A Kelseyville resident was driving by Clear Lake State Park on Soda Bay Road earlier this week and was surprised to see a mountain lion walking down the road in front of him. He said the lion walked across the road and entered the park. He wanted to know if it was safe to hike in the park.
Despite the fact that many tourists visit the park daily, mountain lions are common and they’re not attacking any campers or hikers. In fact, several park neighbors say they regularly see lions in their yards. One reason could be the abundance of deer in the park and the surrounding property. The deer are there because of a ready source of food and water. As most old-timers will tell you, when you have a lot of deer, the mountain lions follow.
Like most wild creatures, mountain lions are shy animals and mostly move about at night although one will occasionally take a walk during the daytime.
The Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) says if you see a mountain lion don’t follow it. If it approaches you stand tall and wave your arms to make yourself appear larger. Mountain lion attacks are extremely rare and you have a better chance of getting hit by a bolt of lightning than by being attacked by a lion.
Despite the rain and cold weather of late, the bass fishing on Clear Lake continues to be very good and just about everyone is catching 10 or more fish per day. During the past three weeks there have been several bass caught in the 10-pound range. The hot lure continues to be a jig or by drop-shotting a plastic worm. The larger bass are being caught on swimbaits. Jumbo minnows have been very good, too. Most of the action has been in the south end of the lake near Jago Bay and Konocti Bay. The rockpiles at Rattlesnake Island are also producing good numbers of fish. Shag Rock is another good bet and a few fishermen are finding decent action in the shallow water at the state park. Henderson Point has been very good because there are massive schools of threadfin shad nearby. The bass are holding below the schools of shad. The Rocky Point area in the north end of the lake has been productive as well. There are very few fishermen out on the lake, something that will change as we get near the Christmas holiday.
The few brave fishermen who can battle the cold and wet weather at night have been bringing in some huge weights. The best action has been from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. and some of the fish being caught are big — weighing up to 10 pounds. The night fishermen have been working the rockpiles in the south end of lake. Jigs have been taking most of the fish.
Crappie action has been limited to mainly two areas — Kono Tayee and Shag Rock. Bluegill are also biting on nightcrawlers at Shag Rock and some of them are weighing up to a pound.
Local anglers John Pearl and Ron Bruggeman Jr won a bass tournament held at Lake Berryessa last weekend. They had a five-fish limit of 41.8 pounds. Their big fish weighed 11.5 pounds
Upper Blue Lake was scheduled to be stocked with trout this week. The water is clear, so the best action is trolling a Kastmaster or Cripplure in the center of the lake. The bass action is still rated as slow.
Despite the unsettled weather, duck hunting in the Sacramento Valley has been very slow. Most of the public shooting areas are averaging just below two birds per hunter. I drove through the duck hunting area Wednesday and saw very few hunters and even fewer ducks. I did see a lot of swans swimming around in the flooded rice fields. Pheasant hunters are also working hard to bag a few birds. This has to go down as one of the poorer pheasant seasons in years.
The fall wild turkey season closes Sunday and this has been a very good year for local turkey hunters. Most of the hunters reported seeing plenty of birds and their success rate was high.
