It will be wall-to-wall fishermen at Clear Lake this weekend. Best Bass Tournament (BBT) is holding its Tournament of Champions (TOC) out of Redbud Park in Clearlake on Saturday and Sunday. The tournament is expected to draw approximately 200 boats and the weigh-ins each day start at 3 p.m. The winning team will take home in the neighborhood of $20,000.
The BBT is among the first in a series of tournaments scheduled during the next few weeks. One of the more popular ones is the Triton team tournament on Oct. 14-15. That tournament will go out of Konocti Vista Casino, Resort and Marina.
The fishermen will have to work to weigh in quality fish. The conditions are anything but favorable. Water color continues to be an issue as most of the lake is a dark brown. There is also an absence of large bass. As the FLW tournament showed last weekend, any bass weighing more than 5 pounds is hard to come by. The FLW winner had only a 3.5-pound average per fish, which is one of the smallest winning weights in recent history.
The problem isn’t putting a five-fish limit into the boat, it’s the lack of size. Typically a two-day tournament held on the lake produces a 10-fish total with a final weight around 60 pounds. That’s not the case this year.
Most of the successful fishermen in the FLW tournament reported catching their fish by drop-shotting a reddish-plastic worm and have concentrated on the docks around the lake. Jigs cast back into the flooded tules also were successful. The winner of the FLW tournament said he caught most of his fish on wacky-rigged Senkos. The swimbait action has been few and far between. There are some bass being caught on square-billed crankbaits and LV500s.
The successful fishermen have been constantly on the move looking for active fish. Many of the fish are being caught around the docks near Rocky Point and along the Nice-Lucerne shoreline.
Crappie action is improving. Fred Williams of Kelseyville said he has been catching crappie near Shag Rock. Henderson Point is also producing crappie as is Kono Tayee. Catfish action has slowed because of a lack of fishermen and not fish.
Clear Lake has recently come under criticism from some of the nation’s news media for being in poor shape. The stories are claiming that fishermen are not happy with the conditions of the lake and the recent fish die-offs. Those die-offs are over for the most part but the lake is still stained from the algae dying. The conditions should improve as the water cools and we move deeper into the autumn weather pattern.
Bass are still being caught at Highland Springs Reservoir. Gary Hill of Kelseyville has been enjoying some great topwater action while fishing the small lake from his float tube. He said he has been the only fisherman on the lake.
Upper Blue Lake still hasn’t received a trout plant and it’s highly unlikely it will, at least for the next several weeks. There are a few bass being caught but it’s hardly worth the effort.
The Zone A deer season is over and overall it was only rated as fair. Hunters on public land struggled to see a buck. Those who had access to private land did enjoy some decent hunting. Deer processor Larry Poff has processed 235 bucks to date and said that most came off private ranches.
The B-zone seasons are in full swing and reports show the hunters are doing well in the Mendocino National Forest north of Lake Pillsbury.
