Ricky Paez of Johnson’s Bait and Tackle and his fishing partner, Joe Paez of Provo, Utah, had a great day on Clear Lake, catching and releasing 23 bass. Only one of the bass was undersized and the top five fish weighed a total of 20 pounds.

“We caught three fish on Money Minnow swimbaits first thing in the morning in the lake’s north end,” he stated. “After that we switched over to fishing jigs in 10 feet of water.”

The piscatorial duo also saw other anglers catching bass while drop shotting with an array of plastic worms.

Bass anglers fishing live jumbo minnows are catching plenty of fish. "One angler reported, just this morning, that they caught nearly 30 fish on Thursday, March 13 on minnows," said Bob Rider at Lakeshore Bait and Tackle in Clearlake. "He said that while the fishing was good it was difficult to position his boat precisely where he wanted it due to the wind."

"We’ve had no change in the crappie report now for a few weeks," he noted. "It's a tough bite with a few fish being reported over in the Clearlake Oaks Keys."

Channel catfish are now being taken by fishing live baits suspended in 8-10 feet of water. This signals that the cats have started their spring feeding pattern. The fish are taking live and cut baits fished right on the bottom at similar depths. The water temperature is right at 55 degrees.

The hatchery has received only 185 adult steelhead to date, compared to 192 fish last year. However, drift boat anglers are reporting good success on wild steelhead and resident trout while fishing plugs, flies and bait on the river.

“One local angler reported that he landed 5 steelhead on his latest trip on the river from below the hatchery to the I5 Bridge,” said Kim Rushton, hatchery manager. “One of the fish weighed around 12 pounds, while the rest were in the 20 to 24 inch range.”

Klamath River releases at Iron Gate are 3,170 cfs, while flows at Somes Bar are 8,890 cfs. Flows at Orleans are 12,800 cfs at 9.2 ft. and at Highway 101 are 26,900 cfs at 15.6 ft with a water temperature about 46.8 degrees.

"The Mid Klamath is on the rise and if the snow melt keeps coming in I would expect fishing will be very hard for the next week or so," advised E.B. Duggan, fishing guide. "If you are planning to come up fishing, it would be best to call ahead to see what the river conditions really are before spending all that money for gas and not being able to fish."

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According to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, good numbers of fish are being caught throughout the mainstem of the Umpqua by bank anglers.. Remember the main stem Umpqua is now closed to wild steelhead harvest; it remains open year-round for adipose fin-clipped steelhead.

Spring chinook have started coming up the Umpqua and a 31 pound springer was harvested last week about 4 miles below Elkton. From Scottsburg to Elkton tends to be the best angling for the early spring chinook.

Angling conditions have been good recently on the South Umpqua, although some rain would be good to warm up the water and get the fish moving again. Hatchery fish have started to move into the South Umpqua and some nice sized fish are being caught.

In addition to several good drift boat floats between Canyonville and Roseburg, there are good bank angling opportunities at Templeton Beach, the Myrtle Creek bridge, Stanton Park, and behind Seven Feathers Casino.

The North Umpqua has remained fishable. The most success has been from Colliding Rivers down. The warmer weather has gotten the fish on the move. There have been days when over 300 steelhead have passed Winchester Dam. To date, over 4,500 steelhead have passed Winchester Day. This puts the count to date at the third highest this decade.

Scott Wolfe of the Big K Guest Ranch has been spending most of his time fishing on the Coquille River over the past week or so. The area of the Umpqua were he normally fishes has been running high, but he expects to be on the Umpqua soon targeting both steelhead and springers.

Steelhead fishing has slowed in both the Elk and Sixes Rivers as most of the steelhead are spawning.  Anglers should keep an eye on the weather and look for some new fish to enter the rivers on the next freshet.  Elk River fishes best at 5.0 feet and dropping. Anglers can call Elk River Hatchery (541-332-7025) to get the latest gauge heights.

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“The bass fishing on Shasta is getting hotter almost every day,” reported Linda Morgan at Phil’s Propellers. “The top method for catching spotted bass is working drop shot rigs or jigs in water that is between 5 and 30 feet deep. If you want to take a more aggressive approach that will result in smaller numbers of larger fish, I’d suggest working either crankbaits or swimbaits. Guys fishing with swimbaits are starting to see quite a few bass in the 4 and 5 pound range.”

