Fishing Report For Lake Mendocino, CA

By Rick Seaman

March 24, 2025

Popular Fish Species Reports
Lake Mendocino Fishing Video
Available Fish Species
Today's Weather & Forecast
Boat Launch Ramps
Marinas
Fishing License
Map
Contact Info

Fishing Report Lake Mendocino

Fishing Reports

Popular Fish Species Lake Mendocino, CA

Largemouth Bass

Current Report: Fair To Good
Outlook: Good

Largemouth bass are being caught on a wide variety of lures here. Expect good fishing this year, with plenty of bass over 3 pounds being caught regularly. Tournament anglers report that jigs, jerkbaits and stick worms are often their primary bait. Largemouth here compete with both smallmouth and striped bass for food, so you might catch any of these on any cast.

Striped Bass

Current Report: Fair To Good
Outlook: Good

The area around Miti Campground, south to the dam, is where a lot of striped bass have been caught recently. As the water warms, stripers migrate up lake into the river area to spawn. This spawn run is beginning now. Being successful at fishing for stripers here is a matter of locating schools of bait, and wolf packs of stripers are likely to be nearby. Trolling is the most common way to fish, until you locate a school. Fish finders are a big help in locating these roaming schools. Swimbaits, jerkbaits, crankbaits, spoons, live bait and cut bait are all catching striped bass here.

Black Crappie - White Crappie

Uncle Buck's Panfish Creatures Curly Tail Minnow Rigged

Current Report: Fair To Good
Outlook: Good To Very Good

Crappie fishing has been fair at Lake Mendocino over the cooler months, but it is starting to heat up as the water warms. Spring is here, and it's the premiere time to be on the water as crappie move into shallow coves to spawn. Brush and rocky areas are a good place to cast small crappie jigs or live minnows. Light tackle with 4 lb to 8 lb line is ideal. Locals report using fish finders to locate schools of crappie, which tend to stack vertically around cover.

Fishing Video

Fish species to fish for...

Guide to fishing for largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, channel catfish, white catfish, black crappie, white crappie, bluegill, redear sunfish and striped bass at Lake Mendocino in California.

Lake Mendocino is a 1,920 acre reservoir with about 10 miles of shoreline. Largemouth and smallmouth bass are favored species. Catfish, crappie, bluegill, striped bass and sunfish also swim in these waters.

Primary fish species residing in Lake Mendocino

Click images for fishing tips and details about each species.

Today's Weather & Forecast

Public Boat Launch Ramps & Landings

Click here for boat ramps available at this lake.

Fishing License

Click here for a California fishing license.

Map - Fishing & Access

Rick Seaman is a fishing enthusiast with over five decades of fishing experience, a retired tournament fisherman, author of numerous published articles on fishing, and co-author of the book "Bass Fishing - It's not WHAT you throw, It's WHERE you throw it".