The recent Bob”s Marine Bass Tournament and other tournaments scheduled in the coming months show just how popular and important bass fishing is at Clear Lake as well as at other lakes in California. Actually, bass are by far the most popular game fish in the world and not only among recreational fisherman, but among professional bass fishermen as well. In fact, the recreational fishing industry in Lake County is built around the largemouth bass.
Both largemouth and smallmouth bass are members of the sunfish family. They are not native to California or the West Coast. They were first introduced into the state 1874 and in Clear Lake just before the turn of the 20th century. Prior to that time the only native game fish in Clear Lake was the Sacramento Perch. Clear Lake”s other native fish such as blackfish and hitch are not considered game fish.
The first bass brought into the state were the northern largemouth and they soon adapted to the lower-elevation waters. Clear Lake, with its warm shallows waters and rich nutrients, offered ideal habitat for bass and they flourished. However, it wasn”t the bass that drew anglers to Clear Lake, but the crappie, which are also a member of the sunfish family and not native to California. In those days just about all the fishermen kept their fish to eat and crappie were preferred over the bass because of their delicate flavor. Catch-and-release for bass didn”t become popular until well in the 1970s.
Creel surveys done by the Department of Fish and Game (DFG) on Clear Lake in 1968 showed that 37 percent of the fishermen went after crappie and less than 1 percent fished for bass. However, a survey done in 1988 found that 67 percent of all the anglers fished for bass and only 6 percent for crappie. Today, it is estimated that approximately 85 percent of the fishermen who visit Clear Lake fish exclusively for bass.
In 1969, the Department of Fish and Game recognized that Clear Lake had the potential to become a trophy bass lake and decided to improve the fishery. They planted 136 adult Florida-strain species of largemouth bass in the lake. The DFG followed that initial stocking with 242 Floridas in 1970 and 58 additional Florida bass in 1971.
Florida bass grow larger and livelonger than northern largemouth bass. They are also considered harder to catch. The typical northern largemouth bass can live up to 12 years and a Florida bass can live up to 17 years. The current lake record bass of 17.52 pounds, caught by Jerry Basgal in 1990, was 12 years old. It was a Florida-northern largemouth mix.
It was known that Florida bass will breed with northern largemouths and the Florida genes will quickly dominate, but it even surprised the biologists just how fast that would occur. In 1975, just four years after the last Florida bass was stocked in the lake, the DFG took random samples of bass and found the Florida genes in 17 percent of the bass. In 1976, that count went up to 27 percent, and by 1978 it was 52 percent. What this meant was that in seven years 52 percent of all the bass in Clear Lake were either Florida-northern largemouth mix (called intergrades) or pure Florida bass. By the mid-1980s all the largemouth bass in the lake were considered to be carrying the Florida gene.
To further help the bass fishery, the county stocked the lake with thousands of pure Florida bass fingerlings. From 1986-90, more than 100,000 Florida fingerlings were stocked in the lake.
The result of introducing Florida bass into Clear Lake has been dramatic. The size of the bass continues to increase. The results of bass tournaments held on the lake are a good example of this. Last year, the average size per fish caught in a tournament was more than 3 1/2 pounds. Few lakes in the country can match that. In fact, even in the well-publicized lakes of Florida there are none that can boast a 3-pound-plus average per fish. To win a bass tournament at Clear Lake takes at least a 5-pound average per fish. There are very few major lakes in the country that can come even close to matching that.
There is no question that Clear Lake can rightfully be called the “Bass Capital of West” and the future for bass fishing here looks even brighter. This past spring there was an excellent hatch and juvenile bass are being seen by the thousands. What more could a fisherman ask for?
The father-son team of Sandy and Bryan McGeoch of Lakeport won the Bob”s Marine team bass tournament held last weekend at Clear Lake. Their two-day total was 47.46 pounds and they won $2,475 in prize money. The tournament drew 65 teams.
