Your best baits are nite crawlers, meal worms, Power Bait and Crave, while the hottest lures are silver/blue Kastmasters and gold/black Panther Martins. For flies, use PT's, caddis, callibaetis cripples, spent-wings in rusty, or tricos.

The Cassel area is producing good fly fishing for brook and rainbow trout when there is no wind. "PMD's in size 18, caddis and Adams parachutes in size 16 taking trout," said Vaughn. "For nymphing, try pheasant tails in size 16."

Rainbow and brook trout are hitting in Upper Hat Creek. Your best bet is to toss out nite crawlers or Roostertail spinners.

If you want to catch smallmouth bass, try fishing at Lake Britton with fly rod poppers in the mornings and evenings. Some crappie are also being caught on mini-jigs.

"The Pit River Wild Trout Area is yielding quite a few fish in the 14-17 inch range," said Vaughn. "However, Pit River releases will be increased to 1800 cfs from the current 150 cfs, so do not plan to fish the Pit during August!"

On the Fall River Wild Trout Stream, fly fishermen are catching big rainbows on PMD's, Steve's olive, blue wing olives, rusty spinners, zug bugs and pheasant tails. The hex hatch was still on at press time, noted Vaughn.

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"The trout fishing has been excellent for the anglers that really now the lake," explained Reuben Chavez of Lassen View Resort. "I just had three of our guests check in with 15 huge trout all in the 4 to 5 pound class caught while drifting bait this morning."

According to Chavez, the big stringer of fish was taken drifting crickets and meal worms just off the bottom in 20 to 45 feet of water," he said. "They were working several of the main points along the west shore. The key to finding red hot trout fishing right now is to locate the areas where the may flies are hatching. Find the may flies and you'll find the big trout."

Trolling has been decent with most trolling trips producing 2 to 6 fish for a morning or evening's worth of fishing. "The numbers aren't that great, but keep in mind these are really big fish," said Chavez. For trolling I would suggest a crawler by itself or a brightly colored Needlefish worked from the Peninsula Point to the dam. Most of the fish have been 20 to 35 feet deep, so a downrigger is very effective."

Smallmouth bass action is excellent at press time. "We've had several fishermen come in and report 40 to 50 fish day on smallies averaging 1 to 2 pounds with a few larger fish in the 3 to 4 pound class," said Chavez. "Fish crickets, plastic worms or soft jerk baits for the smallmouth."

Lake Almanor is currently 8 feet from full and surface temps are averaging 72 degrees.

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Just ask Jesse Kirk of Oroville, who landed a 20 pound channel cat fishing from shore near the spillway. He fooled the monster catfish fishing with mackerel at night, according to Wade McGrath at McGrath's Fishing & Diving Supply.

"On my last trip to Oroville, the fishing was slower than it has been, but my fishing partner and I still managed to catch and release 30 spotted bass," said McGrath. "Four of the fish were over 15 inches, while the rest were in the 12 to 15 inch slot. We did best throwing 4 inch cotton candy and june bug pattern lizards."

Trout and king salmon fishing is dead at Oroville, with virtually nobody even trying for them.

The water level is going down rapidly on Lake Oroville, now that combined releases on the Feather River below the Thermalito Afterbay Outlet are up to 6500 cfs. The lake level is approximately 100 feet from full and the surface water temperature is around 74 degrees.

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"Being out on the water hasn't been too bad because we are getting the occasional breeze that makes the hot weather more bearable," reported Mark Lassagne of Gone Fishing. "The water temperature this week has been heating up between 72-80 degrees, so fishing in current is key, since these fish need a steady oxygen flow to stay around the area."

"Where your fish depends on whether you're interested in quantity or quality," stated Lassagne. "When fishing for numbers of bass, try working off points and rocks or pull the bait through the weeds into 2-8 feet of water."

If you want to hook into a monster largemouth, try drifting with the wind and cast into "trash" pockets with high water in about 3-7 feet of water, advised Lassagne.

Recent trips on the Delta have yielded consistent action, with guided parties boating between 30-40 fish weighing up to 6 pounds. Mark has found a steady response while throwing white half-ounce Persuader spinner baits, all white buzz baits, white and fire tiger frogs and Speed Traps in crystal craw patterns.

"This summer heat is making the catfish in the back sloughs very active," said Ken Dyer of Valley Bait & Tackle. Anglers are bagging cats to 10 pounds while soaking chicken liver and anchovies in White and Disappointment sloughs.

"Anglers are struggling to catch quality stripers, but black bass anglers are doing very well nailing largemouth in the 3 pound class," noted Dyer. "Look for the mats of top water algae to throw frogs onto. Bass enthusiasts are taking fish on white and chartreuse frogs, as well as green pumpkin Senkos."

For a complete Delta Report, click here.

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"The water is dropping about a foot a day. A few anglers are picking up small spots and the striper action is good for 14 to 18 inch fish, but all in all its not too good at Millerton," said Merritt Gilbert of Valley Rod and Gun.

The spotted bass are falling for plastics in shad colors. The fish are holding around the 10 to 20 foot levels with good concentrations near Winchell Cove and upriver. Most of the spots are in the 10 to 12 inch range.

