Ultimate Bass Radio -Media Day at Pardee

Caudawg · Post by **Caudawg** » Fri Apr 27, 2012 2:49 pm

This Sunday! For more info go to http://www.ultimatebassradio.com/Pardee_Media_Day.html

kb · Post by kb » Sat Apr 28, 2012 5:05 am

Looking forward to having everyone out a Pardee Lake on Sunday!!!!! Come on out and join us!

Kent Brown
Ultimate Bass Radio

biteme · Post by **biteme** » Mon Apr 30, 2012 1:05 pm

Any updates?

Caudawg · Post by **Caudawg** » Mon Apr 30, 2012 5:12 pm

It was a beautiful day at Pardee with temps in the mid 80's. Everyone had a great time and as usual, fun was had by all who attended.

I had the pleasure to fish with Taylor Parsons in the morning and Zack Thompson in the afternoon.

I jumped in the boat with Taylor for the morning session and we headed upriver to some of Taylor's favorite spots. Taylor in known to be one of the toughest anglers in these parts and he showed me that he knew what the heck he was doing. We first started on a hump in deep water that came up to around 20 ft where Taylor had done well in recent past. He said it may be too late for this spot but it was worth a try because it holds some big bass on occasion. After a few minutes of fishing and monitoring water temps...Taylor said he was surprised at the water temp (low 60's) and that we were probably too late to catch bass on that spot. So we moved on up river.

With water temps starting in the low 60's...Taylor said we could either catch plenty of bucks up shallow building nests or we could throw swimbaits all day and just go for some big ones. We both agreed that since there would be no accolades for catching the most fish...we might as well go after those big hens waiting off the bank to move up to spawn. So out came a 21st Century Triple Trout and a Ghost Rainbow Huddleston on his rods and I picked up a Lucky Crafty Staycee jerkbait and ripped it up shallow and out a bit deeper since I was throwing it on a spinning rod with 10 lb test.

It didn't take long before Taylor got bit on his Hudd as he bumped it off the bottom in around 15 ft of water. I saw him set the hook but miss it at first but he kept reeling and BOOM! Fish on!
He took his time because he wasn't sure how well she was hooked because it was an odd bite. But upon landing her...that fish was going nowhere but in the net as it was well hooked and nearly swallowed. Taylor was skillful in unhooking her because she was hooked deep but managed to get the hook out with minimized damage. This turned out to be the big fish of the event at nearly 9 lbs.
Check out the belly on this bass!

Taylor #1.jpeg

Taylor said this should be the pattern later in the day but he was glad to establish the fact that he knew what to do from here. he said "let's just run and gun...hitting as many spots with big swim baits as we could and cross our fingers for another big one. Well, a few casts later I hook into a giant. Being that she was caught using 10 lb test...I had to be very careful not to hurry her to the boat. I told Taylor that I wasn't sure it was a bass because she was bulldogging me like a pissed off ling cod. But Taylor said he saw her and it was a bass so "go slow and ease her in" he advised.

It seemed like this battle would never end. As soon as I got her almost in sight...she said adios and went back down 20-30 feet stripping line each time. But finally she gave up and Taylor slid the net under what turned out to be a 10 lb squaw fish. Damn! We both had a good laugh and I suggested Taylor visit his optometrist when he gets home.

About an hour later as we "power fished" our way around the mid lake region...Taylor hooked into another nice largemouth This one crushed a 21st Century Triple Trout as Taylor maneuvered that bait in ways I have never seen a bait move. This one was slightly smaller than his first bass but still a healthy, fat pre-spawn bass around 8 lbs.

Taylor photo 2nd bass.JPG

When all the boats arrived at the Marina it was Taylor who had caught the largest bass for the 1st session.

The afternoon session was soon headed back out...all with new partner pairings. For this session, I fished with Zack Thompson. This was great because Taylor is a swimbait angler and Zack excels in other areas. So, I was lucky in that I was exposed to two very different styles of fishing.

