There is no question that bass fishermen at Clear Lake are struggling. In fact, most are saying the fishing is downright horrible and the results from the tournaments bear this out.
Nearly half the field either failed to catch a single fish or brought in only one or two during a recent tournament. What”s going on?
There are a number of factors coming into play. For one, we had a three-year drought where the recruitment of young bass was at a minimum. This means there are few bass between 12-15 inches in the lake. Most of the fish being caught weigh at least 2 pounds or more. Increased fishing pressure from all the tournaments has had an impact as well.
There is good news on the horizon and that”s the number of juvenile bass and crappie in the lake. In addition, the threadfin shad and the silverside minnows are making a comeback, which means plenty of feed for the other fish. The big news is the number of juvenile bass between 2-5 inches. These were the fish that were spawned in March and April. The lake is literally awash with these small bass.
Typically a bass spawned in Clear Lake in the spring grows to about 3-4 inches long by early fall and 8-10 inches by the following summer although a few may even grow to lengths of 11-13 inches if they find enough food.
In the first few weeks after being spawned, young bass eat mainly insects. By the time they are two months old they switch to small minnows. Largemouth bass grow exceptionally fast during their first year if the food source is sufficient. That means mostly small silverside minnows or even young threadfin shad at Clear Lake.
The one requirement is that bass put on enough body fat to see them through the colder winter months. If they don”t have that body fat they will starve.
Of course, adult bass as well as various waterfowl also prey upon juvenile bass. White pelicans eat a tremendous number of juvenile bass and crappie. An adult pelican consumes more than 4 pounds of fish a day. Grebes and cormorants also take their toll on the young fish.
If only a small portion of the juvenile bass survive the winter the fishing should be nothing short of phenomenal next year. A similar thing happened in 1990 when the bass fishery crashed. The bass population rebounded by 1992 and fishermen were catching 20-40 fish per day.
The return of the threadfin shad should also result in much larger bass in the coming years. Shad offer a high-protein diet for the bass and they will put on weight rapidly. Historically when the shad population has been high at Clear Lake the size of the bass increases dramatically.
The other good news centers on the schools of juvenile crappie being seen. Several lakeside residents have reported seeing large schools of crappie between 2-4 inches long suspended beneath their docks. Crappie are also being seen on many of the boat ramps.
Crappie feed on the schools of silverside minnows just as bass do. These crappie should be 5-7 inches by next summer, which is large enough to keep and eat. The downside is that many of the small crappie are targeted by fishermen, who will catch and keep them. There is no size limit on crappie and in the past some fishermen have been keeping up to 100 of these fish and taking them home to eat. To these fishermen, size means nothing. Three years ago when the crappie were in the lake by the thousands many fishermen took home more than their limit of 25 per day.
Of course, the success of the future fish population depends on the rainfall we receive this winter. If the lake level rises to at least 7 feet on the Rumsey Gauge the fish should survive and grow in numbers. However, if we go back into a drought then all bets are off.
