One of the more popular bass tournaments held on Clear Lake gets under way Saturday morning. It”s the Bob”s Marine Boat Owners Bass Tournament. Bob”s Marine of Modesto has hosted the annual tournament for a number of years. All fishermen in the tournament are required to fish from a Champion, Stratos or Javelin boat.
The two-day event goes out of Konocti Vista Casino, Resort and Marina and the weigh-ins both Saturday and Sunday start at noon. The tournament is expected to draw more than 100 boats.
Tournament fishermen will find that Clear Lake is fishing very small. By that I mean much of the lake”s shoreline is too shallow and there are no fish. For example, the docks north of Lakeport have less than 2 feet of water at the outer edges and less than 1 foot at the rear of the docks. The bass have moved out of those areas. The same applies to much of the shoreline from Long Tule Point to the Konocti Vista Casino. You have to move out into at least 5 feet of water to find fish.
The other bad news is that many of the weed mats have disappeared, which makes the action for plastic frogs very slow. A few fishermen are having success casting frogs or Horny Toads to some of the available weed mats, but for the most part the pickings have been slim.
The bass are also tightly schooled and if you luck out and get into a school of fish, the action can be very good. I fished a small area of less than 200 yards and caught eight quality bass with two weighing more than 5 pounds on Wednesday. As I reeled in each fish I observed several more bass following it right to the boat. The fish were caught on a Skitterpop topwater lure and on a Lucky Craft LV500 lipless crankbait fished yo-yo style. That”s where you cast the lure and retrieve it with an up-and-down motion of your rod tip. This makes the lure go up and down like a yo-yo.
Most of the action has been taking place in the deeper water in the south end of the lake. The docks at Nice and Lucerne are also producing decent numbers of fish. The trick to success has been to keep moving until you locate fish and then plan on staying there for a long time because the bites are few and far between.
The good news is that I have been seeing hundreds of juvenile bass between 2-4 inches. If even a small number of these fish survive the coming winter the future looks extremely bright for Clear Lake. I also found a small dead shad floating near Library Park in Lakeport while fishing Wednesday. This is my first confirmed sighting of threadfin shad since last winter. There have been reports of shad schooled at the boat ramps but most of those are actually juvenile bass.
Yolo County has completed taking its yearly allotment of water from the lake. As of Thursday the lake level was 1.2 feet on the Rumsey Gauge and slowly falling. Just about everyone is predicting it will hit zero on the Rumsey Gauge by November.
I am always fascinated by the abundant bird life on Clear Lake. Early this week I had the opportunity to observe a flock of white pelicans feeding in the shallow water at Lakeport. The birds would herd the small fish into shore and surround them and scoop them up with their large bills. They paid no attention to me and I got within 10 yards of the flock. It was an awesome sight. Later in the day I noticed a pair of grebes with baby chicks. These are the first grebe chicks I have seen in two years and it was a welcome sight to learn they are successfully nesting on the lake.
No local waters are scheduled to be stocked with trout this week. Upper Blue Lake was stocked last week and the trout fishing has been fair, with the more successful anglers trolling in the middle of the lake.
Sandie Elliott”s retirement from the wildlife rescue organization Spirit Wild leaves a big void that will be nearly impossible to fill. Elliott founded the organization and saved thousands of injured birds and other wildlife throughout Lake County. She would think nothing of getting up in the middle of the night to rescue injured wildlife. To Elliott an injured sparrow is an important as a fawn with a broken leg. Few people are as caring of our wildlife as Elliott. She deserves to sit back and finally relax.
