This past week has seen the game wardens come down hard on fishermen snagging crappie on Clear Lake. According to Department of Fish and Game game warden Lynette Shimek, wardens issued citations to two groups of fishermen who were allegedly snagging crappie this week.
“We set up a video camera in one popular fishing area and not only observed the fishermen snagging the crappie but got it all on tape,” Shimek said.
Shimek said that in addition to citing the fishermen she also confiscated their fishing equipment. According to Shimek, none of the fishermen cited were from Lake County.
Snagging is illegal. DFG regulations state that a fish must take the lure voluntarily in its mouth. If the fish is snagged, even accidentally, it must be released back into the water.
Apparently what the crappie snaggers are doing is locating a large school of fish and then casting their lure over the school and allowing the lure to sink
When they feel the lure bump a fish, they set the hook hard. Most of the time the fish is either snagged in the tail or back. The fishermen are using either jigs with an exposed hook or even a spoon with treble hooks.
Even legitimate fishermen occasional snag a crappie but most will immediately release the fish.
Bass fishing continues to be very good on Clear Lake as a pair of weekend tournaments showed. On Saturday, the Clear Lake Bassmasters held a club tournament and the winners were Dennis and Brody Bramlett of Kelseyville with a five-fish limit weighing 22.36 pounds. They said they caught their fish by drop-shotting a plastic worm.
Most of the fishermen in the tournament caught from 15 to 40 fish. The shaky head jig was the top lure.
On Sunday, American Bass held a team tournament and the winning weight was 22.41 pounds. It took more than 18 pounds to finish in the money. Twenty-seven of the 30 teams in the tournament weighed in limits of fish.
Angler”s Choice will hold a team tournament on Saturday. Fishermen can sign up for the tournament at the Clear Lake Outdoors tackle shop located on South Main Street in Lakeport the morning of the tournament. The weigh-in will be at Konocti Vista Casino, Resort and Marina starting at 3 p.m.
The best action has been in the north end of the lake. The docks at Lakeport are producing good numbers of fish. The Nice-Lucerne shoreline also has been productive.
The hot lure continues to be the shaky head jig rigged with a 6-inch plastic worm. The trick to success is to fish very slow.
Trout action is rated fair at Upper Blue Lake. The lake was stocked with trout last week and the more successful fishermen are trolling the middle of the lake with either Needlefish or Kastmasters. Bass action is slowly starting to improve. The more successful fishermen are drop-shotting plastic worms at depths of 20 to 30 feet.
Indian Valley Reservoir continues to be very good for trout. In fact, most of the fishermen are having little trouble catching a limit of Eagle Lake-strain rainbows that will range in size from 14-21 inches. The hot lure has been a red/gold Kastmaster trolled at a depth of 10-15 feet in the middle of the lake. The road into the lake has been a little muddy but is improving daily.
Steelhead fishing in the Russian River should be prime by the weekend. Prior to the storm, the river was full of steelhead but the recent storm blew out the river. The water is now starting to drop and the river should be fishable by Saturday.
Ocean salmon season opens off Fort Bragg on Saturday. The party boats will be out for the opener but overall the salmon fishing is pretty spotty this early in the year. Most of the fishermen consider it a good opener if they can put a single salmon in the boat.
