My ABA Diamond Valley tournament yesterday (Sat) story
Well yesterday was round #4 for the ABA Diamond Valley region at DVL. And it went great..
I was out on the lake 2 times last week.. Sunday and Fri.. Sunday was a day where I saw the Algae bloom beginning but the bite was good in most every area I fish and on several techniques ranging from dropshot, to Texas rigged worms, to crank baits, to niko rig... The water was just beginning to get a bloom but most areas still hadn't been affected. Fast forward to Friday... I told myself that I needed to get out there and just look around. I didn't want to go fish, I just wanted to look around. I wanted to check to see how bad the Algae bloom was And I also wanted to go run the entire lake to see what I could see..
So Friday I got to the lake around 11am and launched the boat by myself and the recon was about to begin. Right away I clearly noticed that the Algae bloom was pretty bad in the marina area and visibility was only about 1 ft at best.
So off I went for a few hours of lake time, no fishing , just looking. I went to the outhouse cove..It had about 1 ft visibility, then the saddle dam it had about 1 inch of visibility..YES 1 INCH..it was HORRIBLE... then the west damn same thing HORRIBLE, then the dirt launch ramp...same story 1 ft MAXIMUM Visibility.. then to the rock quarry.. where it had about 1 ft also.. Then I started heading back to the East.. First big cove by middle point..same story..greener then pea soup and the algae was thicker then egg drop soup....SICK!!!
Then I went to the next cove, and the next, then Rawson, then the Diamond then South corner of the East dam...IT WAS ALL GREEN some areas were slightly better then others but overall it was gross and it became quite clear to me that this tournament would NOT be won by someone sight fishing!!! Which made me happy because Im on other patterns that are far more productive and less time consuming.
After spending about 3 1/2 hours cruising the green sludge I decided I had seen enough to know I had seen enough. There was still one thing I wanted to check out...
I figured with the algae bloom being so bad that the deep bite might prevail in this event. So I tied on a dropshot and cruised over to one of my favorite deep spots... I pulled up and put the troller down and BINGO the screen lite up with bass. I dropped down to them in 40ft and as my bait neared the bottom 2-3 bass swam up to my bait at about 32ft and followed it down to bottom. As soon as I closed the bail I tightened my line and my rod loaded up.. I set the hook and it was game on as I swung a solid 3lb DVL bass into the boat. That was too easy...A fluke? I was about to find out.. I drop again on more marks in 40ft.. My bait hits bottom...boom Im on again... 3 1/2lber..
Time for a move and not hound those fish anymore in case I need them in the tourney...one more deep spot same result....THE DEEP BASS WANTED TO EAT AND THEY DIDNT CARE ABOUT THE ALGAE BLOOM THAT WAS HAPPENING IN THE UPPER LEVELS OF THE WATER COLUMN. I figured Id keep this bite in my back pocket and pull it out if I needed to the next day when the money was on the line.
After that I went home and called my wife and told her what I had found and what the lake looked like. She reminded me that the air temps would be cooler the next day so the algae bloom wouldn't be as bad...and I told her that if that was true we were gonna destroy the bass because they weren't getting pounded that day.
So I get home, put the boat away and decide to go get some tri tip for dinner and lunch at the tournament. Im not real superstitious but Ive been bringing it to my tourneys a lot lately so I didn't want to mess up the mojo!!
So I get home, put the rub on the tri tip and start working on my rods for the next day... Then I start the tri tip on the BBQ and finish up my rods.. Dropshots check, Texas rigs check, reaction baits check, swimbaits check.... Now Im all done rigging and its time to eat some tri tip with my bride and talk about the plan for the tourney....
Once we were finished eating, I buttoned up the rest of the boat and tackle things I had to do and it was time to call it a night. Time to relax because 4am is gonna come quick.... We hit the sack around 11:30 and I laid there awake until around midnight thinking about the next day.. My tournaments start long before the actual day we fish. Im already thinking about tournaments 2-3 weeks from now. So finally I fall asleep ... then in what seemed like 5 minutes I opened my eyes and the clock said 3:58am........God I hate it when that happens, it was set to go off at 4am..
I felt like a kid on Christmas as I always do on tournament morning, I jumped up and got the boat hooked up. And most importantly my wife prepared our Tri Tip lunch by cutting up the 2 lbs of tri tip into chuncks and put it in a Tupperware bowl...then off we went..
