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A GREAT DAY ON THE WATER & A LITTLE CASH IN MY WALLET!

By: Ron Wilson

February 4, 2003.... I went to Lake Camanche last Saturday to fish the Nor-Cal Bass Pro-Am. My day started off at the North Shore Coffee Shop, where Chris Cantwell, Marina Services Manager, served the angler's in the tournament complementary coffee and fresh Danishes, donated by East Bay Municipal Utilities District.

Nothing like starting the morning off with an eye opener and snack, along with lots of conversation with a great bunch of fishermen!

Draw time came and Butch Bray of Murphy's and I were paired together to fish.

Tournament director, Tim Paes, blasted off the contestants from the marina. We got around to blasting off about 20 minutes after shooting time ( yep still duck hunting, I could of shot 2 mallards and a pair of honkers right after shooting time) the fog wasn't that bad!

Butch headed to the narrows and stopped on the left hand side just past the 20-mile an hour buoys . With being almost the last boat out, we just took the first good spot we came to. 

Butch started out with a large gitzit while I tried pig and jig, a special Jim Long 6 inch hand pour worm, and a small gitzit. For the first half hour of fishing I never got a single bite. Butch moved to the other side and put on a creepy crawler style bait that Pro bass fishermen Dan Perkins had showed him how to use. Butch caught a short fish on it and then a nice 2 ¾ pound mulie. They look similar to a smallmouth bass but fight half again as hard. Butch was amazed at how powerful and how pretty it was!

One in the box, at least we were not going to be skunked. Butch moved across the narrows to the other side again. I put on a six inch 1050 Keeper worm on a 1/16 ounce dart head. Anthony Pimentel had called me early in the week and told me about his prefishing success and said "Ron your are going to have a great day at the tournament,  the fish are biting your worm and your style".

The worm wasn't mine it was Pro fisherman Norval Pimentel who had introduced me to the worm several years ago. I am not sure if he came up with the original color combination, but I do know that he was instrumental in having Judy Clark at Keeper Custom Worms perfect the baits coloration designed for the black bass at Lake Camanche.

It was now after 9 a.m. I remembered Anthony saying "first thing in the morning the fish are shallow and then they go deep, around 35 feet". I was twitching the bait in 40 feet of water off the left hand point when a fish committed suicide and darn near jerked the rod out of my hand, he hit the bait so hard. Butch netted it and gave a quick high five. I had my first fish of the day in the boat, a spot in the 4 pound class.

Butch moved across to the other point and I pitched the 1050 bait out into 50 feet of water. I gave the line lots of slack so the bait fell straight down. It sure takes a long time for a light weighted bait to get 50 feet deep but I think the slow fall is one of the keys to my success at using this style of fishing for black bass.

I tightened up on the line and there was a sponge effect, I set the hook and the rod double over, "good fish" I told Butch. I watched as the line slowly raised to the surface as the fish headed skyward to jump. My heart was in my throat about then as that's when they usually pitch the bait back at you. The head came out of the water and instead of the usually leap and violent shaking, the bass just wallowed like a hog in the mud. Whew thank goodness, that first jump is the worst, when the fish did it again that same lump showed up and when the fish dived for the bottom I let her have her head and pressured her just enough to get her head turned back toward the surface. When she came up to jump the next time she was right at the boat and Butch put her in the net. No monster but a hefty largemouth bass that weighed over 4 pounds. More high-fives, just a couple more decent fish and we could get a paycheck I told Butch! We went back into a spot that I hadn't fished in years. Black Bass fishing Pro Norval Pimentel had taken me there on my first every black bass tournament at Lake Camanche. I told Butch I should of won that event hands down but I farmed so many good fish that day  it wasn't funny!

I told Butch that there was some rock piles around there somewhere and pitched out a bait and was rewarded with fish number 4. It was just a nice keeper spot.

Butch pitched out a brown jig with purple Super Pork and was rewarded with a nice 2.2 pound spotted bass.
We never did find any quality fish in the area so Butch decided to head upriver. The starting battery wouldn't crank the engine over and I almost told butch that he should be using Thermo Oil Batteries, but bit my tongue. I didn't want to piss him off while I was still on the water with him!

Butch got the motor jumpstarted from the trolling batteries and we went upriver to one of the many rock piles there. We left the motor running and soon went over a school of fish that had moved right on top of one of the rock piles. Butch dropshotted a Keeper 1050 worm and was quickly rewarded with a 3.58 pound bucketmouth. We had a good stringer and I knew we were going to get a check. Butch shook up another 2.5 pound spot that increased our weight 3 ounces. One more good fish Butch and we got this baby won I said. Butch went over the rock pile and there she was sitting right on top of it, according to the depthfinder, a couple shakes and the rod bent double and then snapped back straight when the line broke. That's one thing I don't like about dropshotting, when the fish sucks the bait in, its teeth are on the line, right where it can be bitten in two!

As it turned out we didn't need that last fish as Butch and I won the event with 16.16 pounds. My buddy Anthony Pimentel came in second. That's another one I owe him! Wait a minute two rods tossed overboard when he was a youngster, I think we will call it even and start all over again!

It was another fun day on the water and Butch and I learned a little more about fishing from each other as our styles differ greatly!

That's one thing I like about fishing pro-am styles of  black bass tournaments, learning different tactics and getting to know different black bass fishermen a little better!