What a busy time since my last post, lot's of guide trips and lot's of really nice fish caught by my customers. The water temperature is getting up to and staying in the 60 degree mark. Some fish are bedding up and many more will be moving to the beds with this warm weather we are currently having. . The tournament people are still catching some really big bags for their five fish. The B.A.S.S. Federation group is here now and yesterdays five fish day one leader had a WHOPPING 34 pounds for his 5 five which included a 9.3 lb big fish. The Alabama rig seems to have dropped off for the favorite bait but the LV 500 lipless crankbait and a whole variety of swimbaits are still being used. The senko rigged Texas style and also wacky rigged is putting a lot of fish in the boats, drop shot, jig's, and crankbaits are also working. Now that the fish have moved into the shallows and are bedding up, the flippin technique rigged with your favorite bait is a sure bet to catch some fish. (more to follow) 4/15/13 update, The federation people are gone, lot's of big fish were caught but many of the teams also struggled to catch their limits. This next up coming Friday & Saturday will see a 75 boat, team field working the lake with the winning team taking home $10,000. There is no let up on this lake and fishing pressure will continue strong with tournaments all the way through June. In June there will be a three day event hosted by Western Outdoor News, (WON) and with a full field of boats, the first place prize is set at $100,000.
We need a good series of warm days to move another big batch of fish up to the shallows and spawning beds. Currently I rate the fishing as fair to good and at times excellent but you have to cover water and put your time in with a variety of techniques to have success. I am booked up solid for the rest of this month and currently only have six open days left for May. If you are looking to book a trip with myself, plan out at least a month or so in advance if you can. I would like to remind everyone who may be fishing the lake by boat to have courtesy for your fellow fisherman. Don't jump in front of people, respect their fishing area by giving them room, don't run your boat with a big wake to close to other boats, remember that it is suppose to be fun to be fishing and show the respect you would expect for yourself. Yesterday I ran into what a would call a "Real Jerk" of a boater. He barged up on my boat going fast, almost ran over my customers lines and motored right over our fishing area all because he was in some sort of small tournament and wanted to fish the area I was already in. Truly one of the more blatant examples of a rude, non caring boater. This is not the norm but it can ruin what is suppose to be a nice fun outing on the lake. Be safe, take good care of the fish, have fun, respect your fellow fisherman. ""God Bless" Bob
Lake conditions, Fishing Report The water temps are now starting out at 50 to 51 degrees in the mornings., The warmer weather that is expected this next week will move the temps up into the high 50's by the end of this next week. The bite is already good on live bait and artificial baits are also working well. The tournament folks are using the ""A"" rig as their primary bait of choice along with a variety of swimbaits. Other baits such as chatterbaits, Lucky Craft lipless crankbaits in the 1/2 oz size and jigs are also working. We are catching some really nice size fish with almost all fish being over three pounds and five pounders are common. The bite is only going to get better and better as more fish move up to prepare for the spawn. The last three tournaments on the lake have taken well over 30 pounds for the best five fish to win the tournament and or get a check. The "A" rigs come in all sizes and types and are being rigged up with a whole variety of small swimbaits on them. The Kitech brand is by far the most popular. Some people are using five to even eight wire set ups for these rigs and they are putting a lot of fish in the boat for those who can stay with them and throw them all day long.
Clear Lake is fishing ""Great"" right now with lot's of trophy size fish being caught. We are going to have an outstanding spring bite. Now is the time to get on the lake and fish your favorite baits and have a chance of catching a fish of a lifetime.
I am getting really booked up on my calendar with only a few openings left for March and April. Don't wait until the last minute if you want to book a trip. Myself along with the other guides book out a lot in advance. As usual, feel free to email or call me at anytime for any information needed. God Bless, Bob Myskey
February 19th, 2013 Lake Conditions, Fishing Report The recent week of warmer weather has brought the water temps up a couple of degrees to 48 in the mornings and around 50 to 51 degrees in the afternoon. This has improved the bite considerably and has moved more fish into the shallows to start thinking about their spawn. This past weekends tournament saw "Record"" setting weights for as many as 11 teams bringing in bags of over 30 lbs of fish for their best five. The winning team had just over 39 pounds for the win. Without a doubt the ""A" rig was the bait of choice for most of the teams although swimbaits and lipless crankbaits also caught a lot of fish. As the fish concentrate around the mouth of the creeks to intercept the Hitch fish that are going up the creeks to spawn and also move up to spawn themselves, these big bags of fish and big fish will continue to be caught up until mid April. If your planning on coming to the lake to hire a guide or bring your own boat, try to fish mid week because we are in full swing with tournaments and with these big fish being caught, every weekend will find a busy lake. A ten pounder was the big fish of the tournament but there were three nines and several sevens weighed in. All of the fish that are currently being caught in 10 feet and more of water are coming up with their bladders over inflated. These fish need to be released right away so that they can swim back down and equalize their bladders. If you carry them around, you need to know how to needle the bladder to let the air out or these fish will just float on the surface and die. The best thing to do is to picture the fish then put it back in the water quickly. Also all of the big fish five pounds and over are probably females and at this time of the year have their eggs in them. Release them so they can spawn and keep the fishery going.
