Bass and catfish will draw most of the attention this weekend at Clear Lake. The Clearlake Oaks/Glenhaven Catfish Derby kicks off at noon today and runs through noon Sunday. The derby is expected to draw approximately 450 fishermen.
Bass fishermen will also be well represented this weekend. The annual Police and Firemen team tournament started Thursday and winds up today at 2:30 p.m. The weigh-in takes place at the Skylark Shores Motel in Lakeport. In addition, the annual PG&E bass tournament is Saturday and Sunday. Five bass club tournaments are scattered around the lake this weekend as well.
The warm weather should help the catfishermen entered in the derby. Many of the fishermen will stay out in their boats all night. In past years they have had to contend with cold weather and wind, but this year the forecast is for calm winds and warm weather. Most of the fishermen will be concentrated in the Clearlake Oaks Arm around Rattlesnake Island. This is traditional catfish territory. Other excellent catfishing areas are Cache Creek, Horseshoe Bend and the Nice-Lucerne shoreline where there are hundreds of sunken tires.
This is the time of the year when the larger catfish seek out the sunken tires to spawn in. Rodman Slough could also be a big producer. The top bait will be either jumbo minnows, cut mackerel or nightcrawlers. For those few who have access to live crawdads, it has to be one of the best catfish baits on the lake. A large catfish can”t resist a live crawdad. The problem is obtaining them. Since no local tackle shops carry live crawdads the only way to get them is to trap them. The tackle shops do carry crawdad traps and the lake is full of the critters, with some of the better areas being the State Park and Rodman Slough. If past derbies are any indication it will take at least a 24-pounder to walk off with the $4,000 first-place money. The awards ceremony is Sunday beginning at 1 p.m at the Clearlake Oaks Firehouse. Fishermen can enter the derby as late as 11 p.m. tonight.
As the first-day results for the Police and Fireman tournament showed, the bass fishing has been very good and is close to breaking wide open on the lake. Topping the leaderboard at the end of the first day was the team of Jon Squaglia of Roseville and Tyler Smith of Granite Bay with 27.5 pounds. The tournament drew 37 boats and 10 weighed in more than 20 pounds on day one. The tournament is a fundraiser for Casting for Recovery, which is a nationwide organization that teaches breast cancer patients how to fish.
The bass have moved into the shallows and can be found throughout the lake back in the holes in the tules. I lucked out on Tuesday and managed to catch 14 bass in a space of two hours by pitching a 4-inch Kitech swimbait rigged drop-shot style back in the tules in the north end of the lake. Two other groups of fishermen near me were are also catching fish after fish using the same technique. It was nonstop action and the bass ranged in size from 3-6 pounds. Senkos rigged wacky style also have been effective. Bass are also being caught by sight fishing them on the spawning beds. The jumbo minnow action has tapered off as we move into the warmer weather.
A few large crappie are being caught by fishermen around the docks in the north end of the lake and at Glenhaven Beach, but overall the action is still slow.
Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey were out on the lake this past week taking blood samples from Western Grebes to check for mercury levels. They trapped the birds at night by shining a spotlight light on them and then scooping them up in nets. On Tuesday night they obtained 22 grebes and all were released safely.
Trout action continues to be rated good in nearby lakes and streams. One angler reported seeing bank fishermen scoring on trout at Upper Blue Lake. He also caught four from a boat. The East Branch of the Russian River at Potter Valley is also producing trout. The stream was scheduled to be stocked this week. Indian Valley Reservoir as well as Lake Pillsbury also have been kicking out good numbers of trout.
