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View Full Version : My Silverwood story from the ABA event this past Saturday.. 4/5



Pete Marino
04-08-2014, 10:22 AM
So this past Saturday was round 5 of the ABA Inland Empire Region at Silverwood.

I was busy all week so I couldn't get out to prefish but my partner was able to get out there on Tuesday and also on the Wedsnesday before that to get some time on the water. He had about 25-30 bass each time out and the size were really good as each time he had about 15lbs for his best 4 bass. So although I didn't get to prefish myself, I trusted my partners judgement on how the bite was. When he told me how he was doing I was extremely anxious to get the tournament started.
I was also anxious because I knew that if we had a 5th place or better at this event that we'd wrap up the Angler of the Year Title early with one round left to go in a few weeks at Perris. Basically if we finished 5th or better then we'd have enough points to win the title and not even have to fish the final round, which I thought would be very cool...and a stress relief!!:Smile::Smile:

So Saturday morning I get up about 3:45am, I get ready, and I head over to Bass Pro Shops where I was to meet Kevin. We head out and start talking about the plan for the day. He told me that our reaction bite that we were on was all but dead, BUT, our finesse bite shallow was wide open. Now I was really getting anxious...:Envious:

So we get to the lake and sign in... Boat #4... we prepare our boat for launch and drop it in the water.

Our plan for the day was simple....catch as many as we could, weed through the small bass, build our weight and let the chips fall where they may...and most importantly let the day play out without stressing out, adjust if we needed to, and have confidence in our ability!:Cool::Cool:

So the director calls our number and we head to our starting spot.... I jump up front and put the troller down and start firing away.. Im throwing my deep crankbait to start even though Kevin hadn't been bit on it during prefish. I figured that "IF" I got bit, then it would be a nice keeper for sure.
Kevin opted to start with his finesse bait on 6lb line... The exact bait he slayed them with earlier in the week and the week before. I figured which ever one of us started catching them the other would just make a change...

Within 3 casts Kevins on!!! As I net a bass that looks like its gonna be close to legal.. 14 7/8 uggg:Neutral: to small... They need to be 15" or bigger.
Back into the drink it goes and we keep firing...

Im working the 18-22ft range with the deep crank and hes fishing the bank up tight.. after a few casts my crank gets swiped at but the bass doesn't hook up so I make another cast and a bass swipes it again but doesn't hook up.. I know these might be good bass trying to just kill the bait...so I keep firing.
Within minutes Kevin says..."Im ON!!" As I net another bass, we measure it...14 3/4 shoooot! Back it goes... Then within his next cast or two hes on again!!! :Shocked:And I net another bass that will be close... 14 7/8" :Shocked::Shocked: "Are you kidding me?", I say!! back it goes.... 3 bass in 10 minutes and none were keepers.. then Kevin is on again... as he swings this one into the boat... 14" uggg.. I still don't make a change because none of those fish were keepers...so I keep firing my crankbait looking for a solid fish and Kevin keeps firing his finesse bait looking for a keeper... Within minutes of the last one Kevin says "Im ON, and It might be a keeper"!... I net it and it too is 14 7/8...:Confused::Confused: Back it goes...Where the heck are the keepers?
Then after about 10 more minutes Kevins on again.....and I net it but it measures 14 1/2... 6 bass no keepers.... So I simply say..."Keep firing!!!!"

Then we decide to make a move.... So we say "Last cast".... and Kevins on again.... 14"....GOOD GOD!! :Confused::Confused::Confused: Off we go...

We get to the next spot and I pick up the spinning rod too this time, I figured we'd double our chances and hopefully go through enough bass to get some keepers... Within minutes of pulling up, Im ON!!! ... yep you guessed it...NON KEEPER! Then I cast back out and get bit, I swing and set the hook.... "This one may go", I say.. as Kevin nets a possible keeper... 14 7/8.. Sheeeesh!!! Back it goes..
This was kinda getting old but we keep firing away.... This goes on for the next 2 hours...Non keeper after non keeper hitting the deck... Now Im starting to get frustrated that it was almost 930am and we still didn't have a keeper. We're feeling a bit of the pressure now.. Finally at the end of our spot, Kevin says... "Im on...But its another small one" as he swings it over the rail... then we look at it and say... Ummm that might keep...so I measure it.. 15" on the dot...Are you kidding me!!!! hahaha
We're on the board...so we make a move!!

We head to the next spot, I put the troller down and I fire out a cast with my finesse bait... I feel a slight 'tick" and I set the hook...14 7/8...:EyePop::EyePop: I say..."theres a chance I don't catch a keeper today"..:Confused::Confused:
We continue working down the bank. Both of us focused and determined... We come to the end of the 100 yard stretch and Im on again.... KEEPER!!!! 15" of pure beauty!! :LOL::LOL: Hey Im happy to help!! Then as we reach the very end of the run, we both fire out casts... And almost at the exact same time we set the hook... "Im on", I say and Kevin says.. "Fish on".... double hook up!!! Please be keepers!!!!

I work my fish next to the boat as does Kevin.... Mines NOT a keeper, but Kevins is, so with one hand I grab the net and net our 3rd keeper.. then I swing my short into the boat. After a few more casts time for a move.. Back to our starting spot....

We spend the next couple hours catching bass after bass and we managed to catch a couple more keepers but they were VERY FAR AND FEW IN BETWEEN.... Our weight is still small...and we need to make a decision that could help us win this thing.. So I say..."Lets go fish one of our deep spots".. Kevin tells me that he hadn't caught a deep fish in the 2 days of prefish but it was worth a try. We only had about 2 hours left or so, so it couldn't hurt.

