Snowden's Tournament Journal - Clear Lake

Brian Snowden’s Tournament Journal 2007

www.missouriangling.com

Event: Elite Series

When: March 26-March 31

Where: Clear Lake, CA

Finish: 27th

Winnings: $10,000.00



The first day of practice was cloudy and rainy, as the start of a severe cold front approached Clear Lake. The water temperature was still 58 degrees at the start of our first day of practice, and the fish were biting! I started the morning fishing the northern end of the lake fishing the outside edge of tule points with a six inch Basstrix Swimbait. I was swimming the bait slowly along the edge in 5-8 feet of water. This technique produced numerous keepers, but I didn’t catch any over four pounds. I moved to the docks in 8-15 feet of water with a drop shot and a Texas rigged, green pumpkin, brushhog. This produced several fish, but I was still not catching the size necessary for Clear Lake. The second day of practice I concentrated on working rocky points and docks alternating between a swimbait and a Lucky Craft Pointer 128. The swimbait failed to produce any large fish, and the jerkbait bite was slow. As the wind began to pick up I moved to some protected areas and caught sev eral quality fish while flipping a watermelon with red flake, Zoom, Super Hog.



The first day of the tournament I started out with a swimbait, which produced three fish in the three to three and a half pound range. I then proceeding down to the area where I had been catching fish flipping and went on to catch 21.5 pounds on the Zoom Super Hog. The second day of the tournament I headed straight to the flipping fish. This produced a good limit of just over 23 pounds. This left me in 42nd place going into day three. On the final day, knowing I needed to catch bigger fish, I spent three hours fishing the swimbait with no success. I went back to the flipping area where I had caught fish, and it produced another limit just under 24 pounds. I finished the tournament with 15 fish weighing in at 67 pounds leaving me in 27th place.



 

By Brian Snowden