Clear Lake gets a rest from the tournament fishermen this weekend as the only bass tournament scheduled is a club tournament Saturday hosted by the Clear Lake Bass Club. The next major event is scheduled for Feb. 12 when American Bass (ABA) visits the lake for team tourney. NewJen has a tournament scheduled for Feb. 19, and ABA has another team event set for Feb. 26.
The cold weather has prevented many fishermen from going out onto the lake until late morning or even in the afternoon. The water temperature has been ranging from 38-42 degrees in the morning and warming up to 40-50 degrees by late afternoon. Overall the bass fishing is rated fair to good. It all depends where you plan on fishing.
The deeper water in the south end of the has been the most productive area. The bass have been holding in 10-20 feet of water. The trick to success is to barely move your lure along the bottom and give the bass plenty of time to pick up thw lure. There has been some success using an Alabama Rig. Swimbaits also have been effective. The most successful anglers are rigging the swimbaits with an underspin, which gives the lure the appearance of a minnow.
One area that has been producing for the kayak fishermen is Rodman Slough. The kayaks can get into the slough and they say the area is full of bait fish.
Crappie/catfish
The crappie action has slowed to a crawl although a few fishermen have been scoring on crappie weighing up to 2 pounds. Catfish action has been excellent for the few fishermen after them. Shrimp is the top bait for catfish weighing up to 20 pounds. Live minnows are also effective.
Lake level
The lake level as of Tuesday morning was .56 feet on the Rumsey Gauge and holding steady. With no rain forecast for the next two weeks, the lake level will start to drop and we could easily be in the same fix we were in a couple of months ago.
Team tourney
The Lake County Chamber of Commerce annual team tournament is scheduled for March 12-13 and 35 teams have signed up to date. The tournament should field approximately 100 or more teams and will go out of Library Park in Lakeport.
Studying carp
A group of Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) scientists have been out on Clear Lake this past week and they were electroshocking carp as part of a study on the carp population. There is a theory that Clear Lake has too many carp and they are interfering with other fish in the lake. They will shock the fish and then place a radio transmitter inside of the fish so they can be tracked. They hope to electroshock at least 40 carp.
During this process the fish will be weighed before being released. Not all the carp will have a radio transmitter inserted into them. Carp spawn in late March or early April. Clear Lake has held carp for at least 100 years. At one time the fish was popular with bowhunters who held contests, sometimes drawing more than 500 fishermen.
Trout action
Trout action at Upper Blue Lake has been decent for the few anglers out after them. The lake was stocked a month ago. Fishermen are catching trout ranging from 10-16 inches long.
Seasons closed
All the hunting seasons are closed with the exception of wild pigs. Lake County has an abundance of wild pigs and the population is growing so far they are become pests. One resident told me she lives just outside of Lakeport and the wild pigs have torn up her backyard.
