Clear Lake and Lake County will be a busy place for fishermen and hunters this weekend. There will be more than 200 boats out on the lake prefishing for the upcoming FLW bass tournament, duck season opens Saturday and the Zone B deer season ends Sunday.
The bass pros will be trying to locate bass for the FLW tournament, which starts Wednesday. It”s the richest bass tournament ever held on Clear Lake with a purse of more than $1 million in cash. The winner in the pro division will pocket at least $100,000 and could even earn an extra $25,000 if he/she is the registered owner of a 2004 Ranger bass boat.
Tournament fishermen don”t just go out on a lake on the day of the tournament and fish. In fact, they often spend several days prefishing, with the goal of nailing down eight to 10 locations where they will head during the tournament. Once they blast off on day one, they will go straight for one of these locations and hope they beat other fishermen to their favorite spots.
Clear Lake is off-limits to FLW fishermen until Saturday. You can bet just about all the bass pros will be out on the lake Saturday through Tuesday, the official prefish days.
Despite the less-than-favorable weather conditions, the bass fishing has been good, so bringing in a limit of five fish shouldn”t be a problem. The problem may be finding quality fish, and that means at least an average of 4 pounds per fish to be in contention for the first-place money.
Ed Clarke, owner of Tackle It in Lakeport, said that his tackle shop will be open at 6 a.m. every day starting on Saturday and will stay open late during the entire FLW tournament. The tournament operates out of Konocti Harbor Resort & Spa.
The Clear Lake BassMasters annual Bass Derby team tournament is scheduled for Oct. 27. Sign-ups will be accepted until blast-off on the morning of the tournament at Library Park in Lakeport. The entry fee is $100 per team. There is a $20 big-fish option. Proceeds from the tournament go toward club projects such as improving fish habitat and the annual “Take a Kid Fishing Day.”
Catfish action on Clear Lake has been very good. The Indian Beach Resort in Glenhaven held a catfish derby last weekend and the fishing was excellent from both the docks and the boats, according to resort spokesman Ken Taddie.
No local waters were stocked with trout this week. A few trout are being caught at Upper Blue Lake by trollers working the middle of the lake. The fishing pressure has been very light.
Zone B deer hunters are heading into the final weekend of their season, which closes Sunday. To date, the hunters have been seeing very few deer. In fact, the hunting has been downright terrible. A good example is the Snow Mountain Wilderness Area, which in past years has always produced excellent hunting the final week. This year has been an exception as very few bucks have been taken.
The Covelo area has been producing some decent hunting. The recent rainy weather put the deer on the move and final weekend could be the best of the entire season.
Duck hunters open their season Saturday and the hunting should be excellent in the Sacramento Valley based on all the available reports. Just about all the waterfowl refuges will be open for hunting. There also will be a good number of duck hunters on Clear Lake. The 200 bass boats running around the lake should make the duck hunting interesting. Hunters are reminded that in addition to their hunting license they also must have both the federal and state duck stamps.
