First tournament in 4 years

April 24, 2010 Santa Margarita Lake

My first tournament since 2006 was going to take place at Santa Margarita Lake and I was excited! I took my good friend Tyler out to do a little pre-fishing to see if I could develop a pattern before the big day. We got a little action on spinnerbaits during our outing but no keepers (keeper bass = 13").

A little side note about pre-fishing. It helps you eliminate unproductive water and zero in on the most productive areas. It also helps you determine which techniques are most likely to work in each situation, and builds up your confidence so you won't panic and prematurely start switching patterns after the tournament starts.

I like to start pre-fishing at home looking at aerials of a map as well as a topographic map. I start with what time of year it is as a starting point and look for areas on the map that make sense. There is a big mental side of fishing that I plan on learning more and more about. Visualizing your day being a success thinking there is a fish near by on every cast, these things help your mental game. Then I can go out and work an area with the baits I want and if it works I can look for similar areas on a map with out having to fish them.

Topo map of Santa Margarita 

You never want to "burn" the fish you want to catch during the tournament. You want to get bites so you know where the fish are, and you may want to land a fish or two in each spot to see how big they are, but you don't want to catch so many fish that you "educate" them. You can ensure this by bending your hooks closed or cutting them off and, instead of setting the hook when you get a strike just try to shake the bait (but never shake babies) a little so the fish will drop it.

During the tournament the spinnerbait bite fell off. We were not catching any keepers! Not sure if I was in the wrong areas or if conditions changed on me but I adapted and fished a smaller more subtle bait slowly. Which for me is a drop shot. I fished the drop shot near a tree leading back to a spawning cove by the marina. I caught three keepers off that tree through out the day. The worm I was using was a 4" cut tail yamamoto worm.

The funny thing about that worm was it was on old one I had lying in my box for years. The color was faded and I only had three of them. The fish must have been feeding on something that looked just like that because as soon I lost my last worm in that color, so sorry no mire bites. It was a tough day because out of 30 anglers I ended up in 6th place with just three fish. I forget what my total weight was.

The angler who won used spinnerbaits and senkos on a striper flat in the area of the lake near the dam. Blades were a god idea I just never found the right water.

I was inspired to buy a rig just for drop shoting so I can detect the soft bites and really let the set up reach its full potential. A drop shot for me is best on about 6-8 pound Trilene flurocarbon line professional grade, a light weight spinning reel with a smooth drag, and the rod for me should be relatively long 6'9"-7' (I feel it gives me more casting distance and more leverage for hook sets, well more like pulls with the bites on a drop shot, if you set the hook to hard it will rip out).

The rig I ended up buying was a Pflueger President spinning reel combined with a Okuma Reflexions 6'9" ML spinning rod.

I catch a HOG near a log!

September 10, 2010

What a lunker! The story behind this big fish starts out as a family vacation in Ojai at the Blue Iguana. I asked my Dad if he could bring down his boat so we could get in a little fishing at Casitas Lake and he said sure. So I was pumped knowing that Casitas has produced some of the largest bass ever caught on record. I started rigging up rods with a big swimbait, spinnerbait a drop shot rig and one of my favorites the old spider jig.

I met my Dad at the opening for the lake and we find out that there is a ten day waiting period for boats after they are cleaned and inspected. This is because of  the “Policies & Procedures for Vessel Inspection for Quagga Mussels”, which requires a 10 day quarantine process. Long story short we can't take the boat out. We decide to fish a little from shore. I was throwing a white spinnerbait with double willow blades.

3/8 oz Stanley Wedge Spinnerbait w/double willow leaf blades and trailer hook. Don't forget the trailer hook. 

I caught one keeper bass out of the weeds so I kept throwing the spinnerbait as I walked down the bank. With the wind blowing into the cove I cast my bait into the wind and realed it into a medium sized log knowing that bass like to face into the current. BAAM! Bass on! I set the hook and leaned like a chollo to get that sucka to shore. I was shocked at the size. My scale was not with me so I snapped some pics of the fish laid down next to my rod and got a measurement that way. The conversion was 9.19 pounds. What a beast, so close to my goal of ten pounds. Some day I will land a double digit largey.

So pumped on this fish! Camera on the rocks solo shot.

The basic formula for calculating the weight of a largemouth bass or smallmouth bass is: length x length x length divided by 1600. ((24.5")*(24.5")*(24.5))/1600= 9.19 pounds! Man I wish I had my scale. Look at that belly. 

Take home lessons for the day included a new respect in the spinnerbait as a big fish bait, great around cover.

sky-man out

A Really Great Weekend! I got the bass bug once again.

I was inspired last year to put more time, energy and money in to my fishing. After taking a couple of years off to kind of get settled here in LA (you know make some friends, work, find a good place to live)  I started to fun fish again in 2010, which lead to a few tournaments.

It all started on a beautiful early April outing with my good friend Tyler @ Lopez Lake. The water temp was in the lower 60's which is the magic # for spawning! I took some time to look at the lake a little differently then normal. I got the map out and said to myself, "Where are good spawning areas?" What parts of the lake have nice shallow flats with cover and migration routes in and out? Normally I might just look at Lopez and say what areas have I had success in the past, but this time I took a more scientific approach. I located three areas on the map that had these characteristics;

1. The section past the bridge in the Arroyo Grande Arm.
2. The Witenburg Arm and all of its stick ups.
3. The back of Lopez Arm. 

All of these areas have creeks that run back into them, nice cover and are flat. My plan was set, I would stay off the main lake and fish these 3 areas. Turns out the Witenburg Arm was closed and I never made it back to the Lopez Arm because the fishing was so good in the AG Arm!

Tyler and I caught about 20 fish that day ranging from 2-4 pounds. Most were caught on a wacky rig senko watermelon w/red flake with a 1/0 wide gap finesse Gamagatzu hook on 8 lb flurocarbon. The line was key because the bites were subtle. I was pitching the bait to pieces of cover where I thought a bass would be spawning or getting ready to spawn. The depth I was fishing was from 5-8 feet, perfect for the senko to do its subtle shake on the way to the bottom.

Nice Bass Ty!

I'll take one too please.

It was so much fun I brought my dad out the next day and he caught his biggest bass a 6 lb 7 oz MONSTER! Nice job pop.

Dad wins! 6 lb 7 oz beauty. 

This weekend really helped build my confidence and sparked my interest once again. Maybe I can figure these little bass out after all. 

My take home lesson for the day was to fish the conditions not past success. Look at the lake like you have never fished it before and come up with a game plan. Also details such as hook size and the type of line you use are very important. Everything should be set up to allow the lure to work the way it is suppose to.  

Sky-man