Date: 2/22/20
Time: zero dark thirty
Location: CA. Clearlake
Air temperature: high 30’s in am, low 60’s afternoon
Water temperature: ran 49 to 53.5 degrees
Seasonal fish pattern: winter? pre-spawn?
Wind direction speed: out of the North at 4 mph
Water clarity: 6 inches to 6 feet depending location.
So here we are at first light, finding ourselves (Chris Perez and me) on the water at Clearlake’s Rattlesnake arm, in search of the big green monster. This my last outing before surgery on Monday and it was outstanding just being on the water. It was a bit brisk, so I had on full winter gear on, though one of us is in flops and it isn’t me. The Sun is just peeking over hill, basking us in welcomed warm sun rays, when Chris interrupts it all with his usual viscous hook set. He boats our first keeper of the day, using the Frenzy Baits Hunter 5 prong Umbrella Rig. Got to love the A rig this time of year, though it is hard at times to know if it’s the monster using this gear.
Ten minutes last another hookset by Chris and he yells for the net, which by the way I am really good at. You get lots of experience at this when fishing with Chris, personally, I think there should be a Net Man Plaque in any of these Tournaments! The turns out to be a 4 lber, not the beasts we thought it was. Number two in the boat. Oh…you are asking about me? Thank you…other than being the net man, no bites yet! I’m contemplating on putting a leader on as the water here was really clear, but
Done with this spot, and now that the sun is up at the ten o’clock position, we make another move and head North. North produces the stained water, which I like. We found a spot out on the fan of the mouth of a creek channel, and went back to work. I was throwing the same Frenzy Bait Beast Hunter as Chris. As we’ve had great success with this, coupled with some 4.3 Keietechs, I wasn’t 4 casts into it when I whimply set the hook (shoulder remember) and fought to the boat, when it spit the hook. I get the “look” from my partner, and blamed the shoulder. Two casts later I duplicated that last scenario. Now the look comes with a comment.
Doesn’t bother me, I’m out fishing and an outstanding weather day, except all the smoke. Within minutes I get wrecked, and ignored the pain and set the hook like I was Chris Perez. Ended up boating a 3+, and all were nice clean looking and chunks. Obviously we found a school and the two of us proceeded to pick them apart, landing about 10 fish. Then the bite slowed so we took off for another few spots in the North to wait for this area to reload.
We picked up a few more fish here and there, but no kickers. Late in the day we ran back to the schooling spot but only one wanted to play, so we moved on. By now, it’s warm, I’m out of jacket and vest but Chris is in shorts, T and flops looking like a Cormorant turned facing the the sun and soaking it up.
One more stop before call it a day in the Rattlesnake arm, cause that’s where we launched, and this stop produced 4 + lber for Chris…..yes I netted it…you’re welcome, plaque please!
We are done for the day, mostly thanks to what’s left of my shoulder. All in all it was a great day to be on the water, boating about 20 fish, but no giant this time. All on fish caught were on the Frenzy A rigs. Thanks for putting up with me partner, I’ll be ready in about a month…..as of this writing, I’ve had the surgery, all is good, just the pain of recovery.
If you haven’t been to Clearlake, its time to go . It’s about to explode again.
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