This was my second trip to Naci ever and I didn’t do to well last time. So, before we left I studied a topo map of the lake. The spot I decided to try first on Saturday was a shallow flat adjacent to a main lake point with a small channel running through it, which led to deep water.

Day 1
It took about 20 minutes of solid rowing in the fog to find the point I was looking for and I wasn’t sure if I was in the right place or not when I got there. I started fishing a 6” purple/blue flake worm on a darter head and I hit pay dirt early. I landed my first keeper about 10 minutes after arriving got bite again on the next cast but missed it and had #2 in the well on the cast after that. At this point I didn’t care if I was in the right place or not, turned out I was :-) . There was a long dry spell so I switched to a black/red flake 4” Berkley gulp worm and started getting bites again. My 3rd fish was my best at 2-5 and missed big fish by 1 oz x( . I finally filled a limit by about 11:00 and then managed to cull 1 right after that. The first 6 fish I landed were all keepers. I decided to leave these fish alone until tomorrow. As I worked my way back towards the marina I caught a bunch more fish and missed a lot of bites they all seemed to be typical 12”-13” Naci spots. Total weight at the weigh in was 6-13 good enough for the lead.

Day 2
I went straight back to the same flat and started fishing the same setup as Saturday. I didn’t get a bite for about 45 minutes so I switched to a blade and managed 1 barely 13”er. I went back to the dart head and moved out a little deeper and started getting bit again but missing them. Around 8:30 I started to get nervous with only 1 squeaker but told my self to give it time the bites were there. I decided I would stay here 'til 11:00. I had to make some adjustments and gave the fish a little more time to eat the bait before the hook set and started to hook up again. My second fish was a better fish at 2-1, which tied for day 2 big fish :D . I got 1 more 2 pounder from this bank and another 14”er. At 11:00 I left with only 4 fish in the livewell. I hit a couple of places where I had been bitten on Saturday for nothing. At noon I pulled into a cove and made my way to the back where I had missed a couple of bites on Saturday. First cast with the dart head and I filled my limit. Next cast culled the 13”er. I caught 2 more from that cove but neither of them helped. I made my way back to the weigh in with a total weight of 7-15 for the day.

Ended up with 14-12 total. I wouldn’t say the bite was great. I had to really pick the place apart and go real slow to get the bites. Sometimes there would be a flurry of 2 or 3 bites close together then I would have an hour or more ‘til the next one. I caught all but 1 fish on the dart head and all the better fish came off of gravel banks. My bites on Saturday came on the flat in 6-8 feet of water and Sunday on the edge of the channel in 10-15 feet.

It was a fun time for sure. Nice meeting all the NKFT guys that came by to BBQ with us. Congratulations to Gordon and Swampy for their finishes. Congrats also to Castro, for that day 1 big fish and I think his was the closest guess for the total weight too. Thanks John for another great BnT tournament. See y’all at Berryessa!


Mitch