Anthony Garcia Wins ABA season opener at San Vicente

[basstrophy]

The season opener for the American Bass Kayak Series was at San Vicente Lake. The weather was on a warming trend with the air temperature from the 50’s to the 80’s and the water temperature ranged from 50 to 60 degrees. The nights leading into the tournament were warm which meant the bass were pushing to their spawning locations. Anthony Garcia topped the field of 44 anglers with 86.25”. Garcia said, “With ABA, there is no practice leading up to the tournament the week before.” After only fishing the lake one other time, he knew that the drop-shot was obviously going to be a factor in catching fish. After working the drop-shot for an hour without a bite, he made an adjustment to a rip bait. He fished a mega bass rip bait vision one plus one in the pro-blue color to catch the winning bag. Once Garcia changed to a rip bait, he caught back-to-back fish in 6 consecutive casts, this is when he knew he figured out what the fish wanted. Garcia moved out to the 30 feet of water and found the larger fish deeper. He used his Garmin Panopix to locate the fish. “I could see the fish suspended above the trees in the 30 to 50 feet of water, the tips of the trees had bass on it”, Garcia stated. Later in the day, Garcia moved to a man-made structure and saw a big school of fish in 50 feet of water. He used a damiki rig to drop on those fish and culled up several inches. Garcia expressed, “I didn’t go a half hour without catching a fish, it was one of those days.” Garcia said that he caught around 30 fish during the day. Garcia thanked his sponsors Old Town Kayaks, Dakota LIthium, IRod, Tackle Shack USA, Simms and BooneDox USA. A special thanks goes to his girlfriend and family for all their support. Garcia competes in a Big Water 132 Old Town Kayak.

James Choi placed second with 86.00”. Choi caught his first fish quickly on a rip bait; however, it was a short fish - but a bite. After an hour of fishing, he caught his first keeper, a nice 17.75” bass. Choi had a fish flop off his board, and another came unbuttoned. He noticed that the water was off colored where he was fishing so he made a move to a cove that had clearer water. At 1 PM, Choi made an adjustment with the color of his rip bait to white; this was a game changer. Choi said, “The water was off colored, this is why I changed to white.” Covering water, he started to catch fish, at 2 PM he had his limit. His limit fish was a nice 19.00” fish. Once he finished his limit, he relaxed to collect his thoughts. “I picked up my drop-shot rod and caught a nice 17.75”, it was back-to-back cast," Choi said. Humminbird Mega live helped him target the fish he caught. Choi thanked his wife and kids for all their support.



Tim OConner placed in third with 84.75. OConner drop-shot a 6” robo worm in the trees in about 20’ of water. After missing his first four fish, OConner was becoming frustrated because the fish were breaking off in the trees. He kept his composure and stuck to the drop-shot all day knowing that this would pay off. OConner said, “San Vicente is a high-risk high reward.” Garmin Panoptix was a game changer for OConner, he said, “I could see the fish in the isolated brush piles and would cast to the fish – game changer.” He said that San Vicente is known that the fish are line shy, so he used 8-pound test to catch his fish. He focused on the main lake areas near coves. OConner thanked his wife for all her support and the SoCal kayak anglers for starting off the year with their tournament at Lower Otay. Also, a big thanks to Shane LemMon and ABA for making these events happen.



Top Ten:

1. Anthony Garcia 86.25”

2. James Choi 86.00”

3. Tim OConner 84.75”

4. Chris Harris 84.50”

5. Raymond Tak 84.00”

6. Jonathan Demonet 83.25”

7. Jason Mathiot 81.75”

8.Kerry Peeler 80.75”

9. Brian Leppke 80.75”

10. Steve Buechner 79.75”



Big Fish:

Raymond Tak 19.25”