Tri-City Lunkers  

Lake Piru 

The morning was January cold but the forecast was for a nice California winter day. As Antonio was launching me, I felt surprisingly good. My colon was well balanced. My testosterone level was low but rising. As we idled out to the buoy line/launch site and with 250 HP a mere 40 inches behind my left ear, I checked my teeth. They were all in place and Poly-Grip tight. I had hit a psychological trifecta. I knew than that the club was going to have a great tournament.

The Tournament

Sixteen people fished, "golden ruling" 37 fish (plus three people culled) that weighed 98 lbs 4.5 oz. Last January, at the same lake, we had eighteen people catching 22 fish that weighed 64 lbs.

The big difference, but not the only difference, was Bradley Yang and his Alabama Rig. Bradley caught eight fish and the top five weighed 22 lbs 10 oz. He had big fish at 7 lbs 4 oz and another over 5 lbs. This is the second tournament in a row that Bradley scored 20+ pounds with that rig.

Phil Haines was a very good second with 13 lbs 13 oz. I was third with 12 lbs 9 oz. I think Phil culled with eight. I culled with six.

Back out Bradley's catch and we still have fifteen people catching 32 fish that weighed about 76 lbs versus last year's totals of 18 people/22 fish/64 lbs. Life is good and I expect this year to be one of our best, given the rains we had the last two years.

Baits/Methods

I prefished on Friday and threw the three-bait umbrella rig for three hours without a bite. Bradley prefished on Tuesday and discovered that they wanted the five bait rig not the three. He had a good Tuesday and a better Saturday. On Tuesday he made a video of how to rig it and fish it. Go to Google and type in "Finesse Umbrella/Alabama Rig". Bradley shows you exactly how to rig it and how to fish it. This is a must see video. Bradley has been very generous with his advice during his short stay with the Club. We are lucky that Aaron Yun introduced him to the Club.

Phil, Antonio, and I caught all of our fish on the 4 and 5 inch Senko's with the nail weight in the head. Counting the culls, we caught 18 fish. Back out Bradley, and the three of us caught 18 of the 32 fish that the other 15 of us caught. The numbers might be even more skewed towards this method if some of the rest of you caught fish this way. This bait isn't easy to fish but everybody needs to learn it. At the next meeting we will talk about it unless Bradley wants to talk about something else. He gets to talk about anything he wants.

Beyond the umbrella rig and the Senko, most of the remaining fish were caught with the drop shot. There were at least a couple fish on cranks.

New Members

We had two new members join us at Lake Piru. Dave Schreck is a seasoned Bass fisherman with a nice Ranger. My guess is that he is a potential AOY if he can fish enough tournaments. Mark Medrano is a long time angler but new to Bass fishing. I hope both of them enjoyed Saturday and that we see a lot more of them.

Special Thanks

A special thanks to Jim Rollins for suggesting that we change our January tournament from Castaic to Piru. An even bigger thanks to Lino and Eli Bassi for not pitching a fit. They spent two cold days prefishing Castaic. We should never schedule Castaic in the Winter. If I do it again next year, someone needs to take my crayons away.

Next Meeting

The next meeting is Wednesday, February 1 at Larry's Pizza in Fullerton. The meeting starts at 7:00 PM but we all start gathering around 6:30 PM. New members are welcome and would be eligible to fish our February 11 tournament at Pyramid.

Ed Snell

P.S. An updated schedule is attached . It reflects the rescheduled December tournament.

Here's a nice photo of Jerry perez with a 6lb 4oz bass.  It was caught on November 5th at Castaic.  The cameraman was brother Don.                      

Here is a real Black Bass.  This Bass was caught at Castaic in July.  The fish was intirely black except for a little white in the gill area.