BY DAVE HURLEY
LAKEPORT – Clear Lake is ‘firing on all cylinders,’ for largemouth bass and crappie with some huge specimens landed over the past few weeks. Gary Collins of GCJ custom baits set the bar high with a 15.92-pound largemouth landed on a protype 12-inch custom lure, and he said, “I went out the day before with local guide John Pearl, and I didn’t catch a fish while John landed three, but the next day, I went out solo and caught and released my personal best on the north end of the lake. My previous personal best at Clear Lake was 11.96, but I feel like it is not the biggest fish we are going to see in the next few months as the lake is so healthy right now. The lake record eclipsing the current 17.50-pound record bass will probably come on a big swimbait.” Collins personally designs and customizes all his lures as he is not interested in mass production, and a limited supply is available at Clear Lake Outdoors or through his Instagram account.”
Local guide Paul Bailey added, “The new moon in February is the best time to find the big fish as there is a full hitch bite happening. The hitch are coming out of the creeks in the north end, and the bass are waiting to intercept them at the mouths of the inlets. It is tough fishing if you don’t know the lake, but when you do, people have no idea of how good it can be. Nothing compares to Clear Lake as any time during the year, it will take 35 pounds to win a tournament. The lake is experiencing a tremendous rebound from tough times in 2017 with low water levels, and we are consistently seeing 40-pound bags at the top of the tournaments.”
72 kayaks launched on Sunday while the American Bass Association held consecutive tournaments on Saturday and Sunday. ABA tournament director, Clara Ricabal, said, “Our first-place weight on Sunday was over 36 pounds with second at over 35 after 32 pounds plus took Saturday’s event. It is a matter of getting to your spot as swimbaits in the creeks has been the key.”
It’s not just big bass that are turning heads as a 14.45-pound five-fish weigh buoyed by a massive 3.90-pound slab took the recent Crappie Closet Tournament out of Richmond Bar and Grill. The slabs are moving into the docks, but the largest schools remain in deep water around 40 feet in depth near Redbud. This is all good news with one of the largest Pro/Am tournaments on the west coast, WON BASS Clear Lake Open on April 9-11 out of Library Park in Lakeport.
