Day two Bag over 10lbs...Photo Credit: Jody Only National writer for The Examiner, Advanced Angler and many other publications.
Well our 2011 season has come to a close with our last tournament being held at two different lakes. Lake Nacimiento and Lake San Antonio. Located close to Paso Robles the scenery was plentiful with vineyards and tons of deer! When I say deer I'm not talking 4 of 5 being seen in a day but hundreds! We had deer eating our leftover breakfast from our condo balcony every morning!
My practice session started at Lake San Antonio with fog that was thick till about 12:00pm. There is nothing like going to a lake you don't know anything about, fishing in the fog for 5 hours and not being able to run the big motor.. I was limited to where to go and decided to fish the north end of the lake. (Big Mistake) The next day my travel partners Jeff Klicka and Mike Folkestad decided to tackle Nacimiento. This lake had tons and tons of spotted bass fishing. I found some good water by the end of the day way up in the river which had better quality fish. See picture above. The next day we were met with fierce winds that reached upwards of 50 mph. So we decided to still go out and find some cover and some more quality fish.
Day 1 of the tournament was Lake San Antonio and was only able to manage 1 fish in the boat. (What a bummer!!!) I had a couple of other bites and two that came off. Day 2 was completely different. I had a 10 lb limit by 10:00 and just blasted from spot to spot trying to upgrade. All In all I thought I had a decent tournament but was behind the eight ball from the start due to the fog and wind. I did learn a few things that will carry over to our first tournament of the year at Lake Shasta. I expect to hold my own up there and cash a check against all the strong northern competition. Watch out boys!!
I want to congratulate Mike Folkestad for the AOY Daiwa Cup winner and 2nd Place Finish for the tournament. I think I am going to have to check that ole man out for performance enhancing drugs or something... He's unbelievable!! Also congrats to Tami Curtis for being the first women to clinch a AOY for the South!! Wow way to go Tami! Tami has had a roller coaster of a year, all the way from being diagnosed with cancer to ending up the Champ! Keep up the fight Stick!!
The Won Bass staff ran another top notch tournament despite some draw backs which were unforeseen. But once again Billy Egan and his crew pulled through without a glitch in the system! Baits of choice were the jig 1/2 oz with double tail hula grubs, jackall cross tail shads, westy worms, and the senko..
I have a new article out in Westernbass magazine that has some great insight on handpour worms vs injection mold worms so click on them to view the latest techniques to catch winter time bass! I would like to thank my endorsement sponsor Lobina Lures for a great 2011 year and look forward to working with them in the 2012 Season.. Go out and get some Rico's.. We have a new color coming out soon so be on the lookout!!! Special thanks to my other sponsors, Canyon Plastics, Mattress Depot, Reactor Watches, The HookUpTackle
Andy Manahl
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