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Lake Success did not live up to its name, 45 anglers and only 27 fish were caught with only two limits of bass. The word on the street was practice before the tournament was tough with many anglers stating, they did not catch a fish. The weather reached over 100 degrees and the water temperature was 83. The lake is a big bowl-shaped lake with only one point that splits the lake in half. John Lopez caught a total of 5 fish all day and won with 72.50” crushing second place by an impressive 4.5”. This was Lopez’s very first tournament he had ever fished – a nice way to start his competitive bass fishing. Lopez started off with topwater but had no luck. He went through his reaction bait arsenal with no luck. Lopez went shallow with a shaky head around some lay down wood.
“I let the bait sit for over a minute and I got bit.” Lopez said, “I thought it was a fluke but on my next cast I let it sit, five minutes later I caught another fish.”
For the next 45 minutes to an hour, Lopez caught a total of 4 keepers dead sticking his shaky head in that one area. Lopez moved to an area with a few stand up trees. He cast his underspin to the tree and as it fell a fish pulverized his bait.
“It was awesome to catch that last keeper even though it was small.” Lopez said, “It was nice to win my very first tournament.”
Lopez did not know that he won until they called second place. He thanked his pregnant wife for all her support and the guys at CVKF for putting on such a great event. Lopez is looking forward to competing next year.
Robert Yamamoto finished in second with 68.00”. Yamamoto practiced for three days, and he found that the main lake was not producing as well as the river area. There were tons of floating debris on the lake that looked great to punch or frog but ended up skunking. Yamamoto decided to drop-shot a wacky rigged Senko.
“The area I found had a lot of shad around.” Yamamoto said, “So during the tournament that is where I concentrated.”
Yamamoto drop-shot a 5” black and blue Senko and a Zoom 4.5” green pumpkin blue flake in the wacky style. Yamamoto did all his damage on the drop-shot in shallow water and would see fish swim up to his bait. Yamamoto thanked his fiancée for all her support, Yak Rods and Woo Tongson weights.
Steven Johnson finished in third place with 47.50”. Johnson caught his fish on a 3/16-ounce dart head 4.5” Morning dawn Robo worm and a half ounce jig Mad Mouth Bass in the green swirl color. Johnson targeted bass in shallow water with his dart head next to big rocks with wood. As the day progressed, Johnson moved out deeper to 30’ of water to catch his last keeper.
“First thing in the morning, on the dart head Morning dawn Robo worm, I caught a 17” bass.” said Johnson, “It sure was nice to start off with that big fish.”
Johnson thanked sponsors Spearpoint Hooks, Mad Mouth Baits, Swagger Tongson. Johnson also thanked his wife and family for all their support with his fishing. Also, Donavan and Zack for starting up SCKF and all their hard work running these events, most of all Copes for sponsoring CVKF.
Top Ten:
1. John Lopez 72.50”
2. Robert Yamamoto 68.00”
3. Steven Johnson 47.50”
4. Pia Xiong 28.00”
5. Jess Coulter 16.00”
6. Gabriel Falcon 14.75”
7. Paul Ferreira 14.75”
8. Martin Lopez 14.75”
9. Russell Lasswell 13.25”
10. Bryan Vogt 12.75”
Big Fish:
Steven Johnson 17.00”
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