http://www.calfishing.com/files/Movies/show/e8/e8.flv

After days of beautiful February weather we arrived at Clear Lake Saturday morning around 8am. Driving across the bridge at Rodman we looked out and saw two boats netting fish. Precursor!

We launched at the Casino and fished around the state park side. Water was 49-52 during the event. Clarity ranged from 1.5' in the shallow north to pushing 8' mid lake. We threw a-rig, LVR-D lipless, hudd and a few glide bait deals.

Fishing was good. We found fish around state park, rattlesnake, rodman, and up on the north end around the casino. We'd get a bite and leave. Several areas had tons, and I mean TONS of fish on them. I've never caught so many fish using the meter in any event before. You'd see fish even as shallow as 7' deep and if you cast on those fish later they'd bite.

So for our practice day I guess we had around a dozen bites and landed a 24lb limit. Since we don't get to the lake much, we had fun sticking some fish :) Mostly on a-rig with Keitech. I got a fish running a 5 inch big hammer #13 baitfish down the middle but the jighead was picking up a lot of grass and dead leaves from the bottom of the lake. Best fish was a 6-8 that choked the big lucky craft rattle trap.

Tournament day we were boat 37 and watched at least 20 boats head straight to Rodman. We were kind of over combat fishing so we ran up to some shallow fish on the north end. We were the only boat for a quarter mile. That was nice. We caught 4 there on a-rig. Nico had a 5-13, the others were smaller, few 4s.

From there we went to our area near state park. First cast Nico sticks a 6-1. Drop her in the livewell and I fire on it. Right at the boat a good one crashes it. I get a fish scale on all 3 hooks but no fish! Grrr. It was a better fish, 6lb+

Fished around culling here and there by state park or whatever. There was no one fishing around us, which I guess goes to show the fish were biting everywhere. We headed back north and I got a 6-2 out offshore.

Tried back down by Rattlesnake but got nothing. Then back to the big fish spot. Nico fires on it and a 7lber crashes his rig right at the boat and bites the tail off the bait. Frik.

Caught a few more, Nico got a 5-8 to cull. Back north again, nothing. For the last 15 minutes we went magical mystery tour and stumbled in to some more fish. I dumped one that felt decent, then Nico stuck another one about 6lbs with 5 minutes to go.

We weighed 29.4lbs. Our best bag ever on Clear Lake. Amazing to get 5 bass between 5-8 and 6-2. All just solid. The bite was probably the best tournament day ever on Clear Lake. I mean ever. The average fish weighed was over 5lbs. 31 teams had limits. It took 31lbs to get paid and two teams had 39lb bags.

Glad to have been there to see it. It was a super fun weekend. It is a little frustrating to be an inch away from a check in the last two events but it beats the hell out of fishing at Lake McClure :) When I watched Nico cull a fish that was close to 5lbs I just laughed. That's a good day.

Typical 5lb clear lake bass
http://www.calfishing.com/dc/user_files/9192-typical.jpg

Here's what worked. You'll get to see it all in action in the video which is coming in the next few days. Special thanks to Hi's Tackle in SF. They're making the best A-rig known to man right now. If you want to know what doesn't work, it's the Berkeley Sick Fish swimbait. Nico bought a bunch to try on a-rigs and they hella suck. Stiff crappy plastic. Just keeping it real, at calfishing.com.


http://img.tacklewarehouse.com/new_thumbs/KSIF-RBS-thumb.jpg


http://img.tacklewarehouse.com/new_thumbs/LCLVRD7-CAS-thumb.jpg


http://img.tacklewarehouse.com/new_thumbs/BHSBT-GBC-thumb.jpg


http://img.tacklewarehouse.com/new_thumbs/HB1100-11-thumb.jpg


http://img.tacklewarehouse.com/new_thumbs/PFHM-PLN-thumb.jpg


http://img.tacklewarehouse.com/new_thumbs/OCPSS-thumb.jpg

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That was great fishing right there. I'd love to go back up for a week just to catch those fish all day long.

We probably chose the wrong morning spot. We were on numbers but not size in the morning, and size but not numbers in the afternoon. We'd of had a better shot at bagging a limit of the bigs if we'd hit those spots fist thing.

Here's a pic of the only three rods I used in the tournament, rigged up in the hotel room Saturday night. Like Rob mentioned, we were using homemade versions of the Crazy 8 design a-rig from Hi's, which is really a work of genius. There are two 8-bait and one 11-bait rigs below :-) If you're curious go see Dean at Hi's in south SF, they have all the components needed for construction.

http://www.histackleboxshop.com/

http://www.calfishing.com/dc/user_files/9193-rigs.jpg

Good stuff as usual, glad to see you are continuing with these reports.

I would love to see a close up of your 8 and 11 wire rigs, especially the heads. I have made some 3, 5 and 7 wire rigs, but as soon as I get 7 wires in there joining all the wires together gets a little funky.

I was trying to deiced where to go this weekend for a little fun fishing, this report may have made up my mind.

It's basically crimped. The various components are very specific to the number and size of wire arms you use, though. The rigs we used last weekend had three different gauges in each assembly. I'd give Hi's a call and tell them what you're trying to make.

http://www.calfishing.com/dc/user_files/9195-still.jpg

Thats an Alabama Rig promo video if I have ever seen one! Think I'll go to TW after work and pick up one to try at the Lopez tournament tomorrow. Nice work on the Video!

Ran to Clearlake yesterday, water temps 46-50 strong nothwest wind in the morning that died off by midday. Me and my buddy caught 5 total fish all on the A-Rig would have gone 20-21 lbs. There was a SMALL Won bass tourney going out of the Casino, 24lbs won it, and every one I talked to said the bite had cooled off with the water. I had a blast, thanks for the info in your report Rob. My buddy caught his PB (6.01) which is always cool.

So what is the deal with the Krazy Eight rigs they have on the site? I'd much rather just buy some pre made rigs than have to put anything together. I'm lazy like that these days lol

That looks like it on the Hi's site. I think I'm going to sell all my other a-rigs on eBay. Seriously.

What they are selling on Hi's is exactly what we were using. Except the Hi's version is the original and mine were mediocre copies :)

I like having all the components so I can make whatever variations I want, but the rig they're selling is the deal 90% of the time.

How is the durability on the rig from Hi's? I grabbed a few for a trip in a few weeks, can't wait!

Durability is good. Rob didn't have any trouble with a 9lb 15.5oz fish a few months ago. I haven't stuck anything huge, but have pulled a lot of large trees from the bottom of the lake without any harm to the rig :P

Cool, I just ordered a mess of em.

It's about time someone made a nice version of the A-rig. Looking forward to trying these.

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That was cool. Looks like you guys were only one bite away from being up there. :-) Fun fishing!

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