Bass fishing at Clear Lake has definitely turned the corner. It”s still not wide open but it has improved considerably. The results of the American bass team tournament held on Sunday are a good indication. Out of the 24 teams in the tournament, 15 weighed in limits and the winning team of Wayne Breazeale and Tyler Drake of Kelseyville had 25.21 pounds. The average weight per fish in the tournament was an impressive 3.92 pounds.
Many of the fishermen reported catching 30 or 40 fish during the tournament. The team of Mike Rothstein and Joe Pool caught more than 50 bass. The bass were caught on a wide array of lures with lipless crankbaits, chatterbaits, jigs, topwater and plastic worms. All produced good numbers of fish.
Both the north and south ends of the lake are producing decent numbers of fish. The best action has been in the afternoon and there has been some topwater action along the edges of the tules.
The best news is there are thousands of juvenile bass between 5-8 inches. Fishermen are catching dozens of these small fish on spinnerbaits and small plastic worms. Most of these small bass will be the legal 12 inches by next summer. The small bass are gorging themselves on the millions of silverside minnows. Threadfin shad are also starting to show up around the lake. Vector Control caught a number of shad in their seine nets earlier this week, some of the largest coming from the area around Library Park in Lakeport. These shad should spawn next spring, which means there will be plenty of forage for the bass.
Bluegill and redeared sunfish are also showing up in good numbers. One fisherman reported catching a number of redeared sunfish as large as 2 pounds as well as some very large bluegills. There have even been reports of a few large crappie being caught. Of course, leading the fishing parade are the catfish. Several fishermen in the bass tournament held Sunday said they caught large catfish on jigs while bass fishing. The top bait for catfish has been live crawdads rigged just under a bobber and allowed to drift with the currents. Cut mackerel and dead shad also have been productive.
There are no bass tournaments scheduled on the lake this weekend but there will be plenty of fishermen out prefishing for several major tournaments scheduled later this month. One of the largest is the Triton Boat Owners tournament slated for Oct. 9-10. That tournament is expected to draw more than 100 boats. There are also two Tournament of Champions (TOC) events scheduled for this month. Angler”s Choice will hold a TOC on Oct. 16-17 and American Bass (ABA) will hold its TOC on Oct. 22-23. Last year the ABA TOC drew 193 boats and it”s expected to draw at least that many this year.
Goose hunters have a special five-day early season that opens Saturday. Only the large Canada geese may be taken and the limit is six per day. The special season runs from Saturday through Wednesday. Clear Lake is in the special season area. The lake has about 400 resident Canada geese. The regular waterfowl season opens Oct. 23.
The Lake County junior pheasant hunt is Nov. 13 at Highland Springs, which is located just outside of Lakeport on Highland Springs Road past the airport. The number of hunters is limited to 20 youngsters. For more information, including how to apply, call (916) 358-2839 or (530) 878-3858. This year all junior hunters must be pre-registered in order to hunt.
Hot weather continues to plague B-zone deer hunters. One hunter told me he hunted near the crest of Snow Mountain last weekend and the temperature was nearly 90 degrees. He saw very few deer. The B-zone season runs through Oct. 24.
