Well it was a hectic weekend this weekend. I fished the WON bass team tourney on Saturday at my old home lake. My partner John was sick all week with bronchitis and could not make the tourney. I called around and Dean at the marina was very cool about it and let me borrow his boat so that I could still fish for points by myself. I came down Friday afternoon and did a little prefishing, more like pre-looking with the fish finder. I graphed some fish in 18 to 30 feet but there were boats all over all of the deep stuff so I figured on not really doing the deep water thing in the tourney. I only really fished for about half hour and didn't have any bites throwing a 5" swimbait. Friday night I drove down to Arroyo Grande and stayed with Pete and Susanne. I picked up a few 1/2oz black jigs, some black super pork, and a 1.5 ounce ledgebuster spinnerbait at the shop (would come in useful the next day). We watched bassmaster videos and hung out, it was fun.
Saturdady, up at 4:15 and to the lake around 5:30. We launched from the marina cove. Their was ice on the seat of the boat. It was cold. I launched just about last and turned right around and went back into the cove. I was fishing the black jig with black pork and on my first 6 casts I had 4 bites and put 4 keepers in the boat. I was pumped! They were small though, all around 14 inches. I sat on the point for 1/2 hour and no more bites. I worked through the marina cove and at 8 am caught another fish about 14" on the jig for a limit. All of the fish were in about 10 feet of water. After that I went in search of some bigger fish. Threw the 5" swimbait, a deep little n, the 9 inch slammer and a lot of the jig. Never got bit. About 10am unfortuneately my tolling motor batteries died. Luckily it wasn't too windy so I just used the wind and what was left on the motor to drift. Spent some time in Jackass canyon but couldn't find a biter. Worked all around the marina and across from the marina, still nothing. At 1pm I went to the back of the lake and just drifted with the wind. Finally at 2pm I was dragging a 10 inch power worm on a 1oz carolina rig and I had two good bites. The drift was too fast though and I wound up missing both fish. I think they were small by the way they were biting anyway. Weighed in a decent 9.09 lbs. Disappointing but a limit none the less. I think I was in 15 or 16th place. There were two fish over 6 weighed in, one on a crank and the other on a spider jig in 42 feet. Nice fish for Margarita. The winners had around 17lbs. I think most people caught their fish deep. I also heard that the spot I pulled my 4 fish off of in the morning, some guys had 13lbs off of in the afternoon. Like John White told me at the end of the day, live and learn! That's a big difference between tournament fishing and fun fishing. Fun fishing I would never have stayed on that spot all day, but in this tournament, I should have. I had a school of fish going and I didn't stay with them. Next time...
Overall a fun trip. It was great to see all the familiar faces and be back at Margarita again.
Next stop, February 17-18 Bass-n-Tubes at Lake Nacimiento.