Nor-Cal Bass Pro-Am Awesome Memories.

[basstrophy]

Back in December of 1986, I was reading the Modesto Bee Sports Hunting and Fishing page written by Ron Willson. Ron had said if you want to come fish with some of the best fishermen come to New Melones and sign up for a Pro-Am tournament with Nor-Cal Bass. After deep discussion with my wife and saving up enough money for the tournament on December 19, 1986 I drove my old Ford tuck to Melones for the very first time. I had never even been in a bass boat much less been in a big bass tournament nor had I ever been on New Melones Lake.

After finding New Melones Lake and signing in with Nor-Cal Bass they drew for partners. I drew Dan Byker and we were boat #2 out. Dan had a Spitfire Skeeter with a 175 or 200 Black Max on the back which at its time was one very fast boat. I remember I was loading my tackle into the boat which Dan Byker was inspecting, a black ring worm with a red tail, a small Rebel rattle shad rap and my jig and pork rod. All my favorite Merced River tackle, actually that was all I had for tackle besides a brown paper bag full of different colored worms and a few more jigs. I could tell with Dan’s expression on his face and his chuckle that he had a beginner with him and he didn’t need to worry about me out fishing him on this very cold calm morning. Nor-Cal Bass was not the shared weight Pro-Am at that time.

Dan launched his boat while I held it to the dock. I didn’t know anything about backing up boats or how to use a foot controlled trolling motor. After launching and floating around for a while from a distance came this voice from a loud speaker, official time is, weigh in is, then boat #1, boat #2. Dan hit his throttle to full and off we went about the time we hit 60 mph my hat was gone, my glasses were ripped from my face and my head was extremely cold and my hands were burning from the wind chill factor. Dan’s Skeeter boat was flying, it was screaming down this icy cold lake, I too was screaming from the excitement and the adrenalin pumping through my body. I remember Dan looking at me while I was letting out this loud scream and pumping my fist. Dan gave me that same look when he was inspecting my tackle. I’m not sure what he was thinking but I’ll almost positive he chuckled again; I couldn’t hear anything because of the wind rushing by my ears. Well after going 60-65mph for several minutes our first stop was the south fork of the river.

I’ll never forget my first bass boat ride the twisty freezing ride up river to the south fork miles from our blast off area. Dan’s Skeeter boat would slide sideways for a while when he turned then the boat would hook up and go straight. When the boat would hook up it would just about toss you out of the boat. Of course I didn’t know this and the first time it happened I felt as if I was going to be ejected from the boat. Lucky my leg caught Dan’s leg which stopped me from being ejected out. Dan’s boat did not have any wussy bars to hold onto so between me holding onto the seat with my arse and my fingers digging into the bottom of the seat, which are still imprinted deep into the bottom of his seats I held on for dear life. I will never forget that boat ride. Thanks Dan Byker for the awesome memories.

Nor Dan Byker or I caught a fish but I did see Paul Cox from C&C marine catch a limit of fish spooning not far from us, Paul came in second with the only limit of bass. Larry Edgerton won the tournament with one fish an 8 pound bass he caught flipping trees. I remember looking at Larry’s boat and seeing all these wooden branches littered all over his boat. Everyone was around Larry’s boat like a big close family talking about the day’s events. I was hooked!

This weekend was a very sad weekend for me. It was my last Nor-Cal Bass pro-am tournament after fishing Nor-Cal every year but one year since 1986. I still can’t believe it has been 23 years since my very first Nor-Cal Bass tournament. I will remember every tournament as if it was my first. I have met many friends during all these years fishing Nor-Cal Bass.

Thank you Diana Willson, Ron Willson, Dee Pimentel, Norval Pimentel, Anthony Pimentel, Tim Paz and his wife and all the sponsors that supported Nor-Cal Bass all these years. Thank you to all the fishermen that I have met during the Pro-Am days for all those awesome memories.

Let’s hear your Nor-Cal Bass Pro-Am Memories.


I’ll see you at the next Nor-Cal Bass team tournament at McClure
John

[MT]

Cool story! I'm going to have to call cousin Dan and make sure he reads this. He will get a kick out of it for sure and I will of course give him ^$#% about not catching any. Hopefully, NorCal teams draws a bunch of boats. It looks like a great schedule and I'm looking forward to it.

[Gumpa]

Great story! Although I never fished Nor Cal I did fish BASS Fed Tournements for many years. I drew Danny Byker at Pedro for a Fed Tourney. Now I had fished with many different guy's in many different boat's but never in the little rocket that Danny owned.

Holy Crap! is all I can say. We were coming back down the lake just passed the second bridge and a day cruser was headed the other direction. You know the 1's. Like at the delta with the 4ft roller's trailing behind. Well Danny only knew 1 speed, "WIDE OPEN" really didn't bother me at all. I was never scared riding with other's. But on this ride I got the Crap scared out of me! When we hit the 1st wave I lanched out of the seat and was headed out of the boat. All of a sudden a strong hand grabbed my life jacket and pulled me back down. I looked over and Danny said, that was close huh?

I'm sure I was as white as a sheet at the time and after a few moment's I regained my composer and said yeah, it was. We laughed about it later. He was a great guy to fish with as well as other's I met the many year's I fished draw's. I know that alot of frendship's were made over the year's in Nor-Cal as well as other circut's. It's a shame they leave us. But we will alway's have great memorie's! But that boat ride, I'll never forget! Hello to Danny Byker.......from an old friend....Tom Work