Riding the Pine.

Makes the 3:00 am wake up call worth it. 

Some of my fondest memories from playing baseball were not experienced on the field or up to bat, they were sitting on the bench joking around with my teammates. Maybe I did not contribute towards a victory in the traditional sense with an inside the park home run or a triple ripped down the line, but I loosened up the guy who did those things with a couple of fart jokes. A little silliness helped create a relaxed atmosphere and took some of the pressure off, indirectly leading to better results. These same feeling came back to me while my team bombed during our clubs annual Manny Nunez Memorial  Challenge event at Castaic Lake, September 16, 2012.  

The only keeper of the day. I may be smiling but I'm crying on the inside. 

In an event that showcased 9 different Southern California bass clubs and a total of 50 teams, the Castaic Bass Club came out on top with an impressive 28.21 pound three team limit produced by Mike M., Tony F., Lenden R., George R., Roger L., and Kevin J. Even though the two fish we caught did not contribute towards our clubs total weight, my teammate Mike I. and I helped out in other ways, by signing people in, recording weights at the weigh in, organizing the BBQ and just trying to have a good attitude, which can be difficult when sleep deprived.    

Castaic Bass Club 2012

My partner and I might have been riding the pine while our teammates won us the trophy, but it still felt good to get the win. Just because you are on the bench doesn't mean you have to pout, grab your rally cap and cheer on your peers or help warm up the closing pitcher.  These kind of contributions might not show up on the stat sheet, but they helped pave the way for victory. Not everybody gets to be Barry Bonds, but that doesn't mean the people at BALCO didn't get to enjoy his home runs.  

Skyman out. 

Our Clubs Trophy. 

Fish Out of Water or Little Fish in a Big Pond?

Lady Liberty is very welcoming ;) 

Apple's are not my favorite fruit but I eat them anyway because I know they are an important part of a well balanced diet. Since I have not traveled in awhile I decided to balance my travel diet and bite into the big apple that is New York City. Boarding a red eye flight I strapped on my neck pillow/ life jacket and drifted off into a river of dreams. Navigating the island of Manhattan, would I feel like a fish out of water or like a little fish in a big pond? After my trip was over I would be able to determine what corny phrase was most fitting.

Landing at 5:45 am had its advantages. You arrived with a full day ahead of you and plenty of time to tackle a few to do list items, that is of course you don't get sacked by the defensive lineman of sleep, and in New York City his name is Lawrence "Sandman" Taylor and he will #%&K you up! Getting past LT and the rest of the sleep-fense I was greeted by my fathers cousins. Having family in foreign territory is great, you get the inside scoop on all the best spots and in this case it was a triple scoop because I had three cousins to show me around.

Bass sighting in New York City?  

Some of the highlights of my trip were The Standard Hotel in the Meatpacking District, as was the dive bar across the street called Hogs and Heifers. Complete opposites but accepting of one another, like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny Devito in the movie Twins. One young tall and good looking, the other a short dirty old man with a collection of braziers.

NYC street art.

Other highlights included being treated to a Giants preseason football game at Metlife stadium as well as a Scooner Harbor cruise, where I got to see Lady Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge from a distance. Little Branch was a great little speak easy in the West Village. Eataly's rooftop beer garden was amazing and their Pistacio Gelato was amore mio. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Empire State Building and Brooklyn Bridge, have now become favorite spots.

Niners fan routing for the Giants? It's preseason who cares. 

Getting around to all these awe inspiring sites is made easy by the subway, which navigates like an elaborate river system, with riffle's and pools and even some rapids. The ACE flows up and down the west side running into the L which trickles east to west into the 4,5,6 that runs along the east side. Being a non-native species I observed the Native New Yorkers to see how they navigated this waterway and picked up on some of their habits. Don't pause too long on sidewalks, ignore the red hand above the crosswalk, just look for cars or should I say yellow cabs because those are the only cars on the island, and try not to look confused or you might be taken for a sucker fish.  

The cousins and I. 

Why had this little fish waited so long to experience the greatest city/big pond in the world? Expanding my fruit palate and eating some apple really enlightened me and I felt healthier for it! Don't just stick to your home waters people, get out there and try a new "hole". You'll find that if you respect the locals you might just experience the time of your life and end up with more than just an "I Love New York" t-shirt. 

Skyman out like a trout. 

Trout art at The Spotted Pig in the West Village.

Highway away from your comfort zone.

