Oroville Event Last Saturday

Gary Dobyns · Post by **Gary Dobyns** » Mon Dec 12, 2011 8:19 pm

I have years of fishing time on Oroville. I went there Saturday with Corey Fenske not really knowing where i would fish. I knew I was going to cover water with rip baits and throw a tube or Senko if necessary. We caught a couple fairly quick, one was almost 2 1/2 and then nothing. I noticed a rounded point across the lake and it "felt' right. So we went...a dozen cast later a 3 lber. I told Corey I couldn't remember fishing here in many years. Nothing special about it really. Wind picked up a bit, so we ran up to some points that had the most wind on them. I caught a 2 1/2 real quick and was taking it to the well and Corey calls for the net on a 2.60 spot. We caught a bunch more in that area. I told Corey the fact I've never caught them good on this bank. Richard did ONCE, about 10 years ago. We just don't fish it, but it had wind and "felt" right. We continued to do the same thing all day. We had a great limit to almost 15 pounds. We culled 2 1/2 lb fish. Of all the fish we weighed and our 3 biggest cull fish, only ONE fish came off a spot that I've fished in many years. Most I've not fished in 7-10 years or more. Maybe even never. I have places I count on at Oroville, didn't catch anything worth weighing on them.

Guys that fish basically one lake hurt themselves when their "spots" don't pan out. Guys that fish a lot of different water or lakes are quicker to adjust or don't rely on their spots. They tend to fish the fish.

Sorry for long post, my way of griping a bit about all the one lake regions. It hurts fishermen. When we don't fish different bodies of water or techniques we hurt ourselves at becoming a more rounded angler. We don't tend to grow and adjust. We tend to NOT fish the fish, we fish our spots. This post barely gets the point I was shooting for but i decided to post anyway. Many I scrap and chicken out on posting.

HawgCatcher · Post by **HawgCatcher** » Tue Dec 13, 2011 6:09 am

Hey Gary,

I get what you are saying. You are 100% correct, one lake "Tournament Trails" are a joke. You won't find out how good of an angler you are if you are fishing the same water with the same techniques on the same "spots" every tournament. I wish that there were more "traveling" style tournament again. Maybe with the economy the way it is it's more expensive to run a tournament trail that travels to different bodies of water every month. Maybe an idea could be that some of the smaller circuits could combine resources and make a bigger circuit that would be able to create a true "traveling" style tournament trail again.

Those are just my thoughts.

Gary Dobyns · Post by **Gary Dobyns** » Tue Dec 13, 2011 7:32 am

Yep, that's what i was trying to say....you just did a better job at it. Thanks.

GKramer · Post by **GKramer** » Tue Dec 13, 2011 8:45 am

Not to sound contrary, Gary, but have you forgotten? The customer is always right. And right now the customers want "home-cooking," not a potential place-setting at the Round Table.

CN · Post by CN » Tue Dec 13, 2011 9:46 am

GKramer wrote:Not to sound contrary, Gary, but have you forgotten? The customer is always right. And right now the customers want "home-cooking," not a potential place-setting at the Round Table.

Another example why you will never get more people to participate in Tournament's. It's the same people winning on there home lake's. Look at WON'S year end event, no suprise there right. These same "Pro's" are fishing the team event's. Good for them but until someone come's up with something differant than what you have now there will be no change.

HawgCatcher · Post by **HawgCatcher** » Tue Dec 13, 2011 10:12 am

Gary,

You are working on something right?

Gary Dobyns · Post by **Gary Dobyns** » Tue Dec 13, 2011 10:39 am

Not to sound contrary, George, but do you know our boat counts go down every year. We have organized events by ABA, AC, and Won Bass that have boat counts LESS than our local clubs. Do you realize that every circuit having single lake regions divides the fields and anglers get lazy and only want to fish their own back yard ponds. There are a hand full of local stud anglers on each lake. They practice 4-5 days before an event and in most cases are tough to be. So the working guy that has to travel an hour or two, decides it's not worth his time to go head to head with the ONE LAKE WONDERS!! So counts go down some more. The one lake wonders lose confidence in their ability to go to say the Delta..."I hate that place"...no confidence and going against locals there that don't have the balls to come off the River and fish Oroville or Shasta! The fishermen don't have the confidence to Punch heavy mats in 3 feet of water then go to Shasta with 6 lb test line and fish 60 feet deep. So the fishermen don't get better as anglers, our numbers don't get better at events, the orgs counts go down more so sponsorship dollars go down farther, things just keep slipping farther down the toilet with our sport. George, you've made a career out of negativity....got any positive thoughts on this one?

I'll give you this one. I fished Oroville Saturday. I simply wanted to go fish a tournament after sitting out 10 months this year. I would of went to Clear Lake but knew Oroville would have a bigger turnout. Both AC events and both on the same day. But hey George, neither have my Zip Code

Gary Dobyns · Post by **Gary Dobyns** » Tue Dec 13, 2011 10:48 am

[quote="HawgCatcher"]Gary,

You are working on something right?[/quote]

Honestly, yes I am. But I know "I" can't do it....so now it's a "we" now and the "we" group is awesome. We have decided to hold back on info until we get a business plan together and pencil things out. If we agree to pull the trigger, there will be meetings all over the place to spell it out. This is something that should of been done 25 years ago. It won't be easy but I'm very hopeful and excited.

