have been fishing another tournament series. The San Diego Bass Council has a yearly night series that I have been fishing. They’re team events, and luckily I’ve been able to find someone willing to put up with my slack fishing skills enough to fish them. We missed the first event of the season, but after making the last 4, we’re sitting in 12^th place. We stunk it up on the first event, then came back and finished 3^rd (however we didn’t do the options so we didn’t win any money), and then we won an event. The last event last weekend, we ended in 9^th. We’re hoping for top 5 in the final event. The series only pays to top 3 so we are mathematically out of that, but still nice to have some strong showings.

I’m going to be trying to add some videos to the site of me and some buddies fishing. As the weather cools down the fishing should get good over the next few months, we should be able to get some nice videos. I do have a club event this weekend, I’ll try to make it a point to update you on the results. Good or bad.

In the mean time:

 

I’ve never fished a slot lake before, so it was a bit to get used to. Hoping the fish on the end of the line was a shorty was an odd feeling. But our pre-fish day went without much of a hitch. We found some good spots, eliminated a lot of tackle, and found some other spots we knew people would fish. We found a great color that was working well for my boater, and a slightly different color that was working decent for me. I will say I went through A LOT of weights and hooks.

First day of the tournament, my partner catches about a dozen slot fish in the first hour. My watermelon red flat brush hog was only slightly off color from what he was throwing but it was a world of difference. After 90 minutes he had caught about 20 fish with one keeper in the boat, while I had two shorts in the boat. Then came the fish of the day for me. I casted out to this small patch of stick ups, and pulled in this little piggy:

She tipped the scales at 5.14lbs. and ended up being big fish for the day. After the first day my partner and I were both in the top ten, both with full 5 fish limits. We did have to scramble for more plastics for Day 2, but we managed to find what we needed. We had been first out the first day, so this day we were last. We started running to our spot, then the motor basically cut out and got us JUST to our first spot (the same first spot from the day before). As we puttered into our spot, I saw a small stick up. I threw the watermelon flat brush hog and wouldn’t you know it, second cast of the day:

This piggy ran 5.65lbs, and ended up big fish for the tournament (my 5.14lber was second over all). With the blown motor we figured how long we had in our first spot, then spent the entire rest of the day passing great looking water to troll about 5 miles back to the launch ramp. We’re lucky we did too; we got back to the ramp with only 30 minutes to spare. I ended up 7th overall and won big fish money. It was a good trip!

Here is an image of the Strike King King Shad:

I do wish they made the Strike King King Shad swim bait in different weights. Having this bait that would run at deeper depths would be a good benefit. Currently the Strike King King Shad swim bait only swims around 3 or 4 feet deep. Living in Southern California, we have a wide selection of swim baits, and when you need one that runs deep the Strike King King Shad swim bait is not the choice. However for a shallow or wake swim bait the Strike King King Shad swim bait performs great.

The King Shad by Strike King does have a wiggle that can entice even the stingiest of lurkers. I just wish they made a deep diving Strike King King Shad swim bait, so you could compare it against all types of other swim baits.

I was fishing San Vicente with a buddy, as I have two tournaments there this month. We got there early, and on the water without a hitch. I threw spinner and crank baits all day, and he threw pretty much the same until later in the day when he switched to a drop shot. We developed a small pattern of spinner bait fish off of sharp inclined rocky edges, hopefully the pattern holds up. We didn’t weigh the two biggest fish we caught, but did take some photos:

You tell me which you think is bigger.

Sunday was my very first non-club fishing tournament. The AIM Sunday Series is a small local event that is fished by some of the top anglers in the county. And seeing how it was my first non-club event, I wasn’t too concerned with how I did, just that I was able to have fun fishing with the lady.

It was a tough day of fishing to say the least. I started out throwing a Lucky Craft Hardbaits - Staysee 90 SP for about an hour, with the lady throwing a drop shot worm. After an hour the rain started to pick up and with no bites, I resorted to plan ‘c’. I noticed a point that I had been advised to fish was open, so we strapped our gear down, bundled up, and took off for the point. When we got to the point it was nice and open. The woman wanted to take a nap since she had completed an 8 hour adventure race the day before and was exhausted. So while she napped, I tossed a 4” Baby Brushed Hog across beds. I did see quite a few small beds in the area, but I didn’t notice any fish around, and got zero reaction from the hog being dragged across them. Then after about 15 minutes, I saw quite a large bed in the tulles. I pitched the hog past it, and just before I was threw the nest, in darted Mr. Greenback. After a quick hook set, and swing into the boat, he was mine. The lady awoke, jumped up and grabbed the net, and then realized the fish was already on board, opened the live well. She quickly went back to sleep.

After another few minutes I saw my next large bed, which I again dragged the same Spring Fling Baby Brushed Hog (BBH) across. I got hit again real quick, however this time he short stroked it, and ripped a tail off. So I picked up a crawdaddy colored flappin craw, which he didn’t mess around with at all. 2 fish in the boat, and a pattern coming together. I was excited, it was my first tournament that wasn’t run by the club, and I was catching fish (have I mentioned I’ve only been fishing since late 2006, not long at all), AND I was using colors that I know no one else on the lake had (because I poured them specifically for myself, and hadn’t sold any but to one person). After another 30 minutes or so, and not finding any other beds I choose to run to a spot I remember seeing people bed fish the day before.

After the run through the rain, we got to our spot, and it was wide open. We worked back into the tulles and I noticed another bed. It was a bit deeper then the other at the previous spot, so I switched up and added a Tru-Tungsten Flippin’ Weight
, and tried the pitching craw again. After another good short hit, I had to replace the bait. These guys are either devouring the entire thing, or trying to pick it up as little as possible, but when they grab a small peace of it, they don’t let it go. So I went back to the BBH, and managed to catch him. I was happy. The woman was straight out sleeping, she was far past a nap, and I had 3 fish in the boat with a strong pattern. Then came that one fish.

