Bass Ackwards Bassmasters Club tournament on Sat. 11/23/02 at San V. was tough! 20 anglers...7 caught fish.
Fish busting everywhere chasing shad. We threw on them with very little success. Winning weight was 6.2 for 1 fish on a swimbait. It's getting to be that time of year where "gettin bit" takes on a whole new meaning. Some fish caught on spoons and worming. Not much talk about jigs. Lots of boats...If your going, leave early!

Man that's tough. Swimbaits have been the way to go there lately. They've won or got good results in most of the recent tourneys. An 11, 7,and now a 6 lber. have been caught with the swimbaits; mostly the osprey. I was there today and the fishing was terrible. There were no breaking fish and the dropshot fish didn't cooperate. Next time I'll be throwing the big stuff for sure.

Manas is the man!!! He stresses so hard about catching swimbait fish, but then seems to get one most every tournament. How did you do Ralph? I know it's been tough out there.

Caught dinks--true rats!! Nothing noteworthy. I threw the swimbait alot but didn't even get followers this time. Got bit hard on the D/S but alas no hookset. Fish are gourging themselves big time. I hear there was a temporary morning bite but by the time we got on the water it was lunch time!

Fished San V on Sun. and actually had the priveledge to be one of two boats on the lake on Mon. We had a photo shoot so the lake was ours. Sun. didn't have much success until around 3:30. Finally found some fish on the shad that were willing to bite. From 3:30 till dark we had 8 fish between 2-6.5lbs on Senkos.

Now let me tell you, those fish know when Mon. comes. I know there is alot of bait in the marina, and in the morning when all the boats are launching, you occasionaly see one bust around the dock. Well, when the cats away, the mice definatly play. There were fish all over. Almost jumping in the boat. There were times when it would have been better to just have a net in my hand then a fishing rod, that how close they were when they would tear through the shad. I have never seen the lake like this. It is really hard to concentrate on doing the photos when there are fish going off everywhere. I knew the boat traffic had some effect on the fishes behavior, but I had no idea that it was like night and day. So on Mon., we got to fish for about 4 hours total when we were waiting for the "right light" for the photos. Between the three of us we had 20-25 fish. Nothing huge but a few solid 5 pounders. They also stocked trout around noon and we couldn't keep those things away from the Senkos. They were all over them. Interesting though, no big bass in there with the trout. Maybe they were afraid of the 5 50-80lb catfish that were mowing the sick trout that didn't quite make the transplant. The big bass probably moved in right after I pulled the boat out of the water:)

Overall, San V is tough, trout baits are key and you NEED to find the shad. It does pay off to stay late though, as the light fades, the fish becomne more willing to bite. Not to mention ther are only 1/4 of the boats left on the lake at 4 pm. Makes it much easier to get on the busting fish. Although I do enjoy seeing the San V armada floating in the Basin behind grassy bay.:)

Good luck to ya all
see ya down there next weekend

Cam

Socalfrogger, how did you do at San v on Sunday? I was out there on Sunday also and the fishing in my opinion sucked. There were no breaking fish (except in the boat dock area) and the dropshot fish just weren't happening. Also, I left early so the bite may have turned on later. No question, to catch the fish, you have to fish for the breakers (if there are any) and throw the big trout baits. That's pretty amazing how the fishing can change in one day.

Thanks!!!