Trophy Bass

Here is the Trophy our club won at the challenge event. You know what they say about clubs with big trophies, right? :)

To quote the great Ricky Bobby, "If you're not first, you're last!"

The elusive golden bass...

skyman out. 

Just in case you need something from amazon, here you go:

Let Me See That Kong!

When I say Kong I mean giant ape Kong. There is an island on Castaic lake with a giant ape attached to it called Kong Island and it would prove to be pivotal to our success at the Manny Nunez Annual Memorial Bass Tournament held at Castaic Lake this last September. The tournament is a club challenge event that pit our club up against 8 different Southern California Bass Clubs. To win the tournament and get your clubs name on the trophy, would mean you had the highest combined three best weights compared to the other 7 clubs. My partner for this event was George and we were really excited to represent our club and kick some serious bass!

Hello George.

Mr. Kong himself. He loves America. 

At the meeting before the tournament I talked with George and he mentioned to me that shad colored worms were a hot bait in the late summer. Anything that went along with a shad pattern was a good bet. So I stopped by Sports Authority (not my usual tackle spot but time was an issue) and cruised the isles for shad baits. I purchased some roboworms in a prizm shad color that looked really good to me in the 4 and a half inch size. I also got a 4 inch BBZ gizzard shad swimbait and tied on a revo topwater popper as well. I was ready for thems basseys.

Mr. Revo

So the tournament kicked off with a bang! George took us to Kong Island which was about 100 yards from shore and had an anchored booey with a King Kong figure attached to it and an American flag sticking out of its rear end.

Yo mister monkey, you mind if we fish here? 

We pull up to the island and start fishing. I got a blow up on the revo and was not paying attention so the fish was able to spit out the hooks before I could get a good hook set. A good sign that the fish were active, but made me feel dumb. A few more minutes passed and fish on! This time I got em, a nice 2 pounder on the drop shot prizim craw robo worm.  Ten minutes later, another fish on and as soon as you can flip a pancake we had 4 fish in the live well and it was only 8:30 am. That's what you call a good morning of fishing.

Another view point of the Island. 

I gave George some of my worms because the fish were not getting excited for the color he was throwing. The only problem was I only had one bag! Drama! Usually I don't like to share worms with just anybody, but George is a cool enough guy and since I am a team player, I did what I thought would give us the best odds of getting our clubs name on that trophy. So George grabbed a worm out of my sack and we did laps around that island like we were middle school kids running the mile, all morning long drop shoting our roboworms.

A Castaic Lake Landscape. 

The conditions changed on us around 11:00 am, the sun came out, the wind picked up and the bite died down. We made a move to another part of the Lake which turned out to be a bust so back to the muscular arms of our buddy Kong once again! Hold on loosely Kong, but don't let go. We caught 7 keepers for the day which ended at 12:30 pm, not bad. Of the ten worms that I had at the start of the day, only one remained at the buzzer. Our total weight was 6.8 pounds good enough for 2nd place with in our Club and more importantly our weight was included in our clubs weight. Thanks to our great ape friend, the Castaic Bass Club got it's name on the Trophy for 2011! 

The final weights for the day. 

Our total weight. 

All in all a great day out on the water. We had a BBQ at the end of the day where I ate two burgers, one for me and one for my primate brother from another mother, the Gorilla on the rocks.

Bye Kong...hope to see you again soon. 

"I've been travleing for some time...with my fishing pole and a bottle of shine."

Bubba Sparks is my favorite rapper of all time! I love me some Tupac and Biggie but neither incorporated my favorite hobby into one of their songs. Bubba on the other hand, must be an avid angler because in his very popular song deliverance he talks about getting tore up on moonshine while traveling with his favorite companion, Mr. Rod himself. I can definitely relate to the traveling, fishing and boozing! I don't always know where I am going but with a fishing pole in one hand and a bottle of booze in the other I don't really care.
 
Speaking of boozing and bassing check out this video of the back woods Bill Gates, real name Norm Price. He came up with the brilliant idea of making lures out of beer bottle caps! Hell Yeah Norm! He has stumbled upon a hat trick of Wayne Gretzkey proportions! Oh the life, catching a buzz a bass and some bucks all while recycling. This ones for your Norm! You inspire me.     

 

Backwoods Bill Gates. 

Maybe Bubba will run into Norm on one of his traveling benders and they will become best friends. I think they would have a lot to talk about, I just sure hope they invite me for a day out on the water. Their guiding service would be called Bubba and Backwood Billy's Beer Bottle Cap Bassin Adventures, Their slogan would read, "We can't guarantee you catch a bass but we can guarantee you a good buzz!"    

