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Monday, March 19th, 2018

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    Water Temp: 49-52

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: They say the month of March comes "in like a lion, out like a lamb", but to date it has seemingly been 19 days of lion-ness. That being said, they are still biting. When the lake chooses to calm down, late winter tactics are still ripping lips. Those I talked to said they hadn't seen any pre-spawn activity, so the spawn *might* be later than usual. We had a tough time finding them, but they are there. We took a few on a ned rig and we caught one on a spinner bait when the wind and chop was at full throttle.

    Tips: Late-winter tactics; either endure the rain and fish through, or wait for a sunny day and guess at what they're biting on.

Wednesday, March 7th, 2018

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    Water Temp: 52 to 53

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: The lake had a 2 foot chop on it. This made for a tough time to stay on your spot. The fish still eating when I could stay in contact with the bottom. I was running moving small moving baits. Ended the day with 10 bass. We moved in side a marina and caught about 20 to 30 crappie each.

Saturday, February 17th, 2018

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    Water Temp: 49-55

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Started the morning around 7am throwing 3/8oz underspins with 3.8" kietech trailer and Jackall TN70, off the bat we were catch fish just not the right size, made a round around the lake to look for the bigger ones, found a good area loaded with fish couldn't get anything big out from it, noon came and we started fishing docks targeting the shaded sides, couldn't get anything to go, I started backing away from The dock and fishing the deeper end and immediately started hammering fish, they were in the bottom in about 7-10ft of water, again nothing big. we then decide to try out for some crappies and found a point where the we're stacked up, we caught and lost count bite was just insane, after a few hrs crappie fish we decided it was time to pick up the swimbaits and swing for the fence, headed back to our first spot and right away my partner got bit, he and I was using one of my prototype 6" Bluegill glide bait, he swung and missed, a few cast later I got bit and same thing happened, we figured it must be the small ones hitting, we then came to a sandy bank and I position the boat in 7ft of water and made a long parallel cast, let my Gill bait sink down to the bottom and started my retrieve with a rod swipe, I like to do that when the bait hits the bottom, it causes the bait to have a irractic side to side action and let's the bait come up off the bottom to not get hung up, also if there is any fish near by or looking at it it can also trigger a reaction strike, soon as my bait came off the bottom I did a medium reel and pause retrieve, on my third reel turn I felt a tug then my rod loaded up and I set the hook, fish on! I Fought her to the boat and my partner grabs the net and we got her into the boat, it was a nice healthy 6lbs 10oz fish, we took some pictures and released her, made a few more cast then it got dark and we called it a night.

    Tips: I'm no expert at clear lake but if u want to catch fish throw underspins and reaction baits, fish shallow in the morning and move out deeper in the day, don't forget to throw the big baits for a chance to catch the big ones good luck!

Thursday, February 8th, 2018

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    Water Temp: 48 to 56

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: On the water at 7am to 5 pm. The fish where co-operating from the start of the day. Small jigs started the day and work all the way through. Every thing was working, A-Rig, underspin, worm, Drop shot and even the crankbaits. I caught 25 and my buddy caught 35. The fish where every where no one place. Right know just go fish how you like to fish. But Caught more fish on a slow jigs but watched some one catch a 8 on a crankbait.

    Tips: If your looking for the bigger girls stay off the docks in deeper water. 20 to 30 feet in front of the docks. There is always that area where the bottom breaks slightly quicker. 1 or 2 feet faster.

Friday, December 29th, 2017

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    Water Temp: 40s

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Winter fishing is here. Slow down and scale back your presentation around weed lines and docks and target water 8+ feet deep and you'll find them. I fished from the 27th through the 29th of December and pulled a few consistent fish with a small Ned rig and TRD setup on tight line. The drop shot was working too around cover with a 6 inch or less leader. The slower the presentation the better. Kind of a numbers game right now rather than a size game.

    Tips: Slow down, target structure, use natural colors.

Monday, December 25th, 2017

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    Water Temp: Cold

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: All I want for Christmas is a killer big fish springtime bite!

    Tips: Wishin’ & a hopin’ for the best!

