MKA: “How was your prefish?”
SS: “I went there last weekend for the first time. I went up the river arm and found a few fish. Saturday (official practice day) I decided to stay on the main lake for practice and cover a lot of water to find some backup spots. I found my spot A pretty close to the ramp on a submerged finger that was holding a lot of bass. I then cruised around the southernmost part of the lake and found a few other spots. Towards the afternoon on Saturday, I saw the water temps rising so I decided to tie on a swim jig and go up shallow to see if they would hit a reaction type bait. I smoked a 5 pounder and I was actually kind of bummed because I caught it in prefish rather than the tournament. I marked that spot and felt pretty good going into the tournament."
MKA: “Tell me about your tournament day.”
SS: “Sunday was a blue bird sky day so I figured it would change things up a bit since it was more overcast with light rain on Saturday. When we launched, I headed out to my spot and Damian Thao who was cruising at what must have been 6mph was in front of me and went right to my spot A. I decided to head to my spot B on the southern part of the lake. Before I got to my spot I started marking some fish on some offshore islands so I decided to stop to try to put a few on the board. I ended up catching a few on the dropshot. There were plenty of fish there so I knew I could go back if needed. I then moved to my main spot and ran into a hidden unknown area before my main spot. I found a long flat with steep edges with no structure on the flat. The fish were on the north side of the flat in about 30’. I got another one on the dropshot. I then started throwing a Dry Creek Tube that was given to me by Michael Bray last year when I was fishing with him. I threw it out and started slowly dragging it back and got an 18.75. I sat there for most of the day dragging tubes. I then moved to another spot in the area and filled my limit with the tube. The bite slowed down at this point (12 pm). The water was getting warm (from 51 to 55 degrees). I went with my gut and went back to my main spot to see if there were any more catchable fish there. I threw the tube out again on a long cast and started dragging and the fish hit twice and then I hooked up and the fish had the rod bent. I saw gold and I knew it was a smallmouth. I was battling it out on 7-pound test hoping my hook would hold up. I got it in the net. It was a 20 plus incher and almost 5 pounds. At this point I’m at 89 inches. I put my head down and kept fishing not knowing where I was at due to poor reception. I went back to another spot 100 yards away and got another cull. At about 1:30PM I went to the shallow spot where I caught the 5 pounder on Saturday. I went back there and threw the swim jig and no bites. I was getting ready to leave and decided to throw the dropshot and work it very slowly to make sure nothing was there. I was pulling it through some submerged weeds and I got a bite that initially felt like a small fish and it ended up being an 18.75 inch largemouth. At this point, I’m sitting at 91 inches and felt pretty good about the limit. I went back to my spots and got a few more bites that ended up being misses. I headed back with plenty of time since I had been burnt on that before. I submitted my fish and got first place. I missed out on big fish by 0.25 inches. It was a tough bite for the most part, it was a finesse bite. The dropshot and the tube were the key baits for me. This was my first big win out of the kayak.”
Here's your top ten:
1. Scott Savko – 91.00 inches
2. Travis Lear – 86.25 inches
3. Alden Walden – 83.75 inches
4. Dominic Vitali – 83.00 inches
5. James Croco – 79.50 inches
6. John Myers – 78.75 inches
7. Ivan Lee – 77.75 inches
8. Dang Xiong – 76.75 inches
9. Sean Case – 76.50 inches
10. Damian Thao – 76.25 inches
Big Fish
20.50 inches – Tyler Howell of Roseville, CA
Next up for CAKBN is Lower Otay Reservoir on 5/15/22.
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