After setting national records during tournaments held earlier this year at Clear Lake, Bassmasters won”t include Clear Lake on its tournament schedule in 2008. In fact, the Bassmasters Elite Series won”t be holding a tournament on the West Coast next year.
The Bassmasters Elite Series held at Clear Lake in March broke several national Bassmasters records, including the heaviest weight for a four-day tournament (122 pounds, 14 ounces). However, the ESPN-owned company decided that coming to the West Coast in 2008 didn”t fit its plans. Lake Amistad in Texas is the closest Bassmasters will come to the West Coast next year.
According to Lakeport Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Melissa Fulton, there is the possibility the Bassmasters series could return in 2009.
With Bass-masters abandoning the West Coast, the only national major tournament organization returning to Clear Lake next year is FLW Outdoors. The FLW tournaments typically draw from 190 to 200 boats and the organization normally holds two tournaments at Clear Lake each year.
There are several reasons Bassmasters won”t return in 2008 and one is them is most likely money. Bassmasters typically asks the host city to pay from $25,000 to $50,000 just to get one of its tournaments. Lakeport didn”t pay anywhere near that kind of money this year, but other cities do often come up with that kind of money.
Bass tournaments are not a spectator sport. Unlike many other sports, in bass tournaments no one would pay to watch a weigh-in. The money to run a tournament has to come from entry fees and sponsorship money.
The other factor is the long distances that competitors are required to travel to fish the West Coast lakes. In comparison to the Southern states where the lakes are close together, the major lakes in the West are often hundreds of miles apart. Traveling these long distances costs the fishermen a lot of money.
If and when Bassmasters returns to the West Coast you can bet Clear Lake will be their first choice for the simple reason that it”s the best bass lake in the country for producing big weights.
n Bass fishing still good
Bass fishing on Clear Lake continues to be very good. That”s the good news. The bad news is the weeds are growing like crazy and are already choking off areas. For example, in the Lakeport area the weeds are already extending out at least a half-mile from shore in many locations. Many of docks in Lakeport will become too weedy to fish in the next couple of weeks.
Most of the successful fishermen have been working the edges of the tules from the state park to the county park. The hot lure this past week has been a Senko cast to holes in the tules. A few of the fishermen are rigging the Senko “wacky” style.
The Senko is nothing more than a large, straight-tailed plastic worm. When you rig it wacky style, you place the hook in the middle of the worm. This gives the worm more action. The only downside is that you will hook it into weeds. Drop-shotting a plastic worm also has been very effective.
The best fishing has been in the south end of the lake near Rattlesnake Island, where fishermen have been working jigs over the rockpiles. Jago Bay also has been producing decent numbers of fish. In fact, bass are being caught off the wall at Redbud Park.
American Bass will hold a team tournament Saturday. The tournament will operate out of the Skylark Shores Motel in Lakeport, with the weigh-in starting at noon. Fishermen can sign up for the tournament either Friday evening or Saturday morning before the blast-off at the Tackle It tackle shop, which is located next to the Skylark Motel on N. Main Street.
A few crappie are starting to show around the docks in the south end of the lake. The docks at Indian Beach Resort in Glenhaven are also producing crappie
Tiny Letts Lake, located in the Mendocino National Forest, was stocked with trout this week and should be a good bet for the weekend. Letts Lake can be reached by taking U.S. Forest Service Road M-10 out of Stonyford.
Only small boats without motors are allowed or the lake can be fished from shore. The lake contains both trout and bass.
There is no size limit on the bass. This is a great lake to take the family camping.
Trout fishing at Upper Blue Lake remains slow because the Department of Fish and Game hasn”t stocked the lake in nearly a month. The same applies to the East Branch of the Russian River.
Ocean salmon fishing off Fort Bragg has been red-hot one day and nothing the next. Most of the experienced salmon fishermen say it”s been a strange year and trying to pattern the salmon has been nearly impossible.
