Dude, you got a hook in your back.

The "Jerk" and his Jerk-bait. Actually, a really nice guy.  

When someone says, "I got your back", it generally means they are there to support you, but this last weekend while fishing at Cachuma Lake that phrase took a more literal meaning when my boater had my back at the end of his fishing lure. While winding up for a long cast he stuck me directly in the back with a jerk-bait. Two treble hooks pierced through my cotton sweatshirt and into my flesh, requiring "The Jerk", to grab his pliers and rip it out. 99% of the time fishing is not a contact sport but the 1% of the time when it is, you can wind up in the hospital with a hook in your eye or a prop wound to the calf. Luckily for me it was my back and not my eye ball, enabling me to shake it off like a wet dog and keep on fishing for what turned out to be a really great weekend.

Cachuma Lake in all its glory! 

The "Jerk" incident took place on day one of a two day tournament and proved to be the largest thing any of us hooked into. Fish were in the post spawn stage and feeding heavily on crayfish, based on all the skeletal remains in our boats live well. We caught fish on a variety of baits, topwater, spinner-baits, creature baits, drop shots, senkos as well as the aforementioned jerk bait. Fish were taken off points, steep rocky bluffs, woody shoreline and near weed lines. The ability to catch so many fish on such a variety of baits and on almost any cover made it a really unique experience, the only problem being that we did not have the size needed to put us in contention for any awards, except for maybe best dressed. If only they accepted humans, then we might have a substantial 160 pound lead. 

Two beautiful smallmouth bass and the biggest thing caught all weekend. 

"The Jerk" who accidentally hooked into me was a really nice guy, which was fitting since nice guys finish last and that's exactly where we ended up with a total weight of 15.99 pounds for two days, well behind the winners total of 26.05 pounds. Did I just crack some kind of bass code here, if I invent a nice-bait and start acting like a jerk maybe I can win some tournaments? It's worth a shot, "Hey everybody, I hope you all get parking tickets and eat bad seafood tomorrow!" Now time to work on the bait.

Until next time, Skyman out.

Real excited about my catch! 

Like I said, a great weekend. 

Two more smallies for ya!