Clear Lake will be wall-to-wall with bass fishermen this weekend. Most of the fishermen will be competing in the America”s Vanity Cup team tournament. There will also be dozens of fishermen just out on the lake doing some recreational fishing and prefishing for the upcoming Holder Ford-Mercury team tournament that”s scheduled for Mar. 15-16.
The Vanity Cup tournament will take place out of Konocti Harbor Resort and Spa with the weigh-in starting at 3 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday. Last year, Lakeport anglers Mark Crutcher and Greg McCosker won the two-day Vanity Cup with a record setting 74.2 pounds of fish. They took home $20,000 in cash and will be competing again this year.
This year the entry fee for the Vanity Cup is $1,000 per team. The payback is based on the number of teams entered in the event. If the 200-boat field is reached the winner will take home $50,000. If the field is 100 boats then the winning team will receive $20,000.
Despite the recent blast of winter type weather the fishing should improve for the weekend. Temperatures are expected to be in the mid 60s and the water should also start to warm up. The bass should also start to stage for their annual spawning season, which starts in latter part of March.
March is also the time of the year when the fishermen break out the swimbaits. The swimbait is a large soft plastic lure that resembles a minnow. Swimbaits cost from $10 all the way up to $75 each. They range in size from 6-12 inches and are known big fish catchers.
Swimbaits are not popular with everyone but they are a proven big fish catcher. The major problem is that it takes a strong arm to cast one all day and it”s more of a tournament lure where the fishermen are looking for only five or six bites per day. There are even special heavy-duty rods manufactured for just these giant lures. The lure is retrieved with a constant reeling action and when a bass grabs it will just about jerk the rod out of the fisherman”s hand. Most of the recreational fishermen find that it”s just too much work to cast the heavy lure for hours on end.
Jerkbaits cast tight to the tules have also been effective as have jigs and shaky head jigs.
The good news is the rising lake level. As of Monday the lake level was 6.4 feet on the Rumsey Gauge. That means it came up more than a foot in the past 10 days, however it”s still lower than normal. The lake is full when it reaches 7.56 feet.
Some of the better areas have been north of Lakeport, the tules near the Lakeside County Park and the Nice-Lucerne shoreline. In the south end of the lake, Konocti Harbor has been kicking out a few bass as well as Jago Bay.
Many fishermen don”t care to invest in a high priced bass boat and instead opt to hire a guide. Several readers have wanted to know what the local fishing guides charge. Typically the guides will have two clients per trip and the cost varies from $30 to $60 per hour. The guides furnish all the equipment and will use both artificial lures as well as live jumbo minnows. There are approximately 10 guides that operate on the lake.
Terry Knight can be reached at tknight3021@sbcglobal.net or by calling (707) 263-1699. Letters intended for publication that respond to Mr. Knight”s column can be sent to letters@clearlakeobserver.com.
