Clear Lake 8/12/06 – Lakeport 5th St Ramp 
Pick-Your-Partner Team Night Tournament

The BassBusters held its 8th tournament of the year at famous Clear Lake, known as the “Bass Capitol of the West”.  We had 11 boats for 22 anglers show for our night tournament eager with anticipation.  Reports coming from this natural lake promised to deliver a great bite and did not disappoint our members one bit.  The club brought in 11 limits (5 fish) for 209+ lbs for an average of around 3.8 lbs/fish.  Simply a fantastic testament to the quality of fish this lake puts out.  Water clarity could be described as pea soup in most places with the lake experiencing its annual summer algae bloom with probably 1 foot clarity.  Water temps ranged in the low 80s and weather temps started in the high 80s to mid 50s during the night.  Breezes up to 10 mph down to near dead calm and clear skies were there to greet us as we set out to fish for the night.  Here’s the breakdown.

First place distinctions went to Michael Chen (B) and Britt Brittain (NB) who weighed in a limit of 30.06 lbs beating the competitors by over 9 lbs.  The team also took Big Fish and 2nd Big Fish honors as Michael weighed in a 7.97 lber and Britt with a 7.40 lber.  The two reported starting off with topwater in shallow flats with submerged weedbeds and overhanging vegetation around State Park.  They utilized black and “Tweety” colored frogs, an Okie Shad spook, and black buzzbaits before sundown.  After that, the team moved to rocky points and islands to target their night bite.  During the darkness they used Texas-rigged Sweet Beavers and 10” power worms in various dark colors pitched tight to the bank and coupled their strategy with deep diving crankbaits at various times. Also noteworthy were Britt’s 2 biggest fish (7.4 and 6.5) were his 2 largest bass in his fishing career.  Truly awesome, fellas!

Second place honors went to Calvin Walls (B) and Tyler Linscott (NB) who weighed in 21.00 lbs.  They used Senkos, Sweet Beavers, and brush hogs during their foray with Clear Lake bucketmouths.  Of note, Tyler brought in his personal best to date, a fat healthy 7.31 lber on a senko.  I wonder if Tyler’s still smiling like he was throughout the weigh-in and debriefing.  Probably is a bit tougher to catch that quality of bass back in NY, eh Tyler?  Right on, guys!

Third place credits went to the team of Ed Hawkins (B) and Jeff Hawkins (NB) who threw basically everything they could think of and it all worked (they both rolled off a list of baits and techniques so long I couldn’t get them all!).  They fished from Shag Rock down to near Jago Bay and brought in 20.52 lbs.  Excellent job, gents!

Landing in fourth place were Rene Duzac (B) and John Fernandez (NB) with 19.91 lbs.  They found early success on frogs and later caught fish with Sweet Beavers after midnight.  The team went south to the Narrows and around Anderson and Fruit Island targeting tullies and grass.

In fifth place with 19.71 lbs were Kyle Mulhair (NB) and guest, Steve (B), who employed dropshotted plastics on deep docks to bag their fish.  When asked why they went to docks, Kyle remarked “Ha! they’re bridge pilings”.  The team took the first of hopefully many, “Beat the Greek” option, by finishing ahead of Spiro for $70 bucks.  The payout got nice and big since a lot of the teams felt they could outfish “The Greek”.  We’re all glad Kyle made it up to Clear Lake or he would have missed out on some spending cash.  

Taking sixth place were Spiro Stamos (B) and guest, Matt Ruggiero (NB), with 18.78 lbs.  They accounted for their fish on numerous presentations.  Spinnerbaits, jigs, cranks, swimbaits and plastics all worked for them as they fished the south portion of the lake.

John Neibel (B) and Glenn Hayashimoto (NB) landed in seventh place with an 18.38 lb limit. They threw Senkos and DD22’s for their limit.  They found most of their success in the south portion of the lake, as well.

Eighth place had Xavier “Boogie” Segoviano (B) and Lloyd “Rooster” Bebilone (NB) bring back 17.58 lbs to the scales.  They chose Senkos, 10” power worms, and Brushogs in a secret color to target their quarry.  Sego noted that he slept for the first time in a night tournament.  When Sego awoke some hour later, he joked that the boat hadn’t moved while Lloyd ran the boat and suspected he slept too!  All joking aside, they were noticeably all-smiles during weigh-in.  

Michael Clark (B) and Jon Wagman (NB) finished in ninth place with 17.05 lbs tossing crankbaits, jerkbaits, buzzbaits, blades and various plastics around Shag Rock and Buckingham Pt.

In tenth place, Ron Shikashio (B) and guest, Rick (NB) to weighed-in 17.00 lbs.  The team ran south to Konocti and Jago Bays and chucked rattletraps and pitched various plastics.

Eleventh place found Moe Martinez (B) and Adam Kern (NB) with 9.61 lbs.  They reported using crankbaits, buzzbaits and junebug w/chartreuse tailed senkos in the Narrows.  

During our weigh-in and debriefing our members were exhausted after staying up for the night and doing battle with Clear Lake’s largemouth.  But, despite that, there was a certain excitement and energy as all our teams found success with the fishing this past weekend.  From what I observed, everyone seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves at this event and it showed in everyone’s demeanor.  For the 2nd time at our Clear Lake night tournament, we had a fantastic time and incredible fishing.

This tournament also served as our last event for qualifying for the Northern California Club Classic and we will be submitting a roster of our club’s participants to the tournament committee.  Our top 12 qualifying (6 teams) will have a chance to represent the Santa Clara Bassbusters on the CA Delta against other bass clubs in Northern California.  Once the points are figured out, an announcement will be made on who qualified.  
Our next meeting will be September 7th at IHOP starting at 7:30pm.  It will be a draw individual event on the California Delta out of Holland Marina.  As a reminder, if you can’t make it to the club meeting and you plan to fish our next tournament and get into the Big Fish pool, let someone know ahead of time whether you plan to fish or not.    

Tips:  In addition to wearing sunscreen to protect you from harmful UV rays, you can keep cool by tossing a small towel in the cooler.  Take the towel and place it around your neck next time you feel hot.  It will feel like its 15 degrees cooler!