Saturday was tournament day for the Redwood Empire Bass Club at Clear Lake and everyone knew big fish and big weights were very possible. I drew boater Jimbo Mcisaac, boat number 14 for this team tournament. The 7 a.m. launch out of Library Park in Lakeport went smoothly; about half the field went north as did we.
QUICK LIMIT
The plan was to fish the Rodman mouth area, since about 10 other boats had the same idea when we arrived we decided to hang back and fish the tulle island and tulle bank areas. Jimbo hooked into the first fish on his third cast of the morning, a strong 4 lb fish and immediately I hook into our second fish. We continued down the weed line, casting in all directions as we were fishing one huge 5 foot flat. Within 45 minutes, we had five fish in the boat, roughly 15 lbs.
After many boats left the mouth area of Rodman, we moved in closer and Jimbo hooked up with our two kicker fish, a 7.17 and a 7.26, which won big fish honors. We didn’t have a working scale in the boat so had to cull with a balance beam and could only guess at how much weight we had, hoping we got that magic number - 30. We caught our last fish at about 8:30 a.m. That made the day long waiting for 3:30 p.m. to come around.
THE REST OF THE DAY
We went to a few different docks in Niece and Lakeport areas; but nothing we caught was cull worthy. With about an hour left, we headed back up to Rodman, hoping maybe one more 5+ wanted to bite, as our smallest fish was at least 4lbs. With no more bites and winds picking up, white caps formed rather suddenly; so with only 20 minutes to weigh in, we headed back.
We weighed our fish, 30.41 pounds for five. Second place had five fish for 18.41. Unbelievable, this is my biggest tournament weight, thus far. It was a great day, one I will never forget. We all go to Clear Lake, especially this time of year knowing huge limits and fish are possible at any cast and we all always hope it’s our turn. Saturday was our turn and we capitalized.
WINNING STRATEGY
Our main area was the mouth of Rodman fishing vegetation with LV500’s. We were casting out, letting the LV sink; then, slowly bringing it back with a yo-yo retrieve, making sure to keep contact with vegetation.
The fish were biting on the fall. We were both fishing a different shad pattern LV500 with success. I do believe one difference between Jimbo and myself is the line we used. I was using 16 lb Sunline Fluorocarbon and he was using 30 lb braid to a 25 lb fluorocarbon leader. He definitely spent less time getting grass off his lure than I did and I think it was because the braid allowed his LV to rip through the vegetation cleaner than straight fluorocarbon. My rod was a Dobyns 705 glass and it was amazing paired with a Daiwa Tatula.
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