Bass action continues to hold steady at Clear Lake where most of the fishermen are boating from 10-20 bass per day.
Mike Rothstein of Kelseyville and Jim Craig of Upper Lake fished on Thursday and caught 15 bass within a period of five hours. Rothstein said they caught most of their fish early in the day by drop-shotting. Later they switched to a lipless crankbait. Both techniques produced good action, with the largest fish weighing more than 6 pounds. They caught all their fish north of Lakeport.
Other fishermen are finding success using swimbaits. For catching large bass in the winter it”s hard to beat swimbaits. The only problem is that casting a swimbait for more than an hour can result in a very tired and sore arm. Most of the experienced swimbait fishermen use a long, stiff-action casting rod and make what are called “lob” casts.
The lure is then retrieved in a slow, steady style. When a bass grabs the lure, you will feel a hard tug.
Those fishermen using jumbo minnows continue to load up on quality-sized bass. In fact, 30-fish days have not been uncommon. The trick is to keep moving until you find active fish and then work the area thoroughly.
The good news is that you don”t have to be on the water at daylight. The best action starts at about 10 a.m. and peaks at about 3 p.m., the reason being that the water is coldest at daylight and the fish normally won”t bite. By noon the water temperature warms up a few degrees and usually that is all that”s needed to start the bass feeding. In fact, the water temperature this past week has been hitting 55 degrees by late afternoon.
A number of fishermen want to know if the popular annual Holder Ford Bass Tournament will take place next year. The tournament is scheduled for March 14-15 and will be out of the Skylark Shores Motel in Lakeport. Entry forms will be out soon. This tournament was originally called the Record-Bee/Bruno”s Team Bass Tournament when it started back in 1987.
Crappie action is still a hit-or-miss affair although a few fishermen have been doing very well on large crappie. Most of the action is concentrated around the Kono Tayee docks and Shag Rock. According to Franz Bingel of Clearlake Bait and Tackle, crappie are also being caught near Jago Bay and the Boat Works. Live minnows are the top bait.
Ken Taddie of the Indian Beach Resort in Glenhaven reports that the catfish action has been excellent off the resort”s docks. The best action has been at night using cut bait. The catfish are ranging from 5-10 pounds. Bass action is also good for those using jumbo minnows. The public can fish off the docks for a small fee.
The public uproar over the DFG”s moratorium on trout stocking at Upper Blue Lake still hasn”t died down. The Department of Fish and Game (DFG) placed all the lakes in Lake County on the no-trout-stocking list because two environmental groups sued the DFG claiming the trout would eat the endangered California red-legged frog. However, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Lake County doesn”t have any critical red-legged frog habitat and there are no red-legged frogs in the county.
Why Lake County was placed on the list is a mystery.
From all indications it will be a long time (if ever) before any of the lakes in the county will be stocked with trout.
However, Upper Blue Lake does offer excellent bass fishing and that may hold the future for the resorts on the lake if efforts to get the DFG to stock trout in the lake fail. Hopefully the DFG will reinstate Lake County to its list of areas to be stocked with trout.
