Clear Lake Trip

[Ceaser]

First let me start by saying the guys I met up in Clear Lake were super cool man. Bassin Don, slowYroll, Ali, Fish-Styk, Franklin, Word up guys I had a great time and it was cool meeting you all. I got up at 10 on friday to overcast showers and 75 degrees The previous weekend and week it was up near 100. nights friday and saturday were near 50. I hoped for the best put the boat in and started the trip. Went looking all over the lake and called Don about 3pm to see where everyone was and we met up near 5 at the marina. Don hit a freestyle fish first cast!!! figures! I had 8 or 9 follows on my new BAA so I was feeling good about the weekend. Sounded like the bite was improving but tough, mark (slowYroll) had been up a couple days before only whacking a couple swimbait fish. Well, long story short the weekend for me and Styk came down to 20 BAA follows, a missed bite on the BAA, she ate it boatside but when i swung she was on, then spit it and when i killed it she turned on it like she was gonna hit it again, but the bait was right next to the boat. I think she had the back in her chompers, no hooks and Styk had a missed bite on a weedless hudd 68 right next to the boat saturday night. They didnt want to commit to whatever we were doing. I have a no love/hate relationship with Clear Lake, never had that SUPER good day and have got my A$$ handed to me alot, so I couldnt go out with no fish.... i went flippin and we whacked em pretty good... on a jig WEAK! I kept throwing the swimmers first but after no bites I had to smack em. So... in all Clear Lake beat me again!!! no big swim fish.. but I may go back next weekend now! I hate losing! The other guys caught some swimbait fish, wake Jrs. freestyles, trashfish.... but ill let them post their story. I have some video of dinner on saturday with all of us that I will post as soon as I edit it out here at work today. Ali had some funny storys saturday night!! Let just say put a floaty on your go pro! Ill post the vids later today.

So all in all I had a great time with the SU guys and any are welcome at the CASA to do some Delta fishing.... we should do a Nor Cal Delta thing in the fall and we can hang at my crib... 5 mins to fast water. Dons still up at CL till tonight and he got some catches on video i think. We got some good Go Pro shots.. of us casting!

[Fish-Styk]

Hey man still good times regardless. I had a blast homie and got to meet some cool cats, All in all a good weekend. We cant say we didnt throw em, and you certainly had us near fish just couldnt get em to go. Such is life. The only re-assureance I guess would be that it was tough for everybody. That weather change must have killed it. I thought for sure you were gonna get chomped on that BA with all the follows you were getting. It was nice seeing some of your creations too bro, glad I got to pick your brain a little. I definitley will be heading down your way soon, maybe some time next month. I'll try and get you a copy of the GoPro footage too. Appreciate you letting me roll man. Lets do it again.

[Franklin]

It was nice to meet some of the S.U. crew. Fished with the DONFATHER on Friday evening for a lil bit, what a cool cat!!!!!!!! At the mouth of Adobe Creek, Don missed a good one, crushed the freestyle. He had it hooked for a few moments, then she shook off I got one a lil after on a Little Creeper Trash Fish, and then got a few on the Wake Jr. Just before we got off the water, Don got one right next to the boat Clearlake was tough this weekend, but it is what it is. Hope you all had fun, i know i did.

[Bassindon69]

It was nice to meet you guys.

My room mate was Ali, Very nice guy, Thanks for the laughs . We had a toilet that sounded like an in house Jackhammer No kidding. Glad you got the GPro back too.

Dinner with a bunch of the others was a fun time for sure.

Mike and The Mad Man, HAHA! Hope you guys had an ok drive, That's a long way to come for such tough fishing on top of being windy too. Sorry guys. Glad you won a few bucks

It was such a tough bite for us, pretty much on the north end because the rough water was just to much. We should have done what SlowYroll said, "Drive and relaunch at redbud" Maybe next time

All and all it was real cool to meet more of the guys here and fish with them.

Day 1 I hit one 1st cast I should have known that was a sign of tough fishing to come

Franklin! Dude! You did good my man. 3 fish like it was nothing on that Jr Anyone who fishes clear lake Franklin is a good man to have on board, Good times and he's a good stick Nice fishing with ya man.

Man.... If the fish played just a little bit it would have been cool.

I think Top Dog was SlowYroll AKA Mark. He caught the most swimbait fish.

Franklin caught the most in the least amount of time though Here are two of his fish.

Here is a good hit I got that scared the hell out of me He almost took it away , dropped it after a few feet, Thank God

Thanks for coming you guys, the fishing next time can only get better

Good times

[honestabe101]

Sounds like all had a great time..that last pic is awesome!

[Ali]

First trip to Clear Lake and what an awesome trip. Thank God!

 

Not as far as numbers of fish but as far as the company. I met Don as he and Franklin were on their way out. He gave me the room key and I made a quick break for it because I had just had a 3 hour trip whilst loading up on coffee with no bathroom breaks. When I flushed the toilet, as Don said, it sounded like a jackhammer. I hid behind the bed thinking if there is an explosion and they find some dude named Ali in the room, I'd end up in Gitmo for sure! Later I tried to check with Mark (SlowYroll) if his toilet made any funny noises but quickly realized it was a weird question by the look I got back.

