Ok enough with the teasing already... Long report, VERRRRRY pic heavy

[Jeffrm20]

FIRST OFF LET ME TELL YOU THAT BASS BOATS AT CLEAR LAKE A A$$ HOLES! hOLY f*ck these guys are rude!!!


I got to my cousins house at 2:50 am Friday morning who lives ten minutes down the road. Got the yak loaded up and was on the road by 3:15. Got to Williams at around 6:45 and hit Denny's for a quick breakfast, then got to the lake around 8:15. We quickly got our gear and got on the water. I have never been so excited to get on the water.


Headed East on the lake and found a nice drop off from 7.5 to 16 foot. We both dropped some huge minnows we got for $11.99 a dozen  .


Within 5 minutes, my cousin had the first fish. A nice chunker.






After 15 minutes I finally hook up. I realized I forgot my hog trough back at camp. back in the water she goes








We drift for another hour and a half with no hits so decide to head in for lunch.

We head back out after lunch and I get a hook up fairly soon after launch.








We then head way East and find some good points with deep drop offs. I get my first hook up at this spot








A bass boat comes up on us and asks if its ok if he fishes the point we are drifting.   Finally a nice bass boat! He makes Voodoo Baits out of Placerville and offers my cousin a free chatterbait to try. Nice nice guy!

After about 30 min or so I hook up again. These fish have been all 17"+ so far.





We head back to our secret honey hole and drift again











My cousin hooks another nice 17.5" bass





The sun is starting to go down and bait fish are jumping everywhere, I start marking fish and get a hook up













No more hook ups so we head in, its pitch black dark, I mark some structure, and turn the yak around and throw a crankbait at it. Third cast I get smacked and this fish is really pulling drag. Finally land her and she's a nice one!











DAY 2

Hit the water at first light, very foggy.





I nab a fish within the first five minutes on a crankbait





We get to our spot and a d*ck in a bass boat guns up on us and starts throwing baits right next to my cousin. My cousin being a smart ass, asks the guy if he wants to sit in his lap since hes practically right up on him. Thje guy replies with "Do you have a problem, if you can't handle Clear Lake, then dont fish it", mind you we are in a 5 mile an hour zone off out of the way. Prick

Funny thing is right after this my cousin hooks up with a fish right in front of them. You can see the dbags in the picture behind him.



Marked a lot of fish but they werent cooperating



We both lost a fish later in the afternoon, it was sloooow all day until dark.





The smallest fish of the trip.

About 30 min later I get slammed. Fish is pulling a lot of line. It wasnt huge but it was big.













That ended our night

I wake up early this morning to head out, look at my kayak and I know something is wrong. I was warned about animals getting into minnow buckets and robbing them. So I put them in my hull and closed the hatch cover. I see that it is torn off with my rubber seal chewed apart. my minnow bucket is on my kayak with the lid off and muddy foot prints all over the kayak.

We decided to call it a trip and pack up and make a delicious breakfast. Egg, bacon and cheese double decker breakfast sandwich!



I cant wait to do it again!

[Anacapabob]

That is a "bad ass" report!  I love how your cousin caught fish in front of the "D bag" boaters.
Classic line he tossed at them too.  Well played.

[Mooch]

Great report Jeff!

Were most fish caught with live minnows? What's the catch rate of lures versus minnows?

[Jeffrm20]

Great report Jeff!

Were most fish caught with live minnows? What's the catch rate of lures versus minnows?

I caught 3 fish on crank baits, the rest on live minnows. Water is still cold. Minnows are the way to go right now. Fish are far and few between but quality.

[BigJim]

Awesome report!!!

Man, what a great couple of days!!!

Congrats on the multiple sweet catches!! 

Thank you very much for sharing.
 
Sincerely,

Jim

[badog]

What a sweet trip. Congrats on your fish and getting out!!!

Badog

[ravensblack]

Cool report dude. we were going to go up there this weekend but after the weather cooled off to like 60 for a high and down to 30 at night. We decided to punish ourselves again by sturgeon fishing. Pricks in boats are everywhere. Some jerk in a 24 ft grady-white corked my ass on the river and wouldnt even talk to me about it. Even when I called him a effing prick he didnt have the balls to say nothing.OOPS! Sorry jeff getting a little carried away there. I guess I thought I let it go.

Anyway , way to get on the fish. The lake is wayyyyyy full and this summers going to be a blast.

[Salty.]

Great report man!    Hope to get up there and fish soon. Thanks, jim

[Makinitcount]

Sorry to hear about the critters snacking on the minnows! You took some cool pics......so I'll add to the post and more pics.

When I got to the campsite, I quickly unloaded and got my yak in the water and went left and drifted a few minnows for no results. After about an hour or so I get Jeff on the radio and they are back at the camp, so I paddle in and meet up with them at the campsite for awhile, and then head back out. They start heading to another point and I hold back because I marked a few fish so I slowly drift a minnow of the bottom when all of a sudden my little rod with 4lb. test line starts spooling fast. I had something big, didn't feel like a bass, and he didn't want to come up. There was a stand off for a few minutes and when he surfaced it was a big cat 28"! I was going to release him..... and then I'm thinking deep fried cat for dinner, so on the stringer he goes. I drop two crawdad traps in some rocky area and then call it a night, not one bass. Next day was redemption   first fish was a 18" bass and then a few hours later I topped that with a 21" bass, both released. I didn't catch a ton of fish, but the few I did catch made it all worth it!

[hightide]

Nice report Jeff.   Inspite of the PB's I'm sure the fishing made up for it.

[dilbeck]

Very solid report Jeff.  I knew the couple of weeks leading up to the CL event were going to be difficult for me, but now after reading your report, I'm gonna go nuts.

As for your minnows, where did you end up purchasing them?  I remember your thread inquiring about where you should purchase.  How big were they?  The bait shop near me has 4-5 inchers but they are $1.20, which is kind of steep.  Unfortunately they don't have their 6-7 inchers, as their supplier doesn't have any.  I guess, ultimately, I'm just wondering if I should hold off on purchasing locally and buy where you did.

[RHYAK]

nice fish guys... Minnow our way to expensive but they sure do work. Did you try nightcrawlers they work better then minnows sometimes when the water is still cold...

[Jeffrm20]

First round of minnows came from Clear Lake Outdoors, the second was Fastop in Lakeport. Same price but over generous. We got two dozen and got ell over 30 minnows.

[Sailfish]

Sounds likes an awesome time catching quality fish at CC.  Thanks for the report and pictures Jeff.

[Jedmo]

Sorry about your encounter with some not so friendly people Jeff. I'm sure the
camp and good fishing made up for it. Awesome report and pictures. Thanks
for sharing.

Jedmo