After 13 years of tournament fishing many SoCal lakes, the young gun reestablished his tournament credentials; and then promptly got transferred by the Army to Washington State. He had to start over again, learning to master Columbia River smallmouths, beaver-hut largemouths, and cold water fisheries devoid of typical baitfish like shad.
Having competed in tournaments across
the Pacific Northwest for 22 years, he
returned to SoCal once again, with many
more AOY titles, a Ranger bassboat equipped
with Lowrance Touch-12s, Spotlight Scan,
StructureScan, Point-1, and even a laser range
finder; all employed to locate key structure-
holding, educated and pressured bass.
It didn’t take long to remember fishing in SoCal is different, and adjustments were once again in order. This time he was better prepared, especially having learned up North to fish spider web line for big smallmouths in equally clear and deep water. Within a couple of months he finished in the money on Diamond Valley Lake (which didn’t even exist the last time he was in California), and on Lake Casitas.
It probably comes as no surprise that the angler in this story is the author. I have been fortunate enough to fish bass all over the United States, Mexico, Canada, Italy and Asia. Looking back at the adjustments I had to learn to be successful, it is hard to go all-in on the theory… a bass is a bass, anywhere. Of all the places I have fished for bass, for several reasons SoCal is the toughest, and adjustments are required!
FALL 2015
1975 Delaware Championship Team
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