With your highs come your lows

6/23/11

The Boston Whaler aka the Bass inhaler! 

The very next tournament after my first place finish with the Bass Amushers was at Lopez Lake at the end of June. I did some research before to the tournament by calling the Marina (805) 489-1006 and asking them a few questions. The information that I gathered that I thought would be useful was the fact that there were no more closed off coves since the spawn was over. Water temperature was in the 70's and the Lake is up 8 feet from the 13 inches of rain that it got this winter. 

A bad day fishing is better than a good day at work. 

What I thought would be a key to victory was the fact that the Arroyo Grande arm of the lake was no longer closed off. I figured these fish have not been pressured by anglers much and decided it would be a great place to start. I didn't expect the fish to be in full summer mode because the weather has been so mild this year. The one thing I didn't know was if the fish were in post spawn I am not going to bite mode, or post spawn FEED ME mode.

Started with some senkos, topwater revo, spinnerbait with some success. My dad caught one right off the bat on a spinnerbait then not much time later caught one on a senko. So I figured we had a good pattern going, shallow water senkos and spinnerbaits. This was again reassured by a keeper I caught on a senko. The problem was the bite died off and we didn't make the right adjustments.

He is starting to look like a bass fisherman ladies and gentlemen.

The winner kicked everyones BASS big time by a margin I have never seen before. With 22 pounds of bass he left everyone in the dust by 12 pounds! He was fishing the main lake and caught them on spinnerbaits and drop shoting. I think the key was he fished the main lake which probably had a summer pattern going on, shallow early then deeper later on. I was impressed after bringing in only one keeper for the day. The winner is our clubs current Angler of the Year so he knows what he is doing. It is encouraging to think that you can reach a level of skill that can set you apart from the pack by 12 pounds.

The drive back from the lake. 

One of the positives for the day was my dad had his best turn out yet. He brought two keepers to the scales and beat me.