Wednesday, December 20th, 2017

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    Water Temp: 49-50

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Well, I will echo Larry's words with respect to Clearlake. Three days on the water Sun-Tues. Fished both Upper and Lower lake. We did not have the wind Sun-Tues that was blowing today on our departure and had clear skies... AND...wait for it...we got A bite. One bass. We fished shallow and we fished deep. We fished docks, ledges and drop offs, and deep rock piles. We made ourselves slow down to almost dead sticking the baits, crawling under-spins, crawling LV500(Yes Tim Little we tried) rip baits, big jigs, 2.8 to 4" Keitechs both on drop shot and swim rig, spoons, and A-rigs. just couldn't get a bas to bite.
    The water color was a first for me in the there years since we got our home there...Rusty Brown with less than 1ft visibility. We did find areas that the water was not this color and tried fishing those to no avail. We found bait balls that filled the hummingbirds entire screen. Massive.
    Although no fish, it was beautiful out on the water and we enjoyed the company and the hunt.

    Tips: Would love to hear tips and guidance from those guiding on the lake!!

Tuesday, December 19th, 2017

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    Water Temp: 52-53

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Someone I met at the ramp today challenged me to make a report after our short trip to Clear Lake. Well, here it is in all its glory!! The wind killed us today - how's that for a report?? Actually, it was brutal in the late afternoon as the front moved in. Very difficult to fish. The wind did something again today that you will only see at Clear Lake. We were on a point with the wind hitting us in one direction at 20-25 mph. Within seconds, it hit us in the total opposite direction - at the same speed!! Only at Clear Lake!!! We fished what we could on the west side of the lake and buddy Mike was the hero - he got a bite!! That is a big deal at Clear Lake now - a bite! Seriously, this afternoons 3 hr trip for us was not a good time to judge anything. We might have had subtle bites we just couldn't feel. No fun today!

    Tips: Sorry - I can't offer anything of value. I think Mike got his shallow bite on a jig - not sure. We did a lot of metering and really saw nothing in the way of bait or fish. I hear that if there is a bite, it is up north. That would not surprise me since most of the bass live up north now. I believe it is called "tournament migration!"

Thursday, December 14th, 2017

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    Water Temp: 49 to 53

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Great winter day! Was on the water at 8am to 4pm and caught 30 + fish. Most of the fish where of quality size over 2lb. Top 5 fish went for 19lbs. We where fishing in the Nice area on the lake. Fishing flats in 3 to 6 feet of water. The better fish where in 6 feet of water out in front of the docks. The best fish came off Rocky areas with deep water around them.

    Tips: Best bait was the underpin in the small size. 1/4 oz size with a 4in keithech impact. The underspin need to be on the bottom. Small jigs as well in dark colors was working.

Friday, December 1st, 2017

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    Water Temp: 51

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Started early in the morning ( 7am). Catching our first fish in about 10 min. Then things went slow. Catching a fish every half hour or so. Until about noon. Water temp moved up as did the bite. The fish where schooled up. If you found one stop and beat the area up. We would catch 3 or 4 fish off the school. Then come back about an hour later and do it again. We ended the day with 25 between the two of us. All mice fish 2lb to 4lbs.

    Tips: On cold night fish deeper 10 to 15 feet. Found a better bite on smaller baits. Last I was using the underpins with white trailer and silver blade. Keithech swing impack 3 in. The fat impack didn't receive the same attention

Wednesday, October 25th, 2017

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    Water Temp: 62-67

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Maybe a sign of hope? Reports have been tough for Clear Lake this fall but we wanted to try it for ourselves. Started around middle lake and found them! We caught over 60 bass and 1 16 pound cat from 7 am to 1 pm. All of the fish came from 1 to 7 feet of water on a 3/16 oz. Coolbaits Down Underspin and a 3 inch Keitech trailer. Fish ranged from a few inches to 5 pounds. Hopefully the bite continues to get better as fall goes on.

    Tips: Finesse working the best for numbers with a few big fish thrown in. Find the clearest water you can and throw a CoolBaits Underspin!

Friday, October 6th, 2017

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    Water Temp: 70.8-74.2

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Ted & I were At Clear Lake 9/24 - 9/27. We fished primarily at night with a few afternoon jaunts as well. I was suprised at the lack of weeds around the areas we fish. We actually fished areas that normally at this time of year, are all mucked & weed choked. We fish south to midlake this trip, mostly in Konocti & Buckingham. We did get a fair amount of bites, but the size was lacking! We boated several that went from 1.0 - 3.0. We did get two big fish hits & I broke them both off. One took me into a dock anchor cable & the other one grazed me off a rock. Got a good look at both, but they still don't count! We caught them primarily on Texas rigged Yamamoto lg flappin hogs & creature baits with green pumpkin being the most productive color. The afternoon trips were more of the same, we just tried it to see if there was a difference in pattern. We only managed one jig fish, two blade fish & a few more on senkos. No swimbait or crank strikes at all which was weird given the water temp. Did graph quite a bit of baitfish & there was a lot of activity with fish rolling. Other than that, nothing else outstanding to report. We'll give it a try in a few more weeks.