We get to the lake and I get signed in... because I was presigned I drew boat #12 but we also get to draw a number out of a hat and we can use that number if we want...its our choice.. The tourney director told me that the 1st flight for weighing were gonna be boats 1-15 and 2nd flight (boats 16-26) would be due in 15 minutes later. The other number I drew was 22 so I decided to take 2nd flight and get an extra 15 minutes fishing time. Usually I have a set starting spot but this time I had a few ideas so it didn't matter to me..
Time to launch... they call #22 and off we go.. with anticipation of good fishing and big catches...
We get to our 1st spot and we start firing... We both opt for reaction baits...and within minutes were both on fire... We had our 5 bass limit quickly in about 30 minutes and kept catching them for the next hour or so... The water looked a lot clearer then it did the day before and these bass were on the chew...
They were biting great but weren't the size I was looking for..they were all 2-3 lbs nothing bigger...so it was time to make a move...
So we get to our next spot and I put the troller down .. we both make casts and BOOOM double hookup on the reaction baits....as we both swing our bass into the boat...then I went on a roll and caught 7 more in a row almost on consecutive casts... Then Carissa catches 4 in a row.... All of which were the same 2-3 lbs...time for a change..
So we bust out the Texas rigs and start casting to an area I saw literally dozens of big fish when the water was clear early in the week. I knew the bass were there even though we couldn't see them...so I backed the boat off and we start firing... My first cast...I feel tick tick.. And I swing and miss...Then my next cast I get hung up...I shake it free and get bit as soon as my bait comes free and I swing again...IM ON... as a big bass comes to the surface..looks like 6 lbs... It digs back down and I finally get a handle on it and it surges one last time and breaks me off!!
ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME....I MUST HAVE GOTTEN A FRAY WHEN I WAS HUNG UP.... "That one might hurt us" I say.... Carissas response..simple... "Keep casting we'll get more". That is 3 events in a row I or my team mates have lost a big fish and it hurt us... both of the other times we got 2nd so those fish cost us the win....would this day be the same???? Back to work....
With in minutes Im on again and Its a big one again.... This time I know my line is clean and Carissa nets a SOLID 4.98lb DVL largemouth... Nice cull!! Good bye 2lber.
A few minutes later Carissa is on and I ask how it feels and she says "small".... 2 seconds later a GIANT jumps 2 ft out of the water next to the boat....I say.."WTH"... as I run over and net a NICE BASS 5 1/2lbs.. She said it didn't fight till it jumped..lol Almost gave me a heart attack...BUT NOW WE'RE ROLLING!!!
In the back of my mind Im still thinking about the one that got away because now we'd have 3 big ones... but there is a ton of time left....
We keep fishing and catching....actually we are putting on a clinic!!! And All of them are nice cull fish...but not giants... Then I make a small adjustment with the boat and BOOOM Im on again ....just over 4lbs...NICE!!!!
Then Carissa caught a 3 3/4 lber and I caught a 3 1/2 lber that both helped... DOUBLE Hookup by the way!!
Then our big fish bite slowed down and though we kept catching fish they didn't help the cause..... But we put a serious hurt on them..
Before we knew it, it was time to head in and see how it went.. I told Carissa I thought we had over 20 lbs but I didn't think that would win it or be 2nd... I thought it would be 3rd or 4th... So we head to the scales.... They put our fish on the scale and it reads 20.18lbs....and was currently 2nd place with about 10 boats left to weighin..
As we waited for the awards to begin we busted out the rest of the tri tip and shared it with our friends around us...all of them loved it!!!
When all was said and done and weighins closed, nobody beat our 20lb weight and I was certain we got 2nd place... When it became official we did indeed get 2nd place.. We were pretty happy with that because we also took over the points lead in that region with 2 rounds remaining...
As it turned out that bass I lost might have been the one that won it for us...but we were happy with 2nd!
Summery of the day...we had 22 keepers on reaction baits and another 30 on plastics fished mainly with Teaxas rig but also dropshot. Oddly enough we only caught 1 short fish so of the total 52 bass we caught 51 were keepers... The reaction baits were fished in 2-20ft of water.... and the Plastics were fished in 6-25ft of water..
We never visited our deep water spots, didn't need to...plus time flew..
The bite is great people...Algae bloom or not there are lots of fish to be caught at all depths...
If you want to get out with me on a trip just call....and book a fun day on the lake with me.. I know where they are at both DVL and Perris....in my last 7 tournaments Ive finished 1st at 3 of them 2nd at 3 of them and 32nd place once..hahahah (Bad decision day) lol
Here are a couple pics..
Pete
PeteMarinoGuideService.com
(909) 510-5679
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Originally Posted by fishboy12
