Clear Lake smallmouth rumors...

[WildDog3]

I keep hearing of guys being out on Clear Lake and getting smallmouth. Even one of the elite series guys said he culled a smallmouth at the golden gate shootout. Is there some smallmouth in Clear Lake?

[BassCatPuma]

Yes there are, not very many but I have caught 2 and have seen about 5 others weighed in at tournaments.

[Murph]

While practicing for the Stren event, my practice partner, Steve Skanderson, caught back to back Smallies down in the Rattlesnake arm. They Pull hard in Clear Lake, too!

[bahlzar]

last summer one was weighed in at our club tourny....

[Dewayne]

Both down in Rattlesnake in the same area a few years apart. There are a few there.

[Phil]

YES THEY ARE THERE AND NICE ONES.SOME GUYS BACK IN THE 80'S TRANSPORTED THEM FROM BERRYESSA AND LUCKY THEY DID NOT GET GAUGHT...........MOST ARE IN THE DEEPER PARTS OF THE LAKE, KONOCTI , WINDMILL ISLAND AREA........

[lucas boden]

When we were photographing Kevin VanDam During the Elite Series tournament he told us he caught two, but they were too small to weigh in. All he was doing was running rocky banks ripping! sounds like a smallie pattern to me

[jacob]

we got about a 1.9 out of the Rattlesnake arm on sunday also.

[NoCAL]

I got 2 last year on successive casts in Rattlesnake arm. They both took a craw colored crankbait and hit it before I ever started cranking. Just as it was sitting on top. Both were around 2 lbs.

NoCAL

[fishfan]

My partner caught one last Saturday that was a little over 2 lbs!

Jeff H.

[Skeeter1]

DFG Lake and Reservoir Biologist for the North Central Region here.
We have not gotten a smallie from CL in our Electro-Fishing in the past.

Got lots of pic's from this post. Thanks guys.

[gt5bass]

Rut Roh...now you guys have gone and dun it...you got the DFG attention

Hey Skeeter1,

Just curious what will the DFG gameplan be once they "officially" know there are Smallies in Clear Lake? Hopefully they won't try to do what Nevada Game & Fish originally did at Mead when we brought Smallies in

[Blue_R70]

Hopefully they won't try to do what Nevada Game & Fish originally did at Mead when we brought Smallies in

Who is "we?" Are you a member of the Bucket Biology Brigade?

[swimbait]

Skeeter1 - Fish Chris has a pic on his site of a smallie, or maybe a smallie/spot hybrid from clear lake

http://www.trophybassonly.com/id86.htm

[gt5bass]

Who is "we?" Are you a member of the Bucket Biology Brigade?

They were caught during tournaments and we made the mistake and brought them to weigh-ins a few years back and they were takin' and ... you git the picture

Fortunately, the Smallies are now flourishing at Mead and seem have help to improve the fishery from an bass anglers point of view and NO!, I did NOT stock them in the LAKE! I just caught them there!

[Skeeter1]

Yes we lurk. Most of us are fisherman and hunters too. I've been on this site long before my DFG days. Besides I get some of my best info. on species being caught, sizes, locations and angler "satisfaction" on certain water bodies from sites like this. There is no possible way we could collect the amount of data, that anglers collect on a daily basis and put on these sites. Just like this smallmouth thing.
I would like one for verification and knowledge purposes only. Just want to add it to the species list for that lake. As I said we have never gotten one in the e-fishing, and neither has Peter Moyle from UCD who has done a lot of fisheries work up there, so if they are there it would be nice to know. Not a huge surprise, but it's good to have it documented. We've never gotten trout in our e-fishing either, but someone catches one crappie fishing every once in a while, and they were verified to be there historically.

Thanks for the link to the Fish Chris site, I hadn't seen that picture before. That is helpful.

[Jshatara]

I also caught a Smallmouth from Clear Lake. Returning to the lake after 11 years, I caught it on a lucky craft crank bait. It was on my first cast once I got on the water. I will post the photo in the pictures section. My comp. is not letting me cut and paste.

[L.Hackney]

Here is a smallie caught last sunday at Clear Lake.
My first one there so far... Even though the picture doesn't do it justice, it was almost 2lbs.





Lowell Hackney / Clear Lake Small Mouth

[Murph]

*NM*

[L.Hackney]

Yep, it was.....

[bahlzar]

dang hack i was there that day too..

[L.Hackney]

Yep, it was a good day... The bite was on fire.

[Calistar]

Who's the ugly dude holding that 1-lber?

[L.Hackney]

Hahahaha, how you doing Greg...?

[JimmyReese]

Hack, get off my water!

For some reason that shoreline holds most of the smallies, well the deep water with the rocky shoreline has something to do with it, I have caught 6 of my 8 smallies on Clearlake on that stretch. I still havnt weighed one in a tourney yet! Last year we stuck a few down the other arm and weighed a 4.10 and a 3.92. They were nice fish! I have seen them around shag and I have buddies that caught them at the redbud park and up north at little Rocky! The best story was watching a 4 lber eat my swimbait in practice a few years back, it swallowed a seven inch osprey like it was nothing, then it spit it and as I watched the whole thing I never felt a bite!!! Pretty scary!

RUMORS ARE TRUE!!!!

Jimmy

[TWinger]

I have caught several smallies near Monitor.

[L.Hackney]

The wind picked up and that sucker inhaled a 5" senko. Only difference was, that this about ripped my pole outta my hand. Coulda' swore it was a 4 or 5lb. by the way it bit...

[Calistar]

Hahahaha, how you doing Greg...?

Doing good Hackman...maybe one of these days You and Jacob will show me how to catch some BIG CL fish. I can catch numbers but nothing real big as of yet.

oh and I was just kidding when I said

Who's the ugly dude holding the 1-lber

That fish is at least 1.5 lbs....

[L.Hackney]

Haha, yeah, let's go hog huntin' some time. That would be fun...

[Larry Hemphill]

I had never caught a smallie at Clear Lake until a guided trip in April of 2001. I caught a 3 lb 13 oz smallie with another chasing her to the boat. Withing the hour one of the clients caught a 3-1 and 3-3 - everyone on jigs! Three in one hour - amazing!!! They to were in the Rattlesnake arm. Last summer I caught my second one - about 2 1/2 lbs - which was my first bass on a Chatterbait! I took the lure back to Bob Higgins at Limit Out Tackle and told him I wanted a refund!!!!!!

[StockOption]

Landed today...man what a battle. First one for me at Clear Lake.

Taken over by Glenhaven with a MMIII drop-shot.