West Coast Bass kicks off its season Saturday with a two-day pro/am on Clear Lake. The tournament operates out of Konocti Harbor Resort & Spa and is expected to draw about 60 boats. The weigh-in starts at 3 p.m.
This tournament uses a shared-weight concept whereby the pro and amateur are paired by a drawing held prior to the tournament. There is a separate drawing for both days of the tournament. Pros and amateurs fish as a team and are allowed to weigh in five fish each day. Both the pro and am will be credited with the same weight.
The winners in both divisions are determined by the total weight for both days.
According to a spokesman for West Coast Bass, there are still openings for non-boaters or amateurs. They will be allowed to fish at a reduced entry fee. This is great opportunity for a novice fisherman to fish with a pro and learn a few tricks. Call Ed Clarke at Tackle It in Lakeport at 262-1233 for more information.
The fishermen in the West Coast Bass tournament should have plenty of company as there will be dozens of fishermen prefishing for the upcoming FLW-Outdoors tournament that starts Thursday, and the Holder Ford-Mercury tournament, which gets under way March 14. As of Wednesday the sign-ups for the Holder tournament stood at 48 teams.
A pair of bass tournaments held last weekend show the fishing has slightly improved, but not by much. WON BASS held a team tournament on Saturday and the winning team had 21.8 pounds. The tourney drew 25 teams of which 19 weighed in limits. On Sunday, American Bass (ABA) held a team tournament out of Konocti Vista Casino, Resort and Marina. The tournament drew 30 teams and 17 weighed in a five-fish limit.
The winning weight was 24.17 pounds. The overall average weight per fish was 3.17 pounds.
Most of the fishermen in both tournaments said they caught their fish in the clear water in the south end of lake at depths of 20-30 feet.
Shaky head jigs were the top lures followed by jigs.
What is strange is the lack of bass being caught in the Lakeport area. The water temperature has been ranging from 49-52 degrees and the bass should be moving into the shallow water, but for some reason they are just not doing it.
A good example was on Tuesday when I fished from Library Park to Rocky Point and didn”t get a single bite. I spoke with two other fishermen who were prefishing for the upcoming FLW tournament and they also said they hadn”t caught a single fish. Obviously the bass are there because on Wednesday guide Richard Pounds and his client caught 19 bass in the Lakeport area using jumbo minnows. Pounds said all the fish were holding in 5-7 feet of water and they averaged from 3-5 pounds.
The Nice-Lucerne area has been producing fish and the water clarity looks good. Jumbo minnows also have been effective in the south end of lake around Konocti Bay and Luebow Point. As the lake level rises the fishing should definitely improve.
The big question that a number of bass fishermen are asking is, “where are the 1- and 2-pound bass?” Even the guides are saying their clients are catching very few small fish. Normally the smaller bass will make up the majority of the fish in a lake, but this year that entire class of fish has appeared to disappear. Even the tournament fishermen report catching very few smaller fish.
Skeet Reese will be featured on the ESPN2 Bassmasters televison show Saturday morning starting at 6 a.m. local time. Reese, who just won the Bassmasters Classic in the Red River at Shreveport, La., will talk about his historic victory (he”s the first Californian to win the event). He pocketed $500,000 and is considered one of the top professional fishermen in the world.
