BFL Lake Oroville

Hopefully by now you have read at least one of my adventure stories of my tournament trail adventures. These tournaments are not just a great deal of fun but are part of the foundation I am building towards some day having a professional career in the fishing industry. This is the third tournament in as many weeks that has been held on Lake Oroville; this is also the third time I have competed this year. I hope I can get it right this time.

I have noticed a pattern starting to develop on this lake. There have been a lot of small limits being weighed in and the folks that have a kicker bass of 3 pounds or better will usually get a check and a strong finish position.

With the lake being full of spotted bass and a decent population of large mouth and small mouth too. Finding a good bite is not that uncommon unless you have fast rising water and several weather front changes.

My last tournament I found a wall that was holding some good quality fish, good enough to win a one-day tournament. I think that there is a different approach to fishing one-day events versus multi-day tournaments. You really don’t have to worry about saving enough fish for the second day, but you have to go for the gusto or swing for the fence if you want to win.

As I was saying about this wall I had found, it is a very steep and deep wall that falls from 0 to 65 ft of water in a very short distance. It’s located at the mouth of one of the main river arms. There is a thermal layer of water that is very noticeable not only with your temp gauge but with your eyes as well.

Colder water from the river has the fish moved back, and depending on what direction the wind is blowing determines where the thermal layer will be. So all you have to do is locate the warm/cold water line and cast to the warm side, and WHAM fish on. This is where the fish are stacked and I really mean stacked.

I checked the wall on Friday and found the fish to be a little further up river than the last week. I also found they were much deeper and were less aggressive on the bite, but they were still there.

I checked a couple of areas as back up and found that with the stormy weather that the fish were eating a Fluke (Zoom) in a couple of feet of water. These were good sized fish in the 3 and 4-pound range, but I knew that the weather was changing and a high pressure area was moving in that night with predicted North winds and blue skies…mother nature is killing me at these tournaments.

It’s Friday night at the partner drawing and as I wait out side for the draw to start I meet my friend who I had to share the wall with at the last event. We discussed that we both had plans to fish that spot and if we were going to share the area or was the first man going to get it all, we decided that we could share it but the guy who got there first would get the best spot. It’s time to start and Randy McBride the Tournament Director began by introducing me and the three other anglers as the 2002 All-American qualifiers from the Western Division.

Blast off time again the wind is blowing from the North and there is a nice chop on the water…Yeah! You know what that means, choppy water. My New Nitro 901 CDX loves the chop. This boat really runs strong in the waves and when others are slowing down my 901 seems to run a little faster.

As I sit an listen to boat numbers I hear boat number 53 get called and know I have to pass 12 other boats just to catch the one guy who is planning on fishing the same spot I am.

After about a 15-minute run and passing several boats I noticed a boat starting to slow before the upcoming 5-MPH zone. I came down off pad just behind the boat and got a really good look, wow I caught up to Don!

After the idle and another 2 mile run I shut down, and right where I wanted to be was a boat with a couple of guys.

I stayed back and started fishing I did manage to catch one fish but the guys in the boat ahead of me were just reeling in the fish so fast it was amazing. I noticed they were throwing the fish back in so they weren’t in a tournament. I asked if I could move ahead of them. They didn’t have any problem with that, because they were reeling in fish on every cast!

I started to catch fish and my non-boater was getting bit too, he just couldn’t keep them on the hook. After a while Don came in and I moved out, I had a limit and was throwing them back, time to move on. These fish just weren’t very big.

I decided that with such a fast limit I could spend more time to look for a kicker fish. As I was leaving the area I decided to stop on a point that had produced some larger fish in the past. I picked up a Watermelon BPS 4 inch flippin tube with a 1/8-oz jig head inside and cast it up on the shore. After a couple of pulls I got a bite I set hard and missed the bite, I quickly reeled up and cast right back into the same spot, Tap-Tap I got bit again but I missed it once again. I dropped that rod and grabbed another that had a Green Pumpkin tube on and cast it right back in, Tap-Tap, I waited and then I felt a light pressure.

I set hard and it felt like the fish had me in the brush it was heavy and sluggish but started to move to the side and up. I knew then I had a good large mouth on. The fish broke the surface and then again and again, wow this is exciting a strong battle and I have a 4-pound large mouth in the boat.

I tried to look for more big fish areas and then ran around to get my partner on fish too. I started using the tube for the rest of the day and my non-boater did too to catch his limit.

I weighed in that day with 10.8 pounds to win the tournament and the big bass trophy too.

Here’s the tip that I believe made the difference. When you’re using tube baits or jigs on finicky bass get your self some of this scent, its called Snap-n-Craw. This is just like any other scent but it has a substance in it that crackles and pops. I put a little into the tube and the snapping sound is magnified in the water.

You can get it by calling Duh…Team at 509-638-6363, it’s only $7.50 a tube and it lasts quite a while. It comes in Craw, Shad and, Garlic.

See ya on the water,

GregG