According to Paganelli, most of their fish have been good quality largemouth running 2-1/2 to 3 pounds. Of course much larger fish are possible on any given cast. "I guided Mark Wilson and Peter Duru on Sunday, February 22 and we landed a number of big fish including a 7.7 and an 8.7," he said. "The weather was pretty bad that day and we ended up catching at least 30 fish on minnows. I've noticed the reaction bite has been best on warmer days with some sunshine."

Paganelli has been concentrating his efforts in the Red Bud and Rattlesnake arms where he's working steep banks with combinations of rocks and tules.

"If I can hold my boat in 20 feet of water and reach the bank, I know there's probably going to be fish there." he said. "There's a few shallow fish right now, but most are coming from 10 to 20 feet of water."

Local guide Andy Cuccia of Cooch's Fishing experienced similar action on Saturday, February 21. "I haven't been to Clear Lake in a while, so I really didn't know what to expect when I hit the lake with two clients from Reno," he explained. "My clients started off split shotting jumbo minnows and I was working rip baits and crankbaits. I couldn't buy a bite on the artificials, but my guys burned through 3 dozen minnows by 10:30 am."

Cuccia said they headed back to the bait shop, picked up another 3 dozen minnows and ran through those by 1:30. "They easily caught 40 fish up to 5 pounds on those minnows while we were working the Highway 20 shoreline from Clear Lake Oaks to Glenhaven," he said. "We were casting into 6 feet of water and dragging the minnows out into 10 or 11 feet of water. All of our fish came from flat-sloping banks without docks."

If that wasn't enough, once they ran out of minnows, Cuccia decided to make a run to Konocti Bay for one last check on the rip bait bite. "Things had warmed up a bit, so I grabbed an aurora blue Lucky Craft Staycee and threw it next to a dock in 5 feet of water," said Cuccia. "I ripped it down, paused a bit, then twitched it and wham! A 3 pounder smashed it. Over the next 2-1/2 hours, we got into one of the best rip bites I have ever seen and easily landed another 50 to 60 fish, most in the 2 to 3 pound class. They all came on a very slow twitch in 5 to 8 feet of water. What a day!"

Long time Clear Lake expert and trophy bass guide Larry Hemphill confirmed the outstanding bite. "I fished with Chuck Sinatra and John D'Anna from Chico last Saturday and we had a fantastic day," reported Hemphill. "These guys are fairly new to bass fishing and in a 6 hour trip, we landed 22 fish to 3-1/2 pounds. Keep in mind this was all done on artificials including drop shot worms, jigs and rip baits."

Hemphill and his clients did most of their damage working the Red Bud area and the back of Rattlesnake Island. "Our better fish were taken drop-shotting #031 Yamamoto cut tail worms in 15 to 25 feet of water," he added. "We also ripped 7 or 8 fish, but most of those were under 2 pounds. Considering this is the month of February, you really couldn't ask for better largemouth fishing."

For more information on fishing Clear Lake, call; Larry Hemphill at (916)674-0276, Don Paganelli at (916) 427-0374 or Andy Cuccia at (925) 625-5148. Limit Out bait and Tackle is also an excellent source at (707) 998-1006.