Pete Marino
05-29-2014, 10:16 AM
So last week I went out to DVL prefishing on Weds for the final round of the ABA DVL region on Sunday.
I fished shallow with reaction baits and shallow with plastics and couldn't get on any of the bigger size bass Id need to be on for my tournament.. I caught fish but the size just wasn't there.. So before I headed home that day I checked a deep spot in 35-45ft that I know of that has been producing good bass for me lately. I pulled up, put the troller down and the graph lit up with big bass.
I fished for them for about 1/2 hour with no takers but I was bound and determined to catch one to help my confidence and also so I could check the size of them.. So I kept plugging away and finally got 2 to bite and both were over 3 1/2 lbs.. which was pretty good considering all of the other bass I caught that day were between 1-2lbs.
So I had a starting spot for tourney day..
Come tourney day on Sunday my wife Carissa and I head to the lake and sign in... We get our draw number and launch the boat. They call our number and off we go.. straight to our deep spot.. I put the troller down in about 35ft and start moving around the area. I instantly knew something was different because I wasn't seeing the numbers of bass that I saw on weds. We are both throwing the dropshot...
In about 15 minutes Carissa says, "Im On!" and we have our first keeper of the day..but its small...only 1 1/2 lbs uggg not what I expected.. Then we keep fishing this huge flat for almost 2 hours and no more bites....WHERE ARE MY FISH???? They were here Weds and now theyre gone. "Is it a timing thing"? We did find them later on Wednesday so maybe its a later in the day thing.. Time for a move..
So we head to another deep spot to check it out. So I pull up and drop the troller in 65 ft of water and slowly ease uphill towards the spot in about 38-42ft. We fish for a while and not even a sniff... That's about the time I feel like I just wasted about 2 1/2 hours of our day... The morning is about 2 1/2 hours old and we have one 1 1/2 lb skinny keeper to show for our efforts that wont get us anything but a kick in the butt at the end of the day so its Time for a change...
I told Carissa that I didn't catch anything big on the bank on Weds but maybe the bass moved up with the cloud cover...so to the bank we went.
I make a cast up to 3 ft of water as does Carissa and ...Booom...Double hookup... nothing huge, just keepers just under 2lbs each... REALLY?? We wasted over 2 hours and now we come shallow and catch 2 bass bigger then the rat we have in the well that came from the deep water where I caught big ones a few days before...Its apparent DVL is playing games with my head..
So we continued down the bank fishing 2-8ft...mainly 2-5ft... within minutes Im on again and keeper number 4 is in the well then Carissa puts our limit fish in the boat..
That's about the time I told Carissa that "we may need to keep doing what we were doing and just catch as many as possible and hopefully we'd get a couple bigger bites"....So down the bank we went...
We continued to catch fish for the next couple hours and up our weight here and there... Finally all of our fish were over 2 lbs but we didn't have anything over 2 1/2 lbs... Which meant we didn't have even 12 1/2 lbs yet...sheeesh... REALLY?? WE WERE GRINDING...and I told Carissa that I was starting to feel like it might be a tough day on everyone because I was pulling out every trick in the bag to get bit and the size just wasn't there....."Keep casting", I said... haha what else was I supposed to say?? lol
So we keep grinding and finally about 11:30ish I set the hook and feel a slow deep headshake as it swims slowly to deeper water...IM ON AND ITS A GOOD ONE....It doesn't feel giant but definetly better then the sardine size bass we had caught thus far... I play it out to deep water and get over top of it... Under normal circumstances I would have horsed this bass in and swung it in the boat with no net but because of the lack of size we were catching, WE NEEDED THIS BASS IN THE BOAT!!
So I slowly play it up to the surface and Carissa nets it...Its a good one for the day...Shes weighs it 3lbs 4 oz. SWEEET... yeah yeah Its only 3 lbs 4 oz but on this day it was gold...lol.
So we keep grinding.. Then Carissa says "IM ON" and I net another good one fish 2lbs 13 ozs..nice 3/4 lb upgrade then she catches a solid 2lb 12oz bass...another 1/2 upgrade.. :Big Grin: Well take it.. Mind you, I don't normally call a fish under 3lbs at DVL a "good one" but they seemed far and few in between on this day.