“Some good quality rainbows and browns have been reported by anglers trolling the McCloud Arm from Holiday Harbor to Hirtz Bay,” reported Gary Miralles of The Shasta Tackle Company. You want to work the surface down to 75 feet for the trout.”

“The best technique is to troll at 2 mph with Kazi Minnows 2 feet behind 8 inch Sling Blades. Bend the back of the dodger down a quarter inch, so it swings wide at this slow speed. This will cause the Kazi Minnow to rip and dart.  You can also run Cripplures in the super glow patterns like fire tiger, rainbow, or red head. Brass and red or crushed fire will work also,” tipped Miralles.

According to Miralles, another technique anglers might try is to travel up to the upper Pit Arm. You can go to any feeder creek and toss Cripplures, Kastmasters and other spoons or even a Flee Bitty into the running water. Use a slow stop and go retrieve. Make several casts and move on to the next creek.

Lake Shasta is currently 69 feet from maximum pool and rising. The surface temperature is 51 degrees.

At Whiskeytown Lake, the fishing pressure continues to be light. Trout anglers fishing from the bank will want to spend their time soaking traditional baits such as Pautzke salmon eggs, night crawlers or Berkley Power Bait.

Trollers interested in picking up a combination of early season kokanee and trout will find the best results while working a variety of depths from the surface to 40 feet deep using Needlefish, Hum Dingers, Sep’s Pro Secrets, Excels or Uncle Larry’s Spinners.

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“The 12 anglers who fished today, March 17, aboard the Checkmate were very happy with their sanddab and mackerel catches,” said Todd Arcoleo of Chris’ Fishing Trips. “They caught the sanddabs off the Monterey Beach Hotel, while they bagged the Spanish and Pacific mackerel at the edge of the Monterey Marine Canyon. The fish hit Sabiki rigs, baited with squid strips.”

Chrissy Chonacki at Randy’s Fishing Trips confirmed that the mackerel and sanddab fishing has been very good when the boats are able to fish. “We tried to make a trip on Sunday, but the boat had to return because of rough seas,” she said.

Ken Stagnaro, skipper of the Velocity, has also been making sanddab and mackerel trips out of Santa Cruz Harbor. On his latest venture, the 26 fishermen on board the Velocity caught 180 sanddabs, 150 Spanish mackerel and 140 Pacific mackerel. Their next trip is set for Sunday, March 30.

A big groundswell and wind has kept surf fishing enthusiasts from fishing the Monterey Bay State Beaches lately. “You don’t want to be on the beach when it’s as rough as it has been because it’s not safe,” said Jim Franco of J&D Auto Gone Fishing. As the weather calms down, expect fishing for barred perch and striped bass to rebound.

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Case in point: Michael Lampella of Redding caught a 24 1/2", 6 pound, 7 oz. rainbow on a nightcrawler,

“The fishing has slowed considerably with the colored water,” said Vaughn. “There are still a lot of fishermen, but best catching seems to be on bait or lures. Panther Martins are popular and bait fishermen are catching fish on crawlers, crickets and salmon eggs. Fly fishermen are not reporting much luck with any flies.

PG&E began ramping up Pit River releases to 1,500 below Pit 3 dam at Lake on March 7. The peak flows were on March 15 and 16 and then the releases will decrease back to 150 cfs by March 27. These releases are to comply with the FERC relicensing for white-water rafting on the Pit River and will affect the Pit down through Pit 5.

“The increased releases will make the river dangerously high and fast,” said Vaughn. “We do not recommend fishing during this period.”

The Pit River from Lake Britton downstream is open to catch and release fishing with artificials only with barbless hooks from November 16 through April 25, 2008.

“We still have received no reports on black bass and crappie fishing, though some locals have been out testing the water,” added Vaughn.

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“Recent big winds coupled with warmer afternoons have the ice receding. However, all that wind really stirred up the open areas of water and clarity is only good to about 6 feet. The water is green and murky and the surface temperature is 36 degrees,” disclosed Doug Neal of Almanor Fishing Adventures on March 10.

“The trolling bite has been weak this past week and will remain weak until the water clears a bit more. We saw one other boat on the lake yesterday. They were trolling and had only one brown to show for their efforts. I headed out of Recreation Area No. 1 and started marking fish right away. I wanted to check the lake, so we went south to the dam and cruised around. We marked no fish, the dam area is still iced solid and is not useable for the public yet,” said Neal.

