It”s a full agenda for the outdoors crowd this weekend. The pheasant and wild turkey season opens Saturday, waterfowl season is in full swing and fishermen will be out on Clear Lake going after bass and catfish.
After weeks of unbelievable fishing pressure on Clear Lake because of a series of major bass tournaments, the number of fishermen on the lake has slacked off considerably. There will be a WON BASS team tournament on Sunday but it”s expected to draw only 20 boats. The weigh-in will be at the Skylark Shores Motel in Lakeport beginning at 3 p.m.
The big question is where are the big bass? To date very few bass weighing more than 8 pounds have been caught. The results of the American Bass Tournament of Champions held last weekend are a good example. Of the 197 boats in the tournament, only two bass weighting more than 8 pounds were weighed in. In fact, not a single bass weighed in the 7-pound class and only a few 6-pounders were caught. The double-digit bass seemed to have disappeared. Overall the bass fishing on the lake has been holding steady and most fishermen report catching from five to 10 fish per day.
The hot lure continues to be a lipless crankbait in the bright shad color and the best technique has been the yo-yo method. Drop-shotting a plastic worm also has been effective as have live jumbo minnows. The bass are also tightly schooled. Typically the fishermen report working a long stretch of shoreline and catching nothing and then catching fish all of a sudden after fishing in a very small area. Local fishing guide Ross England had two clients out on Wednesday and they caught a total of 19 bass using jumbo minnows in the north end of the lake.
Did you ever wonder how many casts it takes to catch a bass? I fished with Mike Rothstein of Kelseyville on Wednesday and we were casting crankbaits. Over a six-hour period we managed to catch nine bass. I timed our casts and it took approximately 30 seconds to complete each cast. With two of us casting, that came to four casts per minute or 240 per hour. I figured that we fished steady for five hours with an hour spent rigging and moving from one location to another. Five hours of casting resulted in 1,200 casts for nine bass. That comes out to an average of 133 casts to catch one fish. Bass fishing is not an easy sport.
Catfishing action has been fair to good depending on where you fish. One fisherman reported catching five catfish on crankbaits while fishing for bass near Rattlesnake Island. A few catfish are also being caught at Library Park in Lakeport and at Lakeside County Park. Indian Beach Resort in Glenhaven reports the catfishing has been very good off its docks.
No local lakes are scheduled to be stocked with trout this week. Upper Blue will be stocked next week. The trout action at Upper Blue Lake has been rated good although there are few fishermen out. Bass fishing has been fair for those drop-shotting a plastic worm along the highway.
Turkey hunters open their fall season Saturday and bagging a bird should be no problem as there are turkeys everywhere. Several people want to know how you clean a wild turkey. A turkey can either be plucked or breasted out. For those who prefer to pluck a turkey, it”s best to heat a bucket full of water. Cut off the head, wings and tail of the turkey and dip the carcass into the hot water. Completely submerge the bird and hold it in the water for about three minutes. Then just grab a handful of feathers and give a sharp jerk. The feathers will fall out.
If you want to breast the bird, first pluck out the breast feathers and then take a sharp knife and fillet out each side of the breast. Cut off the legs and discard the rest of the bird. Cook the bird much as you would with a domesticated turkey.
