The Bass Busters of Santa Clara County held the 3rd tournament of the year at Pine Flat on March 15 and 16 and despite the weather, had one fantastic tournament! RAIN? Did it rain? There is no doubt anyone that fished Pine Flat on Saturday March 15th knew it rained! If your bilge pump wasn't working, you were in jeopardy of sinking! Eight boats and 16 fishermen that braved the weather were rewarded with a wide open spotted bass bite. A total of 97 fish were weighed in with a weight of 175.14 lbs (1.81lb average)!!! This was a pick your partner tournament and 12 teams weighed in 7 fish limits. Sego and his guest partner Frank captured first place with an impressive 29.18 lb 14 fish for the two days including Sego's big fish of the tournament of 4.06lbs. Their Saturday started out slow with no bite until past 9am. Then in a cove with grass their 7 fish limit came off one spot on top water. Spinner blades were also working where rainwater was running into the lake. Sunday the spinner bait bite continued to work and also cranking red speed traps down by the dam. Congratulations on a fantastic win!Henry Silva and his partner Steve Irving finished second with an equally impressive limit of 26.34lbs with a two day limit of 14 fish. Henry and Steve concentrated their technique on splitshotting morning dawn and green weenie worms on Saturday. Sunday they started with red crank baits and red spinner baits and landed a few fish. Transitioning to red craw roboworms they found a school of pre-stage fish and culled their fish the rest of the day. Great identification of a successful pattern! This successful change of pattern resulted in Henry and Steve moving from 5th place on Saturday to 2nd for the two days. Congratulations on a great come from behind second place finish. Good work Henry and Steve!Just .16lbs behind second were John Fontana and Eric Chickasuye for third place at 26.18lbs for 14 fish. Eric also caught the second big fish of the tournament, a nice 3.76lb spotted bass. John and Eric cranked, ripped, split shot, and drop shot the fish in 15foot of water. Arrons Magic and green weenie worms helped also. Great job John and Eric!Rene Duzac and Joe Haylen captured 4th place with 14 fish and a weight of 22.14lbs. On Saturday, they caught a couple of fish on ½ oz white spinner baits with a single Indiana hammered chrome blade. The next couple of fish came on a Lucky Craft Pointer 128 in American shad. They finished up the bite with 7" roboworms in a color close to arrons magic. Sunday started with the reaction bite on the Luck Craft Pointer again. Rene switched to a Pearl Fluke with Chartreuse back and Red tip at the head to land three fish in four casts. Joe landed a few on a chartreuse senko. The technique used was to cast it to a boulder and let it sink and twitch it a couple of times. Nice job guys!Kyle Mulhair and Steve Lobrovich finished 5th with 13 fish for 21.92lbs. Saturday, Steve put some really nice fish in the boat drop shotting a 4 inch brown worm with a chartreuse paddle tail. Kyle managed to help with a couple of fish Carolina rigged green weenies. On Sunday, all fish came on a fat free shad in baby bass color. The day started hot, with two fish in 4 casts, but the team wasn't able to come up with the 7th fish despite a few more hookups. Nice effort Kyle and Steve.Joe Costa and John Fernandez placed 6th with 10 fish for 21lbs. Joe also landed the third big fish of the tournament a nice 3.3lb spot. Their fish were caught throwing Luck Craft Pointer 78's, Chartreuse Chug Bugs, and drop shotting grubs/Roboworms up river. Good finish Joe and John!Ed Hawkins and Jeff Hawkins placed 7th with 14 fish for 20.76lbs. Using rip baits and Lucky Craft and drop shotting roboworms in 20ft of water was the patterns that landed their limits of fish. Good work Ed and Jeff!Mike Clark and Rick Marquardt finished 8th with 4 fish and 7.62 lbs. They used senko's and crank baits to trick their fish. The club is looking forward to another great spotted bass lake next month. April 12th we are fishing Lake Oroville and with the slot limit exemption, everyone should be weighing in limits. Good hook sets and safe boating to all.
