12/18/2020 Lake Berryessa
Water Temp 53-57
Clear skies, light wind
We started our morning launching out of Markley Cove at around 7am and spent the first 20 minutes of the morning cruising around looking for bait to get an idea of what depth the shad were at. We found a couple of small balls of bait in the 25-40’ range, which is typical for Berryessa this time of year. We pulled up to our first spot in the narrows on a ledge in 35’ of water, after a little searching, we found some fish sitting in the 30’ range under some bait and quickly spooned a few up. Blade Runner Duh spoons in 1.25oz in shad colors worked the best for us.
After the spoon bite died down, I quickly picked up my home-made A-rigs and went to work. Keitech 4.3’s in shad colors were the best producing baits for us. I stuck with the same pattern most of the day, finding bait with fish near it and spooning and throwing the A-rig through them.
We did pick up a few fish drop shotting small keitechs also in shad colors on the more finicky fish we found but that’s not as fun as an A-rig bite. With the fish so keyed in on shad and other baitfish its critical to be around the bait to find the most active fish. Overall, the bites weren’t overly aggressive but once you got them to go it was a lot of fun. Overall, we caught 25-30 fish and finished the day with 18lbs.
If you’re interested in some A-rigs feel free to get ahold of me through Facebook.
Rob Clarke
