Clear Lake has had the reputation of being a big bass lake for many years, but all that has changed in the past two years. The number of bass caught weighing more than 5 pounds has dropped way off. In fact, the big fish in most tournaments these days usually weighs less than 8 pounds.
As always in nature there are no easy answers, but most fishery biologists didn’t expect Clear Lake to sustain its fantastic bass fishery forever. The simple reason is that with so many bass in the lake all it takes is a small disaster, such as a die-off of threadfin shad (the primary food for the bass) or a couple of years of poor spawns, to have a major impact on the bass.
The number of bass in the lake remains strong but the overall size of those fish is smaller these days, a complete reversal from the way it used to be. Why we have so many bass in the lake now in comparison to past years is unknown. It probably results from several years of good hatches and the explosion of various species of baitfish. Creatures in the wild always reach their maximum carrying capacity, which is regulated by food supply and habitat.
Another theory on why so many 1- and 2-pounders are being caught is because they are the more aggressive fish. For example, say a school of 50 bass contains 40 2-pounders and only a few in the 5-pound-plus class. A minnow swims by and the small, faster bass jump on it immediately. The same applies when a fisherman casts a lure to a school of bass. The smaller bass are much more aggressive and attack the lure. The only time a larger bass has the opportunity to grab a lure first is if it nearly hits it on the head.
Florida-strain largemouths are the primary fish in the lake. At one time the only species of bass in the lake were northern largemouths, which were stocked into Clear Lake in the 1890s. The Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) decided to stock the lake with the Florida-strain largemouths to improve the bass fishery. Florida bass grow larger and live longer than northern largemouths and they are also considered harder to catch. The typical northern largemouth bass lives up to 12 years while a Florida-strain bass lives up to 17 years.
It was known that Florida bass breed with northern largemouths and the Florida genes quickly dominate. In 1975, just four years after the last Florida bass were stocked into the lake, the DFW took random samples of bass and found the Florida genes in 17 percent of the bass. In 1976 that count went up to 27 percent and by 1978 it was 52 percent. What this means is that in seven years 52 percent of all the bass in Clear Lake were either Florida-northern largemouth mix (called intergrades) or pure Florida-strain bass. By the mid-1980s all the largemouth bass in the lake were considered to be carrying the Florida gene.
To further help the bass fishery, the county stocked the lake with thousands of pure Florida bass fingerlings. From 1986-90 more than 100,000 Florida fingerlings were introduced into the lake.
The result was dramatic. The average size of the bass went from less than 2 pounds to more than 3 pounds. The results could be seen in bass tournaments held on the lake where the average weight was almost 3 pounds per fish. Few lakes in the country can match that. In fact, even in the well-publicized lakes of Florida there are none that can boast a 3-pound average weight per fish. Even today it takes at least a 4-pound average per fish to win most tournaments at Clear Lake. There are very few major lakes in the country that can come even close to that.
As reflected by the popularity of the bass tournaments held on the lake, Clear Lake is still rated by most tournament fishermen as their favorite lake on the West Coast.
