Bass action at Clear Lake continues to be slow although a few fishermen are doing well. Whereas most of the fishermen had little trouble boating 20 to 40 fish per day a few weeks ago, now most are working hard to catch five or 10.
There are a number of reasons for the slowdown in action. The hot weather has caused a weed explosion, which has widely scattered the fish, and the lake level continues to drop. The weeds should start to die off in the coming weeks. Most of the aquatic weeds end their annual cycle by mid-September and most are gone by the end of October.
There has been a decent topwater bite early in the mornings, but by 9 a.m. most of the successful fishermen are switching to jigs or drop-shotting. The dropping lake level is also making the bass move offshore. Fishermen report catching bass as far as one-half mile offshore in the Lakeport area.
The results of Saturday”s Angler”s Choice team tournament indicate just how much the fishing has changed in the past two weeks. The tournament drew 54 boats and the winning team had only 20.15 pounds. It took only 17.33 pounds to finish in the money. A few weeks ago, the winning teams were checking in with 30 or more pounds.
According to several fishermen who fished in the tournament, it was one of the best weigh-ins held on the lake in a long time. Guide Ross England (who competed in the tournament) said he has never seen a better weigh-in.
“They gave out numbers to each team and you were required to stay in your boat until your number was called. The result is that there were no long lines of fishermen at the scales and the weigh-in went very smoothly, plus the fish were taken care of,” England said. “The people running the tournament deserve a lot of credit for a smooth weigh-in,” he added.
Assigning each boat a number is the way to go as it limits the number of bags and fishermen standing in line. It also keeps the fish in water right up until they are placed on the scales. The staff of Angler”s Choice showed that it”s easy to conduct a good weigh-in with just a little extra effort. If all the tournaments organizations issued weigh-in numbers to the fishermen there would be no controversy between the Department of Fish and Game and the tournament fishermen.
No bass tournaments are scheduled for Clear Lake over the long Labor Day weekend. Even so, that doesn”t mean there won”t be plenty of fishermen out on the lake. In fact, on any given weekend there are at least 100 or more bass boats on the lake. The trick to beating the crowd is to be on the lake at daylight and to get off the water by 2 p.m.
No local waters were scheduled to be stocked with trout this week. A few fishermen are catching trout at Upper Blue Lake by trolling deep in the center of the lake. The bank fishing has been very slow.
Bass fishing at Upper Blue Lake is rated fair but you have to go deep with a drop-shot rig to locate the fish.
At Indian Valley Reservoir, the lake level is down close to 100 feet from full and the northern end is dry ground. There has been very little fishing activity and there are fewer than five boats on the entire lake even on weekends. About the only action has been for bass and catfish.
Dove season gets under way at daylight Saturday morning and hunters can expect a fair season. There are a fair number of doves in the county and if the weather stays warm, the opener should be good.
Traditionally, the dove hunting has never been rated very good in the county although there are pockets that hold a fair number of the speedy birds. The best public hunting area is the Cache Creek Wildlife Area.
The forecast for the dove hunting in the Sacramento Valley ranges from fair to good. There are very few public areas that hold enough doves to hunt.
Deer hunters are still looking for cool weather to get the bucks more active. To date, the hunting has been slow. That should all change within a week or two as the bucks start to go into rut.
