Clear Lake will be a busy place this weekend. A two-day float tube tournament expected to draw 100 fishermen opens on Saturday, which is also the first day fishermen can begin prefishing for the FLW-Outdoors Series Tournament scheduled for Oct. 21-24. That tournament is expected to draw about 100 boats.
Just about everyone is wondering what impact the rainfall earlier this week had on the bass fishing. The good news is that the lake level is holding steady and not dropping. The other good news is that much of the green algae is gone. There wasn”t enough rain to start any flows into the lake with the exception of a few storm drains. A check of the major creeks on Wednesday afternoon showed they are still dry.
The successful fishermen are finding the bass tightly schooled and the trick is to keep moving until you can locate fish and then stick with it.
Several fishermen are wondering exactly how the winning team at the Triton tournament caught its fish. Mike Rothstein and Joe Pool located several small areas that were holding good numbers of bass at least a week before the tournament. The trick was to catch these fish. Their secret was casting a LV500 Lucky Craft lipless crankbait in the ghost pattern and they used either the yo-yo retrieve or retrieved the lure with a slow, steady retrieve. Both techniques produced a lot of fish.
For example, Rothstein said he made eight casts in one small area and caught eight bass. All the fish averaged between 3-5 pounds. Most of the fish caught were holding at depths of 1-3 feet in the north end of the lake. In other words, they fished shallow.
Tournaments are often won with one fish and that”s what happened to Rothstein and Pool. During the final 30 minutes of the tournament on Sunday, Rothstein caught a 5-pound-plus bass, which when added to the team”s other fish was just enough to win the tournament by a little more than a pound. Their two-day weight was 40.26 pounds. Second place was 38.84 pounds. That one fish turned out to be worth $5,200. It”s the old story of never giving up.
The rest of the fishermen in the tournament reported catching fish using a number of techniques. Some drop-shot a plastic worm in the deeper water at Henderson Point and other deep areas. A few were successful using swim baits. Crankbaits also were effective. Topwater action has been slow.
Many of the local fishing guides have switched to jumbo minnows and they are averaging 10-20 fish per outing. The docks in Konocti Bay and Jago Bay have been producing a lot of fish.
Ted Alba of Richmond recently caught a Sacramento Pike Minnow while fishing at the Sea Breeze Resort and wanted to know how common they are in Clear Lake. At one time the pike minnow was very common but there have been very few reported being caught in recent years.
No local waters were scheduled to be stocked with trout this week. Upper Blue Lake will be stocked next week. The trout action at Upper Blue Lake has been ranging from fair to good. The fishing pressure has been light and both trollers and bank fishermen have been catching trout.
B-zone deer hunters are heading into the final week of their season (it closes Oct. 25) and the recent rains should have the bucks moving out of the high country. To date, the season has been rated fair, with most of the successful hunters working the Mendocino National Forest near Covelo. There have been very few hunters in the Snow Mountain area.
Several people have inquired about the Lake County Junior Pheasant Hunt. The date is Nov. 14 and the hunt takes place at Highland Springs, located just south of Lakeport. This year there will be only one hunt and the limit is 25 junior hunters. All hunters must pre-register as there will be no sign-ups allowed on the day of the hunt. Hunters are required to download an entry form off the DFG”s web site at www.dfg.ca.gov/wildlife/hunting/uplandgame/gamebird/2009SpecialHunts/index.html. For more information call (916) 358-2839.
