Pedro, I'm stuck, Vexus and officially a "Husky Hooker CBL #2"

[Fast Eddie]

Headed up to Pedro on Wednesday after picking up the Ranger at Anglers Paradise (formerly C&C) for my 200 hour service. The wife enjoyed the scenic ride up 132. Went past the 4 corners and up 132 to Bonds Flat. What I didn't realize was the last time I was at McClure and had to go into Jamestown, I turned right out of McClure and went to Pepita (I think) over to 132 then left and up the hill to Bonds Flat. Today I learned that I can go right on 132 and about a mile down the road is a left to go to McClure. OH well live and learn. Anyway we get our 44 day pass ($100.00 for boat and vehicle for 3 days and just the truck on Sat) and on to the launch. A very uneventful day. Everything was small. Went up into Moccasin and Woods. On Thursday fishing was sooooooooo sloooooow. Made it a tuff bite. Top water is essentially dead from a month ago. Checking out middle bay. Water temp was in upper 60's in the morning to 74 in the afternoon. Breezy at times. ( the jerk left the jerk baits at home ) and the spinnerbait was not working.
A funny thing happened on Thursday morning. At the Travelodge where we stay we try to get a specific room on the upper level. With all the tree trimmers there the place is packed on weekdays. Anyway I'm prepping the boat for the journey on the upper level and our room is on the lower level, when the wife tells me her room key won't open the door anymore. OK I think, not paying to much attention to what she said because at my age you need 100% concentration on boat prep or you'll drive away from Anglers Paradise, fish, load the boat and drive to Angels Camp with the winch wheel partially deployed and not know it until unhitching time. Well I turn my attention to her and give her my room key. It's 5 am and dark. As i look up from the boat I see her trying to get into the room we usually stay in which is not the room were staying in. I raise my voice and let her know that's not our room.
Of course the poor woman who was occupying the room was not to pleased with this attempt. Now naturally this was going to be "one of those days when she'd like to cut me into little pieces" because I was laughing so hard. I knew I'd better knock it off........and I did.
Friday we went to Hatch Creek. There were a lot of fish bustin on top. I had the wife dragging a 1/8 oz Keitec with a electric shad mayor, while I was throwing jigs and D/S. Having not much success we move to Big Creek. Fishing a steep wall, she tells me she's hung up "again" in one of those frustrating voices you hear on occasion, but I notice as we're moving forward her line is moving off to the left. I say You got a fish, set the hook. She swings the rod and we boat a nice keeper. Still only an 8lb day.
Tournament Day:
Meet up with John and load his Vexus. Was I surprised at how much room there was. I could have easily brought the kitchen sink and still have room for my helmet and raingear. It is fully loaded. The air ride seats were comfortable especially when that wind came up later in the day. We discussed where we should go and settled on Big Creek. We were in the first flight so chances were good we'd get our spot. Of course this is Don Pedro, there is NO our spot. as the 2 boats in front of us both stopped on the spot I wanted to fish. Luckily, the fish were bustin all over the place. I was dragin the jig and John was using a shaky head, when he decided to fish a megabass jerkbait. He was on in seconds. Nice largemouth, then another and another. By 8:30 we had a limit. Around 9 I hooked into a nice 2+ spot that Bubba Said put us at 10.25, but as soon as the front passed so did the bites. We struggled for the rest of the day. Time to go in. Now the hike up the cardiac ramp means a long wait for John (he was taking one of the teens out in they're competition Sunday out of big break) so I had the wifey drive the truck to the bottom of the ramp and pick me up. We were 3rd in line. Our bag weighed in at 9.62 good for 20th place.
BTW, this was the wife and mine 51 wedding anniversary. Imagine that, she let me fish on our special day. What ta Gal.
Here our the results, Sorry for those of you the "DON"T HAVE PERMISSION TO VIEW THE ATTACHMENT
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[Whoopbass]

Next time throw crankbaits on steep rocky banks.

[ash]

For me the Spoon has been key to Fall fishing on Pedro or shaking a brass n glass (yes i still do that) 30' in the trees for suspended fish. Sounds like you had a good trip.

[Turkeyman]

Eddie, just a question for you. If there was fish busting bait on top; why were you throwing a bottom bait? I ask this because the weekend before it took me awhile to figure out that they were not biting on the bottom and I started throwing a shaking minnow and fishing it about a foot under the surface in 49'er. I caught 7 or 8 fish in 20 minutes or so. Later that afternoon I caught 16.5 lbs on a spook in about 4 hours of fishing a particular pattern.
The Sunday before your tournament I only caught 3 fish on a spook at like 4 pm, but I wasn't up there to fish until they started busting bait in front of us.

[Fast Eddie]

In response to questions, being a team tournament we were each covering a different column of water. Our largest fish came on a Johnnie C's 1/2oz jig in 30' of water. John was throwing a crankbait for awhile but to no avail. once the front passed and we were looking at 15 - 20 MPH sustained winds, and 2 - 3 ft chop the bite died. H2O temp was in the high 60's in the am and into the 70's by the afternoon. We tried jerkbaits, spinnerbaits, rattletraps in the mud line, but for us the bite died......period. We were grateful for what we were able to catch and cull.
Next up McClure. Looks like we'll be jerking again.
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