Clear Lake road trip. Do it.

[Dores34]

I was up to Clear lake twice this year. Why?? Because i'm from Central California and my grandpa like going there. So I was up there April 8th weekend and the weekend of June 10th. The bass and crappie and bluegill are on a frenzy. You can limit out within a couple hours. Bass probably in less than an hour. I didnt get a chance to fish for catfish, because I was mostly after crappie and fixing pole for kids. BUT this one guy that was up there did log in 35 cats. NO LIMIT up there. They were substantially smaller this year averaging around 4 and 5 pounds. He did have a 17.8 tho. The Crappie were biting pretty strong at times and sometime slow. By Slow, I mean about 4 or 5 an hour. Other times you can get like 7 in a row. So it was somewhat slower than last year. But at times. EVERYBODY was catching them. My 88 year old grandparents had doubles. I Personally caught over 100 between Friday morning and Sunday morning. Long story short. GO. I've only gone out 4 times this year. Henshaw once, Salton Sea once and Clear lake twice. New job and no spare time. Hopefully, I can go out once or twice before dove season.

[BassinPLS]

Clearlake is God's County!

[old pudd fisher]

Very nice thanks.

[fishmounter]

Oh very cool! What are the average size of those crappies? I can't really tell by the photo. I've always wanted to go up there and fish for panfish with my ultralight outfits.

[Dores34]

The fish averaged 1lb to 1 1/4. There were only 3 caught over 2 lbs.. A lot of them were Large tho. The photos don't do them justice. Go ultralite. I used eagle claw featherlight paired with .20mm tectan line. 1/64 oz head with 1-3/4 fin-s-shads. Garlands and cabelas crappie minnow. All crystal and silver glitter colors.

[fishmounter]

Thanks Dores34. Good info. But what area? Is there public docks to fish from?

[Dores34]

Well the fish are everywhere. I'm not just saying that. There are houses a and lodges around some of the lake. But it's pretty much public. If you don't have a boat. Then you'd want to stay at a resort on the water. Clearlake Oaks area has plenty of fish. The launch ramp area there you can fish from shore. The lower end has a public launch area and a pier that has fish. If you have a mobile home you can stay in State Park. You can fish A lot of shore at state park. All of clearlake oaks has fish. The East side of rattle snake island has a bunch of crappie, bass, bluegill and cats. Kinocti harbor has bass and crappie. The mountain side and in the harbor across the launch ramp on the lower end has crappie and bass. I didn't go the the north end this last trip. Cuz I was doing good. But that's usually good for bass. Around shad rock has crappie too. Again. The fish are everywhere. You can't have a bad day.