Cold, wet and windy weather continues to plague fishermen at Clear Lake. The good news is the lake level is rising and the bad news is the bass fishing remains poor.
A good indication of the poor fishing were a pair of tournaments held over the weekend. WON BASS held a team tournament Saturday that drew only 15 teams, of which 10 failed to catch a single fish. In fact, there were only seven bass weighed in, and the winning team caught only two fish that weighed 6.96 pounds. On Sunday, the same organization held a Future Pro tournament that also drew 15 teams. That tournament did a little better but not by much. Again 10 teams failed to weigh in a fish. A paltry eight fish were caught during the tournament and the winning weight was only 9.28 pounds.
What was perplexing was that the weather for the tournament was decent. The lake was calm and the water temperature varied from 44 to 47 degrees. I attended the weigh-in Saturday and spoke with a number of fishermen and they were confused about why they weren”t even getting a bite.
Hopefully the rising lake level will improve the fishing. The bass should be moving into the tules and beneath the docks, especially in the north end of the lake. Fishermen drop-shotting a plastic worm or using a Shaky Head jig should start catching some fish. On Thursday morning the water temperature at Library Park in Lakeport was a chilly 42 degrees.
The one thing that nearly everyone agrees on is the lack of threadfin shad. During the tournament on Saturday all the fishermen said they didn”t graph any baitfish. Apparently the recent cold weather has killed most of the shad. Another indicator of a lack of shad is the disappearance of the grebes, gulls and pelicans. Apparently the birds have moved on to other lakes.
February is typically the slowest time of the year for the bass fishermen and this year, with colder-than-normal temperatures, the fishing has been slower than in past years.
The good news is that overall the water clarity has improved despite the rapid rise in the lake level. Guide Bob Myskey said he is seeing good water color but the fishing has been slow. He fished on Monday using jumbo minnows and caught only two fish.
“Slow is the word whether fishing with live minnows or artificials,” Myskey said. “You have to be patient to be successful when the water temperatures are this cold.”
At Clear Lake, a 50-degree water temperature is the magic number. When the water warms up to that temperature the bass start to become more active and feed. That should start to happen within the next week or two.
100 Percent Bass will hold a team tournament Saturday. The tournament operates out of Tackle It tackle shop in Lakeport and the weigh-in starts at 3 p.m. at the Skylark Shores Motel in Lakeport.
Bass tournaments are scheduled on the lake for every weekend through the month of June. The tournaments should provide a good indicator of how good, or bad, the fishing will be this summer.
Crappie continue to be a no-show. In fact, I haven”t heard of a single crappie caught the past two weeks. A few catfishermen are catching the smaller bullheads and the occasional channel catfish.
Upper Blue Lake is scheduled to be stocked with trout next week. The Department of Fish and Game normally stocks the lake on either Wednesdays or Thursdays. Bass fishing has been rated fair. A fisherman fishing from a float tube caught and released five bass weighing up to 4 pounds earlier this week.
The lake level at Indian Valley Reservoir continues to rise as more storms hit the area. The road into the lake is muddy and no one has been fishing.
