Lake Level: 4.5 ft rumsey and falling

Water Clarity: 1-3 ft in most areas

Water Color: Green, tannic

Water Temps: 72-82°F

Precipitation: None to report

Big Fish: 6.6 lbs.

Advisories:

• All launch ramps remain open!

• No major tournaments coming up until September/October.

Report:

Hello anglers, and happy August.

Our summer so far has been blissfully mild in comparison to last year. We’ve had our stale 100-degree days, but they have been sporadic and most of them quickly tapered off thanks to persistent coastal winds and storm patterns from the south. Aside from that, air temps have been holding nicely in the high 80s to mid 90s - certainly warm, but not brutal to fish in by any means. Of course, August and September are yet to come and these are usually the hottest, driest times of the Lake County calendar year.

The fishing has been up and down. Some of my clients are getting healthy limits, others are striking out unfortunately. On my own, I’ve been having much better luck since my last report, but it’s taken a lot of roaming around to find fish. I’ve been watching my graphs more closely now as schools of fish move into deeper water, weed beds, etc. Fishing docks has been somewhat productive but it’s a fish here, a fish there…with long periods of nothing in between. For some clients this can be tough because dock fishing requires a lot of precision - especially when the water is high. Because of this, I’ve been really focused on finding bait instead of going after random odd fish up shallow. The simple fact is it all takes time and long days on the water. Fish that are in one spot today will likely not be there tomorrow.

In most areas, the aquatic weeds are not topping out. This is likely due to the difference in water level from last year to this year. This is great for fishing the top third of the water column with treble hook baits - everything from whopper ploppers to medium diving cranks are in play. Usually the weeds are so thick by now that throwing anything with treble hooks quickly becomes a nuisance.

I haven’t given up completely on a topwater bite, but it has been exhausting with little reward. I’ve had a few clients that were excited to toss a frog, I think one of them got a few bites and the rest experienced silence. This is very atypical for Clear Lake this time of year. In July you can normally expect to boat a limit of topwater fish by 8am. Clear Lake just doesn’t like to be told what’s normal, I guess. My partner and I have been absolutely hammering topwater continuing to look for that bite, it just is not there. But I will absolutely continue trying.

I have a myriad of stuff tied on right now and that will likely continue through Autumn. Senkos, drop shots, shakey heads, medium and deep diving crank baits, topwaters (poppers, walking baits, buzz baits, frogs), jigs, underspins, chatterbaits, spinnerbaits and swimbaits. Again, the key right now is not so much what you throw — it’s finding the fish.

Towards the end of July I began getting very frustrated with the performance on the north end, so I began to make the long runs south to the Rattlesnake and Redbud arms. I was rewarded with very calm winds and some excellent bites. There are so many areas down there I haven’t dropped in on lately, and I really should be checking them out more often. I tend to talk myself out of going to the south end simply to conserve gas and to avoid the normally windy conditions.

A few dates remain available for August. September is fairly open but I will be gone for Labor Day weekend. Click here to see available dates.

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Tight lines!

-Matt