Go early or go late still is the best advice for bass fishermen at Clear Lake. Despite the recent rains the best fishing has been from the first three hours after daylight and the last two hours before dark. During the middle of the day the bass are holding under the weed beds offshore.
The other hot lure on the lake continues to be a Senko rigged wacky style. A 3/0 wide gap hook is used and it is pushed through the Senko in its middle. The worm is cast under the docks or in a hole in the weeds and allowed to settle to the bottom. The tip of the rod is twitched to make the worm dance. This has been a deadly combination. The best action continues to be in the north end of the lake from the State Park to Lakeport. The Nice-Lucerne shoreline is also providing good action.
Topwater action is good for those casting Riccos or plastic frogs to the weed mats, Troy Bellah of Clear Lake Outdoors in Lakeport said that earlier in the week he caught a dozen bass using topwater lures in the evening.
There are a lot of bass being caught in the 8- to 10-inch class. These small bass will attack any lure that they can find. They are a perfect fish for a youngster to catch, but remember by law a bass has to be at least 12 inches long before it can be kept.
Just about every location on the lake is producing fish and the good news is that the fishing pressure has been way down. On any given day there are only a few bass boats on the lake.
A few crappie are being caught near Kono Tayee and Shag Rock. The docks at the Indian Beach Resort are also producing a fair number of crappie. Bluegill are still being caught in large numbers for those targeting them. Mini-crawlers rigged drop-shot style has been the best set up. The area from the Lakeside County Park to the State Park is loaded with large bluegill. Shag Rock is another good area.
Catfish action is also very good with most of the fishermen catching from 5-10 fish per outing. Both the north and south ends of the lake are producing decent numbers of both channel and white catfish. The way you can identify the two species is by counting the rays on the anal fin. A white catfish has 19-23 rays and a channel catfish has 24-29 rays.
Trout action has slowed at both the East Branch of the Russian River and Upper Blue Lake. Both areas won’t be stocked again until the week of July 19. The bass action at Upper Blue Lake continues to be very good.
The ocean fishing off Fort Bragg has been terrible for salmon but excellent for lingcod and other bottom fish The waters temps have been has high as 58 degrees which is way too warm for salmon. It’s part of the El Nino weather pattern that is predicted to provide above average rainfall this fall and winter.
The Zone A deer archery season opens on Saturday and runs through Aug. 2. Most of the southern portion of Lake County is in the A zone. The Mendocino National Forest will draw most of the bowmen where they can expect fair conditions but not a lot of deer. The top areas in the national forest are from Upper Lake to Lake Pillsbury. Other areas in the national forest that offer good hunting are Pine Mountain, Horse Mountain, Bartlett Springs, High Glade, French Ridge, Goat Mountain and Pitney Ridge. From all indications the county’s deer herd continues on its downward spiral. There are a number of reasons for the lack deer and they range from predation by coyotes on the fawns to a lack of suitable habitat. Hunters are urged to be extra careful with campfires as the forests are extremely dry.
