Sierra_Smitty
11-13-2012, 12:49 PM
Ya...it's been a while since i posted a report...but now that my season is over at Parchers, I'm back fishing, well...for something other than trout that is.
So for those that don't know, I'm the other half of Sierra Slammers custom baits...my partner Mike has been the face of the brand all summer while i've been buried in the resort business buy now that i have free time, we're on the move to develop as much stuff as we can before next spring when my free time disappears. Having not pulled on a bass in nearly 6 months, a great excuse for a fishing.. ERRR..."business trip" was to visit Clear Lake to meet with a bass bait designer up there to brainstorm some ideas on some stuff. He does all hand poured stuff and we're all injection mold stuff so we're trying to find a happy medium so some of his designs can be customized to our specs for high volume production....enough of that, blah blah blah. So...the plan was hashed about a month ago and after finally buttoning up the resort in Bishop - I headed north to meet up with Mike who lives near Susanville.
We hit the road in Mike's sick to new truck hauling his new boat...well new to me at least, he didn't have it when I was up last spring for smallies.
Here is a recap of how the fishing went while we were there.
The weather sucked for the most part - freaking super cold, mix of rain and wind, and choppy as all get out unless you were in a cove for shelter. Being my first time on Clear Lake, I was not mentally prepared for what 5mph winds would do on that sloppy mess, let alone 10mph....F THAT! Almost freezing rain to boot? BEH! Naturally the weather was beautiful the whole week prior but I seem to have the the bad weather hex on me.
It was freezing balls every morning - frost and frozen rain everywhere.BRRR
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o181/sierrasmitty/freezingboat.jpg
Still - we made due. First day on the water Mike threw a bunch of stuff...the jig with some casts with the swimbait, an LC 500 crank here and there and a flick shake. I threw mostly the DS and texas brush hog. We caught nothing but dinks...kinda felt like fishing bass in the canals in Bishop..but whatever. it was fun despite the nasty weather and exciting to see a new body of water.
View of the lake from out room...
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o181/sierrasmitty/viewofclearlake11-12.jpg
After our "business meeting" Thursday night, and seeing pictures of what Bryan Thrift did throwing swimmies and cranks that same morning fishing with the Damiki guys - we decided to stay a little more dedicated to the swimbait on Friday morning..and got an earlier start. Started out in the same area we ran into the Damiki guys the day before and fished hard. TONS of bait around - lost of hitch at the mouth of this one bay and inside tons of shiner. Seemed a likely place to find a few fish. I'd like to preface the next sentence with the fact that I am not a swimbait guy.....I've never had so much as a swipe on one, I have no confidence in them, and quite frankly - I usually steer clear of them. Still, I stayed tossing a 6" LC trash fish for a solid hour to start the day....didn't put it down, just kept at it. The old addage "A blind pig finds an acorn once in a while" is true as on a cast across the point at the opening of this bay we were fishing I felt a "tink"...I wound down and gave it the old heave ho and it was on! Fish fought like a mother...pulled drag...did a circle around the boat...good times. Fish comes to the net and I was thinking 9lbs or so....then after holding it up, it was kinda skinny, but still a toad. Ended up weighing 7lbs 1oz on the digi...best bass I've caught in 2 years...awesomeness! I also got to de-virginize Mike's new swimbait rod....much to his dismay...which made it all the more sweet. That was the only fish of note on this day - but we did mark fish in a number of other places and managed a few dinks. Ride home was sloppy and rough....I love this lake until it comes time to go home, then the ride makes me curse it.
My first legit swimbait fish...
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o181/sierrasmitty/7-1smitty11-12.jpg
Clearly the no wake zone is for the deer...
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o181/sierrasmitty/deereverywhere.jpg
We had initially planned on leaving Saturday but found out they had a fisherman's special so instead of $79 a night, it was only $59 a night - so we opted to stay one more night.
