I don't consider myself a "Superstitious" angler, so when my partner told me we would be fishing "Stevie Wonder" style I thought to myself, "We can work it out." If Mr. Wonder can catch over twenty Grammy's playing an instrument he can't even see, I'm sure we can fool a few bass. "Fishing blind" is a term anglers use when their boats sonar system is out. Which may or may not be a big deal depending on the time of year and your style of fishing. In winter when bass migrate to deeper haunts it can be a very helpful tool to find humps and clusters of concentrated large-mouths.
Think of a boats sonar system as a bat flying through a dark cave on the hunt for flying insects. Also referred to as "echolocation" a bat uses the echo of sound waves to determine the shapes of surrounding objects like bugs. A bass boat uses "bassolocation" to help determine where the fish are.
A beautiful crisp winters day at Piru.
We began our day in an area where my partner had success a month ago in shallow water. With the water temperature dropping considerably in the last few weeks (In the lower fifties), my "fishy" sense told me that deeper was the way to go. Not being able to take the blindfold off our boat, we would have to use our deep jigs and drop shots to navigate the lakes bottom like a blind man uses his cane to get down a busy sidewalk. Sure we might bump into an occasional stranger or bush but we'll get where we need to be eventually.
The only problem with this scenario is in a tournament time is an issue. Not only are we up against momma bass we are also battling with father time. We caught our first fish around 9 am near the dam in deeper water on a six inch purple worm rigged on a drop shot. Our second fish coming an hour later also on a drop shot but a different color, prism craw. The last keeper fish of the day was caught around 2 pm in a totally different area then the first two fish. Our three fish limit came in at 7.16 pounds good enough for fifth place out of eleven teams. The winner had a five fish limit weighing 11.58 pounds, their big fish came in at 3.75 lbs and was caught on a jig, something we should have committed more time to.
In summary it was a really tough day on lake Piru. With temperatures as cold as polar bear farts I'm surprised we caught fish at all. On the bright side, not every song Stevie Wonder wrote won a Grammy. Our day was a lot like one of those songs, a good listen but I'm not going to sing it at my daughters wedding.
We are all chasing after something we can't see, hoping what ever it is we are going after, if we catch it at all, fulfills us in some way.
There are many people in life that never go out and get a tackle box. They figure what's the point, I'll never catch anything, why waste the money?
Some people know exactly what to buy and where to cast, catching fish after fish, filling their limit and going home.
Others stay on the water their whole lives, becoming the osprey, searching and catching never looking back. Addicted to the thrill of the game.
Another group of people are confused, not sure where to cast or when to set the hook. "Was that a bite or did I just snag some weeds?" They look back at past catches wondering if they let the "Big One" slip through their fingers. Lost in a murky sea with a blanket of fog on the horizon.
At the end of the day, some people in life don't like to fish at all, some fish to catch a limit, others want to catch everything that swims and the rest of us like to fish but aren't sure why., but all of us that got up out of bed, tied one on and caught a few, wonder about the one that got away... the one we never got to see at all.
Sky man out.
Thought I would bust out a philosophical post for ya'll, considering it's the holidays.
And bite me they did. Our tournament at Pyramid lake October 16th, 2011 was a blast and a half from kick off to the hot dog on the way out. The bite was on early and continued through out the day. It started as a top water bite and evolved to a slower deeper more finesse bite.
2 of our 4 fish limit.
It was only my second time on the lake so I did not know what to expect. The lake was really weedy which made certain lures frustrating to use. Early on it was perfect conditions for top water. The water was warm, there was a lot of shad boiling along the surface and near the shore line and the weeds gave the bass ideal hide out spots to ambush their prey. The majority of our fish came up from the weeds to hit a spinner bait, fluke and popper. We also caught fish on a drop shot, crank bait and Ika.
The Ika master.