You know the fish. The one big one that you can see but cant get to bite. Yeah, she had two smaller males around her, and I remember hearing a pro recently say that if you catch the male, the female won’t bite, but if you catch the female, you can still get the male. So I made sure to target the big girl. I know if I landed her I would at least be in some money. She was at least twice the size of the first three I caught, so I figure at least 3 pounds (not giant, but good size for a fourth fish). Long story short, I threw every color and type of bait I could at her, and I just couldn’t get her. ARGH. We missed a check by about a pound, and had it been 3 lbs, we would have needed up in top 10. Lesson learned?? Listen to people when they tell you not to let one fish take all of your attention, at least until you have a limit.

So launch and head straight to my planned first spot. My plan for the day was to throw a Lucky Craft Hardbaits - Staysee 90 SP Jerkbait (Chartreuse Shad) down the tulle line. In about 20 minutes I had what turned out to be my only fish (should have thrown some BC Baits soft plastic hand poured baits more), which was a smaller model, just over a pound. We noticed a lot of anglers up in the tulles fishing on beds, but with it being so early, and since we didn’t see anyone catching fish, we decided to stick with the plan, and fish the outer tulles. We should have caught on.

My buddy Chance was Carolina rigging a BC Baits single tail grub (its by far his go to bait, Salt & Pepper), but only had a few missed hits on it. After a few hours of trying a few other baits, he decided to join me in throwing the hard baits. It so happened that he had a Rapala Shad Rap RS crank bait (Shad) tied on, so that’s what he threw. I mentioned to him as he picked it up, that it might not be a great bait to use, since it was fairly deep and that bait runs shallower, he threw it anyway. First or second cast I hear, “I told you this shit would work, fish on baby”. I turn to see a pretty good bend in his Shimano Crucial Spinning Rod , and him fighting what looked like a good catch, that was until it came to the surface. Heres the picture:

It has to be the meanest, ugliest rainbow trout that I’ve ever seen. And he was pissed.

We tossed him in the live well and added some U2 Pro Formula Livewell Fish & Bait Booster , as he didn’t look too well. He became pretty active and when we passed a little kid in a float tube fishing for trout (but had an empty net), we gave him away (we mainly just fish for sport, but CA law says we can’t release the trout, so we had to keep it.) The rest of the day was a few bites, but no fishin the well. Turns out one of the guys in the club, that we’d seen earlier, blanked (as did his back seater), and the other guys landed 2 each fishing beds. Maybe we should have joined in the bed fishing when we saw it.

So we set out in cold water (for San Diego, 53 degrees is cold) and went to find out what we could. We pretty much fished points the few hours we were there. It was a tough bite, but my buddy managed 3 in the boat, and broke off one. He caught his on Carolina rigs, Jigs, and Drop shot trick worms, with all of them being deep. I managed to eliminate a lot of baits, as I didn’t get one single bite. (I’m not too proud to admit when I get blanked, sometimes those are the most productive days)

Ended up with these:

Hopefully the tournament will show better.

I did however get a call as an 8am wake up call (he was supposed to call around 5am.) Turns out the weather was grey but not raining and some pockets of clear moving towards us. So we figured what the hell. After a trip for some oil and gas, we made it on the water just before noon. After some minor boat issues, we were off. We happened to choose El Capitan, which in the north arm of this reservoir, gets mighty windy on a clear day. Only today was a severe wind advisory. So we battled the wind for about an hour or so, before getting to the first spot I had wanted to hit. We dropped anchor, and started fan casting crank baits for about half an hour or so.

After the reaction baits, with the wind the way it was, we decided to slow it way down and dead stick some Flippin Craws. Actually I decided to dead stick, while my cousin was still trying cranks. We ended up just bullshitting with each other for about 20 minutes, when I finally got to feel the “tic tic tic” we all know and love. After missing the set three different times, I felt a fourth; I set the hook and this time it fought back. I called out fish on, and got a “yeah right fucker” as a response from my net guy. It wasn’t until the fish broke water that he actually believed me. It wasn’t a monster but it was lively. It tipped in at just over 2 lbs.

The fished hammered that texas rigged Flippin Craw. In fact he hammered it so hard; I had to cut the plastic off the hook, in order to see how to remove the hook without killing him. I ended up remembering an article about how to remove a deeply hooked hook, and decided to keep him in the live well to see if he was going to make it. He had succeeded in covering my boat carpet with a lot of blood so I was unsure it was going to happen. I added some U2 Pro Formula to the well and we went on fishing for another one. The fish had convinced my fishing partner to slow down and he switched to the same rig. However, after another 10 minutes we were really ready to just get out of the wind, so we packed it up and moved to another, less windy part of the lake.

After the move, we were in a really nice, calm, clear area of the lake. Just about as we’re getting ready to move down the shore to another spot, DFG comes a long for a check. No big deal right?? Wrong! Turns out my cousin forgot his license. So of course EVERYTHING had to get checked out. The fish was measured (turned out to be 16.5 inches, plenty beyond El Caps 15inch minimum), my license was checked, and luckily my he believed my cousin and only gave him a “license not on body” ticket. We were both thankful. Let’s just say when it rains, it pours, because right after that, it started really raining on us. Even though we had rain gear, the mood was not as pleasant after the ticket, so we called it a day, 3 hours, 1 keeper, 1 ticket, and nothing else. I did feel good about the keeper though. Some local club was having a club tournament and had quite a few blanks. It’s always nice to hit a lake right after weigh-ins and still pull one nice keeper. Here’s to making sure your fishing partner has his license on him EVERYTIME!