Left the house in a downpour and arrived at Clear Lake in the same. I launched on the right side of the launch as someone was once again parked at the end of the launch area (illegal) fishing from the boat launch and I didn't feel like messing with it this time. I wanted to hit the shallow bay to the right of the launch anyways hoping the high water would push some fish shallow?! I started throwing a spinnerbait in a sunfish color but the now submerged pads wreaked havoc with the retrieves. Ten minutes of that and I switched over to my swim jig as it just tracks through the 'stuff' better. The only downfall to the swim jig is the inability to run a trailer hook, something that is very important this time of year as the fish can tend to 'short strike'. Three casts with the simmer and fish on! Just a little guy, maybe 13 inches in two feet of water, but a good sign, I hoped. I fished up the pilings almost to the end without a strike on the swimmer so I went back though some of it with the Senko and still nothing. I decided to turn back to the west and fish the logs and pads along the shore where the first fish came from. Got my second hit in the pads but he leveraged me and got off. Got to the lone plastic dock and wham, hooked a nice one on the swimmer but he ran at the boat and came off. I fished my way out to piling point without another hit. I decided at this point to motor over to the south side to fish the pads and flip the areas of the lake that have been inaccessible due to thick pads. I fished the bank out to maybe three feet deep on my first pass through missing one and catching another. I continued this to the east and past the beaver dam with a couple misses and one other 2lber landed.

Back north past the dam I decided to try a Rapala around the pilings but it was raining so hard I couldn't see the launch at this point! The Rapala caught 3 fish on 4 retrieves but the problem was the biggest fish was a whopping 6 inches long and the smallest was the same size as the lure. I decided that was enough of that for the time being and motored over to the three docks in the NE corner. I fished the swimmer here and a jig, no bites. Fished all the way back west towards the launch past the long plastic dock without a bite. This is when things changed for the better...

I hooked fish on every single piling from the dock to the launch! Lost another decent one and continued catching fish in the 1-2.4lb range! I felt fairly dialed into something at this point so I once again headed for the SW corner and began fishing east again around the pilings in the pads. I kept the boat in 3-4 feet of water and by the time I reached the large wood dock I had boated six more bass the biggest going 3.4lbs.

On my way back to the launch I hooked into the fish of the day but once again it was too short of a fight and nothing to show for it. I lost around 6 fish today and three of them should have topped 4lbs or better, bummer. The other bummer was I had the dang shanks all day!!! Very frustrating, maybe my hands were cold but I haven't snagged on casts that much in a long long time :(

Bilge probably pumped 5 gallons of water out of my boat by the time it stopped raining and when I got home I think another 2 gallons drained out into the kiddie pool I keep under the back of my boat?!!

Shout out to JamesB as your Sunday Lake report told me what I needed to know regarding Clear Lake and I knew where I was going today just as long as the wind held off a bit! As I have always said, even if nothing is caught there is always useful information that can be posted, water temp, clarity, depth, algae conditions and other things that can help maybe save someone a trip OR cause someone to plan a trip?! So thanks for including the Clear Lake info in your report, I hoped the conditions would be what they were and when I read your report it sealed the deal on where I was going today! Tough to drive by McMurray knowing it won't reopen until April but oh well.....I may have to hit Clear again tomorrow?? Unfinished business...