What a beautiful morning greeted me as I arrived to open the shop at 6 a.m. Friday. The air was cool and crisp right around the 50-degree mark. The air is clear and there was a calm breeze taking the stillness off the air. It looks like our HOT days are behind us – for now – and we’ll be into some cooler 90 degree-ish days. The fishing is so-so, but the conditions are wonderful to be enjoying a few days on the lake.

The main question we hear now on the phone is “How’s the water level?” Well, we’re just a smidge above the mean for this time of year. What that means, essentially, is that there is still plenty of water in our lake. Use caution in the shallow areas or around rocky areas. Launching large boats is still going quite smoothly at Redbud Park.

Let’s first talk about the bass … Anglers are finding top water success in the early morning hours from 4:30 a.m. to 7:30/8 a.m. Zara Spooks, Poppers, Frogs and small spinner baits have all been doing well.

After the early bite drops off, the bass are moving deep. Fish the 18- to 25-foot depth with jigs for the best bite on artificials. Purple is taking the top honors for jig and/or trailer color. For a twist, try drop shotting a night crawler or live minnow. You’ll have a whole lot of fun! Drop shotting live bait in deep water midday is an excellent approach to fishing through the slowest times.

I just had one of my regular crappie anglers report on Friday morning that he’s catching some nice slabs up around a resort in the Nice/Lucerne area. This is the first crappie report I’ve had all week. It’s not exactly enough to pin a report on but, alas, it does encourage me. Deeper water is the name of the game.

Catfish are still cooperating nicely. Deep water, shallow water, in-between water – the depth doesn’t seem to matter all that much. What comes up this week are the large schools of baitfish being spotted in some areas. Consensus has it that you should stay away from the areas heavily impacted by baitfish. The bite is just not happening where the catfish are full-up on the tiny tasties.

And that brings us around to talk of our next CatFest event … Set some time aside on Saturday, Aug. 23 to join us for a barbecue, our very own homegrown Fishing Olympic Games, and an evening of group fishing for whiskerfish.

Pre-register (so we can plan the food) at Lakeshore Bait and Tackle. Ten bucks gets you dinner, covers the game prizes and entry into the big fish pool. (There will be a pool for the angler with the biggest, meanest, gnarlyest catfish at 11 p.m.) Hope you’ll bring a boat load of buddies and join us for some good fun.

Bob Rider owns Lakeshore Bait & Tackle in Clearlake. Visit his Web site at www.994fish.com or call him at 994-FISH (3474).

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