John Pearl Claims 2025 WON Bass Clear Lake Open with Three-Day Record 102.81 pounds

Nathan Phillips grabs Second Place with 101.33 pounds

LAKEPORT, Calif. – April 11, 2025 –– Records have fallen at Clear Lake.

Pro angler John Pearl from Upper Lake, Calif., one of the most well-known guides on Clear Lake and one of the most dangerous competitive anglers in the region has claimed victory in the 2025 WON Bass Clear Lake Open presented by Ranger Boats and Mercury, with a WON Bass Record 102.81 pounds for a three-day weight.  Pearl took over the lead on day-two of the event with a total weight of 67.31 pounds and added 35.50 pounds on the final day.

In winning, Pearl claims the champion’s prize that includes $17,000 cash, and the keys to the 2025 Ranger Boats Z518 with Mercury 150 ProXS outboard prize boat presented by Bass Pro Shops with Power-Pole Charge and Volta Power Lithium Power Batteries, a package valued at $55,000 – a total purse of more than $72,000.

From the stage in the moments after his victory, Pearl explained that he was full of emotion at having won the biggest event he could imagine on the lake.  “I’m absolutely excited about this,” he said.  “Today was a long, stressful day.  I had 34 pounds in the livewell at about 3:00 and I told my AAA (Sherwin Williams) that we needed one more seven pounder; I caught a 6.85 moments later and culled up to this final weight – then I just took a slow ride to Library Park to protect my fish.”

Pearl reported catching his fish in the 25 to 30-foot depth range in the mid lake area around Konocti using his Forward Facing Sonar to locate the bait balls that the late winter / early prespawn fish were foraging on.  To catch those fish He caught them using a Bass Union Jighead with two different Sakamata Shads, Golden Shiner and Reservoir Shad. 

Most of his fish came deep, except for his two biggest on the final two days.  “I caught my biggest one today blind casting the Sakamata Shad under a dock, and my biggest yesterday came on a GCJ Customs 13-inch glide bait” he said.  “Those fish were crucial to my finish obviously, but I caught most of them on my deep stuff.  I am thrilled to be standing here in front of my wife, family and friends with this trophy.”

Pearl’s main gear was a 6’10” Douglas Outdoors X Matrix 6103XF spinning rod matched with a 2500 size Shimano Sustain spinning reel filled with white 10-pound-test Power Pro Super Slick 8 braid and matching 8-pound-test Seaguar Tatsu Fluorocarbon as the leader.

No stranger to the podium, Cobb, Calif. pro Nathan Phillips – who won the 2023 WON Bass Clear Lake Open, finished the event in second place with 101.33 pounds.  Phillips started the day in second place with 65.12 pounds, then added a 36.21-pound limit to close out his Century Club finish. He earned $13,400 for his efforts.

Phillips attacked long stretches of docks in the Rattlesnake arm casting to fish that were sunning in preparation for the spawn on day one.  However, on the final two days, when the cloud cover and wind made that difficult, he used a similar approach to Pearl, targeting deeper fish on bait balls.  “I was fishing the Highway 20 side around Kona Tayee for suspended fish in 8 to 15 feet of water,” he said.  “I threw a variety of jigheads in different sizes with a 5-inch ZMan Jerk Shad in the Electric Shad color.”

He tossed his offerings on Dobyns Champion XB 703 and 732 spinning rods matched with Shimano Stradic 2500 XH reels spooled with 10-pound-test Flash Green Seaguar Smackdown braid bonded to 8-pound-test Seaguar Tatsu as the leader material.

Mason McAbee from Bakersfield, Calif. finished third for the event with a three-day total of 93.57 pounds, claiming $11,400.  He was followed in fourth place by Micah Jones of Kingman, Ariz. – the day-one leader with a total weight of 93.08 pounds, taking home $10,000 and Luke Lipanovich of Napa, Calif. rounded out the top five with a final weight of 83.73 pounds worth a $9,000 payday. 

Kevin Gross claimed victory in the AAA Division, the Redding, Calif. angler weighed 86.56 pounds for the event and took home the AAA Champion’s prize of $6,800.  Second place AAA went to Zac Ortiz from Kaysville, Utah with 82.07 pounds, claiming $5,500.  Tim Skellett of Apache Junction, Ariz. finished the event in third place in the AAA Division with 79.92 pounds, earning $4,500.  Todd Tobiasson of Las Vegas, Nev. finished fourth in the AAA field with 79.06 pounds collecting $3,800 and Dennis Saiki from Torrance, Calif. rounded out the top five finishers with 78.75 pounds, worth $2,000.

The Top 10 in each division are below, for complete standings go to: https://wonbassevents.com/pages/clear-lake-2024-pairings-results.

The daily livestream of the weigh-ins aired on the WON Bass Facebook page, located at  Facebook.com/WONBassTournaments. Daily takeoffs and weigh-ins occurred at Library park in Lakeport, Calif.

2025 WON Bass Clear Lake Open Final Pro Standings

2025 WON Bass Clear Lake Open Final AAA Standings

The 2025 WON Bass Western Opens Series of events Consisting of five events in California, Arizona and Nevada, will culminate with the 2024 WON Bass U.S. Open at Lake Mohave in October.  The five event dates are as follows:

Feb. 5 to 7, 2025 – Lake Shasta – Champion Joe Uribe

April 9 to 11, 2025 – Clear Lake – Champion John Pearl

May 7 to 9, 2025 – Lake Havasu

Sept. 10 to 12, 2025 – Lake Mead

Oct. 6 to 8, 2025 – U.S. Open at Lake Mohave

For complete details or to register, look to wonbassevents.com and WONews.com to hear the latest news about the 2024 season and beyond and follow along at Facebook.com/WONBassTournaments.

The 2025 WON Bass California Open at Clear Lake is brought to you by Bass Pro Shops, Ranger Boats, Mercury Marine, Nitro Boats, Triton Boats, Bridgford Foods, Volta Power Lithium, Power Pole, Lowrance, Daiwa, AFTCO, Costa, Berkley, Abu Garcia, Fenwick Rods, Anderson Toyota, A&M Graphics, Anglers Marine, Signature Gates, DD26 Fishing, Bad Ass Bearings, Cipher Fishing, Megaware Keelguard and GRatt.

Local presenting sponsors are the City of Lakeport and Clearlake Outdoors.