Lake Oroville Spring Bite

Been a while since I posted a good report. Wrapped up in the Instagram fishing world. But John's incredible reports inspired me to get one up! First off I want to say I have been a very blessed guide with great guests on my boat lately, guys and gals who fish hard, not the tourist types, many of whom are on this board. Big thanks to you all! Keeping everything running like a well oiled machine. I really appreciate all the support no matter how big or small.

Here's the report! We are basically in full swing for the Spring bass bite here on Oroville. The action is going absolutely nuts. A few days ago I had the privilege of guiding Vaughn Willet and Larry Morrissey and they set the record for my boat on the fish counter. We clicked 95 fish landed. I might have had days where we've boated more, but I have never clicked them. So that was an official record for my experience.

The bass begin biting at dark before sunrise, and just keep chomping down until dark. It is an all day thing right now. Lots of fish in the 1.5-2.5lb range. The crazy numbers of 3-4lb fish will be showing up any day.

The early morning topwater bite began with a big boom, then abruptly died. Why I have no idea. It normally stays steady through summer once it begins mid-late march. But that bite is not gonna be off forever so I'm confident to say it will begin any day again. When this ramps up I will have guys throwing weightless streamers on a floating lines as well. Then streamers on a type 4 line or so too. Then on a typical day we will begin the float n fly around 11:00 or noon, the fish then magically get bigger and the numbers increase.

But for my last 3 trips or so, the float n fly is currently king. We have basically been forced to start it in the morning right off the bat, skipping topwater and streamers, but it sure is producing. Bobber drops on ever other cast just about. 8’ leader black leech has been best.

Anywhere on the main lake is fishing great. Look for the Lupins and grass, coves and windbreaks, rocky areas. This is where the fish are stacked, it's basically all over the entire lake. I encourage anyone to get out here yourself and give it a shot if you have a boat! And I do have some openings if anyone might be interested. This incredible action will last through May then the float n fly bite will begin to taper off.

TOURNAMENT UPDATE: I have been fishing the Wild West Bass Trail team tournament circuit again this year. I am using my fly rod 100% of the time against pro conventional anglers. And my partner Kirby is using conventional. We are currently sitting in 3'rd place out of 181 boats for overall points. There are 4 tournaments and 1 championship tournament in this series. Lake Shasta, Lake Oroville, Clear Lake, and the Delta. Then Shasta for the Championship. We only have one tournament left on the Delta at the start of next month then the totaled points will be finalized. It's getting very interesting!! I'm due for a whole specific post on the tournaments, but here are the quick basic results from the 3 tournaments we have completed this year.

Lake Shasta: 14'th place 163 boats
https://wildwestbasstrail.com/shasta-teams/

Lake Oroville: 4'th place 140 boats
https://wildwestbasstrail.com/produc...le-teams-2022/

Clear Lake: 36'th place 130 boats (Fly rod did not do good on this one)
https://wildwestbasstrail.com/produc...ke-teams-2022/

Current Standings: https://wildwestbasstrail.com/2022-n...eam-standings/

Ryan - Thanks for putting up a report. That is phenomenal fishing - about a month of bites in a day. Berryessa is close for me but I might have to give Oroville a try. Vaughn loves bass on the bobber so it is great to see him have a big day.

Fly anglers everywhere are rooting for you in the tournaments. It takes some courage to get out there. I could not do it. I like to be able to have a bad day and have nobody know about it. Sounds like Kirby is a great partner to have.

I really appreciate it John! I think you would surprise yourself in a tournament during the Winter or Spring with the float n fly! On any nearby reservoir. You know the right conditions, and if the conditions are right I know you got low odds at a slow day! And yes Kirby has been an absolute dream partner. Just going so smooth this time around. Really been a fun deal.

Ryan - You have it backwards: we we privileged to fish with you on Friday. It was a remarkable day. John is right, I do love bass on a bobber. After fishing with you in January and getting a refresher course, I fished New Melones DYI for the first time at the end of March and made it work. Huge fun.

John - your input on Berryessa was icing on the cake! I still have a lot to learn when it comes to "reading" the bobber. I missed plenty of bites, especially early in the day. Bassin Rules!

Great report! How is the lake level? I noticed they were letting out some water the last two months.

Very kind words Vaughn. Thank you so much!! Music to my ears. Applying the bobs elsewhere is what it's all about. Endless locations to do so!

And Smitty, the lake is not in that bad of shape. I mean it is still very low. But we got enough rain to keep us from an apocalyptic event this summer at least. And we are getting a little rain here and there too still, short but heavy downpoors have been occurring here. So it's definitely not dry here in Oroville, especially higher up by the lake. The water levels are rising again, they would have been rising this entire time since winter, but they had bumped the flows up on the Feather at one point, the lake began to drop REALLY fast again, but then they lowered the flows to normal and now the lake is slowly on the rise again.

Phone number for voice recording of lake levels, Feather River flows, temps, etc. 530 534 2307