Bass Classics of Santa Clara Valley

Wind, wind, and more wind. But boy did we catch fish. It was a little hard running around in the 3-5 ft rollers but when you got there the fish were biting.

In first place with 48.34 lbs was Tom Mordue having one of his best days ever on the water he had twenty to thirty keepers a day. He was fishing spider grubs and worms on rocky banks in the wind the whole time. He also said he had fish in the tulles and around docks in the Soda Bay and Henderson point area. He said he used witches-T colored worms and Bluegill colors and brown spider grubs.

In second place with 48.14 lbs was Chris Lee. He said he caught a lot of his fish on his dartheads pinned up against rocky banks in 0-10 ft. of water with 25-30 near by. The wind was blowing hard and he was fishing downwind letting the wind blow him down the bank and he had several fish each time he made a pass at it. Then he moved down to the south end and fished another rocky area with 3 ft waves crashing into the bank. He caught several more fish in the 19” range on his darthead worms watermelon red flake. On Sunday he ran south again and got on the big fish again on the same rocky banks with 3-4 ft waves and wind blowing hard the whole time. He had to ride the waves and fish in the strong winds to catch his fish.

In third place with 45.57 was Mark Smyth who was fishing with Chris and fished the same areas and same baits. However he had several of the bigger fish with a 6.45 and a 5.27 lbers. They also set a new record for heavy boat 93.71 lbs together.

In fourth place with 44.51 lbs was David Malley; who also had the big fish of the tournament an 8.69 lber. He caught it on a brown & purple jig tipped with a watermelon red flake sweet beaver. He said he tossed it into the middle of the channel in Kono Tyee and it swam off with it. He said he went up on the north end on Saturday and caught fish on Senko’s watermelon red flake. He said the fish were in tulles, bays, cuts, end of docks, rock piles, etc. On Sunday he found fish grouped on the docks in Kono Tyee and Glenhaven out of the wind. He caught a 6.72 in the wind near the sea breeze resort. Most of the bites he had the fish just swam away with the bait and he was using 20 lb fire line crystal on the jigs and 30 lb fire line flame so he could see the bites on the Senko’s. He also used 10 lb crystal on his spinning gear.

In fifth place with 44.27 lbs was Mark Serrano he said he had a awesome jig bite and he caught most of his fish near docks and tulles on jigs.

I (Mike Espinola) caught the second big fish of the tournament an 8 lber on a custom made Gary Gill spinnerbait in the Mike Espinola Delta Killer color that I had him custom make for me to my exact recommendations. ( white & chartreuse with gold blades) Thanks Gary

We had wet and windy weekend with limits for everyone almost both days.

In first place with 28.20 LBS was J.R. Taylor. He said he was fishing in a creek with a wackey worm for his first limit of 9 lbs in 10-15 ft of water. When the wind came up about 10 he moved to a really windy bank and culled his second limit on 3/8 oz. spider jigs. He had around 20 fish on Saturday and on Sunday he only had about 10 fish. He had to have windy banks for his fish and when the wind stopped so did the bite. Then he went to a different bank and used a dart head for two nice fish feeding on crawdads.

In second place with 27.85 lbs was Paul Barry he also fished the wind blown banks for the better fish. He was using dart head worms in dirty Sanchez color on steep rocky walls near the main lake in the full force of the wind. He also used a blue gill git zit on a football head to catch some nice fish on the wind blown banks.

In third place with 26.50 lbs was Chris Lee he said he used a shad colored worm on 1/8 oz. dart heads to catch all of his fish this weekend. He was losing a lot of fish so he moved down to a size 1 hook on a 1/8th oz dart head and dropped to 6 lb fluorocarbon line. He was catching most of his fish out on points then he moved to large boulders and steeper rock banks in the wind. He said he probably caught around 80 fish on Saturday and 50 fish Sunday. On one wind blown rocky point he caught his biggest fish of the weekend.

In fourth place with 25.86 lbs was Jack Ray he said he was using a lot of Gary Gills Baits to catch his fish.

In fifth place with 25.80 lbs was Tom Mordue he said he was catching them 15-20 feet on spider jigs also in J.R.’s boat. He said the key for him was shaking the bait and keeping close contact with the bottom. He used worms and jigs and J.R. helped him to calm down and catch his limit on Sunday.

The big fish of the tournament was a 5.06 lber caught by Jack Ray. The second big fish a 4.15 lber was caught by Chad Espinola on the first cast of Saturday morning on a brown worm with cht curly tail on a 1/8 th oz. 3/0 dart head. The heavy boat was J.R. Taylor and Tom Mordue.

Well the day started out a little cold with a breeze in the morning and everyone had a good day with 19 people having limits.

In first place with a very nice limit of 15.40 was Chris Lee. His largest fish was a 3.50 so he had a bunch of nice ones that he had culled from the 40 plus fish he caught. He said he started in a shallow cove with some very deep water at the mouth of it with a row of standing timber in the middle. He ripped two fish on a Lucky Craft Pointer ripbait. Then he moved outside the cove and used his darthead worm to catch more. He went inside an L shaped cut and stuck a 18.25” next to a stickup. He caught fish on rocky points and points with large boulders. On one spot they caught 20 fish out of the same area.

