Catfish grab the spotlight at Clear Lake this weekend as the Sixth Annual Lakeport Catfish Derby gets underway at 5 p.m. today and runs until noon Sunday. The derby is a fundraiser for the Lakeport Yacht Club.
Fishermen can sign up as late as 9 p.m. tonight at the yacht club, located at the Fifth Street ramp next to Library Park in Lakeport. The sign-up fee is $50. Derby officials are at the yacht club all day today to accept entries. There is also a kid’s division for those younger than 15. The entry fee is $15. The winner of the kid’s division receives $300, second place is worth $200 and third place $100.
All the activities take place at the Lakeport Yacht Club, including the awards ceremony starting at 1 p.m. Sunday. Each fisherman can weigh in one catfish at a time. If he/she catches a larger fish it replace the one he/she previously weighed. If the derby draws 100 fishermen, the winner in the adult division receives $1,500. Second place is $1,000. A 100-man field pays down to fifth place.
Dozens of prizes will be raffled off. For more information call 279-1974.
The derby should produce some huge catfish. The winning catfish last year weighed 19 pounds. In fact, the catfish action is very good as a number of catfish between 10-15 pounds are being caught. One of the better areas continues to be at Lakeside County Park where just about everyone is catching catfish. The State Park is also producing some very large catfish as is Shag Rock. The docks at Indian Beach Resort in Glenhaven are another hot spot. The hot baits have been live crawdads, cut bait and nightcrawlers.
Bass fishing remains excellent throughout the lake. The area around the Clear Lake State Park is producing some huge bass. Gary Hill of Kelseyville has been catching bass weighing up to 8 pounds near the State Park. Other areas producing a large number of bass are the shoreline off Nice-Lucerne, Jago Bay, Rocky Point and the entrance to Rodman Slough. Jigs, plastic worms and white spinner baits are the hot lures. There are a few areas where the topwater action has been good and the best topwater action has been occurring in the evenings. Best Bass Tournaments (BBT) is holding a tournament out of Redbud Park in Clearlake on Saturday. The weigh-in starts at noon. There are also several club tournaments scheduled for the weekend.
For bank fishermen, the docks at Library Park are still giving up decent numbers of bass as well as a few catfish. Lakeside County Park is also providing decent action.
Crappie fishermen have to cover a lot of water to locate fish. The crappie have finished spawning and have moved out into deeper water. Kono Tayee is providing decent numbers of crappie and the same goes for Henderson Point.
There is still very little trout action at either Upper Blue Lake or the East Branch of the Russian River. I checked out the East Branch earlier this week and didn’t see a single fisherman. The stream hasn’t been stocked in more than a month. The Department of Fish and Wildlife has really dropped the ball on its trout program.
The lake level at Lake Pillsbury has been dropping as water is being released. The trout action is dead but the bass fishing is rated fair. The road going into the lake from Potter Valley is bumpy.
Zone A deer hunters are hoping for cooler weather to get the deer moving. The season has been slow to date and most of the hunters are reporting seeing few or even no deer. Normally the bucks start to go into rut around Sept. 10 and the hunting should improve.
