Clear Lake Conditions

As I begin this newsletter, the driveway is wet again with more to come today. Oh well... Lake level stands today at 7.0 Rumsey, a little down from last month as they filled the rice fields over the hill. Last year on this date the lake was measured at 3.7 and the historical average for the date is 5.0. Dam releases have been running around 460 CFS (Cubic Feet per Second) as Yolo Country pulls some of its allotment for irrigation. As a reminder, you can check out current lake level and dam releases shown on an hourly graph with the links available on our web site (clearlakeguideservice.com).

Water clarity is typical Clear Lake. Some areas of the lake have clear enough water to see bottom at 7 feet, others you can barely see bottom at 2 feet. Some days it clears in some areas and you can see 4 to 5 feet and a little wind and boom, 3 feet of visibility is all that is left. Surface temperature is up to the low 60‘s for morning lows and as high as the high 60‘s on a good day in the afternoon.

Weed growth is strong in some areas and either a little slow in others or just hasn’t risen enough to be seen in areas of strong growth last year. It will remain to be seen if the high water this year has inhibited some areas of weed growth over the past several years.

Activity This Month

Weekend tournament activity is down another notch in June. According to the event calendar the 13th, 19th, and 27th are dates of Team tournaments that should have fields of 25 to 35 boats. Of course, there are always other tournaments going on that don’t show up as it seems there are almost always two to four clubs here on any given weekend.

As always, if you are planning a trip to Clear Lake and don’t know if your dates are going to be shared with a competitive event, drop me a line and I will let you know what I see listed on the calendar maintained by DFG. Just another service we offer.

May Fishing Recap

The first half of the month saw colder than normal temperatures, both air and water, wind, and storms. Accordingly, live bait was a bigger deal during the first half and the second half we were able to finally experience clear enough water and spawning activity, so we switched to primarily sight fishing in spawning areas.

Regarding artificial baits, the primary presentation over the past several weeks has been drop shotting a small worm. We have caught a few fish on wacky rigged senkos but by far the drop shot has accounted for the bulk of our catches. The last couple of weeks an average day has been 10 to 12 fish to 5 pounds, most in the 3 pound range. We did total 36 fish the last two days (22 for two guys and 14 for one) which is some of the better fishing we have experienced this year. All fish caught this month were in 3 to 5 feet of water. They were on walls, docks, in front of the tules, in the tules, and behind the tules in the junk. The hardest part was finding them, once we figured out where they were set up each day we found the catching to be pretty productive.

Regarding our fish count, we still have a couple of trips to complete this month but so far we caught 17 four pounders, 6 five pounders, 1 seven pounders. While we did not do a whole lot of live bait trips, most of the 4 pounders where caught on live bait early in the month and the fives and seven came sight fishing.

There remains no question that the overall fish population is down. Here is some good news though. Comparing 2010 April and May numbers to 2009 April and May numbers. For the two months this year we have landed 28 fish of 4 pounds or better, in 2009 that number was 16. The fish that remain are doing pretty well overall.

June Prediction

This second week of June is showing a forecast that actually fits the month, temperatures in the 80‘s, finally. Match that with some calm winds and the water will clear up in many areas of the lake. Sight fishing, one of my favorite, if not the favorite style of fishing should remain pretty good. Even in the areas where we saw fish spawning last year that are too deep to see with the current clarity, we have picked off fish by blind casting around the weeds.

As late as just the other day we started a morning trying to get some topwater action but for us, it just wasn’t there yet. Look for that to get going this month along with the opportunity to get some wake bait action going. Topwater baits like a frog, popper, and walkers will produce fish this month in areas near spawning stations.

Rodman Slough and the Keyes have been real up and down. Right now I would concentrate on the main lake as the water warms and clears. I do think those of you who love to punch will start having some productive days as the heat comes on. Much of the shoreline cover is going to carry some good water depth underneath it this month and probably during much of the summer.

I am really excited for those of you who have dates on the books for the coming weeks because it looks like we are going to be in for some great action!

Availability in June

There are still dates available this month, in fact it looks like I will be getting to fish by myself most of next week, so if you want to enjoy some good weather and great light line action, pick up the phone or drop me an email. The easiest way to see if a date is available is via the booking calendar on the web site. Thanks to all of you who have already set up your trips, I appreciate it.

Darrel Taylor with the best fish caught sight fishing this year so far...almost 8 pounds! Look at those eyes on that fish. It was thin and long but still went 7.75 pounds.

Bass Fish

Don DeLano with a good fish caught sight fishing in the junk. He was fishing the day of an ABA and would have won the tournament with his weight for the day!

Man with Bass

Technically, this is a June fish as it was landed yesterday but what the heck it goes with the collage, it is a beautiful 6.25 taken sight fishing by a guy who always seems to show up with a big fish in his hands, Kevin McIntosh. Later in the day we lost one about the same size...sometimes we win, sometimes the fish wins.

