Warm and sunny weather is expected for the upcoming Holder Ford-Mercury Team Bass Tournament this weekend. The tournament gets under way at daylight on Saturday and is expected to draw more than 100 boats.
As of Thursday morning, 67 teams had signed up and another 40 are expected to sign up today. Sign-ups will be accepted at the Holder Ford dealership in Lakeport until 5 p.m. today. Blast-off is at Library Park in Lakeport and the weigh-in begins at 3 p.m. at Konocti Vista Casino, Resort and Marina on Saturday and Sunday.
This year there is no Saturday night barbecue, so Saturday”s standings will be posted at the Konocti Vista Motel and at the Tackle It tackle shop in Lakeport. The standings also will be posted on the web at www.tackleit.biz/ within an hour after the weigh-in is complete.
Despite the warm weather and rising lake level, the bass fishing at Clear Lake has been only rated fair. Most of the fishermen that have been prefishing for the tournament report they have been working hard to put five decent-sized bass in the boat. The best action remains in the south end of the lake near Rattlesnake Island and in the Clearlake Oaks Keys. The docks in Konocti Bay are also producing a few fish.
The top technique has been either drop-shotting a plastic worm or working a shaky head jig slowly along the bottom. The swimbait bite has been slow. As expected, the more successful fishermen are using live jumbo minnows.
The bass are tightly schooled and you have to keep on the move to locate fish. A good example was on Wednesday when I found a school of fish in a very small area. Six casts produced four bass. I moved on down the shoreline and didn”t get another bite for two hours. Other fishermen reported similar action.
Most of the fishermen in the tournament predict it will take about 45 pounds to win the tournament. Last year the winning team had 53 pounds, and it took 36 pounds just to get a check.
As we move into the spring months more and more fishermen are convinced that the overall population of bass in Clear Lake is down slightly, and this is especially true of the local fishing guides. They are out on the lake just about every day and many believe the population is definitely down, especially in regard to the smaller bass that weigh from 1- 2 pounds. It appears that the 1-pound class of bass is missing. We will all know for sure later this month when the spawning season starts.
It”s not only the bass that appear to be fewer in numbers, there are practically no crappie and even the catfish population is down. The big question is why?
The most likely answer is a lack of food. There are still very few baitfish and as one individual who traps crawdads for catfishing told me even that population is down. To back that up, there are very few fish-eating birds out on the lake. The western grebes should be arriving to nest but there have been few of these birds that once numbered in the thousands.
Of course, this isn”t unusual at Clear Lake. Few lakes in the West change from year to year as much as Clear Lake. One year the lake will be teeming with fish and the next year … nothing.
The Lake County Fish and Wildlife Advisory Committee will take up the subject of funding for trout stocking at Upper Blue Lake. The Department of Fish and Game (DFG) has stopped stocking the lake because of a lawsuit but private funds can be used. Narrows Resort owner Art Cerini will make a presentation to the committee about the cost to stock the lake and where trout can be purchased. The meeting will be in the Supervisors Chambers at the Lake County Courthouse in Lakeport and starts 6:30 p.m. on March 19. The meeting is open to the public.
The spring wild turkey season doesn”t open until March 28 but there is a special statewide youth hunt on March 21-22. Any person under 16 who has a California junior hunting license can participate. The junior hunter can be accompanied by an adult, but the adult isn”t allowed to hunt.
