Today I had a chance to go fishing with two of my long time buddies who have never fished with me in Nor-Cal. Matt Peters from www.southernswimbait.com and Capt. Jason Diamond from the Stardust (www.stardustsportfishing.com) were both visiting family up here and by happenstance could go fishing today.

We mounted a 2 boat mission. Nico's boat was in the shop so he took my aluminum and I took the big boat. We drove the 2hr15 min drive through some pretty gross fog and got on the water at 8:15am. It was actually foggy on the lake as well.

Water 54 to 56 degrees. Not as clear as it has been though it was hard to tell since the sun never came out all day really (got cloudy and rained at end of day). Nico and Matt fished in the AM, then Matt jumped in with Jason and I for the afternoon.

Fishing was very... finesse. It wasn't that you couldn't get bit, it was more that you had to use a very small lure on light line and drag it on the bottom. Jason is old school San Diego (grew up fishing Poway many years ago). He started split shotting and catching so I went to that as well and we had a pretty enjoyable day from there.

The fish would eat a texas rig on 8lb if the water was a little dingy or it was low light. Swimbait fish was nonexistent as usual at that place. Between the 4 of us I'd reckon we caught 35 or so fish. 1 largemouth and the rest spots. The biggest fish was a 2lb spot that Jason caught. Jason schooled all of us :)

We fished the entire lake from end to end just exploring and looking for new places to fish. Seemed like fish could be caught just about anywhere as long as you were using light line and dragging your lure on the bottom very slow. I reckon Jason and I could have had about 8.25lbs for 5 bass. Maybe in check range for a tourney right now there depending. I'm going back for more next weekend. It's like an experiment in small fish fishing. I'm wondering if I actually prefish like twice before the tournament if we can do good.

Matt and Jason are two awesome fisherman. These guys are on the water so much it's just great to see how they work. A real pleasure today. Both boats ran great too. Bonus.

Cap
http://www.calfishing.com/dc/user_files/7919-12_28_09_jason_mcclure.JPG

Attachment #1, (.JPG file)

Good report, I very well may be out on McClure this weekend trying to catch a few fish. It took me almost three months last year to boat a fish and I want to start this year off right, dinky McClure spots just might be the ticket

Lotta ins, lotta outs, lotta what have-yous

I recommend fishing very slow on the bottom with light line.

Here's Matt's blog entry:

http://web.me.com/southernswimbait/Southern_BigBaits/Anglers_Journal/Entries/2009/12/29_The_Rob_and_Nico_Show.html

Please don't let my performance on Monday speak for my fishing!!!! I was in a fog all day long. My mind and body are resting for the 2010 season is my excuse!!!

McClure is a cool little lake. Those are smart little damn spotted bass. You couldn't catch them easily. Hell yes, Jason is a good damn fisherman. He had that light line bite down. It was fun as heck to make it out on the water and just hang loose with y'all. I could see how McClure could be a really fun fishery.

Happy New Year to everyone. Heading to Okeechobee in the am....back to the Big O.

MP

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BigBait Fishing in the South