Saturday we probably caught 40 fish or more....mostly on the small side but I did manage a decent fish on the brush hog that probably went 2.5 or 3lbs and stuck another decent one on the DS at the end of the day. Mike killed it on the flick shake. We did hit a spot at the end of the day that was holding a bunch of fish, including some bigger models. I had a good 3 to 4lber break me off at the boat...I was fishing with Mike's outfit so clearly it was a knot failure and in no way my fault. :bleh:
We had planned to hit the road in the AM on Sunday but decided to get an early start again and give it one more shot before checkout at Noon. We started at the same place ended the day on Saturday and this turned out to be a great choice. Mike started throwing a prototype of our 7" swimbait in the hitch color and after a few casts up against the tulies between two docks he sticks a fish. Big ol' jump and some head shakes, kinda though tit was gonna come unbuttoned actually, but Mike gets it in....big thick 5.85lber. Pretty stoked, both of us. A few minutes later i see a fish crashing right up along shore so i tossed a LC crankbait up there and first cast stuck a fish just a hair under 4lbs. A few minutes later, this time Mike tossing the jig with one of our 3.5" swimbaits as a trailer just for ***** and giggles, he sticks another fish...this time a short but incredibly fat beast comes to the net. Weighed in a 4.55lbs. The day was a success in the first hour and it made Mike's trip finally sticking a few chunks before we hit the road.
Swimmie fish
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o181/sierrasmitty/rigney5-5swimmy11-12.jpg
jig fish
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o181/sierrasmitty/rigney4-5clearlake.jpg
MIke's morning catch..
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o181/sierrasmitty/rigneyfatties1-12.jpg
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o181/sierrasmitty/smitty4lbs.jpg
Made the 5 hour drive back to Susanville pretty excited about the success of our trip on all fronts.
A few side notes.
- If you're going to visit Clear Lake, the Konocti Vista hotel and casino is hard to beat The price is right, casino and restaurant next door (food good, service sucks but whatevs), and powered dock slips right out the back of your room. Freaking sweet setup.
- Lakeport is kind of a dive down...but if you want something decent to eat there, there is a little Bar & Grill called TJ's that has seriously RIDICULOUS food. Reasonable prices, super gourmet twist and friendly staff. We ate there two nights in a row and i probably would have gone back for a third had we not be so tired the last night.
- That dude Bryan Thrift and the Damiki guys are super nice. Not exactly sure what I expected from a bass pro but given how some of the socal bass guys I've run across are such gigantic premadonna a-holes, I was pleased to see an angler of that caliber come off as just a regular down to earth guy out on the water having some fun.
Well that's that.....
Peace,
smitty
So for those that don't know, I'm the other half of Sierra Slammers custom baits...my partner Mike has been the face of the brand all summer while i've been buried in the resort business buy now that i have free time, we're on the move to develop as much stuff as we can before next spring when my free time disappears. Having not pulled on a bass in nearly 6 months, a great excuse for a fishing.. ERRR..."business trip" was to visit Clear Lake to meet with a bass bait designer up there to brainstorm some ideas on some stuff. He does all hand poured stuff and we're all injection mold stuff so we're trying to find a happy medium so some of his designs can be customized to our specs for high volume production....enough of that, blah blah blah. So...the plan was hashed about a month ago and after finally buttoning up the resort in Bishop - I headed north to meet up with Mike who lives near Susanville.
We hit the road in Mike's sick to new truck hauling his new boat...well new to me at least, he didn't have it when I was up last spring for smallies.
Here is a recap of how the fishing went while we were there.
The weather sucked for the most part - freaking super cold, mix of rain and wind, and choppy as all get out unless you were in a cove for shelter. Being my first time on Clear Lake, I was not mentally prepared for what 5mph winds would do on that sloppy mess, let alone 10mph....F THAT! Almost freezing rain to boot? BEH! Naturally the weather was beautiful the whole week prior but I seem to have the the bad weather hex on me.
It was freezing balls every morning - frost and frozen rain everywhere.BRRR
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o181/sierrasmitty/freezingboat.jpg
Still - we made due. First day on the water Mike threw a bunch of stuff...the jig with some casts with the swimbait, an LC 500 crank here and there and a flick shake. I threw mostly the DS and texas brush hog. We caught nothing but dinks...kinda felt like fishing bass in the canals in Bishop..but whatever. it was fun despite the nasty weather and exciting to see a new body of water.
View of the lake from out room...