If it does not go forward, I'm the only idiot and dreamer

But if it does, the fat guy with the big smile will be easy to spot

HawgCatcher · Post by **HawgCatcher** » Tue Dec 13, 2011 11:14 am

sounds good. can't wait to here about it.

Letsinger · Post by **Letsinger** » Tue Dec 13, 2011 12:05 pm

http://sacramentobasstrackers.com/index.html

http://folsombassteam.com/php/html/index.php

Great schedules, great people, 100% payback and insured. You want to learn how to fish the fish, join a club.

tthomasy · Post by **tthomasy** » Tue Dec 13, 2011 2:14 pm

The california bass federation does a pretty good job of moving lakes from year to year. I am involved with region 5 and to me the most important thing to do is ask the fisherman where they want to fish. Our format is different from ABA, AC, etc. and our numbers fluctuate from time to time but overall I think we are headed upwards a little. This region folded several years ago in part due to having 4 out 5 qualifying tournaments on shasta. Our numbers plummeted. Last year we even tried to hold a tourney on Black Butte! You have to hit that puddle just right to accomadate a number of boats. Just my 2 cents.
Tony Thomasy
Region 5 Regional Director
California Bass Federation

kitjack · Post by **kitjack** » Tue Dec 13, 2011 4:24 pm

The primary problem is there are already way too many tournaments and organizations, and adding yet another that claims they will solve all the problems, will simply create even more problems, and less participation.

We've had one guy after another come forward lately and add yet another bunch of events on top of what we had already. The FPT, CBC, WRL, "low entry fee" events at NBW, "OPENS" and this year the highly anticipated Best Bass events. All this does is put even more events at your favorite local lake, adding to the problem of guys not traveling.

It so easy to just go to your local favorite tournament lake and find a $300+ team tournament almost every Saturday and Sunday of the year, so why would someone travel across the state to go fish against some other guys who don't leave their own local lake to fish a ProAm ?

The only way there will be any sanity is if the DFG was to limit the number of tournaments permits given out on a given lake, and do so in an aggressive manner. If each lake would only have 1 major event per month then perhaps progress could be made and organizations would have to move events around and there would be less total events and less at each lake individuall. So if you wanted to fish more often you would need to hit the road. And if guys didn't travel at least that one monthly event would have a lot of boats and a big payback.

crawdaddy · Post by **crawdaddy** » Tue Dec 13, 2011 6:37 pm

Guys who only fish their own bodies of water get rewarded for doing so. They win money, have orgs. that cater to them, get sponsored (you do some of this too Mr. Dobyns), and criticize guys who fish rookie leagues for not stepping up (when they won't set foot ouside of their zip code) . They get to have their cake and eat it too. Until it is not beneficial to do so they will always be "one lake wonders".

calfisher71 · Post by **calfisher71** » Tue Dec 13, 2011 8:56 pm

Gary "DONT POST CHICKEN"! lol...

Regaurdless of how long youve fished there, you and Corey did great!
Your good instinks showed.

I fished a staycee 90 version3 ghost minnow from dawn till past noon, all on wind blown points,guts,pockets and more points on 8lb flouro. Fished main body,slot,and North to West branch confluence. Focussed on Mud with mixed small rocks. And some chunky rock mixed in.

I did not get 1 RIP fish on this day, but never stopped trying!

Friday I did get a few of these 2.25's rippin, but they were gone on Saturday in the same areas.

I had a strong tube/Senko bite going on Friday afternoon as well these fish were shallow 2ft up to 2.25lbs!

I did not make good adjustments on Saturday..

You did great...congrats again...

Im still trying to learn what I feel is the toughest lake in the State to compete on!

Last year I did very good at finally finding the 3lb Largemouth there, the problem was that 4lb spots would beat you!

Now I cant find either one!

Gary Dobyns · Post by **Gary Dobyns** » Tue Dec 13, 2011 9:53 pm

Great points guys. The FPT has been the best thing going really. They fish different lakes with the events and draw GREAT numbers. But this is changing....there will now be 3 orgs running rookie events this year and if that's not bad enough, a bunch of divisions. This pie is getting cut up and the rookie numbers are soon to follow the pro team numbers. Not worth a sh**! The orgs screwed up the pro teams and now will screw up the rookie events. Fishermen get lazy and want to fish ONE LAKE!

FLW does a great job, but they are an eastern circuit and throw us a bone with 4 events. Best thing we have and I'll be fishing them this year.

If and I say "If " we can in fact get this "other" thing going, it will not be the same old crap. It will be owned and ran by tournament fishermen**** We know what we need and want....getting it done in this economy will not be easy, not the way we want to do it.

**** These tournament fishermen are all business guys too.

TomG · Post by **TomG** » Thu Dec 15, 2011 5:34 pm

Gary,

Is this being looked at for 2012 or 2013?

Gary Dobyns · Post by **Gary Dobyns** » Thu Dec 15, 2011 7:00 pm

Hoping 2012. Lots of work to do. It will be mid to late 2012 for sure. If we pull it off. We are having meeting working on it. I'm hopeful.

longshot · Post by **longshot** » Fri Dec 16, 2011 8:06 pm

I really think that Kit is right on the money on this. I didnt fish any circuit last year just the fun ones like holder, snag, owners ect BUT I missed out on fishing a TOC and that bummed me out.
I will find a circuit to fish but Its going to be fpt of bbt type format. I enjoyed fishing what is considered "pro" teams 10-15 boats but i would rather pay 80$ and fish against 80-100 boats and feel i was apart of something.
Jeff