Vail lake with bass magnum 6-7-2010

[ART HILL]

Yesterday I actually had a day off to just go fishing. I fished with a very good friend of mine, Ross Mariano. Ross is a former charter boat captain, and current tournament fisherman. This guy is an encyclopedia of fishing information. He once caught a 17# bass, a 15# bass, and a 12# bass on consecutive cast at Lake Casitas, on a Zara Spook.

When we launched at 6:00 a.m. it was socked in with fog. We headed over to the island and proceeded to get on the fish with topwaters. We were both throwing Ima Skimmers. The topwater bite slowed as the fog thinned, but when the sun popped out, the crankbait bite went W.F.O. It was non-stop fish.

At around 10:00 we headed over to the dam and said hello to my friend Joe, AKA Megs Dad, and he invited us to stay and fish near him. Ross and I broke out a "near impossible" to find swimbait, and we started hammering the fish as they busted shad along the face of the dam.

Last year, Ross was able to get a hold of the company that one time made these baits, and they shipped him a ton of them. Ross even gave me about 50 of them. We whacked them pretty good on these baits whenever the fish would show up chasing shad. We stayed talking and fishing with Joe, until Joe had to leave at 11:30. Joe was killing them himself with the fresh candy baits. It was great seeing you again Joe.

After Joe left, we realized we were the only boat on the water, with the exception of 2 ski boats.Talk about no pressure. As the afternoon wore on, and the wind came up fierce, we switched to reaction baits. I was throwing the Ima Flit, and Ross was throwing a crankbait by Lure Jensen.

The bite went W.F.O. with the jerkbait's, until we called it a day at 4:30. We left biting fish. We did not have any huge fish, the biggest one going just under 4 pounds, but we did have lots of fish. Ross did mention that he had 7 rods, with 7 different baits, and he caught fish on every one of them. A very typical Vail day.

Thanks,

Art

www.vaillakeguideservice.com

(951) 265-9551

[Pete Marino]

Damn Art you are making me jealous... I want to get out there soon. Its gonna be a couple weeks still because I still have to get out to Lake Elsinore to prefish for the state championship regional finals there on the 25th. That should be not so fun...hahaha...
Nice job at Vail...


Pete

[ART HILL]

Thanks Pete. The bite is much better this year. You guys have your work cut out for you at Elsinore. Good luck out there. I should go there some day.

[Megsdad]

Great to see you out there Art, and it was nice to meet Ross.

You guys were knockin' 'um dead with that secret swim bait that's for sure.

see ya soon,
Joe

[Nessie Hunter]

Dang guys, lookin great.. Lots of bass and tons of fun...

I heard a rumor that Art was throwing swim baits clear over the top of the Dam??
Any truth to that???