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o181/sierrasmitty/viewofclearlake11-12.jpg
After our "business meeting" Thursday night, and seeing pictures of what Bryan Thrift did throwing swimmies and cranks that same morning fishing with the Damiki guys - we decided to stay a little more dedicated to the swimbait on Friday morning..and got an earlier start. Started out in the same area we ran into the Damiki guys the day before and fished hard. TONS of bait around - lost of hitch at the mouth of this one bay and inside tons of shiner. Seemed a likely place to find a few fish. I'd like to preface the next sentence with the fact that I am not a swimbait guy.....I've never had so much as a swipe on one, I have no confidence in them, and quite frankly - I usually steer clear of them. Still, I stayed tossing a 6" LC trash fish for a solid hour to start the day....didn't put it down, just kept at it. The old addage "A blind pig finds an acorn once in a while" is true as on a cast across the point at the opening of this bay we were fishing I felt a "tink"...I wound down and gave it the old heave ho and it was on! Fish fought like a mother...pulled drag...did a circle around the boat...good times. Fish comes to the net and I was thinking 9lbs or so....then after holding it up, it was kinda skinny, but still a toad. Ended up weighing 7lbs 1oz on the digi...best bass I've caught in 2 years...awesomeness! I also got to de-virginize Mike's new swimbait rod....much to his dismay...which made it all the more sweet. That was the only fish of note on this day - but we did mark fish in a number of other places and managed a few dinks. Ride home was sloppy and rough....I love this lake until it comes time to go home, then the ride makes me curse it.
My first legit swimbait fish...
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o181/sierrasmitty/7-1smitty11-12.jpg
Clearly the no wake zone is for the deer...
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o181/sierrasmitty/deereverywhere.jpg
We had initially planned on leaving Saturday but found out they had a fisherman's special so instead of $79 a night, it was only $59 a night - so we opted to stay one more night.
Saturday we probably caught 40 fish or more....mostly on the small side but I did manage a decent fish on the brush hog that probably went 2.5 or 3lbs and stuck another decent one on the DS at the end of the day. Mike killed it on the flick shake. We did hit a spot at the end of the day that was holding a bunch of fish, including some bigger models. I had a good 3 to 4lber break me off at the boat...I was fishing with Mike's outfit so clearly it was a knot failure and in no way my fault. :bleh:
We had planned to hit the road in the AM on Sunday but decided to get an early start again and give it one more shot before checkout at Noon. We started at the same place ended the day on Saturday and this turned out to be a great choice. Mike started throwing a prototype of our 7" swimbait in the hitch color and after a few casts up against the tulies between two docks he sticks a fish. Big ol' jump and some head shakes, kinda though tit was gonna come unbuttoned actually, but Mike gets it in....big thick 5.85lber. Pretty stoked, both of us. A few minutes later i see a fish crashing right up along shore so i tossed a LC crankbait up there and first cast stuck a fish just a hair under 4lbs. A few minutes later, this time Mike tossing the jig with one of our 3.5" swimbaits as a trailer just for ***** and giggles, he sticks another fish...this time a short but incredibly fat beast comes to the net. Weighed in a 4.55lbs. The day was a success in the first hour and it made Mike's trip finally sticking a few chunks before we hit the road.
Swimmie fish
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o181/sierrasmitty/rigney5-5swimmy11-12.jpg
jig fish
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o181/sierrasmitty/rigney4-5clearlake.jpg
MIke's morning catch..
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o181/sierrasmitty/rigneyfatties1-12.jpg
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o181/sierrasmitty/smitty4lbs.jpg
Made the 5 hour drive back to Susanville pretty excited about the success of our trip on all fronts.
A few side notes.
- If you're going to visit Clear Lake, the Konocti Vista hotel and casino is hard to beat The price is right, casino and restaurant next door (food good, service sucks but whatevs), and powered dock slips right out the back of your room. Freaking sweet setup.
- Lakeport is kind of a dive down...but if you want something decent to eat there, there is a little Bar & Grill called TJ's that has seriously RIDICULOUS food. Reasonable prices, super gourmet twist and friendly staff. We ate there two nights in a row and i probably would have gone back for a third had we not be so tired the last night.
- That dude Bryan Thrift and the Damiki guys are super nice. Not exactly sure what I expected from a bass pro but given how some of the socal bass guys I've run across are such gigantic premadonna a-holes, I was pleased to see an angler of that caliber come off as just a regular down to earth guy out on the water having some fun.
Well that's that.....
Peace,
smitty