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Fishing through the algae bloom at Clear Lake with Hi’s Tackle
| Date: |
9/2/09 |
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Location: |
Clear Lake,
California |
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Event Dates: |
August 29th,
2009 |
| Reviewer: |
Zander |
Introduction:
With all the gloom and
doom reported by the regional news about the so called “Toxic algae blooms” at
Clear Lake we decided it was time to see just how the recent blooms would affect
the fishing at the lake. We were invited by Jonah Li, owner of Hi’s Tackle Box
in San Francisco to join him and fish the lake. Jonah grew up fishing Clear Lake
and had previously experienced similar algae blooms in the past and had
experience adapting quickly to catch fish.
Jonah Li the Owner of Hi's Tackle
Box in San Francisco invited us out to challenge the algae bloom at Clear Lake
The Clear Lake Algae
Bloom: The regional news had a field day with the recent algae bloom and
reported headlines including “toxic algae bloom kills everything” and “Clear
Lake’s has never been this bad.” At the same time they provided visuals of docks
and shorelines completely inundated with thick algae and even dead fish floating
amongst the algae mattes.
Cal runs tries to get on plane
through the algae slick
It was a grim picture
indeed and one that has kept many vacationers, boaters and anglers away from the
lake at the end of the summer. When I saw the images on the television the first
thing I thought was that there would be less pressure on the main lake as long
as the algae hadn’t completely taken over.
We survey the lake for clearer
waters
Algae has always been part
of Clear Lake and there have been times when I have fished the lake when there
was plenty of algae in the water, certainly not to the same extent that was
being reported in the news, but certainly enough algae to affect fishing. The
algae blooms do offer some benefits to the lake including helping balance out
the ecosystem and preventing too much light from reaching the bottom which can
also cause excessive weed growth. Unfortunately too much of anything can be a
bad thing and certain algae types can bloom in such intensity that they become
trapped on the surface and die. This process is what causes the algae to give
off a foul odor.
Finally more fishable water that
we can get lures through
This year areas like the
Keys and Clearlake Oaks experienced such a bloom, causing docks and whole cuts
to be choked off with thick algae. Boat traffic and spraying to break up the
algae helps but the task is an immense one. Certain ramps were closed due to low
water levels and thick algae but for the most part the lake remains very
accessible from all the major launches. Though we knew the algae bloom was
certainly going to be a factor we jumped at the opportunity to fish the lake
with Jonah and his team at Hi’s Tackle Box.
Jonah catches quality fish while
Zander catches dinks
Time to fish the green
water: When we
drove up to the south side of the lake we encountered the smell of breaking down
algae when we came close to thick mattes. The odor is unpleasant but bearable,
and just a quarter mile away the odor is almost non-existent. If you’re downwind
of thick mattes it isn’t pleasant but it certainly wasn’t as bad as what was
being reported. Maybe it was just the angler in me but less traffic on the lake
equated to less pressure, and I was even more excited to get on the water. Jonah
prepared two Rangers for the event and we brought our own Skeeter as well. As we
launched we did notice the algae clinging to our white hulled boat immediately.
We decided to make a quick survey of the south side of the lake to see just what
we were dealing with. Cal ran one of our TT Skeeter and we were joined by
Jonah’s friend Scott who was running a Ranger Z21.
Cal holds a dink next to the soon
to be released Mattlures bass swimbait
The algae proves to be a challenge |
