The results of the American Bass team tournament on Saturday astounded even the old-time tournament fishermen. While the tournament drew only 17 teams, it took nearly 30 pounds to win it. Even more amazing was that 12 of the 17 teams all weighed in five-fish limits exceeding 20 pounds.
The overall average weight per fish in the tournament was 4.3 pounds, which is unheard of in the bass tournament industry.
The reason the fish in Clear Lake are growing at such an astounding rate is because of the available food supply. There are literally billions of small bait fish. A bass has to expend little effort to get a full meal.
Bass locate their prey by several methods, the primary one being sight. However, they also have an excellent sense of smell. They have a lateral line that runs down their side that senses movement. In an experiment done a few years ago, researchers released minnows into a tank holding several largemouth bass that had been “blindfolded” with eye patches. The bass were able to easily locate the minnows through vibration alone and intercept them one by one. This could explain why a bass can so successfully feed at night or in extremely dirty water.
Bass feed on any injured minnow and that is the reason live minnows make such good bait. A live minnow suspended beneath a bobber probably gives off some kind of distress signal or odor that the bass intercepts. Studies have shown a bass can instantly pick an injured or sick minnow out of a school of minnows. This could be nature’s way of not only providing an easy meal for the bass, but also keeping the minnow species healthy by culling out the sick and weak ones.
Another factor is bass are considered one of the smartest of all fishes. In a controlled experiment bass were placed in a large tank and exposed to a number of lures. Initially the bass would readily strike at a lure but after being hooked a couple of times the bass would ignore the lure. That could explain why the fishing gets so tough right after a major tournament. This is especially true at Clear Lake because of the number of tournaments held on the lake.
Of course, it’s not just live minnows that are effective on bass. Live crawdads are equally effective. Years ago I did a simple experiment. I observed a bass on a spawning bed and cast an artificial replica of a crawdad (it’s actually called a crayfish) to the fish. The bass ignored it. I then tossed a live crawdad to the same fish and the bass gobbled it up. I repeated the experiment several times and got the same result each time. The bass would ignore the plastic crawdad but not the real thing. In fact, bass often prefer a crawdad over a live minnow because it is easier to catch and also has more protein than a minnow.
The species of crawdad in Clear Lake is the signal crawdad. It is native to states west of the Rockies and an be found throughout Oregon and Washington. It was first brought to Clear Lake in 1912. It got its name from the small white to pale green patch near the claw hinge. While an excellent swimmer, it will only swim when threatened. It spends most of its life either buried in the soft bottom or hiding beneath a rock or dock. They can live as long as 20 years and can also stay out of water and actually walk from pond to pond. They eat bass eggs, which dives a male bass crazy. When threatened they will rear up and flex their pinchers and snap at a bass.
At one time the local bait shops carried live crawdads that were harvested commercially in the Delta, but that is no longer the case. Actually, it’s illegal to commercially harvest crawdads out of Clear Lake although they can be harvested for local use. Several local fishermen raise crawdads for bait.
All this bait and an abundance of game fish just goes to prove that Clear Lake’s fishery is healthy and thriving.
