Club Tournament at Lake Silverwood

[skidemn]

I fished my first bass tournament in over 30 years on Saturday at Lake Silverwood here in SoCal, and it was rough. I am trying to join a local bass club, and as part of the requirements I need to fish two tournaments with them before they vote on granting me membership, so this was my first time on the water with them. The boater I fished with was awesome and I think we made an excellent team, at least from a personality perspective, and it was great seeing how we break down water together and developed a solid pattern for the day. We did an excellent job finding fish, but unfortunately putting them in the boat was another story.

I did as much homework online as I could do since neither one of us had time to pre-fish the lake, but considering the time of year and seeing the results from a tournament last weekend by another local club, I felt confident we could find some quality fish. Lake Silverwood sits at roughly 3300' above sea level and is fed by the CA aqueduct as well as the snow runoff from the local mountains (there's a lot of runoff right now), so the water is a little cooler and as a result the spawn usually occurs a bit later than the other local lakes. We expected to find fish in all three phases of the spawn, and we were ultimately correct on that front. We metered fish in deep water on main lake points, fish on shallow structure and fish suspended off a few deep water drop offs.

We started throwing cranks over hard bottom points and rocky faces with fairly steep slopes that had easy deep water access but couldn't find any biters. My first bite came after seeing fish over a tiny rock island that had two gradual tapering points and a shallow tapering face that dropped off from 8' to 30'+ on one side. We fished various cranks sound all sides as we could see fish on the meter, but no biters. I tossed a dropshot as we were about to leave and got a solid bite that ended with me broken off on the sharp rocks next to the drop off. After retyping I got bit again and lost that fish after it spit the hook as it came out of the water. We worked our way around the island again with both of us using plastic, me on the 4.5" Roboworm and he on the Z-man TRD craw. We finally moved on after no more bites, down 0 for 2.

We continued to look for rocky areas with a steeper slopes and deep water nearby, working cranks and big swimbaits as the wind came up. We found a spot near the dam that had the right kind of rock and had some mixed sand/gravel areas around it and I got bit again on the dropshot but missed it. My boater got our first fish on the little Z-man craw which ended up being a small keeper. We fished our way around primary and secondary points, as well as some bluff walls and even isolated laydowns near a creek channel, but we couldn't buy another bite.

After several hours of hard fishing with almost nothing to show, we went back to an area we previously wanted to fish, but there were two boats along it at the time. This bank was a little different as it had the split riprap style rock on it, but it ended about 6'-8' underwater with sand/gravel beneath it, before dropping off steeply into deeper water. It was the perfect place to break out the Sleeper Craw, which is exactly what I did. It wasn't long before I had my first bite on it and when I swung on it my drag slipped and the hook set was weak. I could tell it was a very good fish, and as the fish ran I tightened the drag and contemplated swinging again, but was afraid I'd rip it out so I didn't. I could feel the fish coming up to jump and immediately brought the rod tip down to the water and reeled hard, but it jumped right in front of us, with the mouth wide open, then shook the hook free and was gone. The mouth was big enough to fit both my fists and we agreed it was well over 6lbs, which is also the weight that qualifies for the club's big fish jackpot. We continued fishing this bank up to the main lake point and then turned around to hit it again. I got another bite on the sleeper craw, and and this time I hit it super hard to make sure the hook made it all the way home. Although I had previously hammered the drag to prevent loosening, it was still a bit lighter than I had last set it. In any case, it was tight enough this time and after a short fight I had my first fish of the day in the net, a solid post spawn fish that went 4.10lbs on our scale. For the next hour and change we thoroughly worked that entire stretch again with everything, including the big swimbait (7" Daingerous Swimbait) and my boater got a 3lber on the Z-man craw before we moved on to give the area a rest.

We found a bluff wall with a rocky ledge area in 15' of water that dropped off to about 60' and I missed a solid bite on the sleeper craw. I cast back to it and got bit again, but was then immediately wedged into the rocks. I tried freespooling and could feel the line barely slipping the other way, but never got it free and finally broke it off. We made another move, this time over to the quarry which is a very long, steep bluff wall with a shallow ledge that drops off to deep water, just like the area we left. Our goal was to fish this and then head back to our favorite spot about an hour before weigh ins. Needing any kind of bite we could get, we hit the area hard with our dropshots, but managed nothing but a good snag. After getting my dropshot back I noticed a few rough spots on the line and made a mental note to change my leader before putting it away and grabbing the sleeper craw again. Every so often I would check the drag to make sure it was where I set it, and after noticing it backing off and feeling a little pain in my index finger second knuckle, I finally figured out my problem. Every time I would roll cast with my right hand, I would move my index finger off the trigger grip at the end of the cast as I transitioned to my other hand. As I rolled the reel onto its side, my thumb came off the casting bar which loosened my grip so much that because the reel was not yet supported with my other hand, my knuckle came forward and impacted the bottom of the drag star, slightly loosening the drag. With enough casts or a hard enough impact, like the one I felt, the drag would be loose enough to slip easily on a hook set. No lazy technique goes unpunished, but at least I found the problem!

After thoroughly pounding the quarry for zero bites we headed back to our spot with about an hour left. I picked up the dropshot and hooked another solid fish. Each time the fish got close to the boat and saw the net, it would make another strong run. I finally had it right under the surface and steering directly toward the boat when it dove under the net. my boater quickly moved the net out of the way to avoid hitting the line, but I couldn't bring the rod tip down fast enough and as the fish went under, the line hit the boat and that was all she wrote. It was then I remembered my mental note that I needed to re-tie a new leader and now I was 1 for 6 on the day. We continued to fish the area until his trolling motor lost power 45 minutes before weigh in, and after failing to get it running again we beached the boat to diagnose the problem. With maybe 20 minutes left to fish, he got it going again but our spot had two more boats on it so we just headed to the dock and fished it with our last few minutes.

We weighed in 3 fish for 8.20lbs on the day (mine went 4.05lbs), which was only good enough for 8th out of 12 boats. The winning weight was just over 15lbs, so if I had managed even a few of the fish I lost, we would have been in contention. The big fish for the tourney went 5.28lbs, and after both of us looked at how small that fish was compared to the one I lost, we guessed it to be at least 8lbs+. In any case, I still had fun and learned several important lessons on the day, which hopefully will make the difference in a positive way sometime in the future.

My only fish for the tournament:



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[Pat Dilling]

Thanks for a great report!  I bet you'll apply your lessons next time.

[Mike Cork]

What a great report. Thanks for sharing the photo as well.