Two Days on Clear Lake

[jrodda]

Got back yesterday from 3 nights/2 days of fishing at Clear Lake. I was too beat from the 9 hour drive home to turn back around to the beach and represent VC in the bat fight, so I'd like to apologize to the county for which I brought shame to.

Arrived Wednesday evening about 6pm to Kelsey Creek campground, my buddy Jared was already there. Very nice campground pretty much right on the water with a creek around the edge of it.

Launched Thursday morning at about 7am. Very cold to start, about 35º. Warmed up quick to 65º or so by 9am. We were fishing flats in about 4-8' of water adjacent to tules to start. Jared got the first two fish in the boat with the jerkbait, about 1.5 and 2lbs respectively. Then when I was throwing a c-rigged 13" black Gambler curly tail worm, I got bit by a solid 3.75lber. First fish on the 13" worm so I was stoked.



I got my outboard back right before leaving for the trip, but it was still giving me some problems on the startup, and when I would drop from WOT back to idle it would misfire and die on me. I futzed with the idle RPM screw on the carburetor which didn't seem to help, but the engine smoothed out its performance after 11am.

We moved up to some docks and I picked off a 2.8lber and farmed another at the boat a few casts later. Then the next dock we found a ton of crappie on beds. I put a crappie jig right on their nose and I ended up catching 4, Jared 1, before we went back to focusing on bass.

Biggest one: maybe 15".



Prior to the trip I googled to see if any restaurants catered to fishermen by having a dock to tie up on. I found a few scattered around the lake and we settled on Boathouse Bar on the far north end of the lake. The water was too low to tie up on their dock, but Jared called them and a waiter came out and helped us beach the boat then seated us. Very strange but wonderfully convenient deal.

I got the Anchor Burger, which was incredible after 6 hours in the sun.



The wind picked up quite a bit after lunch so we had a nasty ride back across the lake back to the ramp.



Tried a few spots with underwater structure but no bites so we called it around 5pm. Threw the boat on Jared's car for the short ride back to camp so we could save some time in the morning.



Morning #2 we were on the water about 6:30am. At first we went toward the south side of the lake, which has a steeper gradient around the shore, but we turned around back to the flats going north after 30 minutes.

Jared had 2 fish in the boat with a t-rigged senko by 11am and I was struggling. We went back to the crappie bed so I could put something in the boat, but there was somebody already sitting on the spot. So we decided to hit the docks adjacent and hope they would leave relatively quickly. Jared put 2 more fish in the boat with a wacky rigged senko while I continued to struggle.

Finally about 2:30pm I got bit and landed my first ever jerkbait bass, with the LC Pointer.



Moments later I got another on a t-rigged senko.

Finally after an hour and a half, the boat left the crappie spot, and we went over to find hardly any crappie around. Either they or someone decimated the spot for the sake of a fish fry, or the crappie finished up real quick with their spawning.

We headed back to the tules and got a couple good drifts with the wind blowing us perfectly parallel to shore while we casted jerkbaits and crankbaits. I ended up catching a crappie on the jerkbait on the first drift, then Jared went full bendo. Aaaaand he fouled a blackfish!



We each farmed several fish on the last drifts, I think I was able to land one out of 3 on the Pointer. Called it a day at about 5pm again.

I will certainly be back to Clear Lake. Very pretty and lots of fish potential. Maybe we'll make an annual go of it. Maybe a June trip next year.

[Tim524]

 Always cool when a waiter helps you beach your boat. Nice trip, time to get the T-shirts made up for the annual outing

[BenCantrell]

Wow, that blackfish is really cool. Big one too!

[Latimeria]

I'll respond in greater detail later when I get a few free minutes, but hell yeah!  That sounds like an awesome time!

[skrilla]

Looks like fun. Congrats on the jerkbait bass.

[Latimeria]

That Sacramento Blackfish is so cool.  That is on my life list for sure.

That Black Crappie is pretty damn "blacker" than any crappie I've caught.

Finally, that burger looks fantastic!