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PostPosted: Wed Oct 16, 2013 12:39 pm 
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Fished another bass tournament out of the California Delta this past Sunday. I fished my first event with the Bass-N-Tubes club. The day started nice with mild winds (8mph) and very little boat traffic. Temps were cool with at temps around 50 degrees and water temps being right at 60 degrees. I started throwing soft plastics and lipless cranks along a channel edge with lots of tules, SAV, and current. I couldn't buy a strike! At 11 oclock I didn't have a keeper in the boat and started getting worried.

Then out of nowhere the winds kicked up to 25mph and the waves started stacking up with whitecaps. Normally this would be a terrible sign for fishing but I used it to my advantage. I headed for the far side of a wind blown bay and got right in the thick of the rough water. Smelt are coming up the San Joaquin river right now and I was hoping that all that wind had pushed them to the back of the bay with the bass following close behind. The grass was patchy against the tule edge and with the heavy winds the only real lure option was a spinnerbait. I threw a 1/2oz three blade Strike King Scorcher spinnerbait in Sexy Shad and started drawing a few strikes.

I stuck with this technique for the rest of the day and landed 8 fish with only two of them measuring. The wind lasted for about two hours and without a pedal kayak I never would have been able to sit out there fighting the wind while still being able to cast and retrieve my spinnerbait.

Once the wind died so did my bite and I was back to grinding it out the rest of the day with soft plastics. I never did pick up any more keepers and headed into the weigh in at 3 oclock hoping for te best with only two fish in the livewell. Upon arriving at the dock I began hearing others talk about how tough the bite was. Only 5 livewells were staged and ready at the scales out of 12 anglers that fished.

When it was all said and done my two fished managed to place me third in the event with 5.47lbs. It only took 9.88lbs to win and that was with three fish including a 7.47lb kicker. Only one limit of five fish was brought to the scales or a total weight of 6.86lbs. Needless to say I wasn't the only one that struggled!!

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PostPosted: Thu Oct 17, 2013 3:42 am 
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Nice job Matt! Way to tough it out!

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PostPosted: Wed Oct 30, 2013 8:58 pm 
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Great job, Matt! Are you running a live well of some kind? Or just Catch/Photo/Release?

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PostPosted: Thu Oct 31, 2013 8:55 am 
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Out here on the West coast it seems that all the bass tournaments are live weigh ins. You have to have a livewell that meets the minimum requirements of whichever club is hosting the event. Most require at least a 48qt cooler with a minimum of a 500 gal/hr bilge pump and an overflow. Bubbler boxes are optional but highly recommended especially in the summer along with additives such as Rejuvenade.

Here's my set up that I use on the Pro Angler 14:

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I'm trying to put together a kayak bass fishing series for the 2014 year that would be CPR format. The tournaments that I've been fishing here so far have been with two different belly boat bass clubs. One of them is voting kayaks out for next year b/c they say I have an unfair advantage over them (I'm the only kayaker). The other club is allowing me to continue to fish with them but b/c of the livewell requirement it really prevents other kayakers from joining. Not many kayaks out there can handle a 48qt cooler plus fish and water safely like the Pro Angler can. I want a series where all kayakers are welcome and have the same chance of competing, which the CPR format provides. My series will have events at Lake Sonoma, Clear Lake, Lake Berryessa, and possibly the California Delta. I'm hoping to get 10-15 people that would regularly attend but would welcome more.


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PostPosted: Mon Nov 04, 2013 10:44 pm 
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If you haven't ever looked there is Nor Cal Kayak Anglers. I'm sure you will find a lot of people in your area there. I'm too far south. I got my out back a week ago saturday and still have not had time to take it out.


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PostPosted: Wed Nov 06, 2013 10:19 am 
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I'm actually a member there as well. I'm involved with the California Dept of Fish and Wildlife right now trying to iron out the permits and rules that would govern a CPR format bass tournament series for kayakers. They've never had to deal with CPR format tournaments apparently. All the current rules pertain to live weigh in events which is not what I'm looking for. The issue of permits is kind of strange here in California b/c they want a report of the number of each black bass species caught and released from each tourney. That shouldn't be too hard being that we would have photos of all the fish but I'm wondering what the annual permit cost is going to be for this. I think the most I've seen so far is around $50 for the year with an unspecified number of events falling under the same permit number for different waters. The dates and locations just have to be specified when you actually apply for the permit at the beginning of the season.


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PostPosted: Fri Nov 15, 2013 12:59 am 
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I wonder how a big cooler for a live well would work on an outback?


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PostPosted: Fri Nov 15, 2013 11:31 am 
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I'm not sure. I'm planning on purchasing another PA14 and an Outback so that the whole family can go. When I do I'm sure I'll end up having to figure something out. I might even look into building my own cooler that fits the dimensions of the tank well. I could probably get away with lexan sheet material for the inside and outside and then use a pourable expanding foam for the insulation. There are many kinks to work out in the idea, but there are plenty of discussions on how to do this on various forums on the web.

I might actually tinker with this idea for my Pro Angler that I have now. It would be sweet to have a cooler that fit the existing tank well of the PA that wasn't as tall as a store bought cooler but that still met the minimum volume capacity requirements of the tournaments. It would be better for the fish as well allowing them to sit in the "box" side by side rather than all piled on top of each other. When I fish tournaments I don't have anything behind me in the tank well anyway so it really wouldn't even take up any extra space. The pick up pump would still need to be placed over the side of the boat but a drain could be fashioned to line up with the existing scupper holes.

I'm thinking that by using some mold release wax it would be pretty simple to do a fiberglass outer shell that would fit the tankwell like a glove. That would also make it very easy to line up the scupper holes for drains. I guess it's just a matter of giving it a go and seeing how it turns out!


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