Bass fishing at Clear Lake is kicking into high gear. The warm weather has resulted in the bass moving into the shallow water to resume their spawning cycle.
The other factor is the clearer than normal water. Fishermen say they can see clearly down to a depth of 8 feet, someplaces even more. At Clear Lake it”s not unusual for the bass to spawn as late as August.
The top lures this past week have been either a Senko rigged “wacky” style or a jig worked slowly along the bottom. A Senko is one of the best all-around lures in the tackle box. It can be rigged either weedless or wacky style with no weight. Clear Lake Outdoors in Lakeport makes special weedless hooks for wacky rigging a Senko. Cast the lure and allow it to slowly sink to the bottom. Often a bass will grab the lure as it falls. Once it hits the bottom, slowly raise the tip of your rod and drop it. This action will allow the Senko to rise and fall. Normally when a bass grabs the lure it will inhale it and swim off.
The warm weather also has resulted in some decent topwater action. Plastic frogs cast back into the flooded tules are taking bass to 6 pounds. Skitter Pops are also working when cast back into the openings in the tules.
The 15.4-pound bass Fred Williams of Kelseyville caught last weekend has drawn a lot of attention. Most fishermen have never seen a bass that large much less caught one. He felt very bad the fish died before it could be released. The fact is that if the fish had been caught in a tournament it also would have died. The stress of fighting the hook was just too much for the aged fish. It also goes to show just how rare a bass of that size is, regardless of the lake.
Bass have been in Clear Lake for more than a 100 years and few lakes receive the fishing pressure that this lake does. There has been one fish weighing more than 17 pounds caught (the lake record), no 16-pounders and very few 15-pounders. This is pretty amazing considering tens of thousands of fishermen have visited the lake in the past 50 years.
Catfish action is starting to improve on the lake as the channel catfish go into their spawning mode. Channel catfish spawn when the water temperatures reaches 70 degrees. Recently the water temperature has been ranging from 70-75 degrees. The sunken tires of the Nice-Lucerne shoreline are holding hundreds of catfish. Catfish are also being caught in the Redbud arm of the lake with Cache Creek being one of the hotspots. Cut mackerel has been the top bait. If you can find them, live crawdads are one of the most deadly catfish baits in existence.
Crappie and large bluegill are starting to show up around some of the docks. The traditional fishing areas such as Shag Rock and Kono Tayee are kicking out most of the crappie. Bluegill are being caught in several locations around the lake. Two of the better areas have been Shag Rock and the Lakeside County Park.
No local waters were stocked with trout this week. There are still holdover trout being caught in both Upper Blue Lake and the East Branch of the Russian River. Bass are still grabbing most of the attention at Indian Valley Reservoir. The few fishermen out on the lake have been catching both largemouth and smallmouth bass near the dam. One effective method has been to cast a white spinnerbait where the shad are busting the surface. Catfish are also being caught from the shore. Lake Mendocino has been providing some excellent smallmouth bass fishing with the best action being along the eastern shoreline. Tiny Letts Lake, located in the Mendocino National Forest, was stocked with trout this week. The lake also has been providing some excellent bass fishing although they are small ? most averaging only about 12 inches.