Watch for any period of warm stable weather and you can expect the bite to be on. Bring your swimbaits, jig's, "A" rigs, jerkbaits and you have a good chance of catching a trophy size fish. Be courteous, don't cut off another fisherman or infringe on the area they are fishing. Be a good sport's person, treat the fish good, handle them with care, release all of the bigger fish, and have an enjoyable day on the water. God Bless, Bob
1/24/2013 Lake Conditions/Fishing Report Well since the last time I posted, I had a knee operation, celebrated Christmas, New Years and our Anniversary. Things are fine at Clearlake. Fishing/catching, has been very slow. For most of the later part of December we got lot's of rain, combine this with most of January so far with ""Cold"" temp's with nightime getting down into the 20's has made it very tough and not very many people fishing. Many of the local fisherman have been having no luck with artificial baits and even the live bait bite has been tough. Water clarity is very good at mid lake and in the South arms. The upper end of the lake has also cleared up a lot from the heavy rains in December. Currently our lake level is at 5.85 feet and considering that all of last year we only got to a high of 5.90 feet, we are well on our way to a full lake if we can get some more decent rainfall. ( Lake is full at 7.57 feet) Even though things have been very slow for catching fish so far this month, the results of the team tournament on the 13th of this month proved that the fish are still here and are getting ""Big"". The winners of the tournament had 34 lbs for their best five fish to win the tournament. Although most of the 36 boat teams struggled and only 9 of the teams managed to catch a five fish limit.
The good news is that a friend of mine fished this week with live bait and got on a school of fish and caught 30 fish with their best five fish going an incredible 35lbs. It just proves that you have to ""Find""them and once you do you can load the boat with some beautiful trophy size bass. Once our water temp starts to warm up a few degrees, the bite will get much better. Currently our water temperature is holding right around 43 to 45 degrees. Any warm up that takes us up to the 50 degree mark will certainly turn these fish on and the bite will steadily get better as we move into February & March. .
I have spent this slow time getting my gear worked on, reels serviced, boat problems fixed, new graph, livewell cables, valve, etc. I will be hitting the lake a lot over these next couple of weeks preparing for several bookings I have in February. I have a lot of bookings on the calendar and I am hoping for another great fishing year here on Clear Lake. That's it for now, feel free to email or call me at anytime for any information needed. If your planning on booking a trip, book early to get your date, some of the prime weeks are already getting full. Here's to a Happy, Healthy, Blessed 2013 for all of us. God Bless, Bob
Well its December, its winter time, water temps are dropping, recent heavy rains have got the creeks flowing and the lake is on the rise. Most of the upper end of the lake has heavily stained to muddy water, especially around the Creek mouths. Most of the people now fishing the lake will be using the live bait jumbo minnows. We fish these on either a bobber set up, a drop shot set up or a split shot rig. Using live bait will definitely ensure you a better catch rate during these colder winter months. The purists are having their best action throwing six and seven inch swimbaits in the top hook talon bait by Osprey, or the seven inch Huddleston swim bait. These baits require endurance and lot's of patience to stay with and throw them all day long. You may catch four to six fish during a days outing, "If You Are Lucky" but the odds are they will be big ones. The most recent team tournament only drew six teams but the winning team had an amazing 34 lbs for their best five fish. It sounds good but it requires a lot of work and the right equipment to throw these baits. The retrieve on these baits also requires a lot of discipline and you really have to concentrate on a "Very" slow retrieve trying to bump every little rock. With the holiday season and colder weather, boat action on the lake will be very minimal. I had a trip yesterday, we were fogged in for most of the morning but my customers managed to catch 11 bass up to 8lbs but we had to work for them. One side benefit to using the live bait right now is that the catfish are on a tear right now and you can have a really hard fight on a light action bass rod. My customers yesterday landed 13 catfish up to 16lbs while fishing for bass. This will be it for reports until next month, (January 2013) hard to believe the year has gone by that fast. I hope everyone has a wonderful Blessed Christmas Season, God Bless, Bob
With only one major tournament scheduled for the 16 & 17th of this month, the Lake has finally gotten back to normal. This past couple of weeks there have been many days where I have had the lake almost entirely to myself. Now is a "Great" time to get out on the lake and target those big fish that are schooled up and feeding on the bait balls to bulk up for the winter. For those of you who like to use "Live Bait" (Jumbo Minnows) we are having some great tirips with catches up to 26 bass for five hours and with the best five fish for the last three trips weighing between 28 & 30 lbs for five fish. Check out the last photos' for October and the ones I have just posted for November to see the size of these fish. A side benefit to using the live bait is that we are catching catfish in the 10 to 16 lb range while fishing for the bass and these big fish have been testing my customers endurance while trying to land them on my light action bass rods. For those of you who have younger children hooking them up with the live bait and letting them land these big bass and big catfish will be moments they will never forget.