In second place with 14.65 lbs was Dieter Spicker he said he was targeting spawning fish near wood in the backs of coves and in shallow bays near the ramp. He said he used a Texas rigged rhythm and blues 6” straight-tailed worms and a green wienie colored worm. He also had some fish on spinnerbaits in the morning. He also caught one on a 5” Texas rigged git-zit.

In third place with 14.25 lbs was Scott Chong he was also fishing up the river and using the 1/8 oz. darthead worm in 20-40 feet to catch most of his fish. He said he had three limits by noon and the best spots were secondary points with tapering mud/rock that were near shallow flats or coves. He said he had found mostly small fish up shallow in pre-fish so he caught most of his in 20-40 ft. and he kept the boat out in 40-50 feet all day. He stuck his final 18” fish in about 25 ft. on a wind blown point with about an hour left to go.

In fourth place with 13.05 lbs. was Paul Barry he said he used a jerkbait for some and then he used watermelon with cht belly worms on dartheads back and forth on the steep rock walls up the river. He also said he was using 6 lb test and seemed to get more bites on that rig. He and Benny were fishing the same bank as last year and they both had 30-40 fish each.

In fifth place was Mark Smyth with 12.90 lbs. he said he was using Aarons Magic worms split shotting to catch all of his fish.

We had a nice day at Pardee with cold and cloudy conditions for most of the day with a chance for rain. It was looking like it was going to be a great day when I caught a 3.10 lb smallmouth rippin a clown lucky craft rip bait in the first 5 minutes on an island in the main lake area. However that was the only bite I had that day.

In first place with a beautiful 5.16 lb smallmouth was Ray Garcia. He said he caught his fish on a Gary Yamamoto grub power fishing by casting and crankin it fast along the bank with the trolling motor on high in shallow 5-8 ft. deep.

In second place was Dave Marshall with another fat smallmouth and 4.85 lbs. He said he listened to Dieter talk the other night at the meeting and tried his suggestions and looked for the bait and for shallow fish. He caught a fish while crankin the grub fast to keep it from snagging and lost it. Then he retied and fished a sunny bank with the same technique and caught his big smallmouth with a ¼ oz darthead and a 4”Yamamoto pumpkin colored grub with blk and grn flake.

In third place with 4.10 lbs was Ferdie Jusay who said he caught his fish in the river in shallow 3 ft. of water. He was using a grey with red flake hula grub and the fish hit while he was slowly dragging the bait.

In fourth place with 4.10 also was Roger Difate. He said he caught his fish in 20 ft on a secondary point on the main lake at 3:15 on a witches-t worm split shotting.

In fifth place with 4.00 lbs and two fish was Russell Witkowsky who had the best pattern and bites going today but he lost two of the fish he caught. He said he was using a brown with black flake twin tail grub on a wind blown main river point in about 10 ft. near tire size boulders. He caught his second fish in a cove with big boulders on the same bait about 2:00 in about 15-18 ft. of water when he was reeling the bait in the fish grabbed it.

In sixth place was myself Mike Espinola with that one nice smallmouth for 3.10 lbs. We had 19 people fish and nine guys caught 10 fish total for everyone. The heavy boat was Russell Witkowsky and Ray Garcia with 9.16 lbs only.

Well it was foggy till 10:30 and a little cold then it turned into a beautiful day with some tough fishing all over the lake except at the dock and the point near the launch ramp. We had 6 limits caught and they were all within a few hundred yards of the ramp.

In first place with a 14.00 lb limit and the 2^nd big fish of the tournament a 4.35 lber was Chris Lee. He was fishing the main channel swing point at the end of the parking lot near the south shore ramp. He said he was catching his fish in 50-60 ft of water on various kinds of jigs. He caught the big fish of the day first thing on a 3/8 oz. football head with a cinnamon blue flake spider grub on it in 50 ft. of water. He hooked up another 15” keeper in about an hour then the bite slowed down Then he switched to a ½ oz. brown finesse style jig tipped with a watermelon red flake grub and caught an 18.25” fish then about an hour later another 16” fish on the same jig. He caught his fifth fish about 1:00 and that was it for the rest of the day.

In second place with 12.97 and the big fish of the day a 5.27 lber was Ferdie Jusay. He said he was fishing near the marina using a drop shot rig using a 7” pro-worm when on his second cast he caught the big fish. Then he used a shaky head and 4 ½ Berkley finesse worm to catch 3 more fish on the same dock in 35 feet of water. Then he caught his 5^th fish swimming a jig with a single tail grub on the shallower portion of the dock and that was it.

In third place with 10.40 lbs was Russell Witkowsky he said he was using his Carolina rigged baby brush hogs on the bank right next to the boat docks in about a 150 yard stretch in about 10-20 feet of water he caught 6.Then later in the day he came back to the docks and caught another keeper on a darthead and a twin tail hula grub.

In fourth place also fishing the same bank with Russell was Jack Ling he used a cinnamon brown hula grub with black flake in about 13 feet of water slowly dragged along near the reeds and the drop offs near the dock and ramp also. He said he had to work the bait real slow and they were biting really light, and later in the day the fish turned on just like the lunar tables said they would.

In fifth place with 9.55 lbs and another limit was Gordon Rydquist who was also fishing the dock area with a hand tied bucktail football jig with a binky bug like lure for a trailer. He said he had heard the dock area was good in the past and the fog convinced them to start there on the deep side of the dock and then they moved shallower until they caught fish.