There have been complaints from fishermen that the recent fish die-off on Clear Lake was the result of the county issuing permits to spray herbicide to kill the weeds around the lake. Carolyn Ruttan of the Lake County Water Resources Department says that’s not true.
According to Ruttan, no spraying has been conducted on the lake in the past five weeks. She also said the county allows lakeside residents to spray no more than 30 percent of the area around their docks. Ruttan added that the state does not use liquid chemical pesticides but only chemicals in pellet form, which are distributed only in the area around hydrilla plants.
By Ruttan’s estimates, the total area sprayed around the lake adds up to only .0082 of 1 percent of the entire lake’s surface. The lake surface area is 44,000 acres. Ruttan also said the reason the lake has few surface weeds is because the algae blooms cloud the water, which in turn prevents the sun’s rays from penetrating to the weed stalks beneath the water.
Bass fishing continues at a torrid pace at Clear Lake. In fact, longtime bass fishermen say they have never seen anything like it. The results of the Best Bass Tournament (BBT) held on Saturday out of Redbud Park are a perfect example of the red-hot fishing conditions. The tournament drew 84 teams and the winning weight for a five-fish limit was 30.59 pounds. It took 25.44 pounds to receive a check. There were nearly 40 bass that topped 7 pounds and three of them topped 10 pounds. The big fish of the tournament weighed 11.37 pounds. No other lake in the country is producing numbers like that.
The recreational fishermen also have been scoring on large numbers of bass. Typically a fisherman, even a novice, can expect to catch 30-70 fish per day. I fished the lake Wednesday with Ed Smith of Biggs and we caught and released more than 40 bass within a period of three hours. Actually, we met several anglers who were more successful than we were. Gary Hill of Kelseyville and Ken Scott of Lakeport fished near Lakeside County Park on Thursday and caught and released more than 100 bass.
While most of the bass being caught are weighing between 1-3 pounds, fishermen are more than OK with that because most of them wants numbers more than big fish.
This is also the perfect time to take a youngster or a novice fisherman fishing. All you have to do is rig a rod with a drop-shot and you’ll catch fish.
The hot lures continue to be plastic worms, jigs, crankbaits and spinnerbaits. The fish are widely scattered and not every location is holding fish. One of the better areas has been the shoreline along Highway 20 near Pepperwood Cove. The bass have been holding in 10-15 feet of water above the rocks. Long Tule Point is another good area. Bass are also being caught near Frazier Point. The trick to success is to keep on the move until you locate active fish.
The Clear Lake Bassmasters are holding a club tournament Saturday and Sunday. The weigh-in is at Lakeside County Park starting at noon both days.
The fish die-off that occurred on the lake earlier this week appears to have ended. According to Ruttan, the die-off most likely occurred because of high water temperatures, which depleted the dissolved oxygen in the water. The die-off is not unusual and occurs just about every year during the hot summer months.
Crappie are being caught around the docks at Library Park in Lakeport. One fishermen caught 20 crappie Tuesday while fishing from the dock at the yacht club. A few catfish are also being caught at various locations around the lake.
Trout fishing at the East Branch of the Russian River is still rated poor and hardly worth the effort. The Department of Fish and Wildlife has done only limited stocking. Trout action at Upper Blue Lake is slightly better but is still only rated from fair to poor.
