“I was not able to do any practice before the event and it was over a year since I had been to Melones.” expressed Thao, “When I got to the lake, it was higher than I have ever seen it.”
“I ran a lot of water with a topwater bait.” declared Thao, “I saw fish busting in open water and was able to catch some of them with a walking bait.”
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“I used a variety of topwater baits to entice the larger fish.” emphasized Thao, “The bigger fish were way off shore busting bait.”
“I was able to catch a few of my larger fish on the Deps Sakamata Shad using the Mid Strolling technique.” stressed Thao, “The fish wanted the Sakamata shad slowly moved above them and they would move up to eat the bait.”
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“The key was to cover water and find the active fish.” highlighted Thao, “Once you found the active fish they were very willing to eat the bait.”
“I used a few different topwater baits to catch my fish, the Choppo, a walking bait, wake bait, and an Ima Big Stick.” spotlighted Thao, “It seemed once I found a school of fish, I needed to rotate through the baits to keep them biting.”
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“The Garmin forward facing electronics was a big player with my win.” underlined Thao, “I was able to find the big schools of fish chasing bait offshore, plus, I was able to target them with precise casts to the bigger fish in the schools.”
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“I found most of the fish suspended over 50-feet of water with the fish in about 15 feet of water.” featured Thao, “The live scope help me watch how the fish reacted to my lure and I was able to change the cadence to get the fish to trigger.”
“I mainly targeted suspended fish all day long.”
Thao thanked Kayak City, 1st. Gen Fishing, P-Line, 559 Freson Bait and Tackle, LA Custom Jigs, and Yak Bass Angler.
Joshua Bryant was the runner up for the event with a total of 83.50” besting third place by his big fish to break the tie. Bryant used a Carolina rig to catch the bigger bass under the smaller schools working bait in the mid collum of the water. He also used an underspin in the afternoon to pick off the larger single fish.
“In the morning, I used a Carolina rig paired with a baby brush hog to catch the larger fish off the bottom.” stated Bryant, “The smaller fish were working the bait, but I found that the larger fish were on the bottom feeding.”
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“In the afternoon, I changed up to a Zappu underspin paired with a 2.8 Keitech.” expressed Bryant, “The fish were from 15 to 25-feet deep on isolated structure.”
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“The bigger fish were on isolated structure around points.” voiced Bryant, “It had to be on main lake points compared to secondary or point back inside of coves.”
“My practice days were just as good as the tournament day.” declared Bryant, “I had found that if there was a hump on a point, that was where I was able to catch the larger fish.”
“I had to cover water and keep moving to find more active fish.” affirmed Bryant, “This was the key to my success.”
Bryant thanked Kayak City for all their support, Dry Creek Outfitters, and CVKF for hosting such a great event.
Mark Steiner finished in third with 83.50”. Steiner found a cove where the fish were busting bait during practice and returned to that area during the tournament. He used an underspin to Mid Stroll his fish.
“I had found a cove where the bass were working bait, so I made the 40-minute run to that location.” announced Steiner, “I used an underspin to entice the bass by Mid Strolling the lure.”
“I was casting to the busting fish with the underspin while shaking my rod tip as my lure went through the feeding fish.” vocalized Steiner, “It seemed like the bigger fish bit first and the smaller fish would follow up.”
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“Once that area slowed, I left that area with only 3 fish.” declared Steiner, “I did return to that area a few times but was unable to catch any more fish.”
“With only two hours left, I started working my way back to the ramp. I still only had three fish at that time.” articulated Steiner, “I found some more fish working bait on top.”
“I started throwing a topwater bait to the fish working bait and caught another fish.” expressed Steiner, “I did catch one of my fish on a shaky head paired with a Zoom finesse work in June bug color.”
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“Once I got my fourth fish on topwater, I locked that in my hand.” communicated Steiner, “I had a few blow ups on the topwater and lost one while working my way back to the ramp.”
“At 1:20 PM, I culled two inches with a 16” fish on the topwater Berkey Cane Walker.” revealed Steiner, “It was nice to cull at the last minute and finish in third because of that last fish.”
Steiner thanked his grandparents for all their support with his fishing. The are like my main sponsor helping me purchase baits and my wife and family for all their support and text messages keeping me positive throughout the tournament.
Top Ten:
1. Damian Thao 89.00”
2. Joshua Bryant 83.50”
3. Mark Steiner 83.50”
4. Angel Sanchez 83.00”
5. Steven Johnson 83.00”
6. John Myers 82.50”
7. Max Lee 81.25”
8. Richard George Jr. 80.25”
9. Jesus Reyes 80.25”
10. Gregory Dooman 79.00”
Big Fish
Damian Thao 19.25”
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