5th Place at my first Bass Tournament! Lake Berryessa April 4, 2009 – El Dorado Bass

Being that I am still relatively new to the area and I really want to fish some of the awesome bass fisheries we have up here in NorCal, I decided to do a quick search for a local Bass club and came across El Dorado Bass. I contacted them via email and was pleasantly surprised to get a response the next day from Patrick Ryan, Tournament Director. We spoke for a bit and then he followed up our call with a few emails, tournament schedule, rules, etc.

Once I let Patrick know I was interested, I was partnered up with a boat owner for the next tournament at Lake Berryessa and invited to attend the next meeting. (The non-boaters get partnered with a different boater for each tournament.) I believe it was that same day, I received a call from my partner, Chuck Nichols. We chatted for a bit and decided to do a shake down/pre-fish on Folsom. I attended the next meeting and that Thursday, April 2 Chuck and I fished Folsom Lake. We only fished about a half day and I caught one small 12′er but we did get to make sure everything was working good on the boat. The following Saturday I fished my first Bass tournament. It was just as I had hoped! All they guys seem to be pretty cool, good camaraderie, and competition.

Neither Chuck or I had fished Lake Berryessa so we were sorta fishing blind not really knowing anything about what had been happening on the lake lately. Other than a couple of online reports we really didn’t have a set plan of fishing for the day. We started out relatively close to the launch and pretty much stayed in the narrows area for most of the morning. Chuck was the first to hook and land our first fish. Unfortunately I forgot to get a pic of that lunker! Sorry Chuck! (12.5″er) Then about and hour later I got one, another 12.5″ beast! The fishing wasn’t great by no means and we did not catch or even see any big fish. But!, we had our limit by 9:30! How cool is that? Neither of us not having ever fished the lake and my first tourney?

My first fish at Lake Berryessa. A huge 12.5"er!

Both Chuck and I were totally stoked with how the day was going, awesome weather, limit by 9:30,.. Lets go look for some big fish!

We broke out the map, decided where we might find some bigger fish and stared to head that way,.. as we got to the main part of the lake the wind and waves quickly changed our minds. We ended up heading across the south ended of the lake to try a few points and coves. We fished several coves working our way down the shore, around the points keeping an eye out for any fish up swallow we might spot. But no go,.. I did catch two more fish and we were able to release two of our smaller fish. After a few hours we decided to head back and finish up our day closer to the launch area. (don’t want to be late for the weigh in).

Last fish of the day. All of the fish we caught were around the same same size, small! This was the biggest at 1.90

Once back over by the launch area, we fished a bit more, but no takers. It was time to go weigh in. We pulled the boat out, weighed our fish and ended up getting 5th place out of 10 boats. Nice! We secured everything on the boat, grabbed an ice-cream for the road and headed home.

What an awesome day! Pretty darn cool if ya ask me. I’m looking forward to our next tournament, a two day on Clear Lake!

Chuck is a great guy and was very courteous throughout the day positioning the boat regularly so that we both might have a cast or two at the water in front of the boat. Thanks again Chuck! It was great fishing with ya and I look forward to joining you again anytime you’ll have me…

Here's a pic of Chuck.