Striped bass anglers are doing well around the Fresno launch ramp and in Winchell Cove. The fish average 16 to 18 inches. Anchovies and large spoons are fooling the stripers.

Anglers need to be on the water as soon as the reservoir opens at 6 a.m. The boat traffic after 8 a.m. is constant and heavy.

"Catfish action is picking up around the Fine Gold area and near the Old Courthouse," said Gilbert. "Cut anchovies, stink baits and chicken livers are fooling 2 to 3 cats per outing. The fish average 2 pounds."

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"A friend of mine fished the lake at first light with Captain America Power Bait," said Dave Kirby of Woodfords Station. "He came back to the store with a limit of brook trout by 8 a.m."

Caples Lake is another solid trout prospect for shore anglers. Anglers fishing Power Bait and nightcrawlers off the dam and spillway are bagging rainbows, along with some brook trout. "One local weighed in a limit of rainbows to 2 pounds taken from the shore on inflated nightcrawlers," added Kirby.

Indian Creek Reservoir is yielding slow fishing, since the lake is mossy, the water is warm and the trout are holding on the bottom.

"The East and West Forks of the Carson River and Silver Creek are low and clear, so the fishing is very challenging now," said Kirby. "I fished all three waters this weekend and didn't get a bite, though I got a couple of fish to rise. I threw a lot of flies and some spinners at them, but they just weren't biting."

For Wiza's Sierra's report, CLICK HERE.

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"Trollers are long lining with lead core out 7 to 10 colors," stated Gunsolley. "The fast troll has been productive for anglers using night crawlers behind dodgers. Bank action is slow except for fishermen looking to land Sacramento perch. The perch are falling for flies with bubbles and worms."

Pleasant Valley Reservoir is yielding "fair" trout fishing. Tubers are picking up 2 to 4 fish per outing using night crawlers or flies. The hot flies have been the black wooly buggers and the blue/silver streamers.

"Rock Creek Lake is full of fish," added Gunsolley. "Most anglers are scoring early limits with soaked or trolled yellow Power Bait, frog Needlefish or frog Super Dupers. Fly fishermen are using tiger midge, elk hair caddis and zebra midge patterns to fool brook trout up to 2 pounds."

For the SouthEast Sierras Report, click here.

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"We just had the Anderson Family from Woodland, CA check in with 16 trout from 16 to 23 inches," reported Dennis Dunn of Wildhorse Resort. "They were fishing nightcrawlers and yellow Power Bait near the deep water by the dam."

According to Dunn, the top trout spots for bank fishing have been deeper areas because the fish are holding in slightly deeper water due to the warming water temperatures. Trollers are taking decent numbers of fish pulling a crawler behind a set of flashers from 25 to 35 feet deep.

Perch action is very good at press time with anglers reporting big numbers of perch running 7 to 11 inches throughout the lake. "The top method for catching perch is fishing a white crappie jig or piece of a worm or crawler 2 feet under a bobber," said Dunn. "For boaters, the west side hot springs are your best bet. Bank fishermen should concentrate on Goose Island, Hot Creek and the bridge at Hendrix Creek."

Smallmouth bass season is now open, which means anglers are allowed to keep one fish over 15 inches. "We're seeing a fair number of fish over the 15 inch mark, but no really big fish yet," said Dunn. "Try throwing plastic worms, grubs or crankbaits around any of the rocky areas."

Wildhorse Lake is currently 6 feet from maximum pool.

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"We had a great weekend of bass and halibut fishing inside the bay and one of our trips during the week produced limits of huge stripers off Stinson Beach," reported Captain Jim Smith of Happy Hooker Sportfishing. "Most of our halibut were caught in the south bay off Alameda and the bass came off the rockpiles."

Over the weekend, the Happy Hooker scored a total of 10 halibut and 40 bass for 27 anglers on Saturday and 10 halibut and 38 bass for 35 anglers on Sunday. The red hot beach trip was on Thursday when they scored full limits of stripers up to 44 pounds. "Not a fish was under 15 pounds and we had three fish over 30 pounds," added Smith. "The big striper was caught by Terry from Walnut Grove."

"We had a solid weekend of fishing for halibut on the Berkeley Flats and striper fishing on Mel's Reef," reported James Smith of the Baywatch. "Most of the halibut are running 5 to 15 pounds and the stripers average 5 to 10 pounds with a few larger fish up to 20 pounds. On Sunday, we ended up with 34 stripers and 3 halibut for 20 anglers. Saturday's trip produced 12 bass and 12 halibut for 21 anglers."

"The salmon bite was excellent during the week and slowed own to about a fish per rod on Sunday," reported Chris Nelson of Berkeley Marina Sports Center. "The halibut are hitting inside the bay and off Seal Rocks and the stripers are showing on most of the rockpiles."

On Sunday, July 14, the New Golden Eye had a banner salmon day with a total of 58 salmon to 33 pounds for 42 anglers. The El Dorado landed 17 salmon to 24 pounds for 24 people. The Golden Eye checked in with 12 stripers, 10 lingcod, and 60 rockfish for 6 anglers. The New El Dorado III bagged 21 salmon to 32 pounds for 21 anglers. The New Easy Rider nailed 12 salmon to 28 pounds and 1 halibut for 18 anglers.