February 2, 2001 We didn't get enough rain to raise the lake very much so we are back to very slow catfishing. Al Freitas of Don's Bait & Tackle in Clearlake (707-995-9668) reports a few channel catfish being taken at the white bridge in Cache Creek with mackerel and nightcrawlers. Most of the fish are in the 8 to 10 pound range. There are a few big channel cats being caught from the Nice/Lucerne shoreline with frozen shad and nightcrawlers but not enough to make it worthwhile. A few anglers are catching one or two while quite a few others are blanking. I hate to keep repeating myself but I have to say it again, we need a lot of rain to raise the lake level and get the catfish on the bite. If any of you can do a rain dance, now is the time.   February 9, 2001 Due to cold weather and water temperatures the catfishing is not even worth trying. This is the most negative catfish report I have ever put out in the 2+ years that I have been doing them.. All the local bait shops have no catfish reports because there aren't any fishermen trying for them. In my opinion the fact that the water temperature has stayed in the lower 40's for the past 2 months has put the cats in an almost hibernating mode, therefore they feed very little or not at all. I have to once again state that the fishing won't improve until we get a lot of heavy rain or if that doesn't occur, until spring arrives and brings up the water temperature.   February 16, 2001 The weather, water temperature, and the catfishing are all very cold! I don't know what the official statistics are but I believe this is the coldest winter we have had in at least 7 years. I haven't heard of anyone making a serious catfish effort in the last couple of weeks. There have been reports of bass anglers tangling with an occasional large channel cat including one that weighed 17 pounds caught on a Lucky Craft lipless crankbait. Let's hope for some heavy rain followed by a warming trend so the water temperature gets into the lower 50's where it should be for February and then we can get into some serious pre spring catfishing.   February 23, 2001 There has been a slight improvement in the conditions but very few catfishermen are taking advantage of it. The fairly heavy rains that we had the last few days have brought up the lake level to almost 3 feet above rumsey and most creeks and drainage ditches are flowing at a good clip sending muddy water and worms, bugs, etc. into the lake. There are a few anglers catching fair numbers of brown bullheads (yellow cats) and an occasional channel catfish in Rodman Slough and the mouth of Kelsey Creek. The top baits are garden worms, mini crawlers and clams in that order. The weather service is predicting more rain for this weekend and this should really improve the bite. With the lake level continuing to rise and the muddy water outflow the catfish should really start feeding in the shallower water near the creeks and ditches. If I were going to give it a try this weekend I would fish in Rodman Slough near the bridge with a gob of garden worms on my hook. Back to 2001 Catfish Reports