The Department of Fish and Game (DFG) is cracking down on bass tournaments held on Clear Lake and American Bass Association (ABA) will be the first to experience the consequences.
According the DFG game warden Lynette Shimek, ABA will have its permits to hold two bass tournaments on Clear Lake revoked for 2006. The tournaments were team events and scheduled for Nov. 19 and Dec. 17.
Shimek said the reason for pulling ABA”s permits was because of an incident during a night tournament held on Aug. 26. According to Shimek, the following morning 59 dead bass were found floating at Library Park in Lakeport, which was the tournament”s weigh-in site. It is believed that warm water holding too little oxygen caused the die-off.
“There were a number of serious violations that occurred during the tournament which resulted in the die-offs,” said Shimek. “Included was the release of the fish at the Fifth Street Ramp instead of a mile offshore as required.”
According to Shimek, ABA will be allowed to run tournaments on Clear Lake in 2007 but only under several restrictions. For starters, ABA must use a different tournament director and a release boat.
ABA had scheduled an all-Clear Lake tournament circuit for the 2006-07 season. That circuit will still go on, however, the first two scheduled tournaments in the circuit (Nov. 19, Dec. 17) will be canceled. The new tournament director will be Ed Clark, the owner of Tackle-It tackle shop in Lakeport.
Shimek said the DFG game wardens will be closely monitoring all bass tournaments held on the lake next year to make sure they abide by the regulations spelled out in their tournament permits.
“We want to work with the tournament organizations and fishermen to make sure their tournaments are successful while at the same time protecting the fish. It”s vital that the bass be taken care of during the weigh-in procedures so the survival rate stays high. We won”t tolerate sloppy weigh-ins,” said Shimek.
It should be noted that in past years ABA has done a good job during its tournaments. In fact, ABA donated a special release boat to the local bass club to be used during bass club tournaments.
A number of bass fishermen say the action by DFG is long overdue. There are approximately six tournament organizations operating tournaments on the lake, plus a number of specialty tournaments. While most of the organizations do a good job protecting the fish, there have beem some terrible weigh-ins conducted.
The Clear Lake Bassmasters will hold their annual Bass Derby on Sunday. The team tourney will operate out of Konocti Vista Casino, Resort and Marina.
The weigh-in starts at 3 p.m. and there will be a giant raffle following the awards ceremony. Fishermen can sign up for the tournament on Sunday morning at Konocti Vista just prior the blast-off. The entry fee is $100 per team and there is a $20 big fish option.
Tournament fishermen will find the fishing has tightened up. In fact, it”s been downright slow and most of the fishermen are struggling to put five fish in the boat for a full day”s effort.
Most of the successful fishermen are casting lipless crankbaits near the docks and back in the channels. A few bass are also being caught by drop-shotting plastic worms.
One of the problems is the dropping lake level. In many of the areas the water depth along the tule shorelines is less than 3 feet.
Sieg Taylor of Kelseyville took top honors in the California Bass Federation state championships held at Clear Lake over the weekend. Taylor had a two-day weight total of 47.94 pounds.
Catfish action remains very good throughout the lake. Many of the catfish weigh between 10-15 pounds and shrimp or cut bait continues to be the top bait. One of the better areas has been near Indian Beach Resort in Glenhaven.
No local waters are scheduled to be stocked with trout this week. Indian Valley Reservoir is scheduled to be stocked with adult Eagle Lake-strain trout later this month.
