I fished the Northern Region Best Bass Tournament Trail event on Clear Lake on May 5th, 2012 with my partner Erik. Friday morning pre-fish started off windy and forced us to stay North all day long. We started off throwing Persuader buzzbaits and snag proof frogs along tullie lined banks outside of the casino. We continued to work top water for about an hour with no luck. We then moved into the back of pockets and coves and started throwing plastics and jigs around docks and tullies. We ended up moving around and hit about 15 places during practice including Rodman slough and when it was all said and done, we ended the day with only 3 bites…a very tough day for us to say the least. We did go in search of bed fish and were able to see tons of cruisers and a couple on beds, but they simply just were not ready to go yet…very spooky.
The forecast for event day was supposed to be winds, but they really never materialized as thought. Knowing that we eliminated water and lures during practice, I decided to do something totally different then what we fished the prior day and I got to say, after practice I was very pleased how event day turned out. We ended up with 17.77 with a 5.75 kicker. We fished from 3 to 8ft deep using several different lures including senkos, brush hogs and Persuader jigs tipped with Berkley chigger craws. All plastics were in either green or brown colors and fished really slow. All of our baits were fished on Abu Garcia Veritas rods paired with Abu Revo’s and Berkley 100% Fluorocarbon line sizes 8-20lb and can all be purchased at outdoorproshops.com (Monster Tackle).
I would also like to thank Randy, Sheri and the staff for putting on another great event. This event did not produce the numbers of prior events at the Delta and Berryessa, but I think the forecast for nasty winds had something to do with it. If you are looking to fish a very competitive yet FUN circuit, you need to check out the BBT Trail for sure.
Overall, It was a very fun weekend as my partner and I along with two buddies fishing the event rented a house on the lake from Steve, owner of the fishhook. I found his rental on Westernbass classifieds and got to say, it came in really handy as the casino was completely full. The fishhook house was convenient, spacious, quite, clean, fully stocked and had VERY competitive pricing for a house of that size with the roominess and a private dock…all just around the corner from the casino…a 5 minute idle was really nice. If you guys are looking for a nice place to stay, give Steve a call or shoot him an email for more information, you will be very pleased with the decision.
For more information please contact:
Steve (408)623-4203 or steve@thefishook.com
Check out more details on the rental at https://www.thefishook.com
