BY MIKE STEVENS
CLEARLAKE – Even while WON BASS anglers can still see January’s Winter Open at Clear Lake in the rearview, they are already preparing for the spring version on the world-class bass fishery. The WON BASS Clear Lake Open (April 16-18) will be a completely different animal than it was in winter. More of the lake will be available, more tactics will be on the table and the “it’s anyone’s game” factor is bumped up a notch. The one thing that remains a constant for any tournament on Clear Lake, is it’s going to take a monster total weight to win.
Western Outdoor News reached out to a few WON BASS pros and a recently retired (from tourney fishing) West Coast legend for their outlook on the upcoming event that is sure to produce bags the bass anglers across the country will be hearing about in the week that follows.
“Right now the water is starting in the low to mid 50s, and on the north end on a warm day it’s touchin 60,” said WON BASS pro, Nick Supalo of Oroville. “There were definitely fish moving shallow with that full moon, and when the tournament comes, it should be like last year with fish in three stages of the spawn. So, you’ll be able to do whatever you want to catch them.”
Supalo is coming off an impressive fourth-place finish in the WON BASS Shasta Open which has him in 9th in the WON BASS Angler of the Year race going into the next rumble at Clear Lake. Like much of the field, he’s been adapting to competing with and against forward-facing sonar.
“I showed up last year and got obliterated by everyone using a jighead and minnow, he said. “So I took everything out of my boat but a minnow for almost four months. That really got me the skillset to start catching bigger fish in winter. But when Clear Lake warms up I like a big spinnerbait, Carolina rig, big jigs and glidebaits.”
Supalo (who also runs the impressive, Beyond the Bite Fishing on YouTube) told WON he thinks it will take 30 pounds a day just to crack the top 10, and 35 or more pounds to win.
“The bags could bigger than last year which is crazy,” said Supalo. “Where I was catching sixes last year, I’m getting seven-and-a-halfs now. You don’t get a ton of bites when you’re fishing for big ones. It’s usually a grind and you end up with a big bag at the end of the day. If you see a guy with a 38-pound bag, he probably got 7 to 10 fish that day, but there are always exceptions.”
Santa Maria Pro Patrick Touey turned in a solid 13th-place finish at the Winter Open on Clear Lake with 81.72-pound bag, and he’s another one who wouldn’t surprise anyone if he finished on top in April.
“Since January, you get a feel for where the fish are setting up in the winter,” said Touey, whose personal-best bucketmouth is a Clear Lake 12.5 pounder. “The fish were a little shallower at the end of February, and those fish will continue to move shallower as the water rises, and the mouths of the creeks will be good when the hitch start to spawn.”
Touey went on to tell WON it seems like Clear Lake is having an early spring after a mild winter, and he thinks the upcoming WON BASS event will be a mix of prespawn and spawning bass being brought to the scale.
“The lake is going to be more progressed toward the spawn than last year,” he said. “People will sight fish some, but there will be some prespawn fish, too. “I’m not much of a bed fisherman. I’d rather fish for fish that are out and off the banks, but it’s Clear Lake and it’s going to take an astronomical amount of weight to win this thing. I’m excited either way, bed fish or not.”
Touey also acknowledged mixing in a jig and minnow in recent years after leaning on swimbaits at Clear Lake for years, but he also predicts a lot more options come spring.
“Ever since forward-facing sonar came around, it’s hard to beat that minnow,” said Touey. January was all about the minnow, but spring will open up the lake quite a bit.”
While he retired from tournament fishing following an incredible career, Skeet Reese is keeping busy with his own tackle company (ReeseFishing.com) and the all-new Skeet Reese Big Bass Battle Fishing Tournament. He recently set a new personal best with a 12.25-pound Clear Lake largemouth being his previous P.B. of 12 pounds even that stood for 35 years. Reese was actually on Clear Lake when he connected with WON for an interview, and he shared his thoughts on the upcoming tourney.
“I’ve always said the middle of April to mid-May is when the biggest spawn of the year happens,” said Reese. “There’s going to be a lot of big fish caught, and you can catch them a lot of different ways in April. Guys are going to be able to catch 5- to 10-pound fish however they want to catch them.”
Reese also tapped into the recurring multiple-stages-of-the-spawn theme, and noted the high water this year poses its own set of challenges.
“If they’re not on beds, you’re looking for that big swimbait bite, and they’re going to catch a gazillion fish on weightless worms (Senkos, etc).” said Reese. “The hard part is, the fish can get so far back into tules with the high water, it’s hard to get to them. But there’s going to be a lot of big ones back there for guys who can push through the tules into the willow trees. I don’t know if the FFS minnow is going to be as effective as a drop-shot in April for guys fishing FFS. You could jack a 35-pound bag out of here this time of year on drop-shots. For me, based on conditions, I’d throw a big swimbait and key in on big females, along with a Senko and drop-shot. David and Goliath, big and small, nothing in between.”
Reese also predicted top totals reaching 100 pounds.
“It could eclipse what Pearl did last year,” he said. “It could be something crazy.”
For good measure, in an interview with Troy Fernandes (currently tied with Kyle Grover in the Angler of the Year Race, see story in this section), WON asked what he thinks it’s going to take to win the 2026 WON BASS Clear Lake Open.
“I think it will take 105 pounds,” said Fernandes. “I definitely think the lake has the potential for 120 pounds, 40 pounds per day. It has that potential for sure.”
