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FUN WEEKEND AT THE BOB'S MARINE OWNERS TOURNAMENT

By: Ron Wilson

September 15, 2010.... Bob's Marine held its 7th Annual Boat Owners tournament at Clear Lake. The event took place at Konocti Vista Casino Resort, Marina and RV Park on September 11 and 12th.

I was glad that I was working this event and not fishing as the fishing was tough. I was pre-fishing with Carl Wagner, an ex-highway patrolman and almond grower from Modesto.

Carl and I used worms and had some success but could not find the bites that it would take to make the money in this tournament. We caught fish off windmill point and a few different areas down south, but it was a slow bite.

At noon we headed back to pick up Carl's partner Dan Harvey at the marina. We boarded Carl's Stratos bass boat and headed south again.

We stopped at the Konocti unions closed property to fish through that area of the lake. Harvey quickly scored with a nice fish on light line. After a good fight the fish started rolling by the boat and we quickly saw that it was just another one of the many channel catfish that Clear Lake has to offer for the fishermen.

Now if you're after bass and the channel catfish are hitting your bait its a big disappointment when you think you have hooked a big hog and you find out that it has whiskers on it!

We fished down the bank around docks, rocks and tule's, but never did put together a good fish catching pattern. I did find out that the fish would bite a Wright's 6 inch WB001R straight tail worm.  We ended the day with lots of small bass along with a few keepers but the bite was definitely a slow one. I was sure I hadn't found the right bait for my dart heading just yet.

The day before the tournament, Black Bass Professional Angler Norval Pimentel, who would be the weighmaster for the event, and I went out to do some fun fishing.

We headed south and started hitting some of the areas he likes to fish. We hit the boat works area and I told him I had been there the day before with Carl and he caught a nice 3 pounder. Norval laughed and said, "you know if I keep taking people fishing I won't have any water to call my own. I've have shown too many people too many of my favorite areas to fish at Clear Lake". I said, "I know, just look at all the places you have showed me over the years"!

We moved above the boat works and started hitting docks with little success until I put on a 4" Sloppy Joe worm and started catching fish after fish.

The reason the bait was such a good one is that it was small and there were thousands and thousands of small baitfish everywhere and the worm looked similar to the baitfish.

When I nailed a 5 pounder on my little shaky head bait Norval said you got any more of them and I tossed him one and we both started catching fish together. Norval's son Anthony was fishing the tournament so we left for another area in order to not beat the fish up to bad.

We pulled up to a dock as Norval's phone rang, it was Anthony. While he was talking with his dad I pitched to a dock and soon had a 3 pounder dancing on the water with Norval giving his son a blow by blow description of the fight including the worm hanging out of its mouth.

We moved to the next dock and Norval caught and released a nice 3 pounder. Norval said we had to leave as Anthony informed him that we were on his spot that he was going to fish. Norval said, "there goes some more water we can't fun fish in". We were going to have a heck of a time finding a place to fun fish the next couple of days.

We decided to call it a day as we had to be there for the check-in that would take place from 4 to 6 p.m. With the economy in such rotten shape Bill Donaleski owner of Bob's Marine was just plumb happy with the 86 teams that showed up for the event. All the boat shops in the area was predicting maybe 50 boats, even local outdoor writer Terry Knight didn't think there would be over 50 boats at the event.

That evening at the pre-tournament meeting Bill Donaleski started the meeting with a pledge of allegiance to the flag and it was great to hear the words from the bass fishermen they rang through out the building we were in.

That evening we had dinner in the restaurant in the casino. The food has improved a ton, great salad bar and about the only thing I could complain about was the soup variety as one can only take just so much chicken noodle soup.

On the morning of the tournament September 11th it was great to have a National Guard Color Guard there for the blast off and it was even more impressive to see all the fishermen standing with there hats over there hearts saluting the flag.

Now the guys blasting off the fireworks need to set there sights a little higher as some of them zoomed across the bay bursting at tree height. 86 boats in 6 flights trailed out of the marina in 20 minutes.

What I had found in pre-fishing, (a tough bite), was evident as the boats came back in that day after 6 hours of fishing for the weigh in. A dozen boats with no fish and several with just one and two fish and lots of 3 fish boats. I was surprised when Terry Knight came in with 3 fish and one of them was a hawg! The fish should of weighed 10 or 12 pounds but it was all head and very skinny on its last leg of its life spawn as they usual live just 8 to 10 years. Terry's 7 plus pound fish was good for big fish of the day.

That evening we had dinner prepared by the casino! The food wasn't to bad but it took way to long for them to serve us as the line seemed to go on forever and ever. It took over a hour to get everyone served. The configuration of the service, mainly the salad layout I think held up the line.

On day two of the tournament Norval and I left after blast off and headed south looking for areas to fish where we would not be in any ones way. We found a spot and there were no fish there so we headed past the narrows and found a bay with docks that not a single boat was in.

"Must not be any fish in the area because no boats are here", I said. We started down the bank and I soon had a bass pick up my bait and swim off with it, the small hook pulled free as I set the hook. "I just missed a keeper bass there Norval", I said. A couple docks later I set the hook on a keeper bass and boated it. Norval and I started catching bass, most of them were short but we boated a 13 incher every now and then.

Norval soon stuck a good one rippin', but it turned out to be a 10 pound catfish. Norval then pitched to a dock and stuck a good one in the 5 pound class and said, "get up here and catch this other one", I got up there and he said, "no, not the little 5 pounder next to the one I got on, catch that 10 pound plus fish over there"! Well I never got either one of them.

We fished the area a little while more but couldn't get the big one to come out and play, I guess we made way to much noise and spooked them. By this time it was time to get back to Konocti Vista Casino Resort, Marina and RV Park for the final weigh in.

For the tournament results, pictures and more information on Bob's Marine Owners Tournaments, go to their website at www.bobsmarine-ca.com.