On the tournament scene and for those fisherman using strictly artificial baits, swimbaits, lipless crankbaits, deep diving crankbaits and the ever popular drop shot rigged worms and weighless senko's have all been working. The most popular swimbaits have been the top hook six inch Osprey talon bait in the light hitch color. The locally made Little Creeper Trash fish, six inch in the blue back herring color rigged with an 8/0 beast hook is catching a lot of fish in the tournaments. The River to Sea S Waver in the hitch color is another very popular bait right now. All of these baits can be found at the local tackle stores and they can show you how to rig them line size, how to fish them etc. Be prepared to put out about $16 for each of these. The key to catching fish now is to use your electronics, find the bait balls and you will find the fish. The fish are schooled up now and are constantly moving and feeding on the bait. We are catching some really nice bass now and they bulking up good for the winter. For those of you planning a trip, feel free to email me or call me for more details of what to fish and the best areas. God Bless, Bob
October is here and so are the major year end tournaments. This last weekend saw the Triton owners tournament with 96 teams pounding the lake. The winners had 49 pounds for their best ten fish for the two days and had big fish of a 10 lber and a 7lber. They did not divulge their techniques or their fishing areas. The most productive patterns for the more successful fisherman were throwing swimbaits with the "Trash Fish"' being the most popular. The lipless crankbait fished on a yo yo, pump style retrieve was also mentioned a lot. Other techniques mentioned at the weigh ins were deep cranking, topwater first thing in the morning, senko's around deeper docks, and flipping offshore weeds. Topwater baits mentioned were buzzbaits, lunker punkers, and rico's. This coming weekend, 13th, 14th, the BBT, (Best Bass Tournament) will hold their year end out of the Clearlake Launch ramp. They will draw around 150 plus boats. The following Friday, Saturday, the ABA association will hold their year end out of the Konocti Casino ramp and they will host around 160 plus boats. The next weekend of the 27th & 28th, WON will hold their year end and they should draw around 60 to 80 plus boats.
Fishing mid week is a definite right now if you want to avoid the major boat traffic. The lake level is at 1.40 feet so be very careful getting in an out of the launch areas and swing real wide on any points and idle out a long ways off of the shoreline before getting up on plane. The colder nights and cooler daytime temp's have started to eliminate the algae blooms. The lake is loaded with 3 to 6 inch baby bass and working the smaller baits such as a drop shot will be very frustrating. It's very apparent by the tournament results that catching the bigger fish requires using bigger baits, reaction baits that trigger that big fish bite.
For those of you who like to use live bait, the tackle stores should get their first shipment of ""jumbo minnows"" this week. Using the bigger jumbo minnows will keep the smaller bass off of them and should produce some bigger fish. When I fish my next live bait trip, I will be fishing the minnows deep on a split shot rig and also on a dropshot rig and will be targeting 20 to 25 feet of water. That's it for now, be courteous, give your fellow fisherman room, don't crowd or butt in front of people, be safe, and have fun. God Bless, Bob
Since my last report the fishing, "catching" has gotten a lot tougher. This is somewhat of a normal condition for this time of the year. We have a lot of silver side minnows for the fish to feed on combined with the fact that the lake is literally loaded with small bass in the three to five inch range. The bigger fish have plenty to feed on and it makes the bite a lot tougher. The small bass are literally everywhere and using baits such as a drop shot or senko will be very frustrating trying to keep them off of the hook. The tournament teams and pro's will be using some techniques and bigger baits to target the bigger fish and get the bigger weights. One of the more popular techniques is to us a 1/2 ounce Lucky Craft LV 500 lipless crankbait and to yo yo, or pump it up off of the bottom and let if flutter back down. Other techniques such as using a top water frog, spook, or buzz bait in the shallows and around the weed mats will also draw a bigger strike. Baits and techniques such as using a jig in the deeper water breaks and ledges and around the rock piles, swim baits fished deep and also around and through the weeds will also put bigger fish in the boat. All of these techniques require a ""stick to it"" type of attitude and require patience and fortitude and you must cover a lot of water. The casual fisherman can catch fish using the normal drop shot and senko but you wiil have to deal with lot's of bites and hook ups with this years baby bass. My trips these past few weeks have been with mostly novice fisherman and we have been forced to use the drop shot and senko for most of our bass. Most of these bass have been in the 13 to 15 inch range, we did catch a 6 1/2 lber on a drop shot wacky rigged worm in 25 feet of water. I am using 12lb test Seaguar line tied to 20 lb braid by power pro for my drop shot rigs.
