    
Catfish Ed
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 | | Posted on Thursday, April 03, 2003 - 3:45 pm: | |
Subject: Clear Lake Report
Catfish
The catfishing is still slow. The south end of the lake is kicking out a few fish. There are very few catfish anglers trying their luck in the north end of the lake.
Bob Higgins of Limit Out Bait & Tackle in Clearlake Oaks (707) 998-1006 reports a few catfish being taken near Rattlesnake Island with live jumbo minnows, mackerel and nightcrawlers. Elden Riley of Clearlake Oaks caught a 21, 14 and 8 lb'er while drifting live jumbo minnows near the west end of the island. Another productive spot has been Anderson Island where some anglers are catching 4 or 5 cats per trip with mackerel and nightcrawlers. Most of the fish have been ranging from 5 to 9 lbs.
The only catfish action in the north end of the lake has been in Rodman Slough. A few catfishermen have been picking up 2 or 3 cats while fishing the slough at night with frozen shad.
Unfortunately with the cold rain and wind that we're experiencing here the catfishing will probably slow down to a crawl for a few days due to dropping water temperatures but hopefully it will break open as soon as we get back to a warm weather pattern.
Bass
The bass fishing was pretty good earlier in the week but the cold rainy weather of the last couple of days has taken it's toll on the action.
Bob Higgins of Limit Out Bait & Tackle in Clearlake Oaks (707) 998-1006 reports anglers using live jumbo minnows and plastic worms are still catching a few decent fish. There was a 13.6 lb'er taken on a plastic worm in the Nice Area by a tournament angler over the weekend.
Bass guide Ross England of Tackle It Sport Shop in Lakeport (707)-262-1233 says they're still getting some decent action with jumbo minnows and drop shot rigs. Most of the bass are running from 1½ to 2½ lbs with an occasional 4 or 5 lb'er. The fish have moved to a little deeper water, 3 to 6 feet, around tules and docks since the change of weather. Ross adds that an 11 lb'er was caught at the mouth of Rodman Slough with a spinner bait.
Bass guide Big George Hawley (707) 279-9269 went out with his wife and a friend on Monday and here's his account of the trip: "Pete Pinkerton of North Lakeport had never been minnow fishin' so we decided there was no time like the present! We launched at 5th Street about 9:30am and headed down to the tules near the State Park. We caught a few but no real size. After a couple hours we moved up to Lakeport just north of the Skylark and started in on the docks. We boated one just under 7 pounds, another over 5 pounds and some others. We had a total of 9 fish. Not too bad for fishing the leading edge of a front.
Bass guide Bob Thein (707) 994-4886 had a guided fishing trip on Friday 3/27 with the Parsons' family from San Jose. The boys were Stefan and Chris. The father's name was Ron. Had an eight hour trip, fished the Lakeport area with live minnows and Senkos, caught 35 fish from 1½ lbs to 5½ lbs. It was a great day and the family went home very happy.
Bass Guide Richard Pounds (707) 279-4739 had 5 trips since last week's report and they caught a total of 49 bass. Richard says the fishing has slowed down quite a bit but most of the fish are good size. The totals include 7.1, 6¾, 6 ½, 6, 5½ and several 4 lb'ers.
Good Fishin.....Catfish Ed
The lake level is at 7.55 feet on the Rumsey Gauge, 7.56 is considered full pool. Last year at this time it was at 6.90 feet.
CatfishED.com
|
