Kline and Winningham Take Round 2 at Piru

John Barron · Post by **John Barron** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 5:46 pm

Sunday morning met the 2nd tournament of the Top Stick Joes with a little chilly weather. 24 teams took to the water at day light with high anticipation. The week prior to the event fishing was good and the general attitude was that of big fish showing up at the scales. When the dust settled and the weigh in was done Kerry Kline of Redondo Beach and Patrick Winningham from Augora Hills finished this event with a fist full of fish weighing in at 16.09#. They had a solid bag anchored by a 7.02 which surprisingly enough was not big fish of the tournament. Their effort for the day paid off with a check for $673, excellent job and congratulations.

2nd place went to the team of Jim “Monster” Basham from Downey and David Cunningham from Hawthorn. They brought their 5 fish to the scales with over 15 pounds including big fish of the tournament at 8.19 pounds. They took home $683 for the day.

3rd place went to Jae Cho and Soon Chul Lee. This team has enjoyed success as non boaters in the Top Stick Tour Pro Am series show casing what they have learned so far. Their day cashed them out at $290.

We did throw in a little twist. We threw in a no cost “Beat Marla” option. The team to post the weight just ahead of Marla (my wife) would be awarded a $50 gas card. I took Marla out and she had to catch and land the fish without my help. I could only guide her and net the fish. Marla weighed in 4 fish for 7.30 pounds. Michael Reyes owner of Finatics Clothing and his partner Paco Avarado were seen taunting Marla after they posted the score to win the gas cards. Some said they overheard Michael saying “next time you better bring your “A” game lady!” or something like that. Marla was heard mumbling “A” game? I'll show you A game. You boys better bring it strong next time…………..@#$%%&@

All in all it was a good time and we truly enjoyed the day. I look forward to the next one at Pyramid in May. Timing should be excellent for some big sacks. Come join us and see what this is all about.
John Barron

Place Team Weight Big Fish Winnings
1 Kerry Kline/Patrick Winningham 16.09 $673.00
2 Jim Basham/David Cunningham 15.07 8.19 $683.00
3 Jae Cho/Soon Lee 13.39 $290.00
4 John Fike/Jim Milbrand 13.36 $150.00
5 Brad Szakaroski/Lenny Scinto 12.86 $173.00
6 Jeff Jue/David Sanchez 12.41 7.71 $80.00
7 Steve Iwashita / Edgar Uyema 11.56
8 Lance Karafelas/Dan Proctor 11.00
9 Ron Licari/Mike Forslund 10.95
10 John Younce/Eric Prada 10.61
11 Ed Cusick/James Lara 9.83
12 James Cambell/Zach Gruner 9.67
13 Shane Morgan/Dennis Morgan 9.50
14 Tom Lee/Terry Conklin 9.43
15 Mike Robinett/Tom Fruh 8.30
16 Psalm Respress/Joshua Respress 7.74
17 Michael Reyes/Paco Alvarado 7.41 $50.00 Gas card Beat Marla Barron Option
(17 1/2) Marla Barron 7.30
18 Ed Cazares / Vince Perkins 7.15
19 David Handy 6.25
20 Mark Bowman/Mario Ringo 5.40
21 Daren Lacher 5.39
22 Joe Payne/Keith Cummings 3.28
23 Michael Rooney/Michael Rooney Jr. 1.98
24 Jesse Austin/Mike Austin 1.89

John Barron · Post by **John Barron** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 6:12 pm

Pictures will be posted on the Top Stick website soon.
jb

JeffJ · Post by **JeffJ** » Wed Apr 29, 2009 4:11 pm

What's up with every one?? The winners deserve some recognition!!!

I would like to a big congrats Kerry Kline and Patrick Winningham for their win at Piru. You guys put in your time and deserve the win. Way to kick all our butts!!!!!

Also a Jim Basham deserves a congrats on BIG fish honors! Way to go Jim.

Ray L. · Post by **Ray L.** » Wed Apr 29, 2009 5:39 pm

I agree Jeff. The winners put in there time and figured out the quality fish. They found the reaction bite and figured out that it was the winning pattern.
Congrats to you as well Jeff. Second big fish is not bad either.

palmdale-shane · Post by **palmdale-shane** » Wed Apr 29, 2009 8:19 pm

Yes Jeff is right.....congrats to the winners.

