Bowmen take the spotlight this weekend on Clear Lake as the Paradise Bowhunter”s annual Clear Lake Bowfishing Championship carp shoot gets under way Saturday morning.
This popular event will host approximately 150 boats and they will be scattered around the lake looking for carp in the shallows. The weigh-in both Saturday and Sunday takes place at the Natural High School grounds in Lakeport (located near the Fifth Street boat ramp). The weigh-in Saturday is 4 p.m. and the weigh-in Sunday is 2 p.m.
The boats the bowmen use are specially designed for carp shooting. They have raised platforms and are equipped with electric trolling motors to move the boat through the shallows. The bowmen use special arrows rigged with fishing line. After shooting a carp they just reel it in. These guys are so good they often get two or even three carp with one shot. The winning team will have somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 pounds of fish. The dead carp are taken to a field outside of Lakeport and buried following the tournament.
Bass fishermen are still waiting for some decent weather. To date, this has to go down as one of the coldest and wettest springs in recent memory. The water temperature has been as low as 56 degrees in the mornings and only rising to 60-62 degrees by late afternoon, which means many of the bass still haven”t spawned.
The good news is that despite the horrible weather the bass fishing has been good as most of the fishermen are catching from eight to 12 fish per day. The hot lure this past week was a jig flipped back into the flooded tules. Drop-shotting a plastic worm also has been effective. There have even been reports of fishermen having success by casting plastic frogs back in the tules.
One of the better areas has been from the State Park to Long Tule Point. The docks in the Lakeport area have also been producing decent numbers of fish. The Nice-Lucerne shoreline is also rated from fair to good. In the south end of the lake, the Clearlake Oaks Keys continue to produce bass. Konocti Bay has been another good area.
Some of the best news on the fishing scene is the crappie action. Several fishermen report catching crappie at Kono Tayee, Shag Rock and even off the docks in the Lakeport area. The crappie have been huge, some weighing more than 3 pounds. Clear Lake Outdoors in Lakeport now has the smaller crappie minnows in stock. They sell for $4 a dozen.
Catfish action has been good and most of the action is taking place in the south end of the lake. Cache Creek continues to be one of the better areas. A few catfish are being caught off the docks along the Nice-Lucerne shoreline.
No local waters were stocked with trout this week. Upper Blue Lake is kicking out a few fish for trollers but the bank fishing has been slow. Bass action has been improving for fishermen using jigs, Senkos or drop-shotting a plastic worm. The East Branch of the Russian River is also giving up a few trout with nightcrawlers or small spinners, such as the Panther Martin, being the top lures. Indian Valley Reservoir is providing very good bass fishing but there are no kokanee in the lake and only a few holdover trout. Boats can be launched at the dam. Bass and an occasional bluegill are providing all the action at Lake Pillsbury. The bass action has been improving as the water warms up and the fishing pressure has been low. No trout have been stocked in the lake for more than a month.
Regardless on where you fish in Lake County, all boats are required to have a current quagga mussel sticker. There are still a number of locals who think because they obtained a sticker a couple of years ago that it is still valid. In February the Board of Supervisors changed the ordinance to require all local boaters to obtain a new sticker every year.
