It's nice to see Clear Lake is actually a destination for ice fishing now. When I was growing up, my grandparents had a summer place there (old cabin my great grandpa had bought).
The couple times we'd go every summer, I'd spend nearly the entire time fishing off the dock of the cabin. The lake was such a shit hole then. The biomass was like 98% bullheads, with a handful of perch here and there and the occasional channel cat and walleye. Finding a small school of white bass was rare but awesome. And of course, big carp. Finally had a neighbor there who taught me how to catch em. Strawberry jello dough ball recipes. I caught some definitely over 20 pounds. My cousins and I also lost a few rods that way....when those big carp picked up a dough ball they were running and gone...even had rods yanked out of our hands at times.
But honestly, for maybe a decade or two, it was virtually nothing but bullheads. I'd venture it usually took no more than a couple minutes to catch one if you used a worm (and that is all you could catch on a worm). Also caught them on minnows, stink bait, chicken livers, doughballs, jigs. crankbaits...couldn't escape those bullheads. The water was always really green, too. We'd open our eyes under water and you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. Whatever illnesses I get down the road is probably a result of drinking gallons of that water on accident while swimming with my cousins in the 80s.
I've followed how the fishery has changed over the years - almost unbelievable to me. I would have sacrificed almost anything as a 10 year old to have that kind of diversity of game fish. Or even just fish to catch off the dock with all my fancy lures I loved to try (besides bullheads).