We have all heard the saying if it's not broke don't fix it or don't mess with a good thing. Any attempt to improve on a system that already works is pointless and may even hurt it. Sounds like loser talk to me. This is America, where you can compete to be the best at everything from video games, beer pong, grilled cheese sandwiches, surfing and yes of course fishing. There is a reason why The United States has metaled 2,296 times in the summer Olympics and Argentina has done it only 66 times. We strive for perfection. If we're not happy with our results, we are willing to take the highway to the danger zone by stepping out of our comfort zone. 

From top to bottom: 4" roboworm morning dawn, 5" senko and a topwater revo. My weapons of bass destruction. 

I was inspired to write this post after fishing a tournament at Castaic Lake in July. The bite was great, I must have caught 15 bass in the 1-1.5 pound class on the drop shot rig. What I was doing was working, but with time running out and 7 or 8 pounds in the live well, I knew it wasn't enough for a victory. Deciding to switch it up to entice a bigger bite I risked the sure thing for the unknown on the highway to the danger zone! It paid off when a 2.15 pound fish masticated my wacky rigged senko on a flick shake weighted hook. This improved our total weight, enabling us to cull one of our smaller fish but it was too late.  

My old friend, kong island.

We finished with a total weight of 7.74 pounds good enough for 6th place. I believe if we would have hair-pinned out of the comfort zone and into the danger zone a little sooner, we could have finished 4th.

Happy in my comfort zone. 

It's hard to try something new when what you are doing is already working. Change takes effort and risk. Most people aren't willing to gamble a comfortable existence for an opportunity at supremacy, but you'll find the ones that do are often reaped the biggest rewards.  America would not be the country it is today if it wasn't for people taking risks and I would not have enjoyed the movie Top Gun if it was all Goose and no Maverick. So put on your leather jacket and go grab your aviators, you know you want to be Maverick, Goose was the safe one and we all know what happened to him.   

In memory of Goose, we love you.

Skyman out

The Goose is loose. 

It's Party Rock on a Boat!

Is that your rod or mine?

Crowds and fishing go together like reading Shakespeare at a LMFAO concert. Maybe if you wear industrial strength ear plugs you can get through a page or two but you are not going to finish Hamlet. Save yourself the trouble and go down to the library. Lines get tangled, tempers get flared and the occasional stomach gets really upset all in the name of catching a few fish for dinner. 

The crew! 

Our trip out of Marina Del Rey on the New Del Mar started at 7:30 am. We picked up bait at the bait dock and cruised out to our first location. The deckhands dropped anchor while we dropped our set ups in the prospect of catching rockfish.  Our rig was simple, a 3 ounce weight held down a lively anchovy that was hooked through the nose like a Fall Out Boy groupie. The hard part was catching the fish and not the other anglers or pelicans that waited right beside our boat opportunistically.  

Bait gone bad.

We caught Sculpin, Cabezon and Red Snapper as we battled for position on the boat like Dennis Rodman and Charles Barkley did on the hardwood for a rebound. Boxing out anglers and snatching up loose fish as we reeled them in from their ocean haunts. While all this activity was happening on the boat the swells really started to pick up and made me queazy. I have always fantasized about kicking the crab out of the Bering Sea with the Deadliest Catch crew, but after this little outing on the calm waters of the Santa Monica Bay I realized vomit would be coming out of my ears battling the stormy seas of Alaska.

We caught dinner! 

Our party boat arrived back at port around noon and we all had enough fish to take home for dinner, which was great. But for me, fishing is an activity enjoyed best with the company of few, while partying is a fun activity to enjoy with the masses. So next time, I'll take my beer and jean shorts to the LMFAO concert, my Shakespeare book to the library and get my fish tacos at Wahoo's.

To fish, or party. That is the question.

Getting the thumbs up from the deckhand. 

Skyman out.

Catching Memories... and maybe a little buzz.

Whether you start your fishing day off with a cup of coffee or a whiskey ginger ale like my friend Joel, the real pick me up is the anticipation in our "mental mug". Will this be the day you catch a trophy or will it be a day you go home with a participation certificate? The only way to tell is to get out there and go fishing! 

To help me understand the "mental mug" of the fisherman, I thought I would start writing angler profiles to see what makes us tick (in a clock kind of way not the Lyme disease way). Below is my first interview with Joel "Style" Bonilla, the most fashionable fisherman on the water as well as a good friend of mine.    

Angler Profile:

Name: Joel Bonilla  
Age: 27
Where are you from: Los Angeles
Occupation: Environmental Planner

1) How did you get started fishing? How long have you been fishing?
I got my start during my adolescent years, back around 1991. Back then, fishing was just something my folks would do during our yearly vacation trips to the San Gabriel Mountains. My brother and I shared a “snoopy catch ‘em kit fishing rod”. I really wasn’t consistent until this year (2012). I think it’s difficult for a child to pick up fishing. Fishing requires patience, basic knowledge of the environment and money.

