Bass Busters

Of Santa Clara County

 

            The Bass Busters held our third tournament of the year, a two-day event, of the 2004 season at Pine Flat Lake. This was Bass Busters third time to the lake and as usual it did not disappoint. The weather was amazing! For the month of March to have 80° days is just unheard of. Quite the difference from last year when we were hit with torrential rains that kept our boat pumps going. The water temperature stayed around 60° all weekend and was slightly warmer on Sunday than on Saturday. The Bass Busters fielded 14 anglers (7 boats) for a slightly smaller than usual field, hopefully we will have a better turnout next month.

            By the end of the weekend we weighed in 67 fish for a total of 103.48 pounds and an average weight of 1.54 lbs. per fish. This is almost exactly what is expected from Pine Flat Lake where in 2001 (http://www.fishsniffer.com/bassbusters/mar2001.html) we had a limit average of 1.57 lbs. There were three teams that pulled limits on both days an of course those teams took 1st – 3rd.

            The weekend was a good time for all. We had a special treat each evening when Robert “The Ice Cream Man” Nelson stopped by with a bag full of Ice creams. I was one of the lucky ones to get one each evening. Thanks Rob! We also had the team of Joe Costa and John Fernandez running the big screen at room #6. We were treated to the weekend boxing match and one of the coolest westerns “Tombstone”, narration by Henry Silva.  Now we know what being scared and slapped in the face a couple of times is like!

 

Tournament Results:

First place for the March Pine Flat tournament was team of Henry Silva (Again like in 2001) and Kyle Mulhair. Henry and Kyle weighed in 14 fish for a total of 24.32 Lbs. Kyle also had second big fish for the weekend which got him $40 for his troubles. Henry and Kyle said they caught their fish ripping and drop shotting. They were using craw colored worm for drop shotting.

 

Coming in second place was Joe Costa and John Fernandez. Joe and John weighed a couple of nice limits for 21.70 lbs. John and Joe caught most of their keepers on Brown, I mean Red drop shotting, small shad colored by robo. They also picked up some nice keepers on Sunday ripping.

 

Third place honors went to Steve Irving and John Neibel. They weighed two limits for a total of 20.32 lbs. John also had big fish of the tournament for 2.88 lbs. Steve and John caught their fish like the others on the drop shot, but also pulled a lot of fish on a Salt and Pepper Senko. The trick with the Senko was to just toss it out and let it sink to the bottom and occasionally shaking it on the way down.  The big fish was caught on the Senko Wacky style.

 

Dropping into fourth place after a first day third was Rene Duzac and Arnold Esparza. They weighed a limit the first day, but only managed three fish on Sunday. Their total weight was 16.02 lbs.  Rene and Arnold used mainly drop shot for the majority of their fish with a red 4” hand pour from Grandpa’s fishing tackle. Their other fish came on Spinnerbaits, and a Lipless Crankbait.

 

Fifth place was taken by Robert Nelson and Spiro Stamos (see picture). They weighed 9 fish for a total of 12.74 Lbs. Robert and Spiro caught their first fish on a white Spinnerbait, and the rest drop shotting red oxblood.

 

Mike Clark and Eric “Rick” Marquardt took Sixth place with three fish for 5.04 lbs. They caught their fish on Brush Hogs.

 

Rounding out the field and getting Seventh place for some good points were David Devinny and Robert Asher. They had three fish for a total of 3.34 lbs. They also caught their fish using Drop shot with 4” red worm.

 

 

 

 

Pine Flat Big Fish 2004

 

1st        John Neibel      2.88 Lbs.

2nd        Kyle Mulhair    2.52 Lbs.

 

Message from the President:

Pine Flat

 

Congratulations to Henry Silva and Kyle Mulhair on their victory at Pine Flat. They are both a force to be reckoned with in our club and they are well deserving of this victory. In a lake where plastics are the key, this team is unbeatable. They are masters when it comes to fishing this way, and I hope that I can gain at least a small amount of this knowledge from them.

 

Just a reminder to everybody the next tournament was scheduled for Clear Lake on the 17th of April. We have decided to move this tournament to Berryessa on the same day because of the FLW tournament taking place at Clear Lake. Please make a not of this! Our next meeting is the 1st of April at 7:30 at IHOP, 5403 Stevens Creek Blvd. Santa Clara.

 

Thanks, Joe Costa

President of Bass Busters of Santa Clara County