Santa Clara Bass Busters held its 8th tournament of the year, our first night event of the season at Clear Lake with a 7 fish team limit.  The Bass Busters had 9 boats for 18 anglers show for the team pick-your-partner.  Our members were met with sunny skies with temps ranging from 88 at launch to lows in the 50s in the night.  Winds ranged from 10 mph in the evening to dead calm at night, water temps ranged from 77-80 and our night tournament was just following a full moon.  With the hot bite happening at Clear Lake, our anglers came across some great fishing action. 

First place honors went to the team of Rob Nelson and Michael Chen.  They chose to fish State Park up to the Narrows keying in on rocky points, rocky banks and sparse tullies with rock.  Banging deep diving crankbaits and flipping/pitching big plastics in dark colors (double-wide Sweet Beavers and The Big Unit) kept the team on fish all night long.  As a side note, Rob Nelson was just a bit excited after the tournament getting his first trophy since joining the club.  I lost count of the number of times he would suddenly yell “First Place!” on our ride back home. Way to go Nelson!

The team of Rene Duzac and Eric Chikasuye finished in second place with a 26.16lb bag.  Amongst their fish was a 7.77lb Largemouth that earned Rene some spending money and the Big Fish trophy.  They fished Tule Point, The Keys, Fruit Island and Anderson Island during the night using frogs, senkos, crankbaits, and Rene’s “powerbait” (10” powerworms).  Check out the message boards for a full report.

Spiro Stamos and friend, Matt Ruggiero took third place with 23.58lbs.  They used a variety of techniques including spinnerbaits, brass-n-glass, and jigs to catch their limit. 

Taking fourth place was the team of Francisco “Sego” Segoviano and Joe Alvarez with a combined weight of 21.68lbs.  They used jigs, senkos and spinnerbaits to haul in their fish.

In fifth place were Ed Hawkins and Tyler Linscott with 20.65lbs.  Dropshotting, cranking, and big plastics in black, browns, reds and combinations of these colors in the south end of the lake helped them find fish. 

Michael “Gator” Benjamin and Lloyd Bebilone finished in sixth place throwing crankbatis, senkos, 10” powerworms and swimbaits to weigh in at 19.58lbs. 

John Neibel and Glenn H. grabbed seventh place with 18.07lbs.  Glen took 2nd Big Fish of the tournament, which shows it pays to fish.  His big one was fooled using the new Zoom Super Hogs in junebug.

Finishing eighth place was the team of Joe Costa and John Fernandez who brought in 16.38lbs.  Topwater offerings (popper) and senkos helped to catch their fish. 

In ninth place with 15.75lbs were Mike Clarke and Rick Marquardt.  They threw Senkos and jigs. 

Another successful and fantastic tournament in the books where all the teams limited.  Our members all had a great time and agreed (at least their body language said so) staying up all night to fish sure takes a lot out of you. (Although, there were some Bass Busters who wanted to go out again after weigh-in).  Our next tournament is individual draw at Lake Berryessa on September 17th and out of Capel Cove Launching Facility.  Remember, if you’re not going to be at the club meeting, let someone know your intentions on whether you plan to fish our club tournaments avoid any unnecessary confusion.  It will be our 9th tournament of the year and sure to be exciting.


Big Fish

1stRene Duzak       7.77
2nd       Rob Nelson5.00
Clear Lake 2005