I'll be working up that way for a week and I was wondering - Should I bring my tube? Any tips are greatly appreciated.

There's not much tubable public water in Petaluma that I know of. However, you'd only be 30 - 35 minutes from Spring Lake & Fountaingrove in Santa Rosa. There's also Roberts Lake in Rohnert Park, which is even closer to Petaluma & right by the freeway. I've never tubed it, although I've heard it's allowed & that it has some big fish in it.

I have to tell you, though, that if you run to Santa Rosa between 4 - 6 PM to fish, it could take over 45 minutes because the traffic is such a mess.

Thanks a heap for the info...with me being there for a week, I may hit up all the aformentioned spots....I did some research and found a place called nicasio resevior not far away...the DFG website says that there are "some" largemouth bass in it....anyone ever hit it up?

There`s fish in there but your not allowed to tube it(i believe its drinking water)but I`ve heard from a few people that you can catch some descent bass and crappie from the shore.Also heard theres alot of ticks there so if you go be careful.I would recommend spring lake for quality and fountain grove for quantity.

Awesome BK! That settles it.....I hate ticks!

I've fished the Nicasio reservior once, my buddy and I were there maybe two hours when we noticed ticsk on us .. all told I found about a dozen ticks on me and my buddy found ahalf dozen on him ... we've never been back to Nicasio since. Defintitely, the best places to fish locally are in Santa Rosa. Spring Lake has a day-use fee andcan be very busy, Fountaingrove is free and is much less known/popular.

I've read some old reports on Western Bass about Spring Lake....Either its an over pressured, dying body of water, or the locals are trying to keep others from fishing it (lousy reports).

Any recommendations on tick repellants boys?

Cranium,

You're crazy to let those reports deter you from fishing one of the premier big bass lakes around. Some of the guys on this board have had some crazy huge sacks come out of there and there are always teen fish coming out. During one of SCBBBC's tournaments I found a dead 14lber (brought it to weigh in :+ ) and usually during one of our tournies we have big fish of at least 7 lbs with our most recent tourney having new member David P pull out a 9.65. Believe me, you want to go there! Can be tough but you will at least have a chance to pull a fish of a lifetime their.

Todd

Alright that settles it. I will include spring lake on my "tour". I'll post should anything of note happen.

If you go up after work and park in the pay area they will lock the gates on you if you are not out in time. You might want to park on Montgomery road (the back way in) when you see the dam on your right and walk to the lake from there. Just kind of hide when the sun starts setting and you will be ok. Hope you do well. There are some monsters in there but it has been brutal this year for some reason.

Thats a great tip Dave, thanks a bunch!