Northern CA Freshwater Fishing Report

Bass bite still excellent at Lake Oroville BY PAT YOUNG/WON Staff WriterPublished: Jun 01, 2012

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OROVILLE — Guide Ron Gandolfi reported that the bass bite at Lake Oroville was still on fire, with clients catching an average of 50 fish each this past week despite windy weather.  The whole lake was producing — from the North Fork down through the main body into the Middle Fork — and windy points and mudlines were a sure thing. “The whole lake was fishing really well this past week,” Gandolfi said. “The fish were all post-spawn and feeding heavily on pond smelt and crawdads.  Tubes in ‘old ugly’ and motor oil were working very well on the points, and spinnerbaits drew lots of strikes on windy points and mudlines. Even the clients who needed help figuring out the tackle and the bite were catching 50 fish a day.  The bite was light so you had to keep a close watch on your line as the fish picked up the bait and swam for deeper water.”   Gandolfi said that most of the spots were 13 to 15 inchers — slot fish — though his clients were picking up 6 to 12 fish over 15 inches everyday that weighed 2 to 3 pounds. The afternoon bite was better than the morning bite for numbers of fish, according to Gandolfi.   Gandolfi reported that there were plenty of trollers looking for coho salmon.   “Trollers were doing well on the coho running dodger/hoochies at 40 feet deep at the Green Bridge, up in the Middle Fork, and at the dam this past week.”