2) Do you remember your first fish? How did it make you feel? Species, size?
My first catch happened at Castaic Lake, where I caught a one pound, largemouth bass.

My buddies and I were fishing from a boat in Castaic Lake. The entire day went by without success. I had nibbles here and there, a big one that got away, and ducks trying to eat my bait. It was a warm sunny day in the high 80s during the month of April. The wind was really picking up that day so we had to stay in the cove where the wave action and winds were calm. While boating around we found a shallow cove with lots of shade. The fish seemed to like hiding under the floating algae mats.

3) How much did your biggest fish weigh? What did you catch it on?
My only catch was a one pound, largemouth bass. I caught it with a crankbait. I was really careful not to get my line tangled in the dead vegetation. Things that didn’t work were my Texas rig senko and spinner bait. Additionally, my knots need some work since I lost a fish after my line snapped at the knot.

4) Fondest memory you have from fishing?
My fondest memory came while fishing at Big Creek in the Sierra National Forest with my old college friends. I fished for hours and never felt more at ease. I caught two crayfish and broke my friend’s fishing rod after getting the line tangled in a tree, Laugh!!

5) Why do you fish?
As described in my fondest fishing memory; fishing, for me is less about the fish, and more about the time spent with family and friends.

I’ve been told by experienced anglers that I have my entire life to become proficient at fishing. I’ve been told that over time, I will collect tons of gear and would have invested a lot of money and time into the sport. I see myself becoming engaged in the sport with every outing and have no doubt about what I’ve been told by my wiser colleagues. So for now, when I cast my line out into the water, I fish to enjoy the moment.

7) Any pre-fishing rituals, food you like to eat on the water?
I enjoy a ginger-ale and whiskey drink early in the morning, before my first cast.   

Joel's "mental mug" provided me with some great insight. He lives for the moment and is more concerned with catching memories than fish. If he sticks with it, his memories will start to include more fish to go along with time spent with loved ones and the expensive gear that accumulates. That is of course, he can remember them at all, considering he is woofing down whiskey and ginger-ales at 6 am. Take it easy on the sauce buddy, the only thing you're going to catch is a hangover, and that's not something you can mount above your fireplace!

Skyman out

Don't drop me Pop!

Before I could walk my Father used to balance me like a circus monkey six feet above the ground, and thank god he was good at it or I would not be here today. In fact, he was a natural as he is with most things, well except for maybe fishing. Over the years though, I have taught this old dog some tricks and he has earned the confidence needed to expect the fish to be there.   

Now that is confidence! 

Starting out in fishing the hardest part is getting the confidence that comes with experience. You know this lure or technique works because, hey I have had success with it in the past. My Father has gained that now over time and we decided to see how cocky he and I could get out on Santa Margarita Lake for Father's Day 2012. 

North County San Luis Obispo, looks relaxing right! 

It was a lovely summers day out on Margarita, so nice in fact that I would have really loved an ice cold one of those with some salt and lime. Since there was no blender on board, I kept cool by taking off my shirt and reaching into the cold water as much as I could, hoisting out three nice bucketmouths. My Father was able to catch one, making it a successful outing in my eyes.

Thanks Aunt Wendy for my sweet bass pro shops shirt! 

My happy bass face. 

That is the look of a confident angler. 

Like son like father.

Not everyone in life can be naturals at things like balancing babies or catching bass consistently, but over time with enough practice, your experiences will earn you the confidence needed to get the job done or at least fool yourself and others into thinking you can. It also helps on those tough days to have good support on the home front, so I thank you Pop for not dropping me. 

Skyman out.     

Tug Me Tammy, One More Time!

The time had come for Tammy and I to tango! It has been too long since our first dance, so I thought what better way to bring us together then with the erotic and sometimes down right dirty moves of the tango. 

First bass of the day on texas rigged creature bait.

The Castaic Lagoon was the backdrop for our routine. Everything was going smoothly until the wind butt in and started whirling us all over the place, making it difficult for me to make my move and fish as thoroughly as possible. It managed to finally push us to the very back corner of the Lagoon. Nobody puts Tammi in a corner, not even Mother Nature! We responded by getting a little dirty and catching another really nice bass, see below:

Nobody puts Tammi in a corner. My Patrick Swayze face (RIP).

Like the wonderful and often forgotten about, tasty treat of cinnamon and sugar on buttered toast, Tammi did not disappoint. I promised to take her out again soon but next time, we are going square dancing. The tango gave me the spins like a high school kid drinking moonshine down by the train tracks.   


Skyman out!

A Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias), best angler on the water.

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!