One of the more popular bass tournaments held on Clear Lake gets under way Saturday morning. It”s the Bob”s Marine Boat Owners Bass Tournament.
Bob”s Marine of Modesto has hosted the annual tournament for nine years. All fishermen in the tournament are required to fish from Champion, Stratos or Javelin boats. The two-day event goes out of the Konocti Vista Casino, Resort and Marina and the weigh-ins both Saturday and Sunday start at approximately noon. The tournament is expected to draw about 80 boats.
A year ago the tournament drew 79 teams and the winning team had 52 pounds and it took 41 pounds to finish in the money. Sign-ups for the tournament can be done as late as 6 p.m. today at Konocti Vista Casino.
The tournament fishermen will find Clear Lake is fishing very small and by that I mean much of the lake”s shoreline is too shallow and there are no fish. For example, the docks north of Lakeport have less than 2 feet of water at the outer edges and less than a foot at the rear of the docks. The bass have moved out of those areas. The same applies to much of the shoreline from Long Tule Point to Konocti Vista Casino. You have to move out into at least 5 feet of water to find fish.
The other bad news is that many of the weed mats have disappeared, making the action for plastic frogs very slow. A few fishermen are having success casting frogs or Horny Toads to some of the available weed mats, but the pickings are slim.
The good news is that cool weather in the evenings has slowed the algae blooms. There are also massive schools of silverside minnows and hundreds of juvenile bass. In addition, the lake is literally exploding with crawdads. All of this means the bass are in excellent condition. The only problem has been locating fish. The bass are tightly schooled and if you luck out and get into a school of fish the action can be very good. Unfortunately the bass will be in an area on one day and gone the next.
Another problem has been the dropping lake level. As of Thursday the lake level was at 2.07 feet on the Rumsey Gauge. There has been limited topwater action although a few fishermen are having success using plastic frogs early in the mornings. During the day the more successful fishermen are casting lipless crankbaits or drop-shotting a plastic worm.
I have been seeing hundreds of juvenile bass between 2-4 inches. If only a small percentage of these fish survive the winter the future for Clear Lake looks extremely bright. There also have been a couple unconfirmed sightings of threadfin shad. There have been reports of shad schooled at the boat ramps but most of those are actually juvenile bass.
Catfish action remains very good throughout the lake. One of the better areas continues to be Lakeside County Park where fishermen are catching catfish from the docks and shore. Horseshoe Bend and Shag Rock are two other good areas. Cut mackerel and nightcrawlers are the top baits. A few crappie are being caught off the docks at the Indian Beach Resort in Glenhaven.
No local waters were stocked with trout this past week. The East Branch of the Russian River was stocked last week and the fishing has been good. A few trout are being caught out of Upper Blue Lake but it hasn”t been stocked in nearly a month.
Saturday is a free fishing day, meaning no license is required. It is one of two free fishing days held each year.
Greg Giusti of Kelseyville bow hunted for deer in Siskiyou County last week. In five days of hunting he and his party saw a total of 358 deer of which 28 were legal bucks (forked horn or better) along with 10 spiked bucks. They ended up bagging one buck.
