    
Catfish Ed
Unregistered guest
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Votes: 0 | | Posted on Thursday, March 27, 2003 - 5:54 pm: | |
Subject: Clear Lake Report
Catfish
The catfish action is improving in the south end of the lake but it's still slow in the north end.
Ken Brown from Fair Oaks had a fairly successful trip last weekend. He caught 3 cats weighing 7, 10 and 11 lbs while fishing at Henderson Point on Friday evening. On Saturday afternoon he caught a 18.2 lb'er and a 19.5 lb'er at Anderson Island. He hooked three other big cats that broke off near the boat. All cats were caught on frozen shad and were released back into the lake to be caught again. The fact that Ken managed to catch some good fish illustrates what I've been saying all along, the catfish are cooperating in the south end of the lake if people want to target them.
There has been very little catfishing activity in the north end of the lake. They're still catching an occasional fish at the mouth of Rodman Slough with nightcrawlers and mackerel. My wife caught an 8 pound channel cat off the Library Park Pier with a maple flavored doughball on Monday.
Bass
The bass fishing is very good with jumbo minnows and plastic baits. For bigger fish but less action, jerkbaits and swimbaits are the way to go.
Percy Oved of Limit Out Bait & Tackle in Clearlake Oaks (707) 998-1006 says jerkbaits and swimbaits fished near tules and docks are accounting for some good catches. For fast action Percy recommends using live jumbo minnows in the same areas. The fish are varying in size from 3 to 9 lbs with most in the 3 to 4 lb range.
Bass guide Ross England of Tackle It Sport Shop in Lakeport (707)-262-1233 reports lots of action on smaller fish up to 3 lbs in the north end of the lake throwing plastic worms and crankbaits around tules, docks and seawalls. Throwing swimbaits and jerkbaits is producing fewer fish but most of them are going 5 lbs and up.
Bass guide Big George Hawley (707) 279-9269.had several good days this week. Here's his report:
March 22nd-Mike and Vince from Grass Valley have been going out with me a couple times a year since 1999. We always have a great time and catch fish, too! Yesterday was no exception. We launched at Lakeport and worked down to the state park over 8 hours. We worked tules with jumbo minnows and drop shot rigs. We caught and released 29 fish...among them two 6 pounders.
March 23rd-We launched at 5th street again and headed for the tules. Using Jumbo minnows we worked the outside line of the old tules. As the sun got up a bit an the water started to warm, the fish came on. We fished for about 6 hours and caught a total of 24 fish...2 days away from his skateboard are a little tough on 14 year old Vince, but he had a great time. Among the 24 fish, we had two over 5 pounds and the rest were solid, fat fish.
March 25th-Jim hails from Sparks, Nevada. I picked him up at World Mark at about noon and we headed back over to the tules between the State Park and County Park. Using jumbo minnows under bobbers, we fished the outside of the old, broken off tules looking for something of substance. Guess we were in luck because we had 14 fish in 4 hours. Among them was a very nice one over 7 pounds and her younger sister, who weighed in at just over 6 pounds.
Bass guide Bob Thein (707) 994-4886 has been doing well. On Saturday Manny Gonzalez and Ramon Flores from the Bay Area caught 26 fish from 1½ to 5¾ lbs on an 8 hour trip. On Monday Mr. and Mrs. Gallardo of Vallejo caught 23 fish from 1½ to 6 lbs on a 4 hour trip. On a 4 hour trip on Tuesday Tosh Lupoi and Ryan Garrett of Walnut Creek caught 13 fish from 1½ to 5½ lbs. Most all of the fish were caught on live minnows and a few with watermelon red brushhogs. All of the fish were caught from State Park to Lakeport.
Bass Guide Richard Pounds (707) 279-4739 had three trips this week. A six hour trip on Saturday produced 23 bass including a 9.12 lb'er and the best 5 weighed over 39 lbs.
A 7 hour trip on Tuesday produced 19 fish including two 6 ½ lb'ers and a 5 lb'er.
A half day trip on Wednesday accounted for 13 fish from 2½ to 3½ lbs which was very good considering the extremely windy conditions.
All fish were caught on jumbo minnows from the State Park to the County Park and were released alive to be caught again.
Good Fishin.....Catfish Ed
The lake level has stabilized and is at 7.56 feet on the Rumsey Gauge, 7.56 is considered full pool. Last year at this time it was at 6.81 feet.
CatfishED.com
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