By Terry Knight
Lake County sportsmen and women will have a full plate this weekend.
There are bass and catfish opportunities at Clear Lake and the B zones deer season gets underway on Saturday morning.
Even the weatherman is cooperating with cool weather forecast for the weekend.
Bass fishermen are still struggling but the fishing should improve with the cooling weather.
Last weekend”s Bob”s Marine tournament fielded 86 boats and most of the contestants said they had never seen the fishing so tough. For example, on both days of the tournament only 16 teams weighed in a five fish limit.
The winning weight was 39.26 pounds for 10 fish and it took 23 pounds of bass to get a check. The big fish on Saturday weighed 7.64 pounds and on Sunday the big fish weighed 6.04 pounds.
The most productive area was in the north end of the lake and white spinnerbaits or plastic Senkos were the top lures.
There were a few bass caught on plastic frogs cast to the weed mats. Just about all the anglers reported seeing massive schools of baitfish. These baitfish were either silverside minnows or juvenile bass. There were also a lot of crawdads seen including one angler who said he saw crawdads crawling on the top of the weed mats.
The Northshore Lions Club will hold a bass tournament on Sunday out of the Lucerne boat ramp. The entry fee is $120 per team with two options.
Fishermen can sign up as late as Sunday morning either at the ramp or at Lucerne Bait and Tackle. The weigh-in will start at 3p.m. Call 274-2544 for more information.
Catfish action continues to dominate the fishing scene at Clear Lake. Just about everyone is catching catfish at just about all the locations around the lake. Two of the more successful catfishermen have been Gary Hill and Fred Williams of Kelseyville.
Hill said they have been catching at least six catfish every evening while fishing near the State Park. In fact, even a number of bass fishermen in the tournament over the weekend reported catching catfish on jigs or plastic worms.
The Department of Fish and Game (DFG) will be stocking Upper Blue Lake with trout during the week of Oct. 11. There will also be a final stocking of the year in December.
Deer hunters will be out in force this weekend. The B zone season gets underway on Saturday morning and weather will be a major factor for success. Rain is forecast at some of the higher elevations.
The good news is some of the bow hunters reported seeing a fair number of bucks in the northern part of Mendocino National Forest at the higher elevations. Areas like Hull Mountain and the Snow Mountain Wilderness area are holding decent numbers of bucks. Typically the B zone deer stay at the higher elevations until the first rains hit and then they head for their wintering grounds at the lower elevations.
Hunters are being advised that the woods is tinder dry and to be very careful of forest fires. All it takes is one cigarette or campfire to ignite a roaring forest fire. Hunters should also leave a note with a loved one or a friend on where they will be hunting and when they expect to return. It”s easy to get hurt while hunting and if no one knows where you”re at, rescue teams could spend days looking for you.
The A zone deer season still has a week to go, it closes on Sept. 26, and most of the local hunters will be happy to see it end. This year will more than likely go down as one of the worst seasons in modern times. Many of the ranchers say they are seeing fewer deer this year than any time in recent years.
No one knows what has happened to the deer herds but they just keep declining every year. As one hunter told me, “Deer hunting has turned into more of a hiking experience that a hunting one.”
