With it being winter time I like to focus on the motherlode lakes for the aggressive spots that are almost in every lake here in CA. Today I went out and hit Camanche and was greeted with freezing cold temps in the high 20*s and blanket of fog that was covering the valley all the way up to the lake.
The lake was covered in fog all morning in the main body and up river till about 1030-11 when it started to burn off and eventually air temps warmed up to the low 50*s. Morning water temps started at 45* and eventually warmed up to 54* when I left the lake and water clarity was 4-5ft main lake and stained and 2-3ft and dirty from the narrows to up river. It took a little while to figure out the pattern and depth they were holding and feeding in but once I figured that out as far as where they were positioned and how they were feeding they were chewing.
They were biting A-Rigs counted down to the 15ft depth range and deep ripbaits early morning till around noon and once the sun popped out and sky’s cleared they pushed deep and were sitting in the 25-30ft range. Bottom contact baits like football jigs with a Yamamoto twin tailed grub worked with a dead stick and twitched and dead stuck again presentation were my main bite and pattern but they were also chewing the ned rig and were spitting up craws and goby’s in my livewell.
I had over 25 fish in the boat and the once the fog burned off it was actually a warm and beautiful day out on the water. I hope this helps you out the next time you’re out on the water and good luck and tight lines. Make sure to check out rbbassfishing.net for the latest updates and reports from the motherlode to the delta.
RB Bass Outdoors Angler Jacob Swaim