Skyman out

Not all bass fisherman are created equal.

July 17, 2011

Double Whammy Book on Amazon

I have been reading a book called Double Whammy, a murder mystery with a comedic twist that takes place within the tournament bass fishing world of South Florida by Carl Hiaasen. The book is entertaining but really stereotypes bass fisherman. For example see quote below:

"On the night of January 15, Dickie Lockhart got dog-sucking drunk on Bourbon Street and was booted out of a topless joint for tossing rubber night-crawlers on the dancers. The worms were a freebie from a national tackle company whose sales reps had some to town for the big bass tournament. The sales reps had given Dickie Lockhart four bags of assorted lures hooks, plus a thousand dollars cash as incentive to win the tournament using the company's equipment. Dickie blew the entire grand in the French Quarter, buying rock cocaine and rainbow colored cocktails for exquisitely painted women, most of whom turned out to be flaming he-she's out trolling for cock. In disgust Dickie Lockhart had retreated to the strip joints, where at least the boobs were genuine. The trouble happened when he ran out of five dollar bills for tips; finding only the slippery night crawlers in his pockets, he began flicking them up at the nude performers. In his drunken state he was vastly entertained by the way the gooey worms clung to the dancers thighs and nipples, and would occasionally tangle in their pubic hair. The night-crawlers looked (and felt) so authentic that the strippers began shrieking and clawing at their own flesh; one frail acrobat even collapsed and rolled about the stage as if she were on fire. Dickie thought the whole scene was hysterical; obviously these girls had never been fishing. He was mildly baffled when the bouncers heaved him out of the joint (hadn't they seen him on TV?), but took some satisfaction when other patrons booed the rough manner in which he was expelled."

The angler I fished with at Castaic Lake in July was the opposite of Dickie Lockhart. His name was Jim and he is a retired Aeronautical Engineer. When I got in his Toyota Land cruiser to back his boat down to the water instead of the usual country tunes of Tobby Keith or Hank Williams the soothing sounds of classical music tickled my inner ear. Don't get me wrong I love me some Country Music, I even attended the Country music festival Stagecoach this year in Indio, ca, but it was nice to see something outside the norm. I don't consider myself a stereotypical bass fisherman so it was refreshing to meet a fellow angler that didn't necessarily fit into the typical tackle box.

What up Jim! Oh, you want two more beers?  

Back to the fishing, well it was a lot more casting than catching that's for sure. We started in the back part of the lake, Elizabeth Canyon to be exact and had some action early in the day but it died off around 9:30 am. Bass like to feed early in the summer months and then retreat to the cool temperature after they have gotten their fill. Jim caught our first fish on a split shot worm. It was a decent 2 pound bass, but it was our only bass of the day. I caught a catfish on a drop shot worm which was fun, but would not count toward our total weight at the end of the day.

The anticipation before a big day on the water. Will I catch a ten pounder today?

Castaic Lake ladies and gentleman. 

The steep rocky slopes of Castaic. Different from the lakes I am used to. 

Jim's bass and my catfish, "Dude, you're weird looking."
"No bro you have whiskers growing out of your face! Get out of here with that non-sense. What do you think you are a cat or something?" 

Peddle to the medal Jim! 

Random dead rabbit on the lake. "You silly rabbit, where is your life vest?" 

Take home lesson of the day, not all bass fisherman listen to the same music and go for the same political candidate, but we do share a common love of the outdoors and a good hard tug on our rods :)

Skyman out.

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.

Life is Like Fishing...everytime you turn around someone is trying to hook you!

Here little fishy fishy...

Here in the real world, with my two feet on the ground, I often feel like the fish. It's a little bit of a role reversal and maybe that's why I like fishing so much it gives me the chance to do the hooking! Speaking of hooking part of the reason I was inspired to write this entry was the fact that I was just in Las Vegas. Everywhere I turned someone or something was trying to lure me in to giving them my money! "Hey you! Check this out, put your money in here, I can show you a great time but I need $2,000. Go wait in that line or give me $100 and you're in. DAM you hot, let's hang out...but I need your money." I felt like a 3 inch sucker fish in a giant pool filled with 9 pound hungry bucketmouth fatties.

Vegas knows how to seduce you and finesse you into a money spending daze like no where else in the world. If I was a lure designer I would travel to Vegas to study the many ways they use to lure people in, get them to bite and bring them to the boat. Is it the flashy lights? The color red which you see everywhere, the margaritas in the foot long plastic cups, the amount of walking you do to get anywhere, the water fountains, pirate shows, bars that do not close, the beautiful women in bikinis smiling at you making you feel like Burt Reynolds or a combination of all those things, whatever it is it works.

