Almost skunk at Clear lake (Non-yak)

 

  Went to C Lake with fishin buddy Dan, and his friend with his crestliner and 8yr boy) we camped at "State park".  Arrived at the campsite around 4pm, set up our tents, threw some skirt steaks on the Barbie and after dinner we hit the water.  Started with froggin right out side the inlet to the parks new dock's.  Surface water temp was 78*, air temp was around 90* (Sunday when we arrived)  No hits, no strikes, right outside the docks. 
   We noted the water level is down about 7 feet.  We headed North west towards Lakeport and ran into weeds everywhere! So much so the outboard and trolling motors were constantly being clogged up!  By the time we arrived outside of Lakeport, it was dark, and we were still a ways out and floating in weeds!  We returned to the shores just outside the launch and tried tossing frogs, onto the weeds, and in the open waters we tried buzz baits, poppers, worms, for nada.    Was around midnight when we finally returned to camp.
  Monday morning 5am wake up and grabbed a little breakfast packed lunch and on the water at 5:30am, trying the same weed beds outside the launch again with frogs & buzz baits for the top water bite that wasn't.  again not a hit for any of us. 
  Moved across the lake towards Nice to get some docks action in, and found yet again MORE weeds choking off the shore line.  We used the slight wind and drifted down the line of docks hitting small patches of open water within the the weeds, and Dan (Boat owner) hooked up with 1st, maybe 2 lbs.  (After 3hrs on the water!  Black grape zipper 5") continued drifting until the weeds got to thick.  Around 10:30am moved back across the lake towards camp, as it was heating up and the bite was not on for us.  Went to camp for snacks and naps till the afternoon arrived and temps started to cool down a bit.
  Headed back out on the water around 5:30pm, we tried the waters off  Soda bay for nothing.  Not 1 hit between the 2 boats. Continued drifting up towards Ferndale resort, then Dan hooked his 2nd fish somewhere past the resort.  Around 11pm, we headed back to camp.
  Tuesday:
    4:30am start time on the water at 5am,  We shot over to Shag rock and drifted the waters there.  Dan picked again landed 2 along the stretch towards Shag rock, the rest of got butkis
  Water over there was not weeded up, but was green with soupy algae! After drifting the shore line near Shag rock, we headed to the shore across from Konocti and started tossing our zippers again and in this section, Dan, somehow managed to land 5 fish!   We needed to leave the spot as we had to check out from the campsite at noon so a decision was made to leave at 10:30.  10:25 ish I finally hit one!  Strong fish 4.5lbs! (no pictures of fish )  Dans friend Jeff landed 2 fish during our last drift.  All the fish were caught on the 5" zippers.  The north end of the lake was weeded out, the south end was not, but the algae was super thick! 
  Made it back to camp, packed up and headed home. 

We had the same "weeds" problem at Tiki Laggon last weekend, they are thick and everywhere!  At least you din't get skunked like many of us did on that day.  Thanks for the report.

Thanks for the fishing report.  Glad you guys finally found a pattern that got some fish.  Clear Lake can be a hard place to figure out sometimes.

We had the same "weeds" problem at Tiki Laggon last weekend, they are thick and everywhere!  At least you din't get skunked like many of us did on that day.  Thanks for the report.

Never fear the weeds, that's were the bass are usually.  Just learn different techniques to fish the different types of weeds and patterns the fish are on.  At clear lake a few weeks ago, frogs and drop-shotted worms worked well for me.  Maybe things changed though.  Good luck on your next trip.

HB  

We had the same "weeds" problem at Tiki Laggon last weekend, they are thick and everywhere!  At least you din't get skunked like many of us did on that day.  Thanks for the report.

Never fear the weeds, that's were the bass are usually.  Just learn different techniques to fish the different types of weeds and patterns the fish are on.  At clear lake a few weeks ago, frogs and drop-shotted worms worked well for me.  Maybe things changed though.  Good luck on your next trip.
HB  
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Thanks for the tips Bryan.  I guess weeds are not Hobie's friend, the mirrage drive got caught in weeds when I tried to get close!

I have the same problem, so I'll just pull the drive unit, flip the rudder, and get in the slop.  As the summer gets going, I do that a lot more.  I sometimes get way back onto the cheese mats and fish where bass boats can't go. 

(sorry for the thread-jack CGN-38).

HB

   
  Nothing we did while on the weeds worked.  We didn't fear the weeds, in fact we troddged right into them trying to get to better frog spots.  We were still 300+ yards out thought!  Oh well.

  Although I only hooked 1, I still had a good time.

 Here are a few shots of the weeds we encountered.