Clear Lake

Fred LeDrew and I hit this lake last week.

The count was 18 keeper bass by noon. Had a couple of blow-ups on a black/yellow head frog — but no top water landings. Most of the fish came from the 20-foot band on drop shotted natural colored plastic worms.

Don’t jiggle them around — just leave them on the bottom. Hit on the first tap.

This is different from other years where you wanted to let the bass pull against the reel and just lift up.

Bob Rider at Lakeshore Bait & Tackle in Clearlake (994-FISH) reports that the catfish bite is best at night and from a boat.

Stop in to get some mackerel, shrimp/marshmallow combos or night crawlers for best results.

Napa River

Yep, more of the same. Shaker stripers from the bank with cut bait. Pick your favorite spot and bring the kids this weekend. They’ll need a break after starting school so early.

Bodega Bay

Six packs out of Wil’s Bait & Tackle (875-2323) have been going north for rock cod limits all around.

They have a few open spots for Labor Day. Call to get yours.

Good news is that the rock cod season will continue to Nov. 30 below Point Arena (that’s us) but will close above on Sept. 4.

San Pablo

Dam Reservoir

Big bass bite big swimbaits.

Saturday, Steve Proz fooled a trophy largemouth bass with a top water swimbait. The bass was nine pounds, 13 ounces.

Reports are that the rainbow trout pattern is the hot ticket at San Pablo.

El Dorado County

When they learned that Caples Lake here was going to be drawn down to repair two slide gates in the dam, concerned outdoors people joined to help move trout stocks to nearby Silver Lake.

Led by the California Sportsfishing Protection Alliance and Trout Unlimited, more that 80 volunteers moved (and saved) hundreds of wild trout.

California Delta

Cam Nguyen of Bob’s Bait & Tackle in Isleton provided the inside scoop on trolling rigs for stripers.

Shallow runners should be 140 feet behind the boat at 4 to 5 mph.

Deep rigs should be 100 feet back at 2.5 to 3.5 mph. Use Bombers, Yozuri or Broken-back Rebels with a plastic worm on the middle hook.

It must work — he used these to limit out with an 8- and a 12-pounder the other day.

Dick Pool of water4fish.org reports that State Senate Bill AB1806 was defeated by a count of 21-18. After reams of testimony and support from every fishing group, this important legislation was killed.

It simply required both the state and federal Delta pumping facilities to fully mitigate for fishing damage they have caused.

You can weigh in on issues of interest by going onto their Web site at water4fish.org. It gives you a quick one-minute opportunity to tell your legislators what you think.

Close to 100,000 Californians have signed on in less than a year.