Now our livewell consists of bass weighing 2 lbs 12 oz., 2lbs 13 oz., 3 lbs 4 oz., 2lbs 5 oz., and 2lbs 8oz. I tell Carissa we NEED to get rid of those smaller 2lb bass with fish over 3lbs... Now my goal for the day is 15lbs...
I tell her that we aren't changing a thing...we're just gonna cover more water...so we start bouncing around the lake a ping pong ball... We literally hit about 25 spots up to that point and hit about 30 more spots after that point.. We'd pull up to a spot make 2 casts and leave.. We were targeting bluff walls, secondary rock points and wood in 2-8ft of water...
Then around 1ish I pull up to a spot and there is someone on the bluff I want to fish so I say lets just fish the point until he leaves so I turn around and there is someone on the point....hmmmmm...."Okay lets just fish this 200 yard stretch of bank in between and wait for one of them to leave", I say.
So we both fire out long casts into about 4ft of water...Im dead sticking a texas rigged worm and Carissa is slowly moving a Niko rigged senko.... After about 20 seconds I see her set the hook and I see a nice bend in her rod...shes says This one might help.... Just then I feel a light "tick" vibrate up my braided line to my rod and I cross its eyes... And the bass doesn't move...Deep slow headshake... "Youre on your own", I say. " I have a big one"... As I slowly work my bass to deep water, I see Carissa work her bass next to the boat and net it herself... (That's my girl!!) While shes quickly weighing it Im doing my best to keep my bass from surging into the deep trees or heading back to the trees along shore. I then hear Carissa say, "mine helps, its 2lbs 7ounces...which got rid of our 2lb 5 oz fish. At that moment I get my fish next to the boat and Carissa jumps to the front and nets it...BOOOM... 3 lbs 10 ounces.... our best one of the day.... It coincidently culled the bass she had just caught...LMAO!!!!
Now we are closer to our goal!!!! So we keep fishing and catching fish but we couldn't make any other culls after that... Finally at about 2:05 I say last cast because we had to be in a 2:15pm... "That was a strange day", I say!
Once back at the docks the word seems to be with everyone that the day was ultra tough for good size bass.... We were one of the last 4 boats to weigh in and when I walked up to the scales I asked what was leading and they said 11 3/4 lbs... AND I THINK whaaaat.... They put our big one on the scale 3.82lbs and our total weight was 14.69 lbs.. NEW LEADER!!!! I cant believe my ears after how tough it was for us to get size..
As it turned out one team behind us had a huge weight of just over 20lbs.. NICE!!!!
As the scales closed and the awards began it became official that we finished in 2nd place for the day!! Pretty good considering how much we had to grind, how drastically we had to adjust our patterns from deep to shallow, and how many spots we had to hit which ended up being about 55 plus spots we hit throughout the day. Our big bass ended up being the 3rd big bass of the tournament.
http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd134/TeamMarino/4953_2nd.jpg (http://s221.photobucket.com/user/TeamMarino/media/4953_2nd.jpg.html)
http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd134/TeamMarino/4953_bf2.jpg (http://s221.photobucket.com/user/TeamMarino/media/4953_bf2.jpg.html)
And when all was said and done because of our best five finishes this season of 5th ,2nd, 2nd, 2nd and 1st it became official that Carissa and I are the 2014 ABA Diamond Valley region Anglers of the Year!!
That makes 2 Angler of the year Titles THIS year for me.... I also won the ABA Inland Empire region (Perris and Silverwood) Angler of the year Title with my partner Kevin as well.
That's the end of the day season...Its officially the night tournament season... which Ill hit several of the Perris events and maybe a few DVL events...then its time to set my sights on the US OPEN in September which Ill be fishing on the Pro side..
Until then though its gonna be business as usuall guiding during the week at both Perris and DVL throughout the summer..
If you are ready to fish either DVL or Perris with me .. call me and book your trip for a fun day out on either lake!!!
Summery of our catches at this event.. only 1 bass- 1 1/2lbs came from deep water on the dropshot (So weird). The rest which was about 25 bass came from 2-7ft of water on plastics, texas rig, niko rig and dropshot...
