Major League Fishing (MLF) is set to visit California this week for a Toyota Series Western Division event at Clear Lake.
While still featuring excellent fishing, Clear Lake has not been immune to the drought that has affected the West in recent years. The last three years in California have been the driest on record since 1895, which means Clear Lake is a bit different than it was for some of MLF’s prior visits.
Despite the low water levels, pro Todd Woods of Long Beach, Calif., who won at Clear Lake in 2016, still thinks the fishing will be really good.
“It’s still about 5 feet below normal pool, and when I won it was about 4 feet above normal pool,” Woods said. “The fishing is great right now – you can catch all the 2-pounders you want. But the days of 35-pound limits are almost completely gone – a huge bag there is 27 pounds now. To make the Top 25, I would say it’s going to take 16 pounds a day.
“Typically you might catch 20 that are 2-pounders, and then all of a sudden you’ll catch a 6-pounder,” Woods said. “The days of pulling up on a spot and catching five 5-pounders, that’s very unusual.”
Still, even with some of the size not there, the fishing should be pretty good, and Woods expects a lot of different techniques to play.
“They spawn there ‘til June, so it’ll definitely be a prespawn-spawn-postspawn deal, just depending on the weather and the moon phase,” Woods said. “There will be a shad spawn. The year that I won, there were shad everywhere. I would throw an underspin and there would be six or seven shad trying to spawn with it every cast. It’s not like that anymore. Now, I think it’s a hitch deal – if you find the hitch, you’ll find the better quality of fish.”
Even if the weights aren’t truly amazing like the old days, Woods still expects to see a good event.
“I absolutely love Clear Lake, because even when I don’t cash a check I have a really good time catching fish.”
For this event, Woods expects basically anything in the tackle box to work.
“Sight-fishing, swimbaits, finesse fishing – like Senkos and dropshots – reaction baits, a ChatterBait and a little bit of crankbait,” Woods said. “Really, you’ll be able to do whatever you want to do.”
Anglers will take off each day at 6:30 a.m. PT from Redbud Park, located at 14655 Lakeshore Drive in Clearlake. Weigh-ins will also be held at the park, beginning at 2:30 p.m. each day.
