Chris Nelson Wins Lake Folsom Yak-A-Bass

[basstrophy]

Folsom Lake was stingy at best with only 6 limits out of 126 anglers. Just days prior, heavy rainstorms pummeled California causing the American river to muddy. The North and South arms looked like raging rivers with over 20,000 cubic feet per second of water running through Folsom. The water temperature ranged from 47 degrees in the morning and then warmed up to 54 to 60 degrees late in the afternoon. Floating debris covered most of the lake until the wind blew it to the bank. It was treacherous to navigate a kayak on the water and wildly savage to put a boat to speeds of 30 mph. At the end of the day, Chris Nelson put up an impressive 91” that weighed around 17.5 lbs. Nelson expressed that he caught a total of 5 fish during the event. He fished two days prior and found a decent spinnerbait bite upriver. On Saturday tournament day at 11:30 AM, Nelson’s first fish came off a point with rock on it. Nelson said, “After a few casts to the rock pile a fish smoked my spinnerbait.” He worked down the bank for an hour and a half without a bite. Returning to the rock pile where he caught his fist fish, Nelson made an adjustment that proved to be the right decision. He tossed a 5” wacky-rigged Senko with 7-pound test on that exact rocky point in 6 to 8 feet of water and caught 2 fish in consecutive cast. After working in that area for about an hour, he decided to work down the bank. At approximately 2:30 PM he caught his last two fish in a small cut that was covered with floating wood. Nelson said, “Both of those fish jumped several times and there was wood everywhere, I was lucky that the fish didn’t saw my line.” Nelson fished down that bank the rest of the day and never got another bite. Nelson explicitly stated that this was his first tournament in his new Hobie PA 360. Nelson thanked his dad for bringing him fishing when he was young and obviously his wife and kids for all their support, but especially to his wife for taking care of their 6 kids while he was out enjoying his passion - fishing. Also, his buddy Matt Paul for spending all those days on the water with him. Check out Chris Nelson’s YouTube channel @ chrisnelsonfishing.

Michael Wu finished in second place with 88.25”. This was the first kayak event he had fished. Wu didn’t practice fish for the event, but he did find the combination that opened the lock to a very tough bite. Wu stated, "When I launched out of Brown’s Ravine most of the anglers went right, so I headed left towards the dam." After working through his arsenal of lures, he caught a fish on a crank bait along the rock walls. Wu said, “I worked through several different crank baits at different depths and found that the DT16 in the old school color was working.” While the wind was blowing on that bank, he caught 4 fish quickly. When the wind stopped, the fish stopped biting too. Five hours later at 2:30 PM, he caught his 5th fish on a ball head Ketiech. Wu favors using 12-pound Big Game mono line because of the stretch. Wu thanked his wife and kids for egging him on during the day and keeping his confidence. He also thanked the Yak A Bass anglers and James Snyder for all his hard work with running these tournaments.

Greg Blanchard placed in third with 83.25”. In Greg Blanchard words, "I fished up the North Fork River arm where the water clarity was much better than the main lake. The previous (practice) day I had launched out of granite Bay fishing upriver without a single bite but was noticing the water clarity improving the further upriver I'd go which gave me enough reason to try there on tournament day. I caught all my fish in about 5’ of water, on a white spinnerbait with gold and silver willow blades. I was slowly rolling it back to the boat keeping it just above the bottom. Fish seemed to be positioned on points that were more tapered wand without as much rock/boulders. The almost "boring” looking points were actually my most productive through the day. It wasn’t easy by any means, and it took a lot of casts to get 7 bites hooking up with 5 and they all fortunately came in the boat.”



Top Ten:

1.Chris Nelson 91.00”

2.Michael Wu 88.25”

3.Greg Blanchard 83.25

4.Justin Dutcher 82.00”

5.Michael Lavoie 81.00”

6.Tyler Jackson 79.75”

7.Matthew Brannon 70.75”

8.Thomas WIllingmyre 62.25”

9.David Morris 50.50”

10.Scott Savko 50.00”

Big Fish:

Michael Wu 21.25”