Clear Lake, 03-08,09-08 Weekend

Melissa and I drove up to Clear Lake to see if we could catch a big one. We pulled into State Park and hit the water around 7am. Hydrospider joined up with us shortly after. That morning was a little slow, but we managed a few fish each. When it was time to check into our site, we headed in and set up camp. After a little lunch we headed back out and the weather cooperated big time. The wind died down and the sun came out big time. And best of all... the bite was WFO. Terry took Melissa on a little tour and put her on the fish. Thanks again for showing my girl a good time Terry. Her only big complaint was about her thumbs were starting to hurt. I kept trying to tell her that bass thumb was a good thing. But, she's not buying it. A little help here guys... While on his little tour, Terry hooked a big one that he had meant for Melissa to catch. He pulled in a nice 22"er that went 9.7lbs. This fish was FAT and PHAT. She was ready to burst. That was a very nice looking fish. Anyways, Terry had to take off and Melissa and I decided to stay out and finish off the rest of the troops. Melissa and I caught a bunch of fish. Most of them came off minnows but, I did manage a few on artificials. Pretty incredible stuff. After we ran out of troops, we headed off to camp and cook up some asada and off to bed.

Sunday started out bad. First, at about 5:30am, I wake up to the sound of a bunch of ducks quacking their a$$es off. I never saw so many mallards in one place. Quack quack quack... all over the place. Melissa wasn't phased at all and continued to sleep. The morning was down right cold so, I stayed in bed too. We got up and the wind was up and the sun was not. We figured we had enough fun and to pass on the fishing. Cooked up some breakfast and packed up camp. On our way out, the wind died down and the sun came out. So, we stopped by at the bait shop and picked up some new recruits. We didn't want to stay too long because we needed to get back to San Jose early. So, we grabbed 18 minnows and headed out on the water. At the parking lot, we saw a white truck with a NCKA sticker on it. Allen and Patrick beat us out on the water. We paddled out to them to say hello and right away, fish on. Melissa was catching fish left and right literally. She was burning through those minnows like crazy. But, it was all good. She was having some fun. She had a couple of complaints this day. One, her thumbs were hurting like crazy. Two, she was having trouble unhooking the fish. Three, her face was getting sunburned because somebody forgot the sun screen. Fourth, her thumbs were really hurting. So, I gave her some pliers to make it easier to unhook fish. Couldn't do anything about the sunscreen. And I kept reassuring her that bass thumb was a great thing. No dice... she wants... she needs some fish grippers. Oh well... what's a man to do? At least she had fun fishing with me and wants to go back out there. The good thing was that those fresh recruits took out multiple bogies. 2 for 1's, 3 for 1's even a 4 for 1. It was crazy. That place is loaded and the fish are willing to bite. Patrick and Allen were hooking up pretty consistantly too. All the fish were pretty much cookie cutter footballs. Everything was going great until I grabbed this one little minnow that wouldn't die. This guy was a trooper. He finally gave up after I landed the 3rd victom. I decided to send his lifeless body back down and troll him around. Then, BAM... I hooked up my biggest fish of the weekend. That got me thinking... I decided to put a Huddleston on give it a try. I tossed out a nice little one in a shad pattern and  BAM... it got destroyed. I set the hook and fight on. The fish rose up and did a little tail dance for me before it spit the hook. The drag wasn't set too tight on my reel so I guess I didn't get enough on it to bury the hook. After a few more casts, I figure I needed to get down a little deeper. So, I tied on another Hudd that sinks deeper. First cast, BAM... but, no hook up. I didn't put a belly treble on it and missed the bite. Second cast, I see two big fish chasing the bait all the way to the boat. I'm getting pretty excited thinking that the swimbait bite was going to start for me. Third cast... F@#%!!! The next thing I see is my $25 swim bait flying through the air. Great, just great... I've lost some nice lures before but not on the 3rd cast. It still had that brand new plastic smell to it. I'm just really surprised that Patrick wasn't laughing his a$$ off. His only comment to me was... "Does it float?" Yup... Nope... Good bye Mr. Huddleston. What a bummer... I guess that's why the pros spool on 20lb test instead of 10lb when chucking those things. Anyways, we ran out of troops and called it a day. So much for getting home early. Not... we got off the water by 5ish or so. Said our good byes to Allen and Patrick and hit the road. What a great weekend... Only thing left to do is to put in an order to Huddleston and pick up a set of fish grippers for Melissa.