    Tips: We lightened up the weight to 1/4 oz on the Texas rig as they hit it the creature on the fall. We fished very slowly, basically crawling it along the bottom. Many times they just picked it up & swam with it. Tried using a lighter rig with 8 lb line & finesse fish, but broke too many off on the hookset. Guess I'm too used to 20lb line & hard sets! Lol. Anyway , gave up on that after too many breakoffs. So, I guess fish slow & give the lake some more time. Seems the weather pattern is getting better. The other thing is during the night, the wind was totally slack. Usually it's brisk this time of year. I figure the bigs ones have to eat sometime & hope I'm there when they decide to start!

Monday, September 18th, 2017

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    Report: Postby clearlakeoutdoors » Mon Sep 18, 2017 4:22 am

    Thursday the water was 75 -77 degrees and water midlake is pretty clear ,some areas north are clear and some is stained
    Fishing is a little tough .Plenty of 1-2 pounders .
    For me the better bite is shallow less than 5 ft. Squarebills ,flipping
    Weights are down a little from the norm.
    There was a shad die off the other night and lots of dead shad in the Lucerne area

Saturday, August 26th, 2017

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    Water Temp: 72-78

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Got out early both Saturday and Sunday with my sons and daughter and fished the day through ~6pm. Mornings were comfortable but afternoons got HOT... but a beautiful weekend, winds were kind to us. Started at several spots in the south with barely a bite..no dock bite to speak of. We went North and found fish mid lake and from Buckingham through Henderson. The bite lasted throughout the day with over 100+ fish boated. Landed on a school late Saturday and the kids went on an every cast run for a bit and had a blast. Fish were in 10 to 15 feet of water. Sizes were in the 1.5 to 3lb range with a 4 an 6-06 boated. Heading back up for the labor day weekend!!

    Tips: The bite was definitely on the bottom, Dirty Jigs Super Matt Brown and Norcal craw with Yamamoto twin tail trailers took the honors. Also fished Yamamoto Hula Grub on Dirty Jigs pivot points and were getting smashed. Many drop shot fish with MM III most successful. Caught a few crank fish..but a lot of reeling with little production..went back to the Jig.

Saturday, August 19th, 2017

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    Water Temp: 79-82

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: I know about the die off and have seen some of it. Do not fear - there are many, many, bass still very much alive! My sore thumb nearly fell off lipping around 60+ bass for my clients. I lost my net last trip and forgot to get a new one. So Larry - a couple of guys were your clients, right? Not quite. A father and his 11 year old son and 9 year old daughter. Thank goodness for 21 ft Rangers!! I think this was their first official family bass trip. I told the bass to be on their best behavior, and they were. A 6 1/2 hour bite, unbelievable! it never slowed We used a variety of plastics, mostly Robo worms in 2 or 3 different colors. MM111 is coming on as fall approaches! Morning Dawn is still hot, along with the weather. We fished several areas mid-lake, working 5 to 15 feet of water. We also used Yamamoto Flappin' Hogs and some jigs w/Yamamoto trailers. I believed I worked harder on this trip then any in memory - someone had a bass on all the time with their triple hookup even - the whole family had one on except the wife - and she wasn't there!! I figured I'd net dad's first since he had the money - LOL! I've seen this happen before - as the afternoon set in, the fish got bigger. Both kids got one near 4 lbs. The success of this trip was only possible because I didn't have to be on the trolling motor - no wind to speak of. I was free to net 24/7!!

    Mike Sperbeck and I fished the lake on Thursday afternoon and found good action also. We fished the Rattlesnake Arm and up to Soda Bay. Again, an amazing shallow bite in the wind, bass biting in the top 5 feet. Mostly jigs that trip. We caught over 50 in 5 hrs, up to 4 1/4 lbs. As I mentioned before on a previous post, no dinks any more, just good bass in the 2 to 4 lb range.

    Tips: Though the bite is good nearly everywhere, it is a struggle to find a fish over 5 lbs in the southern area of the lake. Many of those bigger bass have a new zip code. What is that zip code for the Lakeport area now???

