The bass pros return to Clear Lake this weekend for one of the most popular team tournaments held on the lake, the fifth annual Bob”s Marine Tournament.
The tournament is open to all owners of Champion, Stratos or Javelin bass boats. Fishermen who want to enter the tournament can sign up as late as 6 p.m. tonight at the Konocti Vista Casino, Resort and Marina in Lakeport. The tournament is expected to draw about 110 teams. The entry fee, including all the options, is $200 per team. Proceeds from the tournament go to the Children”s Hospital in Central California.
The tournament is a two-day affair and the weigh-in on Saturday and Sunday starts at approximately noon at Konocti Vista. A big part of the tournament is the outstanding raffle at the Saturday night dinner. Just about everyone wins something.
Last year”s tournament drew 108 teams and it took 46 pounds to win it. Most of the fishermen are predicting that this year”s winning team will have between 40 and 45 pounds.
The fishermen in the tournament will have to work hard for their fish. Overall the fishing has been rated slow, with most of the anglers happy to catch between five and seven fish for a full day”s effort. The good news is that the weeds are starting to disappear in the north end of the lake, which gives the fishermen more water to fish. The bad news is that the lake level continues to drop and the water depth at the ends of docks in the Lakeport area is less than 2 feet.
As of Thursday, the lake level was 2.03 feet on the Rumsey Gauge, and Yolo County continues to draw water from the lake. There are also heavy algae blooms in the north end.
The top lures have been buzz baits early in the mornings and jigs or Brush Hogs during the day. Jigs have also been working during the day. The successful fishermen are casting the jigs to edges of the weed mats. A few bass are being caught on jerk baits in the clearer water in the south end. The overall action on plastic frogs has been slow although a few fishermen are catching a decent number of bass on the frogs.
One reason given for the slow fishing is because with the weeds starting to die off and the water changing color, the bass are in transition. Typically the month of September is a slow time. The cooler weather of October should improve the fishing.
Catfishing has been fair for the few anglers out after them. The best action has been in the south end, where cut bait or nightcrawlers are taking most of the fish. Crappie are still a no-show. In fact, there have been no fishermen after them.
Upper Blue Lake will be stocked with trout this week. The lake is in prefect shape so the fishing should be good. There have been very few bass fishermen on the lake but those few are catching fish by drop-shotting a plastic worm on the Highway 20 side.
Over the holiday weekend, a pair of fishermen took their float tubes to Indian Valley Reservoir and did very well on bass along the rip rap at the dam. They used jigs and drop-shotted plastic worms. Both largemouth and smallmouth bass were caught.
Zone A deer hunters go into their final two weeks of the season (it closes on Sept. 21) and the hunting has been about as poor as it can get. Hot weather and a lack of deer are blamed for the poor hunting conditions. About the only hope is for an early rain that will get the bucks into rut, but long-range forecasts call for more hot weather. The B zones open on Sept. 20 and conditions look a lot better.
