Wake the kids for this one
Clear Lake really set to go off as sight-fishing conditions line up perfectly for day three of Stren Series Western Division
KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – If Clear Lake could run, it would be Ben Johnson. If it could ride a bike, it would be Lance Armstrong. If it played baseball, yup, it would be Barry Bonds.
There is no other tournament bass fishery in America so hopped up on steroids as Clear Lake.
Sure, there are other great lakes out there to brag about: Okeechobee, Amistad and, of course, Champlain, to new a few. Just here in California, there’s Shasta for numbers, the nearby California Delta for size, and all those little ponds down by San Diego where they keep throwing back the new world-record largemouth every spring.
But pound for pound, there is no other tournament venue like Clear Lake. This lake is like an `80s-era Mike Tyson, `90s-era Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods right now all wrapped up in one tidy little package.
Scenery? Nestled at 1,300 feet in northern wine country and ringed by the rolling foothills and forests of Lake County, it’s like a little Lake Tahoe set out in the middle of not much. Accessibility? It’s just a couple hours drive from some of the world’s highest-priced real estate, the Bay Area.
But it’s the fishing, of course, that really sets this place apart. This lake spews out 8-, 9- and 10-pound largemouth bass like a Pez Dispenser. Stren Western anglers have already smashed the FLW Outdoors one-day weight record twice here this week, and if they don’t do it again today, well, you might as well sell the farm because things would not be right on the back forty.
The funny thing is that – like Tyson, Jordan and Woods in their prime – despite consistently showing its dominance, you get a sense that Clear Lake still hasn’t quite performed up to its full potential. It’s as if it doesn’t need to. Clouds and wind hampered the anglers Wednesday, and more wind blew guys around Thursday afternoon. But “hampered” is a relative term when said in conjunction with record-setting catches. And the anglers know it. Heck, one of Thursday’s top pros, Jason Borofka, said that he had so many fishing spots with big bass in them that he didn’t even know where to begin. And it almost seemed like a complaint – albeit one expressed with a knowing angler’s impish grin.
There will be no complaints about anything Friday because Clear Lake is now really going to flex its muscle. The 189 tournament boats took off onto a glassy, calm surface beneath the patrician hills of Mt. Konocti this morning. The orange sun rose above the eastern shore of the lake, bright and comforting, to bake off the remnants of last weekend’s cold front and the wind. The big, bad female bass, in a spawning mood like crazy, will move toward the banks of Clear Lake Friday, and the anglers will finally get to sight-fish their way into history.
On Friday at Clear Lake, you will see the heaviest day of fishing on the FLW Outdoors record again. For the third day in a row.
Count on it.
Catch history
Day-three weigh-in festivities begin at 3 p.m. Pacific time at Konocti Harbor Resort, located at 8727 Soda Bay Road in Kelseyville, on Clear Lake.
Following Friday’s competition, the top 10 pros and 10 co-anglers will advance to Saturday’s final round, based on cumulative three-day weight. It’s anyone’s guess at this monster fishery, but it looks like the pros will need more than 60 pounds to make the cut. Amazingly, that number could go even higher if the sight-fishing pans out like it should today.
On the Web
For those who can’t catch the weigh-in action in person, FLWOutdoors.com offers FLW Live, an online application that brings fans real-time weigh-in results, streaming video and audio.