October will be a very busy month on the lake with several major tournament circuits having their year end champion ships. These pro's and teams will be targeting the bigger fish with some of the above techniques and will expect to have between 45 and 50 plus pounds for ten fish for the two days to win a tournament. The lake is very low and we are over a foot lower than this same time last year. Be careful and swing wide around the points and motor out a ways before getting the boat up on plane. That's it for now, feel free to email me a fishing report and how you did and also for any information you may need. "God Bless"
Overall the fishing has improved over the past couple of weeks. Lot's of silver side minnows are starting to show up all around the lake and the smaller bait fish are feeding on them and the larger bass are feeding on the bigger bait fish. Topwater action has also picked up with a whole variety of baits producing if you cover enough water and find the right areas. Buzzbaits, Rico style poppers, frogs, and walking baits such as a zara spook will all catch fish. I like a double bladed buzzbait with black blades and skirts for early in the morning and then switching to a silver bladed with a white skirt when the sun is up. Boat action has been very slow on the lake especially during the week but that will all change as we go into September and some of the larger tournament formats will start up. My best results have still been with working a wacky rigged senko in areas with less weed growth from the edges of the tules out to 8 and 10 feet of water. We also have had a lot of success working a small tube bait with a 1/8th oz jig head around the edges of the tules. This time of the year you will see a lot of fisherman working the weed beds and flipping, or punching, with a 1/2 ounce to 3/4 oz weight and using baits such as sweet beavers or full size brush hogs into the pockets. This type of fishing is not for everyone but can be very effective if you stay with it and cover water until you find the weed beds that are holding fish. You need the right tackle, rod, and heavy line for this pattern. I personally use tungsten weights, 20lb seaguar line, and full size brush hogs for my set ups. The weed beds and areas of weeds will slowly start to break up and die off now as we go into the fall making it easier to get a bait in front of the fish. Crankbaits and chatterbaits worked through the open areas will produce along with using 1/2 oz lipless crankbaits and using a yo yo pump style retrieve. One of the great things about Clear Lake is that you can fish all types of baits and all types of cover from docks, to rock piles, to weed beds, to tule edges. Along with that type of cover and structure, only your imagination will limit you to what type of baits and size to throw. Here at Clear Lake, throwing a big bait such as a eight inch lunker punker by http://blackdogbaits.com is a normal thing and we expect the bass to eat it and they do. Along with all of the various baits that we throw on this lake, I pair them up with a matching rod that will handle the lightest bait to the heaviest, I use Dobyn's Rod's and they make a rod for every style of fishing you can think of. These are top of the line rods and hold up very well to the wear and tear that my gear get's, check them out at http://dobynsrods.com. We are catching lot's of fish in the three to five pound class and the biggest fish caught by one of my customers this past week was a seven pound fish caught on a wacky rigged senko. That's it for now, stay tuned for more reports as we go into the fall season. God Bless, Bob
The bite has gotten tougher but is normal for this time of the year. The upper end of the lake has miles and miles of weed beds for the fish to find cover in. The hot weather drives the fish deeper in the South End of the lake around the rock piles and holding on the deeper breaks and ledges. I have been concentrating my efforts with my customers on the North end of the lake working baits around and in the weed beds. We have had limited success with topwater baits but have managed to catch some zara spook fish. Reaction baits such as crankbaits, spinnerbaits and chatterbaits have been putting some fish in the boat for some fisherman. The lake is still dropping with it's water level and the hot weather has brought on some pretty severe algae blooms in some areas. Overall the tournament weights are still very impressive with winning weights for the past couple of tournaments being 26 lbs and 28lbs for the teams best five fish. Some fisherman are still fishing with live minnows with success. I also have been playing around with live crawdads with my customers who prefer to use live bait. The largest fish caught this past month was a 9lber landed by one of my ten year old customers.
With the fishing being tough overall, lot's of weeds and some areas of the lake with lot's of algae, you can pretty much have the lake to yourself during the week and weekends are not very busy. I have been averaging 8 to 10 fish with my customers and the key is using a variety of baits and moving around and covering a lot of water to find fish. We have caught fish by flipping baits with heavier weights into the weed bed pockets, drop shotting worms around the edges of the weed beds, and working topwater baits early in the morning just before sunrise.
The bite should pick up as we go into the fall. The fish will start to feed more aggresiveley and more bait will start to show up.
My photo pages show every trip I take, the size of the fish and the number caught. If you are reading these reports and need any additional info, feel free to leave a comment here, or email me for more info. Thanks' and God Bless, Bob
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