Despite the freezing temperatures, the bass fishing at Lake Sonoma was surprisingly really good. I was supposed to head up to Clear Lake to do some filming on Friday, but Hwy 29 was closed because of nearly a foot of snow on the summit from the previous day. Luckily my buddy Hank was able to get a "sick day" from work, so he met me at Lake Sonoma at around 10:30 am. We were in between storms, the sky was clear, there was a light south wind, and you could still see last nights full moon in the sky. Water temps were in the low 50's and had about 3-4 ft visibility. We idled toward the Warm Spring Arm, and started fishing before we even got out of the no wake zone. It only took 10 minutes to get our first four fish in the boat, three smallmouth and one largemouth bass. All were in the 2-3 lb. range and came off the same point. A 3/8 oz. football jig (brown/red) with a Reaction Innovations Smallie Beaver (California 420) as a trailer was the hot bait. We then moved to another point across the way and caught a few more bass on the jigs, including a nice 4.5 pound largemouth. All the bass were sitting in 15-25 feet of water, and were in areas with a mix of rock, wood and a ledge. It was now around noon, and the next storm front was beginning to move in as the sky darkened. We hit a few more points in the area, but it seemed the fish began to turn off a bit. Hank had to head home, so I dropped him off at the boat ramp at around 2:30. I went back out and started fishing the area just passed the no wake zone. Finally at around 4pm I caught 2 more bass, fishing a steep rocky wall, one largie and one smallie. Both came on a Lucky Craft Staysee 90 (Table Rock Shad). I then bounced around to a bunch of similar looking areas to try to duplicate the pattern, but had no luck. Right before dark I managed one more smallmouth bass on the jig.
Rus Snyders Guide Service
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