Diamond Valley Lake with Robert Schneider.
4 bass me,
4 bass Robert.
Pre-frontal conditions, water 57, air 44 at 6 a.m..
I almost went with Robert yesterday by a bad cough and cold kept me home. I prayed I'd be well enough to go, I'd been itching to hit this lake for weeks.
Up at 3:40 a.m., after 3.5 hours of sleep, and drove to Roberts house in Temecula by 5. We made it to the lake at 5:45 and waited for the ranger to escort us in. We were escorted in reallllllllll slow as someone said we should not run over endangered kangaroo rats. They have never seen any but that does not seem to matter!!!? We got on the water, 3rd boat out, on Roberts white with blue stripes Champion 188 bass boat. He should name it 'one sweet ride'. We sped off to one of Robert's secret honey holes that folks keep trying to find him on, but we had our 'invisible shields up'.
We planned on tossing swimbaits first off. Some success had recently been reported by others and I tossed what I thought was my slow sinking BBZ towards shore before the boat even came to a stand still. I instantly got a small overrun and while untangling it I saw a bass hitting the surface where I had cast. I got the line straightened a second later and as I took up the slack the bass on the surface actually started pulling my lure. What the heck, how could that be, my lure should be near the bottom? I reeled like crazy and landed a nice large bass at least 4 or 5 lbs a minute later with Roberts help on the netting. I realized then the BBZ was my Christmas present one, a floater, not the slow sink one I already owned and thought was tied on the pole. Oh well.
HOW ABSOLUTELY COOL IS THAT? A SWIMBAIT FISH ON THE FIRST CAST OF THE YEAR!!! THANK U LORD.
My first cast of the year netted my this fat girl.
But totally lucky, with no skill whatsoever. Robert came over and used my camera to take a pic of me and my fish. We put it in the live well for weighing later and 'group pic's' of our best 5. I was planning on an 'epic' day I had told Robert the night before.
Well, I now knew how to work this bait, just dead stick it as we call it (do nothing but let it sit there- dead looking- thus the name). My second cast I did just that. It sat there motionless- nothing. I waited. I waited some more and then twitched the lure, nothing, then EXPLOSION CITY and hook set...FISH ON! I fought it in and Robert netted my second fish of the season/year, another very healthy lunker of 4 or 5 pounds! ABSOLUTELY COOL. A SWIMBAIT FISH ON THE SECOND CAST OF THE YEAR!!! "THANK U LORD" I yelled. HOW ABSOLUTELY UNBELIEVABLE COOL IS THAT? "Yahoo, THANK U LORD" again I yelled.
My second cast of the year netted me this fat girl too.
"Quite" barked Robert, "those folks will hear you!" He was right, noise carries like rifle shots and it would attract attention to our spot. "Sorry" I replied, "I'll keep it down".
I had a hard time getting the lures treble hooks out of the net this time and lost about 10 minutes trying. I think the adrenalin did not let my hands / head work right and I was overanxious to get the bait back in the water. Robert finally came over and helped and then took a pic of me and my fish for me. We were keeping them in the live well for a group shot of all the biggies at the end of the day, or so we hoped.
Well, after about 10 more casts Robert gets one on his BBZ too. We put it in the other well without weighing it too, but his looked at least as big, if not bigger, than mine. Time to catch bass, weigh them later.
Robert got the big girl of the day, 5.3.
Well, no more excitement for the next hour or so.
50 more casts by me and about the same by Robert netted zippo. We finally went to another spot nearby where Robert tried to get one on a Carolina rig. I got the next one, a smaller model, on a drop shot 'Schneider special', a special hand pour he had made up.
We went back to the original spot to weigh and release the bass as Robert was worried about their health. Mine weighed 4.8 and 4.4, his was a 5.3. WOW.
He then caught a 4.1 on his c/r and a 3.3 an hour later. A 3.12 was his final fish for the day another hour later. 
Robert is one tough stick with that C/Rig.
I made sure not to hold them sideways for the photos as I'd heard that breaks the bigger fishes jaw bones as they can't handle the strain (those over 3 lbs. or so).
At 4:15 p.m. I ended up getting my fourth fish on the last cast on a watermelon 3" d/s Senko on 4 lb test. It fought like crazy and I was afraid it was going to win the battle, but nah, today was my day. A 4.6 pound beauty.
A 4.6 pound beauty for a sunset shot.
What an epic day to start the new year. Thanks so much for letting me backseat Robert.
PS (Hey Robert, I totaled them, mine was 16.14, yours 16.3... close race buddy)
The End, but not the end!!!
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