Low water scares off a lot of guys who normally call Nicasio their home waters. But Low water, especially in the fall, can be one of the best times of the year to fish. When bass switch from using weeds and wood as their primary cover to using rock piles, break-lines, old road beds and other hard off shore structure due to falling water, they become more concentrated and predictable. The key to Nicasio during these two months is to prepare a selection of baits that are designed for fishing rocky points and then work from point to point until you get bit. Sometimes you have to hit a lot of points until you find the right one but when you do get bit you can usually count on catching lots more from that same point. Best baits are the drop-shot finesse worm, the football head jig, and deep diving crankbaits.

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Hot weather has been taking it’s toll at Clearlake and the lack of rain fall has bade the traditionally tough Indian Summer even tougher on the North end where a lot of the spots that produced a good frog and flipping bite in previous years are choked up with weeds and algae making them almost un-fishable. Some of the North lake mats are more than 12” thick. Best bet up there would be Basstrix, Poorboys, and 3:16 Mighty Minnows all rigged either with a 6/0 Falcon bait jerker hook in 1/16 or 1/32 or an oversized super G-lock hook fished across and between mats/tulles/weeds and/or any kind of vegetation. This is an all day pattern but low light periods such as dawn, dusk, or cloud cover offer your best shot and bigger fish. Mid-lake is another story with football jigs, deep cranks, taking good numbers of fish from 1 to 5 lbs. on ledges in 15’ of water.

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