Saturday, August 5th, 2017

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    Water Temp: 80-84

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Well "clum," another successful day trip! Can't help it - LOL!!! Seriously, I took a client to Clear Lake yesterday who knows the lake some, but wanted to learn more productive areas to fish. We looked over areas from Red Bud to Soda Bay. The bite started out slow but got much better as the cloud cover thinned out during the day. I was curious to see if a front from the south would shut off the bite during the day, as it always does at night. We had a great trip, so I guess that weather pattern doesn't bother the day bite. We fished mostly soft plastics - worms, beavers, Yamamoto Flappin' Hogs, and other baits he was throwing. Darker colors worked best. Again, we found bass pretty shallow in spite of lots of Friday pleasure boat activity. We landed over 40 nice bass, with a 4.12 big one and a few bigger than last trip, some over 3 lbs up to 3 1/2. I showed him two areas that I hadn't fished for awhile, and they were good too. Those resident bass must have missed me!! Our best five was again around 16 to 17 lbs.

    Tips: Just a concern that I had yesterday, previously hearing about some dead bass on the surface recently. We did see 4 or 5 dead bass - actually one nearly dead that was a quality bass around 7 or 8 lbs - dying on the surface. All the bass we caught seemed fine. My client was fishing worms a lot, and some jigs. I threw jigs of different colors and again brown or brown orange seemed to work well. MM111 Robo worms worked better yesterday, especially in the afternoon. Didn't get around to Senkos yesterday as other baits were working well. My client called the big fish yesterday - fun, fun. There is a dock that he likes that I really don't fish. He got a 3 1/4 and I got the 4.12. Good call! I noticed the surface algae has moved further north, but is not bad at all.

Friday, July 28th, 2017

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    Water Temp: 79

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Well, they are definitely not on a night bite! I was with my youngest daughter & we fished this past Mon-Weds night in Konocti Bay. This was a very slow trip with all small fish caught. The wind was pretty slack which is unusual for this time of year. The lake was just dead. No rolling fish, not even any ducks splashing around! We threw Texas, jigs, Senkos, blades, cranks, swimbaits. The only thing they really hit was the Don Iovino Doodle Snake in rythym & blues. Didn't seem to want the double wide or any other creature type bait! I think it's a daytime bite right now. I didn't fish that hard as I didn't want to discourage my daughter as she's new to bass fishing! I'll be back with old Ted in a few weeks & really hit it harder to see if it was just bad timing for us! (I hope!)

    Tips: Judging from Larry's post, I would try daylight fishing. I didn't get to frog or topwater fish as I didn't stay til after daybreak. There wasn't any other boats on the water & activity levels just seemed low. Other than that, I don't have any tips except don't do what we were doing! Lol

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    Water Temp: 80-83

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: After some vacation time, decided to hit Clear Lake Wednesday with buddy Mike Sperbeck. We took his boat and decided to fish the early afternoon 'til dark. We fished Red Bud to Henderson Point and found the bite to be a little better than we expected and it was pretty good most of the trip. I know enough about Clear Lake to realize that certain sizes of bass are active during certain periods of time during the year. Yesterday, that theory held up as all the near 50 bass we landed were in the 1 3/4 to 3 lb range. A little humor on the trip was my fighting and landing a 4 pounder while Mike had all he could handle with a 9 incher - the only dink of the trip. Always fun to have the biggest and the smallest of the trip landed at the same time!! Our limit might have gone 16 lbs - at least close. Wind really wasn't a problem - a little brisk at dusk.

    Tips: As has been reported for the last few weeks, the jig bite was the reason for a fairly nice trip. Different color combinations worked well as long as there was some brown in it. We used various Yamamoto plastic trailers. We found one or two group of bass in schools - again not big ones - 2 to 2 3/4 lb average. For awhile we were hooking bass on every cast, really! That doesn't happen much, unfortunately!! Also, I caught the 4 pounder in an area that I haven't caught a quality bass in several years. Most of our bass were in the top 10 feet of water. We did try deeper areas but couldn't get bit. I switched to a red shad 10" Power worm at dusk and hooked a much bigger bass but lost her. Heard that before??