Anglerfishes are members of the teleost order Lophiiformes. They are bony fishes named for their characteristic mode of predation, wherein a fleshy growth from the fish's head (the esca or illicium) acts as a lure; this is considered analogous to angling. Doesn't the angler fish remind you of Las Vegas and we are represented my little nemo. "Get out of there it's a trap!"

In a way it's depressing because you want to think people are being nice to you because they are genuinely interested in who you are, but you begin to realize everyone is after the small 6 and 3/16 inch green things in your wallet. Call it paranoia, but that is how I felt. It's definitely not just Vegas the rest of the world is this way as well and I have come to accept it. Money makes the world go round, it is just ever more apparent in Vegas where everything is bigger and magnified! I am glad to be out of sin city and have a chance to go fishing, where I am more comfortable being the hooker then the hookie.

Skyman out.

References:
Froese, Rainer, and Daniel Pauly, eds. (2006). "Lophiiformes" in FishBase. February 2006 version.

That's a nice sack you got there!

When I started fishing again I wrote down a couple of goal's I had for myself and one of them was to win a tournament. I did not expect this to happen to me yet because my knowledge of the sport and  the techniques are still in their teenage years. Well, sometimes life hands you things when you are not expecting it and that's what happened to me at Santa Margarita Lake April 23, 2011.

This was a spring time tournament meaning shallow water bass bonanza! I reviewed my Santa Margarita Lake map and looked for some good shallow water flats. The back end of the lake, which is called the river, has the most productive water for this time of year. With the amount of rain we got this winter, there would be lots of newly flooded vegetation, great for spawning bass.

My go to lure would be the senko in watermelon with red/black flakes, pitched at isolated clumps of weeds and trees. I like the five inch size senko because I read in the book, Knowing Bass The Scientific Approach to Catching More Fish, by Keith A. Jones, PhD, that a bass's strike response is greater to soft plastics in the 4" to 5" length.

Driving up to the lake early in the morning with my dad I realized I had not gone to the ATM the night before to get enough money for all the options.  Time being an issue, I decided to just get in the basic tournament option which is $ 25. When we arrived at the lake I talked with the tournament director and he informed me a lot of good sticks were fishing this tournament and there was about 40 people in all. Whoops. Should have borrowed $ from pops, it was the chance for a nice check.

The day started off great! It was one of those days that I'll probably remember forever. I had a limit by 10:30 am. Once we were in the right stretch of water, it was fish after fish. I was calling out where I thought a fish would be, casting there and hooking into them. I was the Babe Ruth of Bassin that day! With success in life comes a few failures along the way and even this day had a few. I lost a couple good fish one that could have been big fish of the tournament. The big one I lost kind of popped off leading me to believe my drag was a little too tight. I also noticed my hook sets weren't that strong which I believe is because my rod is a little short; ) I use a 6'6" rod when I should probably be using a 7 footer. My final weight for the day was 18.14 pounds, one hell of a bass sack, good enough for first place out of 39 guys!

My culling system. Those are some big bass baby!

Another lesson learned this trip was about fishing etiquette. As the saying goes in life, treat others the way you want to be treated, same rules apply in fishing. Give others their space and don't be nosey while the tournament is going on. I had another fisherman who I had a small conversation with earlier in the day kind of mosey over my way when he noticed me catching fish. He asked me what I was doing, which I should have ignored but since I fish for the thrills not to pay my bills, I told him. I would never ask another angler what he was using and get close to him while he was fishing. At the end of the day I might ask a few questions, but definitely not during the competition.

The ride back to the weigh in. 

Pops with a good sack!

Feeling like a bass boss!

Now that's a sack! 

Since I was the champion I got to do an interview with Wayne Shaw the outdoor writer for the local paper. On the phone he was very nice and I told him the story of how I caught the fish and the techniques that I used, but like society tends to do he focused on the negatives in his article. Really rubbing it in that I did not get in all the money options. To be honest, I thought that by being in the basic tournament option I would be able to win some money, but so sorry:( Anyway, I lost out on $435 but like I said earlier I fish for the thrills not to pay my bills.

Bass Ambushers Article in the Tribune

Below is another article Wayne wrote about me when I was in high school. He is kind of a hater.

  

I like you, but you're crazy!