Thanks for reading..
Pete:Cool:
I fished shallow with reaction baits and shallow with plastics and couldn't get on any of the bigger size bass Id need to be on for my tournament.. I caught fish but the size just wasn't there.. So before I headed home that day I checked a deep spot in 35-45ft that I know of that has been producing good bass for me lately. I pulled up, put the troller down and the graph lit up with big bass.
I fished for them for about 1/2 hour with no takers but I was bound and determined to catch one to help my confidence and also so I could check the size of them.. So I kept plugging away and finally got 2 to bite and both were over 3 1/2 lbs.. which was pretty good considering all of the other bass I caught that day were between 1-2lbs.
So I had a starting spot for tourney day..
Come tourney day on Sunday my wife Carissa and I head to the lake and sign in... We get our draw number and launch the boat. They call our number and off we go.. straight to our deep spot.. I put the troller down in about 35ft and start moving around the area. I instantly knew something was different because I wasn't seeing the numbers of bass that I saw on weds. We are both throwing the dropshot...
In about 15 minutes Carissa says, "Im On!" and we have our first keeper of the day..but its small...only 1 1/2 lbs uggg not what I expected.. Then we keep fishing this huge flat for almost 2 hours and no more bites....WHERE ARE MY FISH???? They were here Weds and now theyre gone. "Is it a timing thing"? We did find them later on Wednesday so maybe its a later in the day thing.. Time for a move..
So we head to another deep spot to check it out. So I pull up and drop the troller in 65 ft of water and slowly ease uphill towards the spot in about 38-42ft. We fish for a while and not even a sniff... That's about the time I feel like I just wasted about 2 1/2 hours of our day... The morning is about 2 1/2 hours old and we have one 1 1/2 lb skinny keeper to show for our efforts that wont get us anything but a kick in the butt at the end of the day so its Time for a change...
I told Carissa that I didn't catch anything big on the bank on Weds but maybe the bass moved up with the cloud cover...so to the bank we went.
I make a cast up to 3 ft of water as does Carissa and ...Booom...Double hookup... nothing huge, just keepers just under 2lbs each... REALLY?? We wasted over 2 hours and now we come shallow and catch 2 bass bigger then the rat we have in the well that came from the deep water where I caught big ones a few days before...Its apparent DVL is playing games with my head..
So we continued down the bank fishing 2-8ft...mainly 2-5ft... within minutes Im on again and keeper number 4 is in the well then Carissa puts our limit fish in the boat..
That's about the time I told Carissa that "we may need to keep doing what we were doing and just catch as many as possible and hopefully we'd get a couple bigger bites"....So down the bank we went...
We continued to catch fish for the next couple hours and up our weight here and there... Finally all of our fish were over 2 lbs but we didn't have anything over 2 1/2 lbs... Which meant we didn't have even 12 1/2 lbs yet...sheeesh... REALLY?? WE WERE GRINDING...and I told Carissa that I was starting to feel like it might be a tough day on everyone because I was pulling out every trick in the bag to get bit and the size just wasn't there....."Keep casting", I said... haha what else was I supposed to say?? lol
So we keep grinding and finally about 11:30ish I set the hook and feel a slow deep headshake as it swims slowly to deeper water...IM ON AND ITS A GOOD ONE....It doesn't feel giant but definetly better then the sardine size bass we had caught thus far... I play it out to deep water and get over top of it... Under normal circumstances I would have horsed this bass in and swung it in the boat with no net but because of the lack of size we were catching, WE NEEDED THIS BASS IN THE BOAT!!
So I slowly play it up to the surface and Carissa nets it...Its a good one for the day...Shes weighs it 3lbs 4 oz. SWEEET... yeah yeah Its only 3 lbs 4 oz but on this day it was gold...lol.
So we keep grinding.. Then Carissa says "IM ON" and I net another good one fish 2lbs 13 ozs..nice 3/4 lb upgrade then she catches a solid 2lb 12oz bass...another 1/2 upgrade.. :Big Grin: Well take it.. Mind you, I don't normally call a fish under 3lbs at DVL a "good one" but they seemed far and few in between on this day.
