Fishing off longboards with some friends this weekend, we took some nice fish from West Reef. A 30" halibut, and 12 calico and sand bass. I got a 3.5lb calico on a swimbait. Them saltwater bass are tough. Broke some fish off on 20lb P-Line in the rocks! I definitely a catch and release kind of guy, but this time we took home our fish and made some killer tacos. The beer wasn't bad either after the paddle to and from the reef!

southernswimbait.com
BigBait Fishing in the South

Matt
You salty dawg. Sounds like some good fishin down there. Have you been out terrorizing the freshwater bass population lately too?
-Rob

Whoooo Son,

I haven't been out terrorizing the freshwater bass lately. I'm gettting prepared, slowly and surely for the BASS Washington Invitational. I'm full on weekend warrior, surfing and fishing wherever I can. I'm trying to get settled in San Clemente and still get out and have some fun. I'm hoping to get out to Lake Wholford this weekend and get some goodens!

I keep you posted

southernswimbait.com
BigBait Fishing in the South

Yeah putty
When is that bassmaster anyway? It's coming up fairly soon right? Don't forget to pack them trout plugs for those big columbia river smallies. You know I would have them <grin>. Looking like I'll be fishing WON Delta Teams this year if I can find a pardner. That starts in September (gotta post the schedule actually this week on wonbass.com). Should be fun.

Rob,

You'll be able to find a pardner no sweat, especially when they hear how much your entry fees are!!! Post something on your site of course, and of course use NCBF.

The Columbia River is Oct 5-7th. I will bring swim baits and the AC Minnow I got. The West Reef is helping me get more saavy in throwing swimbaits. I could really get into it. It's sort of like swimming a jig or throwing a Yamamoto jig. I'm pumped and scared at the same time. It's going to be fun, but BASS is intense and I don't want to screw up. I'm trying to have an aloha attitude and just go fishing. Should be a great experience. You just don't know, I could put three solid days together one of these tourneys and walk with a boat. I'm taking major time of work and the cost for the whole deal is intense. Payin the cost to be the boss!!!

southernswimbait.com
BigBait Fishing in the South

Petes,
Dude I will be rooting for you up there. Something interesting I was reading lately was Shaw Grigsby's book was what he was saying about the patterns that win big tournaments. He pointed out that in most tournaments there will be a general pattern, like the senko bite at the WON bass Clear Lake pro-am this year. This primary pattern will take most of the top 5 or 10 spots. But the pattern that actually wins most tournaments will be the secondary patter and usually only 1 or 2 guys will be on this pattern (Like Velvick and Reese being on the trout/swimbait bite up there). The more I thought about this the more true it was. At the WON Bass Don Pedro pro-am in February everyone was worm fishing and jig fishing but that local guy was throwing big trouts of some sort and he smoked everyone. That's 2 out of the 4 nortern region pro/ams right there. I don't know what won it at Shasta and the Delta but a 500 batting average on any fishing theory ain't bad.
So what I'm gettin at is, what if you're the guy who gets on the 7" trout bite on the columbia river for those 4 and 5 pound smallies? I know some guys who've caught some nice smallies at Cachuma on 9 inch AC plugs, and I know every year there's a whole lot of steelhead and salmon smolt in the 4-10 inch range swimming downriver in the Columbia, so you put 2 and 2 together and maybe you got somethin different that those bass have never seen before and you draw those big strikes it takes to win...
Alright I'm getting myself all pumped for a tournament I ain't even going to, but man it's fun to think about that kind of stuff.

Okay that's enought freshwater talk on the saltwater board. What do you think - you own this website? Oh yeah - wait a minute...

Seriously, Rob, it's cool reading your posts about big smallies on the trout plugs, the Columbia River, and the theories regarding patterns. Got me thinking about bringing a few slammers with me the next time we venture to Canada. I get goosebumps thinking about a 15+ pound pike slamming into one of those.

*********************

You can't catch tomorrow what you kill today - please practice catch and release.

Slammers and Pike, now that would be fun. A friend of mine, Dean Ericson who runs the marina at Margarita, goes to canada every year. He used to make ac type plugs a few years back and he brings them to canada for the big pike and oh yeah do they work. Only problem is that they get pretty chundered by the Pike. Bummer!

So leave the slammer at home, don't wanna scratch the paint on one of them. I think you're better off with the stocker trout... More, uh, durable...
-Brian

Yeah that's it,
durable...
Man those stocker trouts will drive you crazy, they work so good yet get torn apart so easily. And then there's that hookup ratio. Man I missed some nice a few months ago at Margarita on the 9inch even with a 2/0 gammie treble haning back there.
Luckily Mike Shaw came out with that new 9 inch slammer with the trout tail that is pure death. I'll be showing that to some of these No. Cal fish for the first time tonight over at lake Chabot. We'll see how it goes.... Wooooof

I don't think the hookup ratio would be a problem for the pikes... Hey, I'm gonna start pourin my plastic today. Just kinda messin around. I'll let you know how it goes. I'll fish it tonight.
-Brian