Clear Lake Midday Update – Day 3

Challenging final day for our top 10 anglers

Clear Lake served up another sunny day, but anglers fishing the final day of the Costa FLW Series Western Division event presented by Evinrude and hosted by Konocti Vista Casino Resort & Marina found a couple of significant differences that seem to be rattling some game plans.

The variances are due to the blustery winds that whipped across the lake from yesterday afternoon through last night. Water clarity seemed to suffer in windward areas. To this point, Wayne Breazeale, who has led for two days, said the big winds blew out his main shoreline.

Seeking to build on his two-day total of 46-1, Breazeale started on one of his secondary areas and put together a small limit in the first hour by dropshotting a riprap wall with tules and docks. When last we saw the Kelseyville, Calif. pro, he was trying several different spots in search of a kicker or two.

Second-place pro Joe Uribe Jr. may end up suffering the biggest wind-related setback, as the shad spawn he had milked for two days was nearly non-existent. Diligently working the reaction baits that had produced for two days, Uribe found only frustration and had to shift gears and transition to a slower presentation.

Water temperatures didn’t drop much (we saw 64-66), but the past two days of bright sunshine probably would have pushed them up a little, were it not for the chilling wind. We’re thinking this may have had a stalling effect on fish movement.

For example, Vince Hurtado, who started day three in fourth place, had been working a prespawn/postspawn travel lane not far from takeoff and capitalizing on an early rally triggered by the rising sun. We visited him first thing this morning and then again at 11:15 and he had only two keepers.

However, five minutes after arriving for our second visit, Hurtado flipped into a line of tules and caught a plump 5-pounder.

Elsewhere, thrid-place Nick Nourot had a busy morning, with a limit of about 16 pounds, which included a 6-pounder and a 4. Richard Dobyns, fifth place, also got a quick limit, anchored by a 6-pounder.

It will be interesting to see how many anglers can leverage the afternoon bite. Overall, we’re expecting several leaderboard changes and today's final weigh-in starting at 2:30 p.m. PST.