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The dog days of summer are nearly behind us and we are about to enter one of the most productive times of year to catch black bass in northern California. As the days grow shorter and evening temperatures continue to drop, water temperatures will fall into the upper 60's and anglers will see a marked improvement in the bass fishing in local lakes and rivers. One of the main reasons this time of year is so productive is the consistency of our weather from late September through mid November. While spring can produce tremendous catches and some of the largest fish of the year, the weather is terribly inconsistent and so is the fishing. Fall, on the other hand, produces very stable weather patterns that can last for weeks at a time. This allows us to pattern the behavior of the fish and zero in on their daily movements and feeding habits. Another tremendous advantage of fall fishing is the variety of techniques that will produce fish. At any given time, good stringers of fish can be taken on topwater baits, crankbaits, jigs, worms, spinnerbaits or spoons. A good example of the tremendous opportunities fall fishing has to offer can be found right here in our own backyard on the bass filled waters of Clear Lake. I fished Clear Lake two days this week and caught a fish or two on just about every pattern imaginable. I spent the first day fishing with Jody Jordan of Vacaville and we concentrated on the south end of the lake fishing topwater baits for the first two hours, then switched over to plastics on several of the deep rock piles throughout the same area. Jody managed to catch a 3-1/2 pounder on a Zara Spook and lost another fish close to the same size while throwing a Zoom fluke. We also caught a couple small fish in the 8 to 10 inch class. |
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Next, we moved out on some of the rock ledges and points scattered throughout the Narrows and began throwing crankbaits in 5 to 15 feet of water. It was about a half hour into cranking when Jody tied into a good fish in about 8 feet of water. After a couple of acrobatic jumps and powerful runs, Jody had the fish under control and eased it into the net. What we thought may be a 9 to 10 pound fish was on the skinny side by Clear Lake standards and hit the scales at 7 pounds, 4 ounces. Still a tremendous fish for this time of year. Another hour of cranking didn't produce any fish, so decided to target even deeper water with jigs and plastic worms. We fished several of the popular deep water ledges including Shag Rock, Windflower and Rattlesnake Island and managed a couple small keepers in the 2 pound class. The following day, I fished with Paul Cunningham of Sacramento and we decided to target the same deep fish early in the day, then switch to flipping boat docks and deep tules later in the day. Our deep water worming produced similar action as the previous day; a few fish in the 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 pound class and we decided to start flipping by around 9:00 am. The flip bite turned out to be surprisingly good along isolated docks and tule lines throughout the south end of the lake. We caught a total of 8 fish running 2-1/2 to 4 pounds while flipping brush hogs, dead ringers and jigs. While fishing seemed to be fairly tough both days (believe me, we went through several three to four hour periods without ever getting bit) we did manage to come up with fairly solid limits of fish both days. The thing that impressed me most about my two days on the water was the fact that we caught fish on so many different patterns. It made me realize what a fantastic time of year this is to be a bass fishermen, and fall isn't even officially here yet. |
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