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Michael Lavoie of Mather, CA cleaned up on legendary Clear Lake this past weekend. In 3 days of competitive kayak bass fishing he was able to secure four top 3 finishes, 3 three Big Fish awards and took home approximately 14k in winnings!
Here’s how it breaks down:
Lakeport Bait & Tackle 3rd. Annual Kayak & Belly Boat Bass Tournament (8/20/21): Third Place out of 79 anglers with 97.50 inches and a 23.5-inch Big Fish
KBF Trail Clear Lake Day 1 (8/20/21): Second Place out of 46 anglers with 97.50 inches and a 23.5-inch Big Fish
West Coast Championship (8/20 & 8/21/21): First Place out of 108 anglers with a 2-day total of 200.50 inches and a 23.5-inch Big Fish
Yak-A-Bass Chris Laird Memorial (8/21 & 8/22/21): Second Place out of 79 anglers with a 2-day total 197.25 inches
Here’s how he did it:
Prefish day 1
ML – I fished the southern side of the lake and found fish on a decent pattern but it was pretty nasty down there.
Prefish day 2
ML - I then went back to my old stomping grounds where I did pretty well a few years ago in a YAB tournament launching mid lake. During prefish I got about a dozen bites and didn’t set the hook on the fish except for the 2 jerkbait fish.
Competition day 1
ML - It was really routine, I didn’t get a bite for the first hour and a half. There wasn’t anything happening in the dark. I fished deep since I couldn’t see the shore but no bites. Once the light started coming up I started throwing a frog. Once I started getting bit on a frog, I switched up to a 5.5” glide bait. Once I had my limit, I switched to a 7.5” glide and started culling. Once the glide bait bite stopped, I started flipping around some really huge submerged boulders with adjacent grass. The wind picked up and started pushing more bait into my area and I stayed within a 100-yard zone cycling different baits. Number one bait for really good fish was a Bobby D’s swim jig that I would pitch, bounce and then swim back to the boat.
Competition day 2
ML – I started off in one area close to my initial spot on day one. Again, no bites in the early morning. I only got one bite on the frog and missed it. I switched up to the swim jig and a chatterbait. The wind was blowing and it was cooler so the topwater bite wasn’t happening. Went down the bank with both and was flipping the swim jig and was fishing it like a regular jig. The chatterbait was taking care of a lot, I had back to 22 inch plus fish back to back on the chatterbait. They were pulled off the bank a little bit and were deeper. As the sun came up and things began to warm up, the fish moved back up and I started throwing some topwater and caught a few more. 103 inches that day and I didn’t even know it. I never look at the leaderboard while fishing.
Competition day 3
ML - I really didn’t know if the fish were going to be there. I beat them up pretty good the prior two days. I was planning on moving on to another spot located on the opposite side of the lake about 2.25 miles away. The shad school that I found on days 1 and 2 reappeared which was a blessing. They came through and I was able to capitalize on the active feeding fish. I chased the school up the bank. I broke my rod on the third fish and had to switch out. I came back and there were a few fish still hanging out feeding on the shad. I went back with the swim jig and went back to flipping, caught 1 more and I left. All the other fish I caught for the rest of the day didn’t help.
Weekend wrap up
ML - Leading up to this weekend (outside of the WWBT at McClure where I finished 5th.), my season has been challenging. I had lots of opportunities to do well but just a bunch of different mistakes. With this competition, you can’t afford to make bad decisions or have bad tournaments. Going into this tournament I told myself I was going to fish the conditions, not force anything and Use baits that I have confidence in. Doing well this weekend really took a lot of pressure off my shoulders. I felt like I stuck to my game plan, didn’t get distracted and it paid off.
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