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A WEEKEND OF FISHING
NOT CATCHING
By: Ron Wilson & Tim
Paes
Aug 1, 2002....Last week I spent
the most miserable fishing vacation one could have. The fishing was Ok
it was the catching that was lacking.
Other than the lack of catching, I had
fun spending quality time with friends from all over California at the
Annual Keeper Worms pro staff outing where husbands, wives, kids,
grandkids get together to camp out and fish at Lake Don Pedro.
I arrived on Wednesday evening, had
dinner and went to sleep early.
Thursday morning Larry Stewart from
Southern California and I got up early and headed up river past Moccasin
near the power lines where we found fish. Larry caught a couple and I
caught a dink (undersize bass) and then we left the area and headed back
into the main part of the lake. We fished major points, similar type
rocks that we had found fish on upriver with no luck at all.
By noon we had the boat on the trailer
and were back in camp for lunch with Dee Pimentel, Bert Stewart, my wife
Diana, and my in-laws, E-Z and Thelma Young. After lunch we all went to
our motor homes and took a 2 hour siesta.
Thursday evening Ken Saurett and Larry
went out to do some night fishing. They fished for 3 hours and each had
one bite and hooked one fish. Ken's was in the 2 pound class and Larry's
was over 10 pounds. The lunker fell for a 10 inch junebug power
worm.
Friday morning Larry and I fished all the
humps and bumps in Rogers arm with no luck and by noon we were back at
the campsite for lunch and then another 2 hour siesta. So far the best
parts of the trip was the lunch, chit-chat and siesta time.
Friday evening, after a great pot luck
dinner, Judy Clark, owner of Keeper Worms, paired up the boaters and
non-boaters for a Saturday morning turkey shoot. I got to fish with
Larry Stewart again.
Blast off came and Larry just had to go
try a spot I showed him in Rogers. It was an underwater island with a
good drop-off on one side. He quickly found out the fish still were not
there. We then headed upriver past Moccasin almost to the power lines,
where we had located fish on Thursday. Larry was able to put a couple
fish in the boat.
We were fishing next to Anthony Pimentel,
of Modesto and Keeper Worms owner Jim Clark. I watched as Anthony
Pimentel raced to the back of the 21 foot Stratos Bass boat with the net
as a fish in the 3 pound class was jumping and thrashing the water
trying to toss Jim's hook. The fish made a dive under the boat breaking
the line.
Anthony and Jim moved on up river while
we moved over to the area where Jim had lost the fish. Larry soon put
fish number 3 in the box, a 3 pound 11 ounce chunk. Larry soon followed
that one with fish number 4. We had another hour of fishing for Larry to
catch fish number 5, his limit.
We moved down the bank to a spot where a
couple large logs were sticking out of the water and a couple more water
soaked ones laying on the bottom pointing into deep water. Larry pitched
his 1001B 3 inch Keeper reaper into the log jam and hung up in the wood
in about 5 feet of water. Larry shook the bait free and when he did a
fish grabbed it and headed back under the boat and then spit the bait
before Larry could react. That was the last bite Larry had before we had
to go to the weigh in.
L. G. Guenthart, of Cathys Valley won the
Keepers Worms Pro Staff black bass tournament held at Lake Don Pedro
with 7.81 pounds. 2) Larry Stewart, 6.74 pounds. 3) Ken Saurett, 6.28
pounds. 4) Jim Monk, 1.15 pounds. 5) Carol Fagundes, 1.10 pounds. L.G.
caught all his fish upriver using flukes.
Sunday Larry Stewart and I took Scott
Monk a youngster from Clear Lake back up river to catch fish. After
having fished for three days without catching a keeper bass I was way
overdue.
Scott kept Larry busy retying drop shot
rigs as I worked the area the fish we located were at. Scott soon had
the first keeper in the boat. I congratulated him and said "hey that's
better than Pro Larry Sanders did yesterday". Larry Sanders who was
across the river laughed at that and reminded me that I didn't weigh in
anything either. Nothing like close camaraderie while fishing, it gave
us something to do while hoping for a bite!
Scott caught several dinks and then
keeper fish number 2 and then all too soon it was time to head in for
the 11 a.m. weigh in. I was only too happy to leave the dead sea after
spending 4 days on the water and never landing a 12 inch keeper fish.
Josh Robertson won the Keeper Worms kids
derby held Sunday with 11.46 pounds. He had a 4 pounder for big fish of
the event. He used keeper alewife flukes and Keeper 1001B worms to catch
his limit.. 2) Mickey Clark, 2.39 pounds. 3) Scott Monk, 2.35 pounds. 4)
Drew Robertson, 2.13 pounds. 5) Cayla Clark, 1.98 pounds. |
