Clear Lake never fails to amaze me. Not only is it one of the oldest lakes in the Western Hemisphere, but it is also one of the top bass lakes in the nation if not the world.
The results of the 24th annual Holder Ford-Mercury/Konocti Vista Casino Team Bass Tournament held Saturday and Sunday continues to astound even the professional bass fishermen.
On Saturday, the first day of the tournament, 59 teams weighed in more than 20 pounds each. That”s a 4-pound average per fish. The final results show that 42 fishermen had a two-day weight of more than 40 pounds. Compare that with the results of last year”s tournament when it took only 44 pounds to win. A grand total of 967 bass weighing 3,939 pounds were brought to the scales during this year”s tournament ? nearly two tons of fish.
What was really amazing was that 90 percent of the fish were caught in 15 percent of the lake. In other words, the bass couldn”t have been more tightly schooled. On Saturday morning, 27 bass boats congregated at the entrance to the Clear Lake State Park. There were nearly 50 bass boats jammed at the entrance to Rodman Slough. The area from Konocti Vista Casino to the Lakeport Lagoons was jammed with boats during the entire tournament. Other areas were void of boats.
On Sunday morning, I drove from Library Park in Lakeport to Rocky Point and didn”t see a single boat until I got to Rocky Point. I found the same results along the Nice-Lucerne shoreline. In other words, very few boats. A few of the fishermen went south at the blast-off and said there were practically no fishermen south of the Narrows. Why were there so many bass congregated in very small areas is a mystery. One of the reasons could be that the bass are starting to school before moving into the shallows to spawn, but not even that explains why there were few or no bass in some of the traditional spawning areas.
The fishermen who did locate the bass did extremely well. The team of Mike Rothstein and Steve Kelly caught a limit within an hour of blast-off on both days. On Sunday, they caught more than 25 bass from one small area near Konocti Vista Casino. Rothstein said he and his partner had the most success casting a Lucky Craft LV500 lipless crankbait. They ended up in 20th place with 44 pounds. Swimbaits and chatter baits were by far the most popular lures used during the tournament.
The lack of smaller bass continues to be source of concern for many anglers. Few bass less than 2 pounds were weighed in. In fact, most of the fishermen said the smallest bass they caught were in the 3-pound class or larger. The good news is the bass are in excellent condition, which means they are finding plenty of food.
Do the results of the tournament mean Clear Lake”s bass fishery has recovered? The jury is still out on that. Whereas the size of the bass in Clear Lake is way above the average in comparison to other lakes, the overall numbers still appear to be down. It will be interesting to see how some of the upcoming tournaments, such as this weekend”s Angler”s Choice Pro/Am, will do. That tournament is expected to draw approximately 100 boats and these will be some of the most skilled fishermen on water.
As for the Holder tournament, everything went perfectly. June and Ed Clarke of Tackle It, along with the volunteers from the Clear Lake Bassmasters bass club, did an excellent job running the tournament. They established rules and stuck by them. The blast-offs in the mornings went flawless. The same applied to the weigh-ins and awards ceremony following the tournament.
Kudus also go out to Chuck Holder and Richard Hoover, who handled the sign-ups. There is no question the popular tournament will be around for many years and will get better each year.
