04-14-2003, 07:40 PM
[cool]I lived a lotta years in Sacramento, and fished most of the inland waters. While there are small lakes and places on the bay...and the lower river to fish...you should look to the hills to find the esthetics and the quality of fishing you would like. There are numerous lakes full of smallmouth, spotted bass, largemouths and trout all up and down the foothills of the Sierras. Some you can reach from the Bay area in two or three hours.
When I lived in Sacramento, I lived right on the American River, where I caught lots of steelhead, salmon, stripers and shad...and catfish. I was only a few minutes from Natoma and Folsom Lakes, both on the American. For lots of crappies, bass and catfish, I liked Clear Lake...about three hours north of the bay.
If you find clear impoundments with catfish in them, you will sometimes catch more cats on lures than the guys who soak stink baits off the banks. Wherever cats are in clean water, they become sight feeders and will attack all the standard lures tossed for trout and bass. Clear Lake is a good example. It is full of small silverside minnows, which are food for all the species in the lake. Toss a small white jig for crappies in there and you can also hook cats up to twenty pounds on light gear.
Don't give up. Just look farther afield. And try new places and new techniques.
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When I lived in Sacramento, I lived right on the American River, where I caught lots of steelhead, salmon, stripers and shad...and catfish. I was only a few minutes from Natoma and Folsom Lakes, both on the American. For lots of crappies, bass and catfish, I liked Clear Lake...about three hours north of the bay.
If you find clear impoundments with catfish in them, you will sometimes catch more cats on lures than the guys who soak stink baits off the banks. Wherever cats are in clean water, they become sight feeders and will attack all the standard lures tossed for trout and bass. Clear Lake is a good example. It is full of small silverside minnows, which are food for all the species in the lake. Toss a small white jig for crappies in there and you can also hook cats up to twenty pounds on light gear.
Don't give up. Just look farther afield. And try new places and new techniques.
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