A pair of Castiac bass

I had the best year yet in the California Bass Federation (TBF) Region 7 Qualifiers and managed to finish in 17th at Castaic (1.21.17), 18th at Pyramid (2.25.17), 9th at Pyramid (3.12.17), and 2nd at Castaic (5.6.17.) This allowed me to both qualify with points standings (11/41 in Region 7, 46/193 in the State) and win the Ventura County Bass Club Club Champion spot for the State Championship and the TBF National Semi-Final event at Lake Havasu (Nov. 2017.)

A 2nd Place at Castaic
helped me get to the
CA TBF State
Championship

Thanks to the California Bass Federation for putting on the 2017 State Championship at New Melones!  I just didn't figure it out in time on this new-to-me lake full of chunky spotted bass. Maybe next year. Here's how my event went.

Thanks to my Co-anglers I still had fun days on the water at a beautiful lake. Fellow Ventura County Bass Club member Kevin Melford traveled and pre-fished with me and he landed in 6th overall for Co-anglers! Good job!

I had great tournament days with Co-anglers Warren McGaha and Dave McEwen. With their help, and fellow Club Champion contender George Fedor's, I finally backed off the bank and started fishing deep. I got a limit the second day, but too little, too late. Congrats to George Fedor for winning the Club Champion category and 4th Place overall! Maybe I can give you a run at the TBF National Semi-Final at Havasu next month!

This little paddle tail
culled one late, but the
little worm landed more fish

After catching few keepers and lots of shorts in practice and Day One, with the other's advice I backed out deeper and landed more keepers. Jig and drop shot were the best producers for me, using some new equipment from the Pure Fishing family of brands.

My best producer was a Speas' Falcon Tackle 1/2 oz jig and green pumpkin-black flake skirted twin-tail grub on an Abu Garcia Villain 2.0 VC70-5 paired with a Pflueger Patriarch XT and 15# Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon Professional Grade.

Next best was a drop-shot worm, in several popular colors, using the new Berkley Fusion 19 Weedless Wide Gap hooks, cast on my new Abu Garcia Veritas VRTS69-4 spinning rod paired with my Abu Garcia Revo Soron STX 20 reel and 4# Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon Professional Grade line. A tiny paddle-tail culled one late.

One key was working these baits all the way back to the boat. Several of the keepers hit the lure right below the boat in 50 ft. after working it back from a cast to 20 ft. of water. Some of the keepers were in 15-20 ft. of water, but perhaps if I had backed off deeper the jig would have been in the key strike zone even longer? My Day 2 partner even dragged a full-size carolina-rig with a lizard behind the boat for most of his keeper bass, proving they wanted the lure presentation slow and deep.

Bass were heavily feeding on bait fish, as each one were tossing up lots of them while trying to throw the hook. Bait balls could be seen on the graph but I never saw any surface activity or shallow schools of bait. Topwater never happened for me, nor did spinnerbait or crank bait. A small swim bait worked some, but the jig seemed to be the best producer.

Morning temp: Air 50, water 65

Afternoon temp: Air 72, water 67

Still mornings to breezy afternoons.
High clear skies to partly cloudy.
Smoke haze during practice.

A good one at Castaic in May

A pair at Pyramid