Zack had caught some nice bass in the early session but none of them were in the running for "Big Bass" for the day. Zack asked me if I had any preferences and I said that my preference was to watch Zack's decision making process as to where to go and what to do...and why. I wanted him to think out loud so I could understand his thought processes. He agreed and off we went.

Zack said we'd try a little of everything and see if we could figure them out as the bright afternoon sun warmed into the 80's. Both of us theorized that bass should be stacking up on beds with water temps warming to the mid 60's. But this was not the case. We found a few largemouth and smallmouth on beds but they were mostly smaller buck/males in the 1.5 to 2.5 lb range. We caught a few bed fish but nothing more than a couple pounds. So we backed off a bit to see if the big hens were going to bite out a little deeper. Zach hooked up a Berkley Havoc Bottom Hopper Finesse worm on his own Double Wacky Hook by CHT Tackle which he designed. This is a very cool way to rig finesse worms as well as stick baits like Senkos or Yum Dingers.

It didn't take long before Zack started catching better quality fish by dropshotting just outside the weedbeds in around 8-10 ft of water. Here is one of the nice bass he caught:

Zack #2 photo.JPG

We both caught several bass but we still couldn't locate the "big mamas". With around an hour to go, we decided to work the areas inside the 5 mph zone to see if we could upgrade our catch. We moved in and out of coves looking for bedded bass but saw just a few small bucks. So Zack decided to pick up a Snag Proof Frog and work the lay down grass toward the backs of the coves. His first cast of the frog resulted in an explosive strike just as his frog cleared the weeds. This was 4 pounder. Nice! A new pattern!

Zack #1 photo.JPG

We continued to throw frogs in the back of each pocket and this was definitely a developing pattern as we continued to catch 2 to 4 lb bass in every little pocket we came to.

I want to thank Taylor, Zack and all of the pro's who donated their time for this fun day for media folks like myself. A big thank you also to Kent for putting on this great annual event!

Stay tuned for some video footage from this fun day on the water!

John Johnson · Post by **John Johnson** » Mon Apr 30, 2012 6:22 pm

Thanks to KB for organizing another enjoyable day down there. I was highly entertained by watching Richard Dobyns work on a bedding 4-pounder for about an hour (actually, the highlight was his running commentary) that he finally caught. In the afternoon I learned a fun technique for catching spawning smallmouths from Jimmy Reese, then Jimmy and I spent the last hour up the river catching as many fish as we could on tubes before the 3 p.m. deadline (we got more than a few).

Already looking forward to next year.

John Johnson
Senior Editor
BassFan.com

biteme · Post by **biteme** » Mon Apr 30, 2012 6:31 pm

Sounds like a awesome day I envy your being on the water with those two!

kb · Post by kb » Mon Apr 30, 2012 8:51 pm

Thanks for the great recap John and I am glad you were able to attend this year. Taylor is a stud fisherman and one of our many "young guns". This event is alot of work to put together and thanks to the Wear It California Folks for giving away life jackets to each of the writers as well.

I am lucky to have the best bass fishermen and the best writers and photographers as friends and when you put these two groups together they really shine. The anglers did what they do best and the media folks make us all look good doing it!!!

Thanks to the folks at Pardee and Jackson Casino. Take a day and get up to one of the most beautiful lakes we have in the foothills and enjoy some of this great fishing.

Kent

Caudawg · Post by **Caudawg** » Tue May 01, 2012 5:00 pm

I forgot to mention a special moment that we all shared when we held a moment of silence for some people that were very special and important to most all of us. Many of us wished we could have attended Don Lee's memorial service on this same day but it was one of those situations where Don would have wanted us all to be on the water, promoting this sport and we could remember him from there. And I think we did that in a fashion that Don Lee would have been proud of.

We also remembered Pat Donaho, Harvey Naslund and Ron Cruz during our collective moment of silence. Great men who helped make this sport what it is here in the west.