Fishing the Spawn

It is a really simple concept for fishing during the spawn, you can’t catch what you can’t see. There is a surprising number of fish that can be caught during the spawn whether or not they are actually on a bed. Fish that are either done with the process and still hanging around or fish that are just working their way into the process and waiting can be caught. Not all fish that you see can be caught but believe me, there is a higher number of fish that will bite than you might think if you see them soon enough.

Big bass

If you want to add some bonus fish during your days on the water this month start looking around where you are fishing for fish that you can see. Yes, these are the mostly frustrating fish that you can see and not catch, you know, the ones hanging under a dock, or a tree limb, or sitting just under the surface above a little patch of weeds. There are three things that will put some of these fish into the boat for you, let’s cover them here.

Firstly, think from the fish’s perspective. If you were floating in the water and looking up at someone in boat, what would make that person the hardest to see? A shirt that blends in with the sky or background, a hat that does the same and perhaps even obscures the shape of the person’s head, and very little movement. We are intruders in the bass’s environment and they know exactly what their environment looks like or doesn’t look like. I don’t personally take it to the extreme of staying low in the boat but some anglers do.

Secondly, you need to see them of course, but then you also need to see them as far away as possible. You need very good polarized glasses for starters. Most anglers who fish with me have dark glasses, not polarized dark glasses. Good polarization cuts through most of the surface glare so you can see underwater, a must for sight fishing but also just flat important comfort and safety for your eyes on the water. Sometimes you will see the entire fish, sometimes you will see the shadow of the fish on the bottom, other times you will only see a part of the fish. The two most common parts of fish that I see are the black end of the tail fin and the white pectoral fin. When you fish into an area this time of year be looking ahead as much as fishing, you will learn to see fish, they are there, they always are, you just have not been looking for them.

Thirdly, once you see a bass make as soft a cast as you can that will land a bait 4 to 6 feet in front of the fish. The first cast being on the money is absolutely critical to your potential success. The best baits for this are weightless worms like flick shake worms or thin senkos rigged wacky style, baits that will not make much of a commotion when hitting the water and have a slow, seductive fall to them. Other baits that will work in this situation include flukes rigged weedless, tubes on 1/16 oz jig heads, and light drop shot rigs with small worms. The priority here is a bait that is small and can be landed close to the fish without spooking them. Make no movement of the bait as it sinks, no line twitching, flipping the bail, or moving the rod tip. Watch the fish, a few will swim straight to the bait where it lands and engulf it, a few will sinkly slowly behind the bait and take it off of the bottom, and the majority will watch it go by. I didn’t say you would catch them all, but you will catch more than you think.

If you follow these little tips this month I know you will add a few fish a day to your totals. Hey, if you cast at 20 fish you see during the day and only 10% of them bite, you have added 2 more fish to your daily total and believe me, I have seen that percentage be as high as 50%! One of the fish pictured above was caught using these techniques and it was not sitting on a bed.

Quagga Reminder

The newly revised inspection program is now in place. The changes only impact boaters who have a boat registered outside of Lake County. Out of county boaters now must have their boat inspected monthly. Each month upon a successful inspection, the boat owner will be issued a set of colored ribbons, one goes on the boat and the other on the trailer. The paperwork is the same and the same places are handling the process. The fee is $10. What this means is those of you bringing a boat here on a regular basis from outside the area are now required to follow through with the inspection process on your first trip of each new month, and pay the $10 fee, each inspection. Each month the color of the ribbons will change.

A lot has been said about the inspection process but here it is in a nutshell. Show up for inspection with the bilge plug out, the bilge dry, the live wells dry, the ice chest dry and the inspection is a breeze. It is not meant to be difficult because you are signing a declaration that says you have not had your boat in an infected body of water. One angler told me that he keeps a towel in each inspection area so the inspector can tell by the dry towel that the area is good to go.

If you want to make sure you are not “carrying” in your boat, keep a gallon of bleach around and dump a cup full into your bilge and live wells. Also put a light solution of bleach in a standard garden sprayer and spray the parts of your boat trailer that get wet when launching your boat.

Gift Certificates

Just a reminder that we do offer gift certificates that can be for a complete trip or can be used against the price of a complete trip. If you are interested, just drop us a line or give me a call.

Closing

Thank you for your continued interest and support of Clear Lake Guide Service! Our business continues to grow with the help of you and your spreading the word and my wife Deb and I both thank you. Good fishing and keep a tight line.

Miss an Issue of the Clear Lake Report?

We have archived all of our past Clear Lake Report Issues on our Clear Lake Fishing Guide Service website! Go to our Clear Lake Fishing Report Index!

There is a lot of useful information available on the Clear Lake Website. Even insights into the best times to fish the lake and other fishing tips. Local lodging, weather, and even lake level reporting is available through the links we have set up.

Good fishing, and I look forward to seeing you soon!