ABA fishermen load up with bass at Clear Lake By Terry Knight - Record-Bee outdoors columnist Updated: 10/24/2013 10:40:03 PM PDT The American Bass Association (ABA) Northern Division Championship held last weekend at Clear Lake was a barnburner by any standard. The two-day tournament drew 146 teams, the winning weight was 62.29 pounds for 10 fish, and it took 46 pounds to finish in the money. The big fish of the tourney weighed 11.49 pounds and the overall average weight per fish was an incredible 4.07 pounds. A grand total of 914 bass weighing 3,724 pounds were brought to the scales. No other lake in the country can produce results like this. Most of the fishermen were concentrated in a few areas. For example, at Henderson Point there were 17 to 20 boats jammed together in a small area. Kono Tayee had a dozen boats. Many of the fishermen caught 15-20 bass per day and some had a limit within an hour after the blast-off. The top lure was a deep-running crankbait fished in 15-20 feet of water. The winning team used swimbaits and deep-running crankbaits. The ABA staff did a fantastic job during the weigh-ins. It took only about a minute for each fisherman to weigh in his fish and the weigh-in went so fast that there was only a few fishermen in line at a time. The lake level continues to gradually drop. As of Thursday, it was approaching 1 foot on the Rumsey Gauge. Most of the docks in the Lakeport area have only about a foot of water beneath them. A few fishermen are having success casting a jig at the outer edges of the docks. Drop-shotting a plastic worm also has been effective. The lake is literally alive with baitfish. They range from silverside minnows to small bluegill, bass and crappie. The juvenile fish are feeding on the silversides, which in turn attract the larger bass. There are no more large bass tournaments scheduled on the lake until next year, however, there are a number of smaller club tournaments. What this means is the lake is pretty much available to the recreational fishermen. Catfish action remains very good in the Horseshoe Bend and Henderson Point areas. Shag Rock is also producing a good number of catfish. The catfish are weighing between 8-15 pounds. Jumbo minnows are the top bait followed by either cut bait or nightcrawlers. A few crappie are being caught at Kono Tayee and the Boat Works, but overall it has been a poor year for the crappie. It appears the crappie are on a down cycle. Some large bluegill are being caught at Shag Rock. Trout action remains very good in the East Branch of the Russian River. Small crankbaits or salmon eggs have resulted in fast limits. The river wasnt stocked this week and isnt scheduled to be stocked next week, but there are plenty of holdover trout. The river closes to trout fishing on Nov. 15. At Upper Blue Lake, the action has slowed and there are very few fishermen on the lake. The lake hasnt been stocked for two weeks and isnt scheduled to be stocked for at least two more weeks. A few fishermen are having success bass fishing. B-zone deer hunters wrap up their season Sunday. The warmer-than-normal conditions have slowed the hunting to a crawl and most of the deer at still in the high country. Overall the season has been rated from poor to fair. The waterfowl season got off to a good start last weekend. The federal refuges in the Sacramento Valley did open and the hunters averaged from two to three birds per hunter Saturday and about two birds per hunter Sunday. The opening weekend on Clear Lake was poor, mostly because there were bass boats all over the lake. The best hunting was in Rodman Slough. The good news for hunters is the abundance of quail in the Mendocino National Forest. Several hunters reported bagging a limit of quail and seeing many coveys.
Posted on: Fri, 25 Oct 2013 06:11:59 +0000
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