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
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
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