Now our livewell consists of bass weighing 2 lbs 12 oz., 2lbs 13 oz., 3 lbs 4 oz., 2lbs 5 oz., and 2lbs 8oz. I tell Carissa we NEED to get rid of those smaller 2lb bass with fish over 3lbs... Now my goal for the day is 15lbs...
I tell her that we aren't changing a thing...we're just gonna cover more water...so we start bouncing around the lake a ping pong ball... We literally hit about 25 spots up to that point and hit about 30 more spots after that point.. We'd pull up to a spot make 2 casts and leave.. We were targeting bluff walls, secondary rock points and wood in 2-8ft of water...
Then around 1ish I pull up to a spot and there is someone on the bluff I want to fish so I say lets just fish the point until he leaves so I turn around and there is someone on the point....hmmmmm...."Okay lets just fish this 200 yard stretch of bank in between and wait for one of them to leave", I say.
So we both fire out long casts into about 4ft of water...Im dead sticking a texas rigged worm and Carissa is slowly moving a Niko rigged senko.... After about 20 seconds I see her set the hook and I see a nice bend in her rod...shes says This one might help.... Just then I feel a light "tick" vibrate up my braided line to my rod and I cross its eyes... And the bass doesn't move...Deep slow headshake... "Youre on your own", I say. " I have a big one"... As I slowly work my bass to deep water, I see Carissa work her bass next to the boat and net it herself... (That's my girl!!) While shes quickly weighing it Im doing my best to keep my bass from surging into the deep trees or heading back to the trees along shore. I then hear Carissa say, "mine helps, its 2lbs 7ounces...which got rid of our 2lb 5 oz fish. At that moment I get my fish next to the boat and Carissa jumps to the front and nets it...BOOOM... 3 lbs 10 ounces.... our best one of the day.... It coincidently culled the bass she had just caught...LMAO!!!!
Now we are closer to our goal!!!! So we keep fishing and catching fish but we couldn't make any other culls after that... Finally at about 2:05 I say last cast because we had to be in a 2:15pm... "That was a strange day", I say!
Once back at the docks the word seems to be with everyone that the day was ultra tough for good size bass.... We were one of the last 4 boats to weigh in and when I walked up to the scales I asked what was leading and they said 11 3/4 lbs... AND I THINK whaaaat.... They put our big one on the scale 3.82lbs and our total weight was 14.69 lbs.. NEW LEADER!!!! I cant believe my ears after how tough it was for us to get size..
As it turned out one team behind us had a huge weight of just over 20lbs.. NICE!!!!
As the scales closed and the awards began it became official that we finished in 2nd place for the day!! Pretty good considering how much we had to grind, how drastically we had to adjust our patterns from deep to shallow, and how many spots we had to hit which ended up being about 55 plus spots we hit throughout the day. Our big bass ended up being the 3rd big bass of the tournament.
http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd134/TeamMarino/4953_2nd.jpg (http://s221.photobucket.com/user/TeamMarino/media/4953_2nd.jpg.html)
http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd134/TeamMarino/4953_bf2.jpg (http://s221.photobucket.com/user/TeamMarino/media/4953_bf2.jpg.html)
And when all was said and done because of our best five finishes this season of 5th ,2nd, 2nd, 2nd and 1st it became official that Carissa and I are the 2014 ABA Diamond Valley region Anglers of the Year!!
That makes 2 Angler of the year Titles THIS year for me.... I also won the ABA Inland Empire region (Perris and Silverwood) Angler of the year Title with my partner Kevin as well.
That's the end of the day season...Its officially the night tournament season... which Ill hit several of the Perris events and maybe a few DVL events...then its time to set my sights on the US OPEN in September which Ill be fishing on the Pro side..
Until then though its gonna be business as usuall guiding during the week at both Perris and DVL throughout the summer..
If you are ready to fish either DVL or Perris with me .. call me and book your trip for a fun day out on either lake!!!
Summery of our catches at this event.. only 1 bass- 1 1/2lbs came from deep water on the dropshot (So weird). The rest which was about 25 bass came from 2-7ft of water on plastics, texas rig, niko rig and dropshot...
Thanks for reading..
Pete:Cool: