I made a long awaited return to Clear Lake on Friday. We needed to renew our zebra mussel permit so we didn’t get a chance to start fishing until around 6:15 am. Starting from Red Bud, we made a short run to the east side of lower lake and started tossing frogs and buzz baits to see if we could get a top water bite going. The water had a good algae bloom going and I have had good success throwing a chartreuse double buzz this time of year in the pea soup. After about an hour I caught one 3 pound fish and my partner had one fish roll on his frog but nothing else. As much as I hoped to have an all-day top water bite, the fish just didn’t want to cooperate. I rigged up a River2Sea Goon 68F Delta Craw and my partner tied on a red/orange crank bait and we started burning the banks. We started to catch fish in the 8 to 12 foot depth zone on the cranks and pick off a few smaller fish off docks with a drop shot.

We worked our way up lake to as far as the back of Rattle Snake and over to Buckingham but that was as far north as we got. Mixed it up a bit with spinner baits, bladed jigs and jigs with plastic trailers but the best fish came on the crank baits. By the end of the day we would have weighed in a 20+ pound bag.

No big fish this time, but you never know on this lake! The next cast could be a double digit, that’s why I love this lake. And for you catfish fanatics, I caught two big girls on the crank bait. Fun, but I thought I had a “TOAD” bass till I felt the dreaded roll on the end of my pole! Water temp was right around 80 all day and the algae bloom was thicker in the coves that were wind-blown but it didn’t change our bites. Thank you for checking in with RBBASS and please remember to check out our sponsors, they help make this site continue to help you.