Rising temperatures and rising water levels are triggering the beginning of the pre-spawn bite. As brutal as the last 2-3 weeks have been things are looking up big time. I fit stays sunny or at lease dry for a few more days we should start to see waves of solid pre-spawners invading shallow cover and/or staging areas like deep water docks and slow tapered points. The baits are not the biggest factor as jigs, soft plastics, small swimbaits  and spinnerbaits will get the job done anywhere, but the key is location. Look for clearer and warmer spots and then camp out, fish slow, keep your lure selection minimal, and don’t be afraid to dead stick the jigs and soft plastics for minutes at a time. And remember, you’re fishing for 5-10 bites a day so be patient because February is big fish time at Clearlake.

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Rising water, warm temperatures, and murky water should start the fish off towards shallow water. Dead sticking or dragging ½-1 oz football head jigs with pork or plastic trailers, shaking a jig worm, and slow rolling a black spinnerbait in and around wood cover on the main lake and the main lake points themselves. No news of a good reaction bite or swimbait bite but if this weather persists that stuff should go off as well.

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Water temps in the low 50’s are being reported from the rip rap and from the dam (and that makes it the warmest lake in the county) where guys are getting 5-10 bites a day on brass and glass rigged Trixie beavers, and full size brush hogs, as well as 5” storm swimbaits in bluegill and the new Castaic platinum series fast sinking sun fish. The new Castaic bluegill is the same as the regular slow sink version that we did so well with last year but because it’s a faster sinking bait you can start throwing now as opposed to waiting until March/April.

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No news other than that the lake is blown out and almost unfishable. If the weather stays nice, slow rolling spinnerbaits, shaking a brass and glass rigged brush hog or Trixie beaver, and ripping ¼ oz chrome rat-traps and ¼ oz red speedtraps from the dam and the pump house should start to produce.

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Still recovering from the storms, Phoenix is producing very few fish and they’re all being caught by dead sticking a 4” robo worm in “Aaron’s Magic” or “MMIII” on either a split shot rig or a short drop shot rig. No reports on swimbait fish yet

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