A good tip I learned from my partner was how to fish a Fluke Jr. with a stinger hook. I usually fish the full size fluke (5 inch model), but my partner used the smaller 4 inch model and it looked great on the surface! He missed quite a number of fish so he added a stinger hook to the back. The hook weighs the bait down a tad so the action isn't as realistic. When I find myself with this predicament in fishing I always keep the action true on my bait rather then adding a hook or more weight to help land more fish. If you never get the bite to begin with how are you ever going to land them?
Our bass sack for the day.
I was able to catch a fish with the Ika for the first time so that was exciting. I got some tips from the master himself and he taught me to use the rod to move the bait to get more feel rather than using the reel.
The hotdog guy!
When it was all said and done we ended the day in third place with a total weight of 9.75 pounds of bass. To help celebrate our great day on the water we bought hot dogs from a guy on the way out, where I got the last bite! I may not eat bass but I love dogs! Sorry peta.
Thanks for the Bass Art Summer Sauce! I hope that's a good knot.
Fishing may knot be your cup of tea but there are some fishing philosophies that translate to all aspects of life. The great UCLA Bruins basketball coach John Wooden would teach his players in their first practices how to tie their shoes. This may sound silly to some but the man has won 10 NCAA titles, so I would at least hear him out. To compete on a high level you must focus in on the details to eliminate possible error. If you have already thought of the things that can go wrong on the water, basketball court or in the game of life and are prepared for them you can concentrate on the task at hand. Silly? I think knot!
In fishing one of the most important details to spend some serious thought on is your knot!
Knot, knot...
Who's there?
Your fishing line...
What do you want fishing line?
You better tie me right or you are knot going to catch many fish!
I can't stress this enough, details are important. There is a famous phrase that says,"The devil is in the details," which to me means looking out for the small details in life is generally a good practice, since it greatly reduces the risk of surprise. While some surprises are pleasant, those planned by the devil are generally knot, so it pays to avoid pratfalls which are preventable by remembering that the devil's in the details.
Below are a few of my favorite knots, so if I were you I would practice these to avoid being thrown into hotel heartbreak where you get to watch Elvis have his way with your girlfriend while you're stuck in a glass box of emotion, courtesy of of bucket mouth billy bass. Shake it billy but don't break it!
The Albright knot: This knot is a great knot to use to tie two different diameter lines together as well as attaching a flurocarbon/mono leader to braid. This knot finishes in the shape of a triangle or pyramid.
The Uni-knot:
This is another knot used to tie two lines together. It is better with two lines that have a similar diameter. The knot itself will be larger than the albright knot so if you are using a shorter leader I would go with the albright knot.
The Palomar knot:
A great all around knot, I originally started using this knot a lot when I got introduced to braid. It does knot slip like a trilene knot which makes it ideal for braid. Also, it is my knot of choice for a drop shot, you just have to pull the line through one more time so your hook is perpendicular with your line.
The Rapala knot:
This is a great knot for lures with a lot of side to side action. It allows more freedom of movement for jointed plugs and some top water walk the dog type baits.
The Trilene knot:
This is another great all around knot like the palomar. It is the first knot I learned to tie and still use it to this day on everything from Texas rigged worms to crank baits.
The Snell knot:
A new knot to my arsenal. This is the knot to use for flipping and pitching into heavy cover with large soft plastics like the brush hog as well as punching rigs. What makes this knot great for these applications is when you set the hook on a fish, the knot pulls the hook up facilitating the hooks penetration into the mouth of the fish. That's what you call a good wing-man!
A good solid double knot on the old basketball shoes should do the job so you can, "forget about it" and drop a triple double on your opponent. If you master these fishing knots you can concentrate on filling your livewell with lunkers and joining coach John Wooden in the trophy room instead of getting thrown into the dirty bed bug infested hotel of heartbreak with the fat Elvis, not the skinny good looking one.
Knot so fast, one last thing. Always lubricate your knots with saliva to avoid friction which can lead to line breakage:)
Now go out and get knotty!
Skyman out
Final knot count: 39
Below is a Mickey's puzzle. See if you can solve the riddle.
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.
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!"
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 :)