ToadCkr · Post by **ToadCkr** » Wed Apr 29, 2009 9:45 pm

Thanks for the kind words everyone...I have spend the last 3 or 4 sundays up at the lake, and made it a point to figure out the reaction bite up there....That seemed like my best option on targeting larger fish do to the water clearity....So I decided to go with a crank, jerkbait, and a chatter bait...All seemed to produce in certain areas, chatter bait up shallow, jerkbait mid depth, and the crank out deeper. The bite was pretty good all over the lake, but seemed the best adjacent to spawning areas...I would only catch 12-14 pounds (quite a few fish)when i would go out, but if i caught a kicker it would bumb the weights up...Since the weights where not that great with a few previous tournaments that have been held up there, it kind of got my hopes up fishing this piru tournament....I had got on the phone and called one of my partners i fish casitas tournaments with and told him about the fish i was on and convinced him he should fish it with me....He said he was down for it since casitas was not showing him any love...anyways as the tournament began i went to a few big fish spots first thing in the morning, but there was no love from the fish...The water was really calm, which probably added to the problems since the last few sunday morning had some morning breeze....I then made a run up towards the dam and fished the cove on the left, and not a single strike...Its now a few hours into the tournament and i look back at my partner, and he looks over at me, and i could see it in his eyes like.." Are you sure you where on some fish"...I assured him that we have plenty of time left and that we need to keep casting....i decided to hit a few more spots mid lake and still no love from the fish...I then started to second quess myself, and kept looking down at my dropshot rod...."should i pic it up"..."maybe just a few casts..."But for some reason something kept telling me stick to the game plan...Come on wind please start blowing....please...No sooner did i say that and the wind started blowing....I let the wind blow for a few minutes then i told my partner, lets pack up, and hit this point i been wanting to through on when the wind picked up...We flew over to the spot, then came up to the point, and found a boat of three had just fished it, and was moving down the lake...I told my partner that it did not matter...because they where not fishing the way we were....I set up the boat in position, made a good cast, got my crank where i wanted it to be then "Wham"...a the 7 pounder hit...I quickly boated the fish and high fived my partner, and said, "see i new we should have stuck with it..." Well that was our first fish of the day, and i new if the wind kept up our spots shoud start producing....We proceeded to some other good spots and picked up a crank fish here and a jerkbait fish there....But what i had figured out towards the end of the tournament was pretty interesting... The previous weeks the fishing was progressed to be better and better towards the tournament time, so why was it not as good this time...Well the water was dirty, those lasts weeks, but was considerably clearer the week of the tournament....So i find in kind of interesting that we did not start catching more fish until the wind hand chopped up the water to make a mudline....and in that muddy water was where we where catching our fish....So we kind of figured out a small pattern at the end to fish the mudlined water in key areas and that is where we caught or fish...Luckily we caught a few key fish, which was enough to put us to the top....I am glad i stuck with my instincts even when it slowed down, otherwise our result would have been different...Thanks Top Stick Joes for putting on a great tournament, and to all the anglers that also put there hard work in....Everyone was really nice....and i plan on fishing more tournaments.....Also thanks John for the emails and making the tournament run so smoothly...

John Barron · Post by **John Barron** » Thu Apr 30, 2009 11:23 am

You're welcome and again great job good story. You gotta love it when a plan comes together!!
jb

Dan P · Post by **Dan P** » Fri May 01, 2009 10:02 am

Great job on your win Gentlemen. Some solid weights for sure. Hope to see you at Pyramid this month.

DP

buddy brown · Post by **buddy brown** » Sat May 02, 2009 3:51 pm

Congrats to you guys. You did your homework and stuck with your game plan. Our day was different. Went in blind haven't seen the lake since last may. Started off well with the jig and d-shot. And just started whacking em good until the wind came up. Did not make the adjustments and couldn't cull two rats. HAd a good day out there w/ my buddy Terry and it was good to see some familiar faces out there. Hope to make it to Pyramid