Home
About
Hunting
Fishing
Contact
Links

Wilson & Paes Outdoors Page

JUST ONE BITE AWAY!

By: Ron Wilson

March 12, 2003.... Black Bass fishing Pro Anthony Pimentel of Modesto and I were paired to fish the 3rd event of the Nor-Cal Bass Tournament Trail at New Melones Lake last Saturday. Anthony didn't have a choice as we were the last two contestants standing to be paired! This was the second tournament in a row that I was at the tail end of the pack!

The day would be an interesting one as we had two completely different styles of bass fishing. Anthony is a throw them in the boat type fisherman. He uses heavy line with jigs, crank baits and spinner baits while I am 99 percent light line finesse worm fisherman where anything over 10 pound test is rope to me!

Anthony and I had done our homework and knew what the fish were doing. The bite was tough and we knew that a 10-pound bag of fish would probably get us a paycheck. Anthony's starting spot would be Mormon Creek where he had caught 3 fish pre-fishing in the 3-pound class, all on jigs.

Blastoff came and we headed to Mormon Creek, Anthony stopped the boat near a pine tree log sticking out of the water and I pitched out a 1/16 ounce dart head with a 6 inch 1001 B Keeper Worm in 25 feet of water and let it sink. I tightened up on the line and shook the bait a couple times and that familiar tick shook the end of the rod. I pointed the rod at the fish and gathered up the slack line and swung the rod. Nothing, darn I missed him, I dropped the rod back down and started shaking the rod tip again and the fish picked the bait up again. I set the hook and nobody was home. You don't win tournaments by not hooking fish and I didn't like the way this event was starting out as it was my job to catch 3 or 4 fish from the back of the boat while Anthony concentrated on catching the big fish that would separate us from the rest of the pack!

We moved across the creek to a rock wall on the other side were the sun was beating down on it. I pitched out a
split shot rig and got one of those amateur overcasts (birds nest). While I was picking it out, Anthony said "you didn't get a bite did you, that would be bad with the shape your line is in". I said no its just me getting the kinks out of my line. I quickly had the mess straightened out and when the line got tight I felt a tick. I went on point and this time I let the fish eat the bait and then set the hook. No monster but a nice 1 ½ pound black that got the skunk off the boat according to Anthony.

A few feet down the bank and Anthony's jig rod bowed over as a fish grabbed his bait and swam off. Anthony set hard, but the fish just pulled his pole down as he went around a limb, hanging the jig in the tree as he made his escape. The fish we needed to win the event were in the area, we just had to put them in the boat.

I was now using a split shot rig with a 1001B 6 inch Keeper Worm on it. I was dragging the bait in 40 feet of water where I figured the fish we were after were holding. I got another tick and set the hook but I couldn't do anything with the fish on the 8-pound test line I was using. The fish just wrapped me up in a tree. Anthony turned the boat around and went back over the top of the tree where I played, "you take some line and I take some line back", with the fish for a while but he didn't want to come out, and when I put to much pressure on the line it busted! I sure didn't like the way the day was going. We were only a couple hours into the tournament and we had busted off two fish that we desperately needed to win the event.

 Anthony stayed with the jig and was soon rewarded with a nice 2 pound plus black. The fish was 18 inches long and skinny, I don't know why but my guess was that it had some plastic in its stomach that was plugging him up.

It was 11 o'clock and the fish hadn't moved up in the area, so it was time for a move. Anthony went to a spot in Angels Creek where he had located fish. The wind was blowing and he had no choice but to fish the bank way to fast. We were pitching baits at some lay down trees in the water when fish number 3 hit. I set the hook and the fish wrapped me up. Anthony went over it and the fish came out with a little help. Fish number 3 was in the box with lots of fishing time left!

We tried for another big fish that had handed Anthony his lunch during pre-fishing but nobody was home so we
left Angels and headed back upriver out on the main part of the lake. We stopped at a rock pile here, a slide there. The fish were just not cooperating for us.

Anthony said lets make a move to the back of Coyote Creek we can catch a couple fish there and maybe a toad if they moved up in the area! The spot had spotted bass written all over it. Big boulders scattered in the back of the neck. I pitched out in 30 feet of water and was quickly rewarded with a nice 2 ½ pound spotted bass that pulled my string real good.

4 fish in the box with plenty of time to get the toad we were after. Anthony worked his way into the back of the creek channel using a spinner bait, the water was 55 degrees and the fish should have been there getting ready to spawn. Anthony chucked the spinner bait at  every shady rock and log in the area but the bucket mouth bass we were after didn't want to come out and play!

Anthony is very competitive  and he does not like being out fished even by his own teammate. I know from experience as I have fished with him since he was a strapping young lad who could eat a grocery bag full of food during a morning of fun fishing for black bass.

Anthony came back out to where I had caught the spotted bass. He saw a fish of his depth finder and picked up his drop shot rod. He dropped the bait down and shook it. The rod loaded up and then sprung back, he shook the bait again, and again the rod loaded up and sprung back up. This went on a third time when finally, Anthony got the fish to take the bait and fish number 5 was in the live well!

We had about 8 ½ pounds in the live well, this probably would place us in the middle of the pack. What we needed was that one big fish that would get us a paycheck. So Anthony headed back to Mormon for one last shot at a bass over 3 pounds.

Anthony hit his favorite rock pile again hoping the fish had moved up. I heard "net", I quickly netted the fish, but it was just another pound plus bass. He flipped the jig back in and I again heard "net". But it was another fish about the same size and time was running out.

Another tournament boat moved on the rock pile and the first thing I saw was this large swim bait splashing into the water on the other side of the underwater rock pile we were fishing. Fifty yards space is tournament rules, unless you have the competitors permission, and this guy had moved in without saying a thing and was chunking a bait as big as what we were catching. My mind wandered for a minute about all the complaints I have heard over the years as an outdoor writer. I've heard from many anglers about inconsiderate black bass fishermen. It only takes a few inconsiderate black bass fishermen out there to give the general public a real distaste for all tournament anglers!

Time had ran out as we hurried back to find out that we had finished out of the money like we figured, but were surprised that we had enough weight to place 12th. The bite had been as tough as we figured, and the only thing we could do was think about what might have been, if we had a little luck to go along with our fishing skills!