LAKE COUNTY >> Clear Lake’s staying power as a favorite bass fishery among the many tournament circuits that visit it each year remains strong.
The host of more than 40 major tournaments every year not to mention many more club tournaments, Clear Lake pulled down major kudos on Monday when Bassmaster Magazine selected the largest lake completely contained within California’s borders as the No. 3 most popular lake with the country’s bass fishermen, and No. 1 in the West.
According to Bassmasters Magazine editor James Hall, the top 10 lakes in the nation are ranked regardless of location. However, in a change from past years when lakes were simply ranked 1-100, Bassmaster Magazine decided this year to break down the country into four regions — West, Central, Northeast and Southeast – and rank the top 25 lakes in each area.
The top 10 lakes overall are Toledo Bend Reservoir on the Texas-Louisiana border; Santee Cooper Lakes in South Carolina; Clear Lake; Lake Erie in New York (30-mile radius from Buffalo); the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta; Mille Lacs Lake in Minnesota; Lake Berryessa; Rodman Reservoir in Florida; Falcon Lake in Texas; and Lake St. Clair in Michigan.
In the West region, Clear Lake finished ahead of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, Lake Berryessa, Lake Havasu (Arizona-California), Dworshak Reservoir (Idaho), Lake Casitas, Tenmile Lake (Oregon), Lake Washington (Washington), Don Pedro Reservoir, and Saguaro Lake (Arizona), among others. Shasta Lake finished 22nd.
The No. 1-ranked lake in the nation, Toldedo Bend Reservoir, has major credentials. It hosted the A.R.E. Truck Caps Bassmaster Elite in May and Kevin VanDam won with almost 100 pounds even though the anglers were fishing in tough conditions after regional flooding had occurred.
“The lake has yielded 139 certified bass over 10 pounds with a 14.15-pounder topping the list,” Hall said.
Clear Lake’s No. 3 ranking was no shock to Hall, who said the lake has always been rated near the top. According to Hall, the criteria used to rank the lake had a lot to do bass tournament results, current catch rate data and average size of bass caught. A panel of judges plowed through all the data to determine the rankings.
One lake made an incredible comeback after nearly falling out of the top-100 list because of drought. Falcon Lake in Texas, ranked No. 1 in the nation in 2012, bounced back to No. 9.
The top-100 Best Bass Lakes list will be published in an eight-page section of the July/August issue of Bassmaster Magazine. The complete ranked also will be featured on Bassmaster.com.
