Clear Lake - 08/15/07

Packed up the yaks and headed to Clear Lake for a day of Bassin with my Dad.  We met up Tuesday night at the Clear Lake SP campground (nice place!).  Somehow I never really make it on the water as early as I want to . . we were on the water by 7:30 Weds morning. 

I am a total rookie basser and so is my Dad but I'd caught a few smallies last month at Trinity Lake on some purple 4inch Berkely Power worms so that's what I started out with.  My Dad rigged up with a Senko.  I hit almost right away with a small LMB but there was no more action for several hours.  We headed in at noon for lunch and that was the only fish between us.  I had tried a rapala SR5, a spinner-bait, and a brushhog . .my Dad stuck it out with the Senko. 

He decided to pack it in after lunch but I still wanted to fish some more so I headed back out for a slow afternoon - 1 small LMB on the Rapala.  Then the wind came up BIG TIME which was cool because I was on my new Hobie for the first time in the wind.  I decided to try peddling straight into 15knots.  Awesome is all I can say.  It would haven been mega-hard to paddle in that but I was able to make good ground in the Hobie.  I headed about 1/2 mile to what I thought would be a protected cove but it was all blown out.  I was about to head back in and quit when one of my rods fell out of the holder and into the lake!!!  It was untethered and sank to the bottom.  It was a total pain in all that wind but I managed to fish it back out and just as I was cleaning it off a HUGE fish jumped near me.  I decided that was a sign to fish some more and started casting crankbaits around while cruising 5knots due to the wind.  I actually managed to hook-up another small bass, though!

On my way back to the launch the wind died down a lot so I decided to drag the plastic worm around some more.  I was kind of drifting with the carolina rigged worm right under the yak when I got the biggest bass of the day.  I CPR'd that one and dropped down again and got another nice one right away!  I tried for about another hour with no more bites so I paddled back into the launch . .right in time to see a guy fishing from the dock land a bass that could've EATEN mine!  I'd say better than 5lbs for sure . . .not sure how big exactly.
 
I'm looking forward to going back again this fall with some bigger plastic worms and more bass knowledge and hopefully get the big one.

Awesome report.  Way to hit it, Chris.   

Dad and FISH is COOL!  your Dad was on it with the senkos, they seem to LOVE those things up there. I do agree on gettin up there and doing some campin(SP is clean as it gets) in mid sept. with the wife(she needs a real bathroom when it comes to camping)

Thnx for the report and pics Chris!   Did you go up the creeks on either side of the campgrounds? They are protected from the wind and lots of vegetation.

 thanks for the solid northend report. The winds have been a huge factor this year. Its tough this time of year in the much shallower north and tis the season of the ooze.
 2 days ago I got out there and fished until about 10pm. Finally I had a evening that wasnt blown out but the swarm was just as excited as I was. That high pitched droning was maddening not to mention the thousands of insects that actually landed on me. At one point I looked up and saw what looked like a cyclone of insects directly above me and found myself hoping for a breeze. The water had turned to that famous c-lake guacamole slime in the shallows, but last nights colder weather has knocked it down and today we have 8-10' of viz.
 When you guys return or during these hot months try the deeper waters in the south.

Right on, hydrospider - thanks for the tip.  I wish I had known that before because it was maddening clearing the gunk off my tackle every 2 minutes!