“The westside is totally frozen from Chester to the Prattville jetties. I covered the entire east side of Almanor making a huge circle and went to all my favorite spots such as the dam, Hamilton Branch, The Snag, Big Springs, and once again we marked no fish. About 2 hours later I returned to Rec. area No. 1. There were lots of fish there holding between 30 to 35 feet deep in 40 feet of water, but the bite was pretty much over by the time I got back. I guess I shouldn’t have left,” quipped Neal.

“The best way to get action now is to do some good old bait fishing or jigging. Threaded crawlers, scented and suspended four cranks off the bottom produced a couple browns for us before the wind caused the anchor to break loose. The browns were small, weighing about 1.75 pounds, but looked really healthy. We also fished a couple of anchovy tails for kings but got no bites,” concluded Neal.

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Bass anglers have noted that the bass are becoming more active and more responsive to lures. Trout anglers fishing from both boats and the bank are hooking up consistently and the salmon bite trollers are experiencing out in front of the dam is pretty darn good.

“My customers have been catching limits and near limits of king salmon averaging around 2 pounds while fishing at Folsom Lake, “ reported John Wadden of Will Fish Tackle in Auburn. “The hot pattern has been trolling bright-colored Needlefish behind dodgers 30 to 40 feet deep in the area directly in front of the dam.”

Trout plants are underway at the lake and both trollers and bankers are reaping the benefits. Trollers are working the top 15 feet of the water column with a variety of smelt imitating spoons in both the main body and the North Fork.

Bank anglers are concentrating their efforts on the area near the Granite Bay launch ramp and at Folsom Point. Power Bait is the top offering, but live minnows and night crawlers will hook fish too.

“One of my customers went bass fishing over by Dyke 8 and ended up catching two 3 pounders while fishing with plastic worms.

Don Paganelli of Paganelli’s Bass Fishing Experience recently fished the lake for bass with a client and the duo experienced good results while dragging the bottom with jigs.

As of press time, Folsom Lake was holding 400,447 acre feet of water. The outflow was 173 cfs and the inflow was 2708 cfs.

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“My client and I put together a 23 pound limit today and yesterday we had a 26 pound limit,” reported Randy Pringle of The Fishing Instructor Guide Service. “The majority of our bass have been coming while flipping E-Chip Persuader Jigs, but we have also been getting some great quality fish while cranking No. 4 black and red Strike King deep running crankbaits. When using the crankbaits we are focusing on eddies that are from 4 to 10 feet deep.”

“If you are just interested in catching the largest fish and are disciplined enough to fish for 1 or 2 strikes a day, it is tough to beat the Optimum Double Diamond swimbait with the orange belly. The water is still a little muddy so that orange color helps the fish zero in on the bait,” said Pringle.

“Toward the end of this week a series of fronts is going to move through the area. At this point the bass have moved up and are showing all the signs of pre-spawn fish. The fronts are going to really impact the bite. To cope with the changes anglers will need to slow down and fish very methodically,” advised Pringle.

According to Pringle, he and his clients have been picking up 1 or 2 stripers a day while working swimbaits and crankbaits for largemouths. Pringle suspects that if an angler went out and spent the day throwing white or light colored baits, they would likely find that the striper action was pretty good.

For a complete Delta Report, click here.

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“Bass are starting to move into the shallows, 10-25 feet deep,” he stated. “Most bass are not real big, right in the slot limit, but a few toads in the 7-10 pound range fell for Huddlestons recently.”

Purple Roboworms, purple/brown jigs and even live bait are all producing fish. The best bass action is in the Barrett Cove, Piney Creek and Cottonwood Creek areas.

“Trout are hitting from the surface to 35 feet deep,” explained Rowell. “Flashers paired with nightcrawlers or Needlefish have seen fish up to four pounds. Barrett Cove upriver and Cottonwood Creek have been the best producers.”

Crappie have just exploded, according to Rowell. “We are seeing a day and a night bite- 25-35 feet deep over rocky submerged island tops and woody areas. Small minnows, red/white or pearl/white crappie jigs are taking limits in the Cottonwood Arm. Catfish are falling for nightcrawlers or anchovies in water 15-20 feet deep.”

McSwain trollers are finding nightcrawler/flasher combos effective on trout at the dam from the surface to twenty-five feet deep. Shore anglers working pink or white Power Eggs in the Brushpile area are taking limits of trout. 

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“Ryan Davis pulled a 3.4 pound 23 inch mack near the islands,” tipped Jim Cozzens of Sly Park Lake Resort. “We are seeing good numbers come out, but no big ones this week. The bite is scattered all over the lake and a few 1-2 pound browns are also showing up in creels lately. A couple rainbows have been caught by fly anglers near the second boat launch.”