So we head over to the spot, we both jump up and I put the troller down as Kevin makes a quick cast.. I then fire out a cast and Kevin says..."IM ON AND ITS A GIANT"!!!!
As Kevins fish nears the boat, we clearly see that its BIG...BUT, theres an even BIGGER one swimming with it.. Kevin says, "Cast to it"... But I said, "lets just get yours in the boat" Kevins was over 4 lbs and the other was over 5lbs but we NEEDED his BASS!! So I net it.... YES!!!!! Its a nice one.... "We're not Dead Yet!!", I say!!

So we readjust the boat and I look at the screen and its LOADED with bass ... I quickly say, "they're under the boat..Drop down" But Kevin had just made a cast...so I drop down... My bait rapidly sinks into the depths and I see the bass come up 6ft to my bait and follow it back to bottom. I click over the bail and lift.. Theres pressure so I set the hook.... IM ON!!! As Kevin nets a solid 3 lber!!! "Now we're rolling, These are the winning fish," I say!!

Then we each catch a few more keepers that help a little... We kept having to find them because theyd move 8-10 yards each time we caught one... which was irritating because I knew we were pressed for time.

Then I find them again and We drop on them... Kevin says... "Im on..and its a giant"... His bass surges and then makes a B-Line towards the surface...It comes up and head shakes with only its head out of the water... It looks like 5-6 lbs... It does it again and the bait comes flying out of its mouth!! :EyePop::EyePop::EyePop: Nooooo.... That was the one we needed and we both knew it but we stayed calm and I said... we'll get more... So we keep firing and looking for the school..
We found them a couple more times and we culled a little bit before it was time to head in... But neither of us could get that big lost fish out of our minds.. I said that was very similar to the fish I lost at DVL a couple weeks ago that would have won that tournament for me.

So we get back to the ramp and all we hear is that it was very tough for most everyone.... That gives me confidence that we could still get a 5th place or better. As much as I would have liked to win the battle of the tournament that day, Its was much more important for us to win the War in the Angler of the Year race. We were about to find out..

We head to the scales.. I ask whats leading and the director says the low 11lb range... I tell Kevin we have more then that.. Then the boat before us weighs 14lbs and change.. "WE DONT HAVE THAT", I say.. We're up next..... he put our big one on the scale...4.15lbs NICE!! And Our total weight was 11.93lbs NICE, that's 2nd for the time being!!

There were still 7 boats to weigh in so we sat and wait and watched boat after boat come to the scales but none of them eclipsed our 11.93 lb mark... 2nd place was ours!!!
And even more importantly...we won the ANGLER OF THE YEAR title!! With one round left to boot!!

Now we can fish the final round of the series at Perris in a couple weeks and not have to worry about points and/or the Championship because we already locked it up!!

The final round of the series is as I said at Perris on Saturday April 19th... and the bite is going to be awesome guys... If you want to come fish a tournament when the bite is great..this is the one to do. Its going to take a huge weight to win it.. I for one am already licking my chops and getting ready for it!!!

As far as this Silverwood event.. I caught a TOTAL of 1 fish on the deep crankbait and it was a small 14inch fish...So As Kevin said that bite is dead...at least for another month.
I actually saw about 8-10 beds but they didn't have bass on them. They pulled back but Im sure they pulled back up already since its been warm already this week.
We had about 35-40 bass on plastics....All of our bass were caught on dropshot in 2-30ft of water...with most of our good fish coming from the deeper stuff..

Pete:Cool:

seal
04-08-2014, 10:31 AM
Totally cool! Congratulations!!! My weekend was tough out there but my names not Pete and I basically suck as a bass angler.

As of Sunday they still hadn't moved in on beds but I was only plying one area and was shorebound. Going to take another look this afternoon.

Pete Marino
04-08-2014, 10:48 AM
Hey Seal.. Yeah I figure they'll move up today or tomorrow. The beds I saw were all new but vacant...its about to go full blown spawn there!!

Pete

FishinTheIE
04-08-2014, 11:11 AM
Great job out there Pete. Went to Perris on Saturday and the bite was slow (although we left before noon). Do you think this was more related to a post-spawn funk specifically at Perris, or more related to the cold front (Air temp was 39 degrees when we arrived at Perris on Saturday).

HuskerRod
04-08-2014, 12:35 PM
Neat report and you guys are tearing it up. And Angler of the Year is not to shabby. April 19th at Perris you say? Maybe Ill register and blow away the field...ughh, ahh, okay, maybe ill enter and take my lashings like a man and leave the lake with my tail between my legs.

Pete Marino
04-08-2014, 02:51 PM
FishintheIE ....Im not sure why the bite was tough for you.. The last time I was there it was wide open.. Better using some techniques then others but it was still pretty good. The key this time of year is that the fishing is very spot related...these fish are schooled up together in groups..so if you find one you will probably find 5-7 or more.. They aren't all in post spawn... there are still fish on beds and still some in prespawn.. This spawn will last through april into May id say. The further into late April and into May the more will be post spawn and also a lot into early summer feeding frenzy.

Pete

seal
04-08-2014, 03:52 PM
I've seen them on the beds into early July at Silverwood but this year yup earlier spawn should occur.

Pete Marino
04-10-2014, 01:57 PM
Me too Seal... This year they are starting earlier..these 90degree temps have them on the move

Pete