Bitter cold conditions have greeted fishermen at Clear Lake all week. The air temperature has been below freezing in the mornings and rising to only 38 degrees by mid-afternoon. The water temperature has been as cold as 39 degrees in the mornings and it”s only rising to 45 degrees by late in the afternoon. The result is the bass have developed lockjaw and have hunkered down.
The results of the Clear Lake Bassmasters tournament held on Saturday show just how much the fishing has slowed down. Only 10 of the 14 fishermen in the tournament weighed in bass. The winner was Ray Currie of Clearlake Oaks with 18.2 pounds. He brought in a five-fish limit. That left only seven bass for the remainder of the anglers. One fisherman weighed in three fish and two others weighed in one fish apiece. That meant the other nine fishermen didn”t catch much and the club has some excellent fishermen. Most of the anglers said they didn”t get a single bite for a full day”s effort.
Currie said he caught his bass using a shaky head jig rigged with a plastic worm. He fished the Nice-Lucerne shoreline as well as the Clearlake Oaks arm.
Of course, the most successful fishermen have been those who are using live jumbo minnows. Most of the minnow fishermen continue to catch from 10-25 fish per day. Guide Bob Myskey and his two clients braved the cold weather Tuesday and Wednesday and were rewarded with some excellent fishing. They caught 15 bass on Tuesday topped by an 8-pounder. Their best five bass weighed a total of 30 pounds. They had a better Wednesday, catching 29 bass, including a 7-pounder. Myskey said all the bass were caught on jumbo minnows. He said the water temperature at the Fifth Street ramp in Lakeport was a cold 39 degrees on Tuesday.
Most of the experienced Clear Lake bass fishermen acknowledge the bass population is down considerably compared to previous years. There have been very few bass between 1-2 pounds caught and the remaining fish are tightly schooled, with many being caught again and again. Myskey said the has been noticing a lot of the fish his clients have been catching have hook holes in their mouths from being caught before, and some even had hooks buried deep in their mouths.
Other fishermen report the bass they have been catching have been upchucking jumbo minnows. It will be interesting to see how many of the juvenile bass spawned last spring survive the winter. These small fish suffer from cold weather and many normally starve. Also, because of the lack of threadfin shad and crawfish, these small fish become prey for the larger bass and fish-eating birds such as the pelicans, grebes and cormorants. That, and the lack of crappie, indicates that Clear Lake is undergoing a transition with its fish populations. Of course, this has all happened before. In 1990 the bass population crashed and even catching one or two bass per day was an accomplishment. The fishery rebounded a few years later.
Upper Blue Lake is scheduled to be stocked with trout this week. Despite the lake being stocked an average of every two weeks, very few fishermen have been out on the lake. It could be the cold weather, but for the few anglers who have been out, the fishing has been excellent for both trout and bass.
Duck hunters were hoping the cold weather would bring the ducks to the Sacramento Valley refuges but it hasn”t yet happened. Jim Craig of Upper Lake has been hunting the Colusa Refuge at least two times a week and reports the hunting has been very slow. He said on Wednesday the ponds were frozen over and he didn”t fire a shot. Even the hunters who belong to the plush duck clubs have been complaining about the lack of birds.