“Union Valley hasn’t kicked out a big one this week,” said Ken Mathis of Ken’s Custom Tackle. “We are seeing small macks coming out – I would rate the bite as moderate, with the average size fish being in the two pound range.”

He continued, “We are even seeing real small macks – in the ten inch range - taking six inch lures. The bite is all over the lake and covering a lot of water will be necessary to get into 2-3 fish per rod.”

Loon Lake and Ice House are both reported to still be iced in.  

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“Good fly anglers are getting between 25 and 30 trout per day while fishing the Lower Owens River,” reported Gary Gunsolley at Brock’s Sporting Goods. “Most of the trout are falling for small caddis nymph imitations such as pheasant tails and hares ears in sizes 16 and 18. Tiger midges and other midges in black and olive colors will work too. During the middle of the day we are seeing decent hatches of blue wing olives that bring the trout to the surface where anglers can take them on size 16 and 18 dries.”

“Pleasant Valley Reservoir anglers are still achieving a good level of success while fishing from float tubes at the upper end of the lake. Streamer flies such as large woolly buggers and matukas are drawing most of the strikes,” added Gunsolley.

Looking ahead, anglers are expecting a productive trout season to come. There is a fair amount of snow in the mountains. While no one can say for sure, it is likely that a number of the region’s popular high country lakes won’t be accessible due to snow and ice on the opening weekend of the general season.

For Tom Loe's Sierra Report, click here.

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“Yesterday was a real boomer,” exclaimed Rich Henley at Crosby Lodge. “The weather was excellent yesterday and lots of large fish were landed. Five fish between 9.9 and 11 pounds were brought to the lodge yesterday in addition to three other fish that went 5, 6 and 7 pounds.”

“Bob Wheeler was fishing at Pelican Point and landed a 10.2 pounder. Justin McGee was also at Pelican Point when he hooked an 11.4 pounder. Leonard Clark was fishing near the North Nets when he hooked a 10.14 pound fish. A 10 pounder was caught by an angler using a Wiggle Wart and Cleve Ferguson got a 9.9 pounder while fishing out of a boat,” disclosed Henley.

At Pyramid Lake Store, George Molino reported that it was very windy on March 13, but described the fishing during the preceding days as “good”.

“When we get wind, it seems like the shore guys do well. When the lake lies down, the shore bite gets tougher, but then the boaters have a chance to get in on the action. We’ve had several quality fish weighed in. Tony Zamboni landed a 13.2 pounder, Bruce Rogers got a 6.8 pounder off the bank and an angler named Al hauled in an 8.1 pounder while fishing out of a boat,” said Molino.  

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“Last week we ran trips on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday and we had quite a bit of luck,” related Captain Gordon Hough of the Morning Star. “On Wednesday, our 12 anglers got 2 keeper sturgeon, 17 stripers, some big perch and 1 keeper halibut. We got all these fish while fishing shrimp baits while anchored in San Pablo Bay. On Friday, our score was 6 stripers and a halibut for 10 anglers. On Saturday, we fished east of the Pump House and ended up with 1 keeper sturgeon and 5 stripers for 18 angles.”

Captain Jim Smith of Happy Hooker Sportfishing described the fishing as “slow, but starting to get better.” “The temperature is 55 degrees and we are starting to see more action. Today we got a shaker sturgeon and lost a monster oversize fish that an angler fought for over 45 minutes. We are using a wide variety of baits including ghost, mud and grass shrimp along with roe and pile worms, “ shared Smith.

Captain James Smith of California Dawn Sportfishing has been catching both sturgeon and striped bass in recent days. “We’ve got a 52 inch sturgeon and a keeper striper in the box right now and yesterday we had a 65 inch sturgeon,” disclosed Smith on March 16. “I’m probably only going to run three more sturgeon trips up here and then I’m moving back down to the main bay. Halibut are showing up in the South Bay and I want to be in a position to get out after them in early April.”

Jay Lopes of Right Hook Sportfishing has been fishing mainly in Suisun Bay from the Moth Ball Fleet to Big Cut. His primary baits have been eel and shrimp. In recent days one of his clients scored a 52 inch sturgeon, but Lopes confided that fishing conditions have not been very favorable due primarily to the strong winds that have been plaguing the bay and West Delta.