A few weeks back Chris and I headed up to Clearlake and spent the day fishing the Jig Monster Savage Pro Swim Jig. Here are a couple of Pics:

Me using the Savage Pro Swim Jig in Baby Bass.

Chris using a Savage Pro Swim Jig in Tilapia.

Kent Lake
Fishing is really good right now with a lot of guys reporting fish in the 3-6 lb range on shaky heads, football head jigs I brown with green pumpkin/black flake double tail grub trailers and 6” Senkos.

Bon Tempe
As I write this, lake Bon Tempe has been stocked with trout four or five times already and whilst not known as a bass like, it is this time of year that you have your best chance at catching giants on swimbaits like the 6-8” Huddleston, 6” Basstrix, or my favorite the BBZ-1 slow sink in matte rainbow. This is not to say that you can’t fish for bass with traditional techniques, as drop-shotting small worms on light line around stumps and boulders has produced both smallmouth and largemouth bass, but I prefer Alpine for that kind of thing.

Alpine
On again, off again is the best way to describe Alpine right now as just before each cold front guys are getting largemouth up to 8lbs on Senkos, jigs, crankbaits, and swimbaits, then during the rain on a spinnerbait but once the front passes it gets tough! And the best bet is wither dead-sticking football head jigs on rocky points or drop-shotting in the creek channels off main lake points and throwing small cranks on light line along the break lines

Lake Alpine
Alpine is still red hot for numbers of bass on the dropshot, the jig, small crankbaits, and rip baits. Big fish have also been caught on swimbaits, bulky jigs, 10+ inch worm, and bit top water baits, but there is only a short window of time to do this from about 6:30 to 8:30 am and then again at dusk.

Lake Pheonix
Phoenix is kind of quiet right now. Some guys are reporting fish up to 6 lbs but it’s not my best pick right now. That’s not to say it’s dead though. If you live nearby, or you just love that area by all means fish. Best bets are 6 lb line dropshotting with 3”-4” Natural color soft plastics or shakeyhead jig with 4”-6” finesse worms. When the afternoon wind picks up try a white double willow 3/8 oz spinnerbait right under the surface. The swimbait guys are getting a lot of followers, but the bite is pretty dead.

Lake Kent
Kent is fishing much like Alpine but the best bets are crankbaits, football head jigs, and 6”-7” Texas rigged Senkos. Also the water levels are so low that you can do yourself a huge favor by photographing, sketching, or remembering all the structure that is high and dry so you can dominate when the water levels top out in spring.

Nicasio

Falling water means it’s easier to get around. But the question is which spots are worth getting to if falling water levels push the fish off the shallow cover.

I fished three of the last six days from the island; one day a 1 hour hike into the backside from the dam and one day from the island and from the back side near the school house. Every trip the water was lower and in total about 4-5 feet lower by the end of the third trip. Some spots still had good wood cover and grass, and I found a lot of 2-3 lb fish on these spots using a Jig Monster prototype white/chartreuse ½ oz spinnerbait, a ½ oz chatterbait in green pumpkin with 2/3 of a green pumpkin senko for a trailer, a ¼ ounce speed trap in red craw, a wacky rigged Baby Bass 5” senko and my two best fish (4/48 & 6.11) both hit a ½ oz Jig Monster Mayhem series flipping jig in Bludgeon & Lava Craw.

I took a quick hour out there today and found that some of the spots that are high and dry had break lines or rock piles within 20 feet of shore and I think a lot of the fish holding on lay downs have pulled out to these nearby breaks and ledges because in three similar spots I had multiple bites on the speedtrap in red craw and the Jig Monster Chaos football jig in ¾ oz Bludgeon and Brazen Bluegill. My best fish was about 4 pounds (left my scale in the car) or so but this was all in one hour so I can’t wait to get back out and revisit all my good wood that’s high and dry to see if there are breaks and rocks close by. It’s like pre-spawn but backwards.

Clearlake

Off shore weed beds on the north end are kicking out fish in the 3-5 pound range with bonus fish in the 5-8 pound range being not uncommon. Best baits are big soft plastics like 10” worms, magnum lizards, and super flukes on a Carolina rig, or 5-7” senkos rigged on weighted wacky jigheads. Top water fishing is hit or miss, but walking baits, poppers, and floater swimbaits like the JSJ Snack Size Trout, MS Slammer, and BBZ-1 have taken fish up to 9 pounds in the last 4 or 5 days.

As for the south end, 1 oz Jig Monster football head jigs in Bludgeon, Green Pumpkin Chartreuse, Brazen Bluegill and Sexy Shad are taking fish in the 4-8 pound range off some of the deeper docks and rock piles, with brass and glass rigged beavers, sharks, and paddletails or 5-6” senkos on a weighted wacky head producing good fish as well. I’m starting to hear reports of a deep diving crankbait bite but the fish are still in transition and that bite has not peaked yet.

As for night fishing I’m told that 1 oz spinnerbaits and 10” worms on brass and glass are producing well for guys fishing rocky areas around shag rock.