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JUST ONE MORE BITE!
By: Ron Wilson
March 1, 2005.... I fished the second
Nor-Cal Bass tournament of the season at New Melones and was paired with
Bruce Harris of Oakdale.
From an amateurs point of view I couldn't t
have asked for a better draw. Bruce is a very fine tournament angler and
as usual is well in tune with what the black bass are doing.
On the drive from Glory Hole Sports down to
the lake we formed a game plan. Bruce had been having good luck ripping a
minnow bait. The Wednesday before the tournament he had an 8-pounder,
5-pounder, 4-pounder, 3-pounder and a couple smaller fish.
Our game plan would be for him to rip a
couple good fish while I filled the live well with smaller bass. As we sat
waiting for our blast off number it sure looked like we were in for a good
day with only clouds off in the distance. I mentioned this to Bruce who
said he preferred a little cloud cover.
Just before we blasted off I told Bruce,
"Well here it comes", he said, "What", I said, "Your cloud cover", as it
rolled in over the hills from the south.
We blasted off and headed to Mormon Creek.
Bruce ripped and I threw a red and green 082 senko style Keeper bait. I
had not pre-fished so I was doing my pre-fishing as we went down the bank.
About my third cast as I was lifting up the bait to shake it I felt a tick
and immediately set. I thought to myself, "Damn I am wound to tight",
Bruce kind of looked at me and I said, "Yea I missed him". It had to be a
largemouth as the fish never came back for it. Spotted bass will normally
come back and pick the bait up if you let it fall.
We fished on down the bank and I had
another pickup. I set and nothing, dropped it back and the fish started
swimming off with the bait I set and this time the sucker took the worm,
but no hook! "Must have been a small spotted bass", I said.
Bruce moved to an underwater island top
where I put a small keeper spot in the boat.
We moved to Bear Creek where Bruce had a
four pound bass during pre-fish but we had no luck there.
Bruce headed to another Island with wood
and ripped a point here he nailed one in the 3-pound class. "Nice fish", I
said. Bruce said, "Its one of the smaller ones I have caught".
We moved to the points near the Tuttletown
Ramp where Bruce had a hart stopping moment as a huge bass came up and
rolled at his rip plug but didn't take it! "That's the one we've been
looking for and the darn thing didn't cooperate", said Bruce. We would
came back 3 different times with no luck trying to get that huge bass to
bite!
Next move was close to the 49er bridge
where Bruce had saw several bass right on the bank during pre-fish, but
nobody was interested in biting.
Next move was up past the 49er bridge to
one of Bruce s favorite banks. It must have been a couple other anglers
favorite spots also as there was two boats fishing it.
Bruce headed over to an underwater road bed
where we put another squeaker spot in the boat! There should have been a
lot of fish there but they weren't on the bite.
I told Bruce, "I know there are fish at the
first area he had fished and just maybe that 8 pounder would be up eating
by this time".
We went back and I found a nice largemouth,
probably the one I had missed earlier that morning, Bruce then nailed a
largemouth and that finished our limit. Nothing to brag about, but it
would put us in the 8-pound class and all we needed was one more good bass
to cull the small spot we had. I was able to cull the small spot with one
a little fatter, but that was it for the day.
While we had time to catch that one big
fish that would move us to the top of the pack and a paycheck, But Mother
Nature was beating us up with stronger wind and harder rain.
Bruce stuck to his game plan until the
bitter end, but with 15 minutes to go he finally said, "The heck with it".
The wind was blowing us backwards from the last spot Bruce wanted to fish
before heading in.
I told Bruce, "I had a great time even
tough we didn't t get a big sack of fish". I told him, "My worst fear was
putting a hex on a good fisherman". There has been times in the past that
I have seen some great fishermen stricken with bad luck while I have been
fishing with them!
At the bump table I saw several nice fish
come to the scales that I wish I had caught. A few three's and four's but
the most impressive was the last one to come in, a 12.5 pound HAWG! Now I
have caught a lot of Florida s during the past year in the 5 to 8 pound
class and this fish looked to be a northern or a cross between a northern
and a Florida strain black bass.
Bruce and I did place 6th with a little
over 9 pounds and won enough to just about cover our costs for the day! |