Sometimes I feel a little crazy as a fisherman. I mean who goes out on a lake fishing when it's freezing and raining? Awesome anglers that's who! I had these images on my camera from when I went out the weekend before a tournament at Lopez Lake to do a little pre-fishing and had some success so I decided to share. This trip was in early to mid February and the weather had been pretty brutal. I think air temps were in the 40's-50's along with some serious rain. If you have the proper equipment and gear (rain suit and boots) it's really not that bad. If you like solitude on the lake then this is your favorite time to be on the water. I mean look at the boat ramp, it's just me:)

The one and only angler on the lake.

Winter time bassing for me = rip baits, suspending jerk baits & crankbaits, drop shots, and jigs. The key words for winter time angling are slow and slower (kind of like dumb & dumber). Depending on the water temperature deep water is also a key for success. A basses metabolism slows down considerably in the winter time and therefore doesn't eat as much. Given the basses predatory nature you can still catch them if you get close enough to them, enter their strike zone and move at a speed they are comfortable with, or you cause a reaction strike where they don't have much time to think, they just react.

Something to consider is the temperature of the water and if the lake is turned over or not. In the winter time at some point the temperature towards the surface becomes cooler and denser (aka heavier) and sinks taking a lot of oxygen down with it. During this time the lake stratifies or develops layers. A thermocline separates the two or three major layers of water.  The thermocline is the area where greatest change in temperature with depth occurs. Below are a couple of articles that talk about the thermocline:

Simply put, the thermocline is a thin layer of water in a lake which is sandwiched between the upper layer of water (the epilimnion) and the lower, colder layer of water (hypolimnion). During the summer months, surface water is heated by the sun and the surface temp could be 80 degrees or more. This floats over a layer of colder more denser water called the hypolimnion. Now, between these 2 layers you have a thin layer in which the water temp drops substantially. This will be the thermocline. The temp at this level may be high 60's and up in about the middle of spring.

Graph for ocean of depth vs.temperature. Reference site.

The temperature in a lake is seldom the same from the surface to the bottom. Usually there is a warm layer of water and a cooler layer. Where these layers meet is called a thermocline. The depth and thickness of the thermocline can vary with the season or time of day. In deep lakes there may be two or more thermoclines. This is important because many species of game fish like to suspend in, just above, or just below the thermocline. Many times baitfish will be above the thermocline while larger game fish will suspend in or just below it. Fortunately, this difference in temperatures can be seen on the sonar screen. The greater the temperature differential, the denser the thermocline shows on the screen. 

During the late winter there is usually no stratification on most lakes. As a result the water will undergo a temporary oxygenation process. Strong winds, feeder streams feed the lake with spring rains and plant growth begins. So under normal conditions the deeper end of a water body will be quite saturated with oxygen. Since the lower layer is much colder than the surface (averages 10 to 25 degrees difference) the deeper portions can retain the oxygen molecules sent its way during the pre-stratification. 

Why does the hypolimnion lose it's oxygen? The thermocline and the upper layer of water are continually replenishing their oxygen supply and the hypolimnion gradually loses it for several reasons.Probably the most important reason is there is very little or no plant life beyond the 30 foot level. Unless the water is gin clear the suns rays cannot penetrate the lake deep enough to grow any vegetation.

Key points from this reading:

• Lake turns over in Fall (October, November) when cool water on the bottom is pushed up by the even colder more dense water on the surface (caused by dropping air temperatures).
• Fish will be deep (hypolimnion) when oxygen levels are greater there then near the surface (usually winter).  Also known as the pre-stratification period.
• When the lake becomes stratified or layered (thermocline developed and seen on sonar) most bass will be found in the thermocline because it is most comfortable for them (not too much light and more oxygen then hypolimnion). This is usually late winter early spring.

The bass below was caught on a rip-bait, a 4 in. River to Sea bait to be exact. I was fishing the inside of secondary points on steep angled banks targeting suspending fish. An interesting thing happened during this outing that is worth taking note. I caught my first fish after I got a backlash and was messing with the line. The lure was out there and down to its running depth of about 8 feet. While I was messing with the line the bait was suspended and not moving at all for probably close to 30 seconds and that's when the fish hit! This told me I needed to really slow down! I caught 2 fish in 3 hours and developed a good pattern because both these fish weighted more than three pounds. 

The only problem was the next week the weather totally changed on me! The front passed and there was high pressure and clear blue bird sky's. I was able to catch two keepers but my original plan fell through and I had to scramble to catch those two. I forget what the winner caught them on but I think the bass were not suspending but were relating more to the bottom. 

Makes the trip worth wile. Three pound late winter bass!

Below are a couple of instructional videos on how to fish a suspending jerkbait aka rip bait: