This is the report from a three-day tour on the water. There seems to be a lot of improvement from the last report, especially the turn for the better in regards to the fishing conditions.
Water Temperature
At least on the upper part of the lake, the water temperature has reached a point where it begins the day at around 69 degrees in Lakeport and reaches a high of 73 degrees, with a high of 73 degrees and a half somewhere in that range. This represents the majority of the upper end of the lake, so it's a good approximation. It's probably warmer in some areas of the lower end of the lake, and it may even be a bit cooler in a few spots, but as a general rule, that's what is observed.
One can be convinced that it's probably that way throughout a large chunk of the lake, if not warmer in some spots. This means active bass just in time for end-of-the-year bass fishing tournaments.
Water Clarity
The water is partly crystal clear; you could walk into some areas and only see a foot, while in others you could see everything.
Where you could see three to four feet, the greatest that has been seen since last week was a five-foot spot where the water was being filtered through a thicket of weeds. The light was shining and one could see the bottom, so that was the finest seen anywhere. Look for areas of natural filter for pristine water conditions.
During the past weekend, the lake was in surprisingly good shape, the water was clear, and there hasn't been any extreme heat that causes algae blooms or other environmental problems.
The lake level is currently at minus 0.2. The lake level was unaffected by the half-inch of rain that fell over the weekend. When it rains up here, there just isn't that much rain that falls on the lake itself, so the lake level was unaffected.
There is up to a half-inch or more in parts of the places surrounding the lake, but none fell in the lake to affect it noticeably, so there is no change. The lake actually fell one-tenth of an inch, which is an almost inch including the preceding week. The clarity of the water remained constant; however, there was a significant decrease in clarity for a short while after the rainfall.
There was a large quantity of algae beginning to grow in a few directions around the lake. There is a lot of algae at the bottom of the Clearlake Oaks arm and the Red Bed arm, as is customary.
For this time of year, the algae situation isn’t going to change; it's going to stay the same, and it'll stay that way throughout the summer. There are parts in the middle portion of the lake that have cleaned up very well this week, so nicely in fact, there have been areas where one could see over five feet.
There was a bottom at five feet five in a few places where fish might be hiding. In other parts, such as the north side of the lake near Nice and Lucerne, where carp were active in the weed beds, the majority of what could be seen was murky water. However, there were some areas where the water was clear in that northern area.
Like by Soda Bay, between Soda Bay and Horseshoe and Soda Bay and Henderson, there were areas where you could see four and a half to five feet down and see rocks, but there was so much green algae, slime, and snot growing between the rocks that you couldn't see what was in between them.
It depends on whether you're in front of the weed beds, behind the weed beds, or in the middle of the weed beds because the water clarity varies in each of those spots. Therefore, the average depth of the lake water clarity is approximately three feet.
In Lakeport, ramps are currently the same. Ramps that have been open are still open. Ramps that have been closed are still closed. Short version: Keeling Park, Lucerne Harbor on the north shore, and the state park.
Many people encountered problems at the county park launch ramp, so it is impossible to know how much longer it will remain open. If the wrong event occurs on that launch ramp at the wrong moment, however, it will likely close.
There's a lot of water flowing out of there, and people are still leaving the Canontia Vista Resort, but the water is really thin, but those are your summer conditions as of right now.
The launch ramps that have been shuttered are currently closed and will remain blocked until this winter. These include the state park and Lucerne harbor.
At Keeling Park, a few people reported that they've had issues down at Redbud, not so much on the ramp itself, but getting out into the lake over the little high spots that are out there, so be careful when you're launching because the water level we're looking at is a little above average.
Fishing Conditions
For this time of year, the water conditions are actually quite ideal, so weeds are sprouting in regions where there's sufficient matting for catching frog fish. In areas with sufficient floating debris, you'll either observe fishermen catching frog fish or catch frog fish themselves.
Fish blowing up eating bait or you'll see carp splashing, so it's one of the two, but there's enough of that floating debris-about now that you can catch fish on matting. That's about it for this week's fishing circumstances.
Fishermen doing topwater fishing and sight-fishing reported that they caught a few fish on small swim baits but sight fishing or seeking out bedding places seemed superior in numbers.
They averaged 25 fish per day per angler. The fishing is good if you look for areas where fish are bedding, and whether you fish for fish you see or just fish those areas, you can catch them both ways. Topwater was sporadic; one morning they caught a dozen fish on topwater.
Definitely, for a good fishing experience, you just need some consistent weather because these fish are goofy and when you get an 80-degree day and then a 70-degree day, and then a 60-degree day, they get a little confused. When they get confused, you can get a little depressed. This is basically just how it works.
But from the interviews so far, practically everyone who is out fishing reports catching a good number of fish between noon and midnight.
Folks who have been dying all year to be able to toss a frog and catch frog fish have actually caught fish sight-fishing in bedding areas this week since the last report.
This is probably the easiest fishing if you can locate it, and it's just a matter of moving around and finding clean water — the topwater bites were quiet last week but picked up this week, and people have reported a really decent day on that today.
If there are fish and you can see them, then you can catch them with finesse techniques, and that's what works. So far, there has been no report of catching any large fish since the last report; the largest was 5.5 pounds. Previously, there had been reports of catching a couple of 19-pound limits and a lot of two-and-a-quarter to three-and-a-quarter pound fish.
The fish that have been caught so far are in excellent condition.
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