Spring 2022
1 23 C
lear Lake local Mark Crutcher has been a
force in the result standings on Clear Lake for
some time. In 2021 alone, he and partner Brad Amodeo racked up wins with a 32.86 limit in January, 24.59
in February, runner-up spots with 25.32 in February, and at
the NewJen Tournament of Champions (TOC) in September.
These were added to a long list of cashes throughout the
season.
For 2022, they have already started out the season with
a 25.62-limit for a win in January.
Tournament standings aren’t Crutcher’s only
accomplishments on California’s big bass factory. His PB is a
12 1/2-pounder. He has claimed over 100 bass that exceed
nine-pounds and at least 30 double-digits.
Crutcher’s history on the lake, his big bass catches,
and his long list of top finishes prompt lots of “how’dja
do it, where were you fishing or what were you throwing”
questions.
Here, we caught up with him and asked what were the
most common questions that he gets and what were the
answers to those questions.
HOW ARE YOU SO CONSISTENT?
Crutcher said this may be the most frequently asked question that he gets, and time on the water was his simple answer.
“It is the reason that I chose to move to Clear Lake, 20- some years ago,” he explained. “I grew up in Ukiah and when I became a highway patrolman, I got shipped to LA. But then I came here; because I loved this lake and now, being local, I can spend a lot of time on the water.” He reported spending at least 60 to 70 days a year on the lake.
HOW’DJA DO IT?
While fishermen can be as tight-lipped about what or how they fished as the fish they are trying to catch; Crutcher did share some info.
“What I’ve really learned over the last couple of years is how important the attention to detail is,” he shared.
Diving further into this statement, Crutcher elaborated that he meant details like color changes and weight sizes.
“It can be the details on anything – an A-rig, an underspin, line size, the drop weight – any of it,” he said. “I have 30-plus years of bass fishing experience, and I’ve just really started to see the difference in these things.”
Crutcher noted that while he used to fish with three or five or seven rods on the deck, he now has 15 or 18 rigged up and ready to throw. Not just different techniques, but different versions of the same – like three A-rig rods with three different rigs ready to go.
“Many rods are necessary now that I am really getting into the attention to detail and giving the fish different looks and testing their moods,” he continued. “I want to be ready to give them a different color or a different weight or a different wiggle.
“This really hit me when the Basstrix first came out. You could throw every swimbait in the book; but if you didn’t have that brand new wiggle of the Basstrix, you could not get a bite. But, with the Basstrix, I was catching 30 fish a day on it. I went to every tackle store in the County and bought everyone of them that I could find.”
WHERE WERE YOU FISHING?
“The last two years, it has been totally dominated on the south-end, with the low water; but this year, I am getting a lot of reports that the north-end is starting to kick down a lot of fish,” he said.
Although he shared that location info, “where his head was” is more important than “where he was” – meaning his mental attitude.
“I’ve really learned that the number one thing – more than anything – is a positive attitude,” he said. “That last tournament that we won (January 2022), I had a graph fly off, I broke my trolling motor, we had zero fish by 10 a.m.; but I kept a positive attitude and Brad and I just kept grinding it out. If I hadn’t kept my head in the game, we couldn’t have done that.”
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