Episode 1
http://www.calfishing.com/files/Movies/show/e1/episode1.flv

4:30am: Nico and I loaded the boat and headed for one of our happy places in this world - Clear Lake. It's a pilgrimage situation in the fall for us there each year with tournament anglers from all over the west coast converging for the slate of TOCs and owner's tourneys, and pro/ams.

We were prefishing for the Bob's Marine Owners tourney the weekend of Sept 8th. It felt good to pull in to Limit Out Bait and Tackle 3 hours later, check the tackle selection (Nico dropped about $50) and head to the ramp at the Oaks :)

We launched to moderate algae (ominous at 7:30am), 82 degree water and calm conditions. There was one other boat in the lot. Boat traffic in general was light, probably due to the algae. We started mid-lake, headed up to state park, then over to Nice/Lucerne, then Lakeport. Late in the day we moved back to mid lake and rattlesnake.

The fishing was good, but intermittent for us. The video tells the story, but to recap... One a-rig fish in the morning, one nicer fish around 5lbs on the River2Sea S-waver, two on sizmic toads (5 or 7 blowups), three on dropshot, and one flipping a brush hog (one other one lost).

From a tournament standpoint, I'd figure we had around 19-20lbs, which isn't very good by Clear Lake standards. I'd expect 53lbs to win a 2-day event there right now, maybe 55 if the condition was right. So we have work to do, and Nico is going to get it done soon by taking some serious pre-fishing time off work.

What worked:






The algae came on very strong in the afternoon with flat calm conditions and temps pushing the upper 90's. It was the most algae I've seen, though I've never been to Clear Lake in August before. The giant mats of algae with 2 foot chunks that are 5 inches thick is something to see.

Along the course of our day we had the usual follies, but the high point by far was the guy in a pontoon boat who was throwing an anchor out and dredging the bottom trying to snag a, "four foot bronze prop" that he claimed was part of a boat he'd sunk there earlier.

Nico watched as the threw the anchor and the rope went flying with it. The rope was still visible on the surface and sure enough the guy dove straight in to the algae filled 85 degree soup to grab it. Epic move! I was sad that the boat wasn't pointed that direction to get it on film.

Next time we'll have the chest mounted GoPro :) Seriously, it just arrived at my house from TW :) So with luck the lighter sides of these trips will find their way in to the videos as well. There is one small clip of the guy heaving the anchor.

So what is this show about you ask? It's about getting back to what this site was in the beginning. A site where people post fishing reports. Our plan is to film the rest of our tournament season including practice and tournament day and post every single day of it here. There won't be any delay between prefishing and posting. We'll post prefish before the event so you can follow it all the way through.

In these videos you will see where we fish and what lures we use. Far as I know it's never been done. So we're going to do it. It's a little rough in this first go, but I know it will get better as we go (chest cam already has me super pumped) Please sit back and enjoy. It's the Rob & Nico show!

http://www.calfishing.com/files/Movies/show/e1/waver.jpg

http://www.calfishing.com/files/Movies/show/e1/hook.jpg

http://www.calfishing.com/files/Movies/show/e1/bhog.jpg

http://www.calfishing.com/files/Movies/show/e1/nico.jpg