The West's Biggest Bass Fishing Forum

Featured

WesternBass.TV

Free Magazine

Classifieds

ClassifiedsLast PostClassifiedsLast Post
Boats - Motors - Trailers
BRAND NEW RANGER Z518 $46,000 by Legitbritt Tue Oct 15, 2024 2:49 pm
Marine Accessories
Mercury Trophy Plus 25P by FGMUASWENTFISHING Mon Oct 14, 2024 9:12 pm
Electric Motors
Minn Kota and Motorguide parts by Alexphon Tue Oct 15, 2024 9:18 am
Miscellaneous
Dobyns Champion Series 766 Flip by reiningfish Mon Oct 14, 2024 9:48 am
Electronics
Monster Lithium cranking battery by Christian98 Sun Oct 13, 2024 8:00 pm
Rods & Reels
Powell TW Squarebill rod by jerrysfishing Tue Oct 15, 2024 1:30 pm
Hard Baits
OG Castaic Trout Swimbait [FOR SALE] by SononaBassin Tue Oct 15, 2024 11:18 am
Soft Baits
Trash fish Swimbaits (Sold) by Ballin21 Mon Oct 14, 2024 1:34 pm
Kayak Classifieds Terminal Tackle
Berkley 100% Fluorocarbon Line by Fishinkd Thu Oct 3, 2024 8:17 am
Lodging & Property
Clearlake House for Sale on the water by ct210 Sat Sep 28, 2024 10:28 pm
Tow Vehicles
2004 Dodge Ram 1500 by f2892704 Tue Aug 27, 2024 1:42 am

Lake Reports

Clear Lake
Clear Lake By Spent 5 days on Clear Lake last week, and despite all the tournament weights that would say this lake is on fire, it’s not. It’s good, don’t get me wrong, but you really have to work hard to find the quality bites. So lake conditions - water temp was 70-77 and the weather was a low pressure cooling. The first days were high pressure, heating up on the first day with a high of 85. The little fish seemed willing to bite a ChatterBait and a Keitech. The second day, the weather highs where going to be 100+. The fishing really wasn’t that good. I fished docks, shade, tules, and only had three bites all day. The rest of the time I had hot days 100+, but the fish seemed to be ok with that. I threw a ChatterNait in the morning in 3-5 ft of water, but I would have to make multiple casts and different retrieves to every dock piling. I fished it like I knew there was a fish on every piling and I just had to trick them into eating my bait. I had over 20 fish with the largest going 9.89. That was fun. About 10:30 am, I would put the reaction down and go flippin' and I just flipped tules, brush and any place I could find shade. I’d go for a hour until I would find em and whenI found one, I would get 3-4. I got into some wrestling matches thatI just didn’t win. So if you want to have a great time, plan on spending a couple days at Clear Lake, because once you figure out how you want to catch them, multiple limits of 20lbs is possible. The baits I had success with JackHammer in shad with Missle Bait Spunk Shad on Frenzy Nail, D Bomb with a 3/4 oz Flippin' weight, R2S Big Poppa and a Drop Shot.
California Delta
California Delta By Launched usual time 6am at Paradise; anticipating high tide at 7:18, ran to one of our fav flats areas to try some topwater; soon as we got to our starting spot, saw that a sea lion was feeding right in the flats we wanted to fish; we watched him dive into tule clumps with his back and tail above water. Then he'd come up with a bass, tail and half the body sticking out, then in a second, chomped and gulped down. He worked both the inside as well as perimeter of the flats. In 25 mins of watching, we watched him come up with a bass 9 times, and some of those bodies and tails looked pretty sizeable. I've always seen the sea lion(s) on the move but never really saw them feed in an area. We tried to move away from him but he'd work as close as 10-15 ft from our boat, coming out of nowhere. We finally got fed up and gave up on that area. We could only imagine how many fish he ate before we got there. OK anyways, we moved across the flats to a rock wall and started crankin' both shad and red craw crankbaits, they were taking both. Managed many rats but also several 1 - 1.5 lbers and an occasional 2lber. Since I had a choppo tied on, I threw into a tule cut up against the rock wall. As I waited for the "circles" to dissipate, I saw my choppo just go under so I set the hook and boated one. So I started working the choppo slow, not reeling it in but subtle twitches like a popper. This worked for a bunch more takers, no real blowups, just inhaling it down. I did get a choice few reeling in for the next cast and they came up and hit it, those 3 or 4 x were the only actual blowups I got. My brother was deadstickin' a worm on a shaky head and got his that way and on a dropshot, same type of worm. Ended early and off the water by 11:30am... short but fun morning, other than watching the sea lion munching. Nothing over 2lbs but still fun!!

From the Blogs