Searing daytime temperatures greeted fishermen at Clear Lake this week and overall the successful fishing was limited to early mornings and the last hour before dark. In other words, it”s typical for summer bass fishing.
While the fishing is still nothing to brag about, those fishermen who are sticking with it are managing to put some fish in the boat. As a local fishing guide put it, “Clear Lake is now fishing very small.” By that he meant despite the vast size of Clear Lake, the actual areas holding bass are relatively small and widely spread.
Clear Lake has approximately 44,000 acres of surface area, including 110 miles of shoreline. However, the lake is shaped like a giant frying pan with two handles. Bass typically stay in areas along the shoreline and over the submerged rockpiles. In other words, bass are a fish that seeks cover to ambush its prey. With the massive amount of weeds stretching out into the lake for more than a mile in many areas, the bass are spread throughout the weeds and an angler must be constantly on the move to locate the fish.
Most of the successful fishermen are reporting they are constantly on the move until they locate fish and then they work the area thoroughly with either a topwater lure, Senko or by drop-shotting a plastic worm. Flukes are also working.
A fluke is nothing more than a soft plastic lure resembling a minnow. The lure is rigged weedless on a size 3/0 hook and retrieved so that it darts back and forth. The bass are holding in open lanes between the weed mats, so cast as close to mats as possible. Few bass are blowing up on plastic frogs although this could change as larger schools of bait fish, such as the silverside minnows, seek out the mats for protection.
The big problem continues to be the huge weed beds. In many areas the weeds are so thick that you can”t get within 200 yards of the shore or docks without clogging up your outboard motor. Because of the weed beds most of the action has switched to the south end of the lake where fishermen are finding success working jigs over the rockpiles. Drop-shotting also has been effective.
Fishermen venturing out onto the lake after dark are also finding good action near Henderson Point and Anderson Island. Jigs have been the top lure for the night fishermen.
This past week I have been noticing a large number of small young-of-the-year bass. These are the bass spawned this past spring and are 1-3 inches long. What is surprising is there appears to be no adult bass feeding on them. Typically adult bass will forage heavily on their small relatives.
Catfish action has been very good for the few fishermen after them. The deeper water in the south end of the lake is producing most of the catfish. The best baits are either cut bait or shrimp.
A few lucky fishermen have been catching crappie weighing up to 3 pounds, but overall the action remains slow.
There is no question that live bait will normally catch twice as many fish as artificials, especially when fishing for catfish and bass. One of the most effective live baits are crawdads, but up until now none of the local tackle shops carried crawdads. Lakeshore Bait and Tackle in Clearlake now sells live crawdads. They sell for $6.95 a dozen. For more information call 994-3474.
No local waters were scheduled to be stocked with trout this week. The trout action at both Upper Blue Lake and Lake Pillsbury has been very slow. There have been a few fishermen visiting Indian Valley Reservoir for smallmouth and largemouth bass. The fishing has been good but you need a small boat to gain access to the lake.
The lake level is down more than 115 feet and only four-wheel drive vehicles should be used for launching. If you get stuck it”s a long hike out for help as there is no one permanently assigned to the lake.
The Zone A archery deer season opened last weekend but I haven”t heard of any successful hunters. Several hunters reported seeing bucks in the Mendocino National Forest, but they weren”t successful.
