Spent the last 3 weekends at Clear Lake. First round was 3 days for the Triton Owners with Rod Lee. Next was a day of practice by myself, then 3 days for the ABA TOC this weekend. Learned a lot, caught a few. Where to start...

For the Triton Owners, Rod practiced with his buddy for 2 days the weekend before. They had one day of average fishing and one very good day with a 25lb limit. So we felt optimistic for the event.

Our practice day was tough but Rod caught two nice fish, a 3 and 3/4 and a 5 and a half. We both caught a lot of these 10 to 12 inch fish that are common in the lake right now. I never had a keeper bite. It was hot and calm.

Day 1, off we go. Conditions had changed from the weekend before and we weren't getting bit. We fished North mainly. Water was 67 to 73 deg with variable clarity up to 5 feet in places. I had one maybe bite flipping and mid-morning caught a 3lber on a swimbait. Rod missed one bite on ripbait.

The rest of the day was a head scratcher as we ran around the lake. We only weighed the 1 fish. Clear Lake is just fishing weird right now.

Day 2 we got on a good spot in the morning. With 119 boats, draw was important. Unfortunately we didn't get positioned just right on the spot and another boat pulled in and caught 3 for 12lbs right next to us. We sat on it 3 hours for nothing.

Decided to run the lake. I broke out the big baits but conditions were garbage for that. Hot calm. I scratched out a tiny 12 inch keeper and a 3lber on drop shot. Despite sucking we finished 67 out of 119. There were good bags though, with plenty of 20lb sacks.

My next trip was a 1 day run by myself in my boat, Friday last weekend. It was hot and calm again. The algae bloomed like mad in the afternoon, totally disgusting rafts of it were floating mid-lake and covered my boat and trailer.

Fishing was terrible for me. I hooked one 4lber on drop shot. Couldn't raise a follow on swimbaits. I ran the north end and rattle snake. Saw a million guys prefishing the AC event. Everyone was fishing offshore. I was kind of over that needle in a haystack thing.

This weekend Nico and I left the house at 3:45am and were launched at the Oaks before sunrise. I've always wanted to night fish at clear lake lol. Turned the corner at rattlesnake in to 3 footers and 20mph winds. It was a little too early in the morning for that stupidity so we hid out down there for a few hours and caught nothing.

Mid morning the wind leveled off some and we were able to run the lake. Water 66 deg and clearer than it has been. Nico cracked a 5 on a triple trout and one pushing 6 on a drop shot. I stuck another 5 on triple trout. This seemed promising but we tried to run the pattern and couldn't duplicate it. Had 3 fish for around 16lbs for practice.

Game day. 188 boats. We were in a late flight and ran south. There was no one on our stretch. I thought we were going to knock a few fish but the first 30 minutes were quiet. Went to spot #2 and Nico sticks a 5 and 3/4. Swing around to the next stretch and I get a 4 and 3/4. Seemed like things were going to pop but then it shut off and we weren't bit for hours.

Ran north late in the day. Pulled in to a new spot and Nico loses one on the hookset. Decent fish. Then I get a 3 and a half. Late in the day a 6 rolls on my bait but doesn't eat. Grrr. Weighed 3 fish for 14.27. Right size but not enough. Get those two fish in the boat we'd be leading. Instead sat in 45th place.

Day 2, here comes the weather. We're one of the first flights and drive straight out in a squall coming down the lake. Big water in front of the state park heading south. I was driving a little fast and we were banging around. Passed a few boats in the Champion ;)

SCBBBC guys were on our starting spot. Picked on the edge for 10 minutes and Nico a 12 and a half inch fish. No point in sitting there without being able to make the right cast so we bailed. You guys who fished both days of the kickboat tourney deserve props. That was true B-n-T weather.

On area #2 Nico had a rattle right away but it didn't eat. A bit later we got in to a flurry and I stuck 3 swimbait fish and missed one good bite in the first few hours. So frustrating to miss any bites in these events. Like the day before, the bite shut down and we flat ran out of water. Nico threw finesse for hours trying to put one more fish in the boat. Nothing but 6 inchers ate.

We ran north but it had 3 footers on it. Ground out the end of the day back down south for nothing. Incredible to make hundreds of casts with drop shot at clear lake and not get a keeper bite.

Ran more big water coming back to the ramp. Yuk. Broke a few things on the boat this weekend between the gravel bar I ran over at idle down south, the 1/2" rope that somehow got wrapped on my prop, the Stradic C4 handle I stepped on and bent, and the rod strap that broke.

Day 2 a lot of dudes said screw it and left. Someone said that by 10am, 55 boats had pulled out at the Casino. 98 zeros on day 2. Don't blame them really. The North west side of the lake was hosed. We finished 26th place with 27.24 for 6 bass. 1st out of the money of course... Picked up a few bucks in options and dreamed about a way to convert all of our bites and swipes. You needed 10 bites a day and we were only getting 5.

The award ceremony started at 6:15 and went on for a lifetime. Whew. I like ABA, it was just a bit much. Nico won an Okuma rod and I had a nice chat with the Baitsmith guys but when they started raffling individual bottles of boat cleaner I got a little wiped out. We got home at 11:45pm last night.

The guys that did good in this event prefished a lot. I'm talking weeks. And that all makes sense, because you needed water, or really good subtle spots that other people didn't find. We were on the pattern to win this event but we didn't have enough water. We prefished more for this event than I ever have, for any tournament, but 3 weekends wasn't enough. Now it's time to get ready for the next season of Motherlode ABA. First event in Dec at Melones!

http://www.calfishing.com/files/Images/daily_reports/2010_10_21_clear_lake/5lber.JPG

Another few days of prefishing and we would have had enough water to win it. A real tough tournament overall, but we did a lot better than last year's TOC and I still had a good time cracking some triple trout fish :-)

Sounds like a tough 3 weeks

I will be fishin the AC Teams trail this year and feel confident of making it to the TOC. But I do have mixed feelings on the "TOC" at Clear Lake...It is really hard to compete against guys (even from the Central coast) that have homes on Clear Lake, fish for a living, and/or are retired and spend more then a month on the lake before the TOC...So I just look at it as an accomplishment to make it there in the first place. If you get on 'em while there, well that is just an added benefit to the trip.

Nice report Rob.

Don't be too discouraged. With a little luck it could all play out. We were close in this one and I've been close before like the year CV and I came in 4th in the WON TOC and had the bites to get it done.

This particular event was very hard because you get very little feedback from the bass at clear lake right now. When you're getting 1 to 5 bites a day, you just can't learn very much. But in a week of fishing, you are likely to hit one good day and average out with 3 to 7 bites on the other days.

With enough of those days you can formulate the baits and the patterns and the spots to do well. If we had hit one of the "good" days like many others I talked to reported having, we might have learned enough to do well.

Plus, I don't see any way clear lake could be tougher than it was this fall. There was so much bait in the water, I don't think that scenario will duplicate itself again for a good while. Between the 500 million silverside, 200 million baby bass, 400 million baby crappie, and who knows how many shad, there was just little incentive for a bass to eat something fake.

Seems like you guys were definitely on the right fish. And you got a ton of time on the water and experience. That's what it takes.