Monday, July 17th, 2017

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    Water Temp: 82-88

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Took the family to Clear Lake for four days (Wed-Sat) July 12-15. The bite was very steady for fish in the 2 pound class, but the bigger fish were a little harder to come by. This trip was mostly for the kids and not so much for me, so I stuck with techniques that would get them numbers. We fished mainly from Henderson south concentrating on rock piles and rocky ledges. We caught close to 60 fish a day and only fished from sun up to about noon. The kids threw Texas rigged MM III and brown and purple 1/2 ounce jigs with oxblood sweet beavers as trailers. The worm seemed to get more bites and the slightly bigger fish. We did manage a few over 3 lbs and my daughter lost a six that got tangled up in the Talon brackets (dad's fault). On the last day I did pick up a buzz bait for about 30 minutes and managed a 5 plus, a 4 and several other fish in the 2 plus range. The buzz bait bite was very aggressive. I tried throwing a whopper plopper, but the fish were just swatting at the bait and the ones I did catch were foul hooked. I also managed a few frog fish as well out of isolated weed clumps along rocky banks. I'm guessing the top water bite and frog is really going to start heating up in next few weeks. Their was a big algae bloom going on which really affected the water clarity. All in all it was a great trip and I assume if there are two guys in the boat fishing all day they would easily catch a 100 fish a day.

    Tips: Buzz baits and frogs around isolated weed clumps. Jigs and worms on rock piles and ledges.

Friday, June 30th, 2017

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    Water Temp: 78.2-79.8

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday nights. I have to say that the bite is still going strong. Hit town Monday evening & got on the water at 11:30 PM. I brought my daughter with me & this was a teaching trip! The goal was to teach her new techniques as she has always fished with just Senkos, so she learned to throw jigs, Texas rig, & blades this trip as well as the fine art of netting fish! Monday was a learning experience as we missed quite a few fish. We landed 9 that night with the best at 7.5 that I got on as jig. It was also her second fish to net & she did very well. The rest were 2.5 - 3.5 on jigs, senkos & Texas.Tuesday night started late on account of the Giant's game going 14 innings. We hit the water at 12:30 AM & ran right into a bite. Once again the majority were in that 2.5 - 3.5 range but we managed a big of 5.11. We hung around to see if there was a topwater bite & we caught quite a few small ones on the Whopper Plopper fished at a steady retrieve. They didn't want the stop & go. We boated 27 fish. Wednesday night we had my bud Manny join us & the bite was still brisk! Same pattern, 2.5's to 3.5's with a few 4 lbers & a big of 5.7. Well, actually, the big was 15.14 lbs. on a jig, but unfortunately it had whiskers! I wish I had a video of my kid netting that one! She couldn't lift it in as it was a load! I lost count of how many we boated, somewhere after 30. The topwater bite was softer, but they were busting in the weeds. Went to get my trusty frog pole out of the locker & realized I left it in the garage after I had the boat recarpeted! I guess I'm getting old & forgetful! I threw a 6" senko & worked it like a frog, got a bunch of blowups, but couldn't get the hook into them! I'm gonna go out on a limb & say the frog bite would have been outstanding! We stayed in Konocti again as there wasn't any real reason to move. The jig bite was the best. My kid lost a few on the jig, but managed a pair of 4's with it. I posted a pic in the fishing forum. She also killed it on the senko, her go to throw. They were either taking the jig on the fall or smacking the heck out of it. They seemed to be all over the place. Got them anywhere from 5" to 25" of water. The Texas worked well on the weed edge line & the Senko around rocky stucture. We fished it slow & the colors were darks with either red or blue. Reaction was soft with a few blade fish & no crank fish at all. The water was a little warmer than I expected, but they were on it! We didn't get the big fish bites like last trip, but we caught more fish! I dug out some old Don Iovino snakes & cow tongues the old man & I fished in Mexico together eons ago in rhythm & blues fished Texas & they got a lot of fish. He still makes them. The jigs were black or black & blue with black blue sweet beavers for trailers. They also hit the Big Texan double wide as well. The weeds are still not that bad, the fishings hot, so if you get the chance to go, do it & be safe!

    Tips: We fished the Texas at the edge of the weedlines & when you felt some resistence, we'd shake the bait, then pull slowly. Sometimes it was a fish swimming with it, or a fish would smack it after you shook it & pulled it free! The jigs we fished in rocky structure & got them in all depths. A bunch of times you'd either lose contact with it only to find a fish had swum under the boat with it or it would feel heavy & then your line starts moving sideways (weeds don't do that! lol) The Senkos were just tossed out there & they'd grab them. They seemed to prefer weightless Texas style as opposed to wacky. They like watermelon with black flake and rootbeer with all kinds of sparklies, I don't think they make it anymore as Jess used them all up! 6" was the ticket! The wind was not too bad, just the usual Clear Lake summer & the weather was gorgeous this week! We'll be back in a few weeks! (Don't forget your frog pole!!!)