I was able to spend quite a few days up at Clear Lake these last few weeks. Considering the time of year the lake was actually fishing pretty tough. The weather has been changing daily and been very inconsistent, really putting the fish in a “funk”. The weights that came to the scales at the WWBT event were proof that it wasn’t just me having a difficult time getting them to go.

I found some pretty good fish on practice days and the week prior to the event but just couldn’t really execute my plan come game day. As the weather warmed up and water clarity improved I did find a handful of fish on beds. ( I expect them to be in full spawn mode within this week.) Water temps ranged from 55 to 62. Clarity is anywhere from 1ft to 5ft dependent on the part of the lake.

Fishing shallow yielded alot more bites but they were clearly the small bucks and not the big females I was looking for. With that, I pulled back and fished anywhere from 6ft to 20ft deep water in search of the bigger bites. My bait of choice was primarily the Heavy limits 5wire arig. The bites were fewer out deeper but the quality of the fish improved. The Arig bite was also much better when I could find areas that the wind was blowing into. A few fish did come on a drop shot when the water was calmer and I didn’t have the wind I needed. When the bigger fish were found, they seemed to be schooled up. There was typically more to be had there at that spot, so spend some time there when you get a bigger bite and fish it thoroughly. It was a run and gun type fishing as I would get into pockets of 1-2 lb fish and had to move around to where I could locate a pocket of bigger ones.

Hope this helps and puts some big ones in your boat! By now I would also spend some time looking for some beds. It amazes me the quality of fish we have here that you can just cruise around plucking off beds at this awesome fishery.

I also want to thank WWBT for bringing such a great series to us here on the west coast. If you havn’t had an opportunity to fish one of the events I would highly recommend checking one out.