 

That night I went out and flogged it in the wind. Finally tucked into a cove to get out of the wind and in a desperate attempt to make something happen ended up on a nice school of active fish. Ended up with 5 fish, missed a few and lost one of the better fish (PSA video to come soon). Clear Lake fish are the meanest bass I've ever caught.

 

The picture doesn't do it justice but she went 5-14 (minus the weeds)

 

Don and I laughed all night at our toilet. It was a blast talking to him and hearing all the stories. I also got to see the 10" sport which is going to be a killer bait!

 

Woke up early the next morning to see if the school is still there. They weren't and my front unit stopped working to add insult to injury. I made a cast with my new 1-Up floater (thanks John) and left it out there bobbing in the waves while I tried to fix the unit. After a couple of minuted I hear a crash; not an osprey but a big fish this time. By the time I set the hook, the fish has me in the weeds. I start to pull hard and all of a sudden I get back the bait with a straight hook. "Oh, yeah... John insisted that I change those out." Wish I could follow simple instructions!

 

I licked my wounds and head back in. Maybe some rest will be good for me... I stick the gopro in my sweatshirt front pocket (I knew I had a killer shot of the 1-up blow-up) and plug the boat in for a recharge. All of a sudden I hear a splash and what do you know? My gopro is at the bottom of Clear Lake. For those of you who are not familiar with this place, it ain't clear and it ain't clean. And I have an unnatural fear of water that I had to fight but in the end I went for a swim and through another series of follies ended up getting my gopro back. Best catch of the whole trip

 

After all that I ended up downtown drowning my sorrows in a diet coke and the best beef ribs ever:

 

After taking a swim in that lake, I wasn't sure how long I had to live

 

Really cool meeting all the guys. As much as everyone seems cool on this forum, they are way cooler in person. On our way to dinner some random guys recognized Don and they were like giddy teenagers meeting Justin Beeber for the first time: "Hey is that Bassindon? That is Bassindon! Hi Don! I love your videos Don! Can I fish with you one day Don?"

It was awesome!

 

But hey, get in line buddy! we all want to fish with Bassindon!

Can't wait for the next trip.

 

-Ali

[honestabe101]

When I flushed the toilet, as Don said, it sounded like a jackhammer. I hid behind the bed thinking if there is an explosion and they find some dude named Ali in the room, I'd end up in Gitmo for sure! Later I tried to check with Mark (SlowYroll) if his toilet made any funny noises but quickly realized it was a weird question by the look I got back.

 

 

 

-Ali

 

Classic.

[Vedak]

One heck of a story dude. lol

[fishnmike]

Great storys guys. Bummer about the tough fishing. Dude, swiming in Clear Lake, you're gonna die!

[Bassindon69]

One heck of a story dude. lol

 

LMAO!! All is true..

Now we need to get SlowYroll to tell us about fishing the "Crack head Classic"

[Ceaser]

One heck of a story dude. lol

 

LMAO!! All is true..

Now we need to get SlowYroll to tell us about fishing the "Crack head Classic"

BWAHAHAHAHAHA now that was a good story

[shinner]

sounds like a great time was had by all.. Always fun to hang out and share water with fellow big bait chuckers

[Franklin]

Fishing with BassinDon!!!!!! I can scratch dat off the list! Hell Yeah!!!! Thanks for the kind words, and the great time on the water Bro! Don forgot to tell us he was bringin swimbait weather with him, I had to catch some fish to warm my cold hands, LOL.

[Ali]

Put the PSA video up in the SUTV section. Hope it helps everyone

 

viewtopic.php?f=10&t=5978

 

-Ali

[slowYroll]

Crazy weather, freaky people, tough bite, new friends, and my back seater.

 

Rolled into Clear Lake at about 1 pm, the weather was great, about 95 degrees. Was on the lake an hour later rippin 6 inch fs shad. (thought for sure this would be the money bait for the weekend, boy was I wrong) Threw the bait for about 3 hours, no takers. Decided to head back in so I could enter the C.H.C. (The Crackhead Classic). Paid my entry fees, asked if they wanted to check my live well, the dude immediately turned to me and said we don't do that here. Then I asked can I check the live wells. That really got him irritated. This dude was tweaking so bad it took everything I had not to laugh. Started bs'ing with some of the other entries. I soon realized that they were all tweaking! These guys were so wired up they would be able to outcast me 100 to 1, ha ha. I headed out to fish the 4 hour tourney, ended up blanking again.

 

Day 2, Thursday. Picked up a couple 31/2 pounders on a 6 in weedless hudd and that was about it. The bite didn't really start picking up until Friday when bassinDon showed up with the crappy weather. The weather definitely improved the bite. Ended up with a limit of 3lb. Clones. I was totally baffled on how tight the bite was. Picked up a few other fish on a jig, one on a wake jr., missed 3 frog fish and had a half a dozen followers on the rising sun. Friday night was really cool for me, meeting all the SU BoyZ. Ali had me rolling with some of his stories. When he told me he dove down for his GoPro camera, then came up and tried to climb the ladder to get out and the ladder broke and he fell over backwards, too funny. I really didn't get the toilet story that Ali mentioned until I got to hear it first hand in Don's room. That thing would not stop jack hammering. (LMAO).

 

You might be wondering who my back seater was, Lynette, (my girlfriend.). She went out on the water with me and toughed out the crazy weather and never complained once. How cool is that?

 

P.S. If anyone is up for some Clear Lake revenge, count me in.