Hopefully, Terry, Melissa, Allen and Patrick will add some more to this post along with more pictures for you all. There's another front coming in this week up there. It looks like it's going to be a cold one too. I hope that it doesn't mess up the fish too much. Those fish are staging though and the big females are moving it. It should be really good in a couple of weeks. At least that's what I'm hoping for. Good luck out there.

Tight lines,

Freddie

well doc'd my friend!...those minnows are tough sometimes. I did the samething..if they're face was still intact?..they went down for another suarte.
Too cool you all got into fish.....nice when a plan comes together huh?

Mellisa~  bass-thumb IS a GOOD THING! averygoodthing!

see u2 out there! somewhere, someday!

Way to go Mellissa! Bass thumb-good!
Nice post Freddie, hope to join you guys someday....

Great report - you guys hammered it!  Melissa - bass thumb isn't necessary.  Freddie's breaking you in - it's a rookie thing where you have to "pay your dues"!  Once they've accepted you into the club they'll teach you the proper technique.      OK, OK, I'm JK.  You really need to show that girls can pretend to be as dumb as boys and actually LIKE it!   

      Holy Toledo and I were in familiar territory when we spotted two yellow kayaks headed our way which turned out to be Melissa and Freddie.  I really got a kick from watching Melissa use the hawg trough measurer on just about every fish she caught........call out the length and then pick up the end and let the fish slide off into the water like some sort of humorous burial at sea. My intention was to get some underwater fish shots but it is much more difficult than I thought and will take some practice.........looks like the fish in the office aquarium are in for a surprise.

WTG Guys,

 Yes, " Bass Thumb Good "

Freddie told the whole story...   Here are the pictures...

A beautiful day out



Terry's Hawg


My 18 3/4"'er




Freddie's 19 1/2"er


My Bass Thumb


Me bored


One thing I learned... BRING SUNBLOCK!

Nice photos, Melissa - thanks for sharing.  You'd better get the mouth closed on the fish you measure before the "judges" start criticizing your technique!   

BTW,  Thanks MOOCH for letting me use your boat!     You can have 0 points!

Great report! Bass thumb is real good cause it builds up a base for rockfish thumb!
Clear Like sounds like the bomb got to hit it soon. How long till the spawn???

Ben-

I'm no expert on CL but if this weather keeps up... The fat females will be coming into the shallows and it'll be on. Maybe by the end of the month or so... maybe.

Freddie

Hows the camping?  Might be a good place for a group.

Nice job Melissa....and Fred.  Those pics look really nice.

Stuart

I'm no expert on CL but if this weather keeps up... The fat females will be coming into the shallows and it'll be on.
Freddie

You're telling me it's not on yet?? Damn. That place has given up some heeeeuuuge LMB's already. That just may be the place where the biggest LMB will come out this year. Either there or anywhere Compa's fishing!

Z

Hows the camping?  Might be a good place for a group.
3/20-21 a thurs&friday are in my sights for a campout...its FULLMOON on fri!

BTW,  Thanks MOOCH for letting me use your boat!     You can have 0 points!

oow! that hurts

Terry~ you are ON them HARD this EARLY in the SEASON!
...KarmaKICKBACKinFULLeffect 

TEAM KICK-BUT / otoB' & HT~ you guys need a side hobby! or something?

.....nowI'M*officiallySADiDIDnotGO!