Rollins lake is nestled within the Western Seirra just a stone's throw away from the city of Cofax and Grass Valley. The lake has a total of 26 miles of shoreline and 900 acres of water with an elevation of 2100 feet above sea level. The weather was perfect for a nice spring day of fishing and pleasure boating. The air temperature was around the mid 50’s to the upper 70’s and the water temperature ranged from 58 to 61 degrees. The bass were in all three stages of the spawn with most on beds searching for a spawning location.
Once everyone returned to the launch ramp before the cut off time, anglers were yearning to submit their catch to TourneyX. Damian Thao captures another victory with a total of 86.50” vanquishing second place by and impressive 8.5”, his second win back-to-back tournaments. Thao’s key was to head to a spawning area upriver that he had found on his Navionics mapping. He caught fish that were moving up to spawn, fish bedding and then hammered some pre-spawn tanks that were moving bait onto the shoreline with a topwater walking bait. Thao not only won this event but also had big fish on the tournament that measured 20.00”
“I had no practice going into this event.” declared Thao, “I went to a spawning area that had two major shallow arms.”
“I caught a quick limit on the Deps Sakamata shad, but it was a small limit.” expressed Thao, “After I had my limit, I searched for beds along the flat shoreline with hardpan banks.”
“I saw a lot of empty beds on the Northern banks.” articulated Thao, “I found a male on a bed and preceded to bed fish.”
“As the sun got higher and the day became warmer, more and more of the fish moved up onto the empty beds.” stated Thao, “There were only males on the beds, and I was able to slowly cull up.”
“I found a nice male on a bed but once I hooked it, the fish came off.” pronounced Thao, “I knew then that I just lost the winning fish and maybe the largest bass of the tournament.”
“I came back about an hour later and was able to catch that fish and boated it.” expressed Thao, “The fish was 20.00 inches.”
“I was not able to cull up anymore, so I changed tactics and headed for the shady bank with lay down wood and picked up a topwater walking bait.” conveyed Thao, “I was able to cull with a 19” fish using the topwater bait.”
“The fish were pushing blue gills and crappie up on the bank.” exhibited Thao, “It was crazy how many big fish were hitting my topwater but not getting hooked up, the furry was insane, if I had caught just a couple of those fish, I could have had over 100 inches.”
“I knew that the early topwater bite would make a difference during this event.” presented Thao, “I was happy to get that one to the boat but there were so many others that just missed my bait.”
Thao thanked his family and friends for all their support and his sponsors Kayak City, Yak Bass Angler, 1st Gen Fishing, Pline, 559 Fresno Bait and Tackle, TM Custom Lures, La Custom Jigs for all their support.
Donald Bailey is runner up on his home waters at Rollins Lake with 78.00”. Bailey’s game plan was to fish in the Green Horn access because he knew that the water would be warmer and clearer. He practiced the weekend before and found that the fish had not moved into the Green Horn area, so he moved to a cove in the Poor Mans Creek.
“During practice, I found some fish in a small cove in Poor Mans Creek.” voiced Bailey, “I tossed a Flick shake worm near the end of a tree and saw a big school of fish come out to investigate my lure.”
“I would toss the wacky flick shake worm to the bank and the fish would eat the bait as I moved it out a little deeper.” proclaimed Bailey, “I knew then that I had found something special for the event the next weekend.”
“I only brought 10 rods and rigged up three rods, one with the flick shake, one with a A-Rig and one with a Senko.” divulged Bailey, “I checked the pond in Poor Mans Creek but didn’t get any bites so I moved to the tree where I had found the fish the weekend before and they were still there.”
“I fished that one area all day long for 8 hours.” mentioned Bailey, “I used one rod the entire time, the one with a flick shake tied on.”
Bailey thanked his wife and family for all their support, Bass Union, North Valley Tackle and Hanson Brothers. A big shout out to Mark and Michael with BAM for hosting such a great event
Ivan Lee finished in third place with 77.75”. Lee used an A-Rig early in the morning to catch his third-place limit. He was able to catch his better fish first thing in the morning in a small cove just off the main body.
“I caught most of my fish first thing in the morning on an A-Rig paired with 2.8 Keitech.” declared Lee, “The Keitech swimbait was the ghost shad color.”
“The key was too slow roll the A-Rig in 5 to 6-feet of water just over the grass line.” proclaimed Lee, “I caught around 10 bass in the first hour.”
“In the afternoon, I was beating the bank with an S-Waver and saw a nice fish on a bed.” mentioned Lee, “I saw the fish between two trees.”
“I was able to catch that fish with just a few minutes left of the day near the boat ramp.” stated Lee, “I was able to cull a 14.50” fish with a 16.50” right at the end of the day.”
“That last fish made a huge difference for me, it felt great to catch that fish with just minutes left of the day.”
Lee thanked his wife for all her support and my family and friends. BAM for hosting such a great event.
Top Ten:
1. Damian Thao 86.50”
2. Donald Bailey 78.00”
3. Ivan Lee 77.75”
4. Sean Beach 77.50”
5. Dang Xiong 76.50”
6. Jacob Dasher 76.25”
7. Jesse Hoover 76.25”
8. Joseph Silva 76.00”
9. Brian Hackett 75.75”
10. Michael Lavoie 75.25”
Big Fish:
Damian Thao 20.00”
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