Congrats to Todd Iwamoto for another huge win at this year's 2002 TOC. He brought in limits both days to finish with 27.39 lbs, edging Rich Caro's 26.33 lbs & Kevin Marcheschi's 25.97 lbs. Way to go, gentlemen!

For the 1st time that I know of for the club @ Clear Lake, swimbaits played a huge role in several of the big fish that Todd & Rich landed. Ripbaits also accounted for numerous quality fish.

Great tournament - we weighed-in 70 fish & had a bunch over 4 lbs. The weather cooperated & we had lots of sunshine & calm conditions, althought there was a brief blast of wind on Saturday morning.

Great year for the club. Thanks one more time to Todd, Kevin, Jeff & Mike B. for helping out as officers, & best of luck to our incoming team of Jeff, Rich, Phil, Eric & Mike T.

Was there doubt?
Congratulations Mr. Consistent
You the MAN!

Congrats Todd,
Let's hear some swimbaiting stories :)

-Rob

It was both a fun and challenging tourney as my spots did not always work exactly as hoped but ended up kicking out enough fish to bring the TOC home!

Crankbaits accounted for the majority of the weight I caught (10 of 16 lbs day one and 6 of 11 lbs day two) mostly working hard or rocky bottoms. Also had a massive hit and quick spurt first thing in the morning but came unglued seconds into the fight.

Jigs also played an important roll in my fishing as all but one of the rest of the keeper came on them (day 1).

Now the swimbait thing...well, I did find out on Friday while prefishing they were working when I threw the new Megabait "Charlie." I was hoping for a different type of action from the bait (it's a lipped rubber swimbait with internal rattles) and started to complain to William Perez when a maniac 1lb 7oz bass blasted it! Sweet! Not more than half hour later while checking out the action with less than 7 feet of line out my rod doubled over and a 3 1/2 - 4 lbs bass nailed it! Whew!



I did try to throw the bait on Saturday but did not get touched. However, Rich Caro (who will hopefully tell his story) brought in two dogz that I believe he caught with a Slammer. Hmmm, must have missed something when fishing...

Sunday I decided I would work one of my favorite areas with the 7" Slammer and after catching a dink on a crank, decided I need a big dog! About 10 casts in I made a long heave, started to jam it in with a fast crank (Rich mentioned he was ripping it) and WHAM! Fish on! Was not sure the size and knew I had some nasty line cutting structure below, so kept my rod high and put some serious pressure on the fish. After 15 heart wrenching seconds I brought it to deeper water, grabbed the net and slid the fish in. Turned out to be a nice 4.78 lb bass, my largest of the day.

Here's a couple photos, the top being Rich and Myself day 1 with our good bass and the last myself day 2. I'll make sure to post additional pics of the rest of the guys later.

http://www.calfishing.com/dc/user_files/515.jpg

http://www.calfishing.com/dc/user_files/516.jpg