It”s a mixed bag for the outdoorsmen and women this weekend. Bass fishermen will be out in force prefishing for the upcoming Angler”s Choice Tournament of Champions that is scheduled for Oct. 26-27. The tournament is expected to draw approximately 150 boats and will operate out of Konocti Vista Casino, Resort and Marina. The duck season opens on Saturday and the B-zone deer hunters wrap up their season on Sunday.
The bass fishermen will find the fishing is rated good but not great. One problem has been the water color, which is a rusty red caused by the fall algae blooms. The trick is to find green water and schooled fish.
The Clear Lake Bassmasters tournament held on Sunday produced 193 bass for a total weight of 536 pounds. The average weight per fish was 2.78 pounds. The tournament drew 45 teams and the winning team was the father-and-son duo of Sieg and Zachary Taylor of Kelseyville. They had a five fish limit weighing 22.82 pounds. They took home $1,700 in prize money. Zachary is only 5 years old and this was his first bass tournament.
The hot lure in the tournament was a lipless crankbait, which was retrieved yo-yo style. In other words, the lure is cast to the docks or over the rockpiles and the tip of the rod is raised and then lowered, which makes the lure bounce off the bottom.
Jigs and plastic worms also have been effective when retrieved super slow. One method that has been effective is to split-shot a plastic worm. This was one of the top techniques years ago before drop-shotting became popular.
The worm is rigged on a size 1/0- or 2/0-wide gap hook and a 1/8-ounce worm weight is pegged with a toothpick about 14 inches up the line from hook. The rig is then cast under a dock or over a rockpile and retrieved so the worm just barely slides over the bottom. When a bass grabs the worm, all you will feel is a slight pressure. I used this method during the Clear Lake Bassmasters tournament and boated five fish within the first hour. The worm I used was a 6-inch worm called the “Shark” in a light brown color with red flakes.
Both the north and south ends of the continue to produce decent numbers of fish. For the fisherman who just wants to catch a lot of fish, then drop-shotting a plastic worm is the best technique. Whichever method is used, the trick to success is a slow retrieve, the reason being that the fishing pressure has been unbelievably intense. As one fisherman put it, “in the past month the bass have seen more lures than most tackle shops carry.”
Crappie action has been just about nonexistent. A few crappie are being caught in the south end of the lake but it”s hardly worth the effort. On the other hand, the catfishing remains very good.
Trout action has slowed at Upper Blue Lake. A few anglers have been catching rainbows to 14 inches by trolling various hardware at a depth of 20 feet in the middle of the lake. The lake isn”t scheduled to be stocked until next month. Bass fishing has been fair and most of the fish are being caught in the deeper water by drop-shotting.
The lake level at Indian Valley Reservoir is dropping as Yolo County draws water from the lake for irrigation. The kokanee fishing is over for the season and the trout action should pick up when the lake is stocked this month.
Bass fishing has been good around the flooded trees. One fisherman recently reported catching 25 bass during an outing and he was the only fisherman on the lake. The road into the lake is in fair shape but a little dusty and bumpy.
Zone B deer hunters head into the final weekend of their season. The season closes on Sunday and to date the hunters have seen very few deer. In fact, the hunting has been downright terrible. A good example is the Snow Mountain Wilderness Area. This area always produced excellent hunting the final week in past years, but this year there have been very few bucks taken. I hunted there on Wednesday and spoke with a number of hunters. Most said they hadn”t seen any deer and that included does and fawns.
Duck hunters open their season Saturday and from all reports the hunting should be excellent in the Sacramento Valley. The refuges won”t open for another week because of a delayed rice harvest. In fact, many of the clubs won”t be flooded for at least another week or two. The good news is that there are a lot of ducks already in the valley.
