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