Overcast skies, sunshine, and wind, wind and more wind, was the weather for the fourth tournament of the Central Valley Region of the Best Bass Tournament Circuit. The wind made for a difficult day of fishing Saturday, April 11, 2015 at Don Pedro Lake. There were waves in the lake, so the bed fish were unable to be seen, causing a tough bite for the anglers.
BLAST OFF
The coffee was made and the homemade goodies were set out on the tables for the anglers to arrive for registration. The anglers started to show up around 4:30 a.m. By safe light we had 3 small boats and 29 large boats ready for blast-off. After the tournament director Kevin Cheek was done going over the rules and off limits the three small boats were sent off for the day. Boat number 26 was the first large boat to blast-off. With 32 boats Kevin setup two weigh-in flights, one at 3:00 p.m. and the second at 3:15 p.m. The weigh-in was to be done at the Marina.
The trophies were set out along with the Diamond Nuts display.
RELEASE SLIDE
If you have not seen Kevin's fish slide you need to. After weighing the fish, the weigh master turns and releases the fish back into the lake with the slide. It is a big hit with the kids as they watch the fish slide back into the lake. Kevin also has a net setup under the slide to direct the fish back into the water. If the fish don't go down, we have a decompression chamber on a rope that takes the fish down 40 to 50 feet, allowing the air in the fish to be released naturally. This way we don't have to needle the fish or cause any harm to the fish.
SPECTATORS
We had our first boat show up at the marina around 2:30 p.m. While waiting for the next boat to show up we were surprised by the number of spectators showing up for the weigh-in. It seems that Don Pedro Lake is advertising about the fishing tournaments and inviting people to come and see the anglers weigh-in. The first comment we heard was how fast and easy the weigh-in went. The second comment was if you liked this weigh-in come back next Saturday and watch the Mother Lode Region weigh-in. We had approximately 50 family members and spectators.
FISH STATS
One by one the anglers brought their fish up to the scales. At 3:30 p.m. Kevin called the scales closed with 31 out of our 32 boats weighting-in. There was no dead fish for the day. We had a total of 134 fish weighted-in for a total of 256.25 pounds. The average weight per fish was 1.91 pounds. You anglers need a big hats off for doing such a good job.
OPTIONS
The BBT offers four options, Big Fish, $10, $20 and $30 dollar options. All options are paid back 100%. The $10, $20 and $30 options are like you betting that you will do better than the other anglers. The Big Fish options take only one fish and sometimes a team will not get five fish, but they have a big fish. We always recommend that the anglers get into the Big Fish options. The gamble that you take by not getting into the $10, $20 or $30 options is that you might leave money on the table. You don't have to get into all three options, you can get into one, two or three of them.
TOP OF THE FIELD
It took 14.46 pounds of fish to take first place and the team of Ge Yang and
Tony Yang both from Hanford took the honors. They weighed-in five fish and had
the first place Big Fish included in those five. It came in at 6.10 pounds and
was a beauty. Ge and Tony used the crank method, while fishing the Big Arm of
the lake. This team was in the big fish option only and took home a total of
$820.00. These anglers were not able to make the first Central Valley
Tournament, but stated that they will be fishing the next two, for sure. Ge and
Tony would like to thank the wives Hiram and Evelynda and their family for all
their support and encouragement. Great job anglers, we can't wait to see how
the next two tournaments go.
RUNNERS UP
Second place went to the father and son team of Lee Miller and James Miller both of Fresno. Lee and James brought-in five fish that topped the scales at 12.60 pounds. Included in those five fish was the second place big fish weighing-in at 4.69 pounds. Second place winnings and being in all of the options landed these two anglers $1,080.00 and second place Big Fish gave them $190.00 for a total winnings of $1,270.00.
These anglers used jigs and fished the bottom in the Woods Creek area of the Lake. Lee and James would like to thank Cousin's Rods for their sponsorship. James can't say enough about how much he loves his Cousin's rods. They would also like to thank their family for driving up to Don Pedro to see the weigh-in and share in their good luck. Great job Guys.
THIRD PLACE
The team of Rob Kocher and Mike Beevers both of Newman took third place honors. Rob and Mike brought in five fish for a total of 12.42 pounds. Being in all of the options and these five fish gave them $675.00. These anglers fished with Zoom Trick worms and Keeper Worms and used the drop shooting and dart head methods while fishing the 2nd bridge to the Main Lake. Rob and Mike would like to thank their wives Lisa and Rhonda for all their support.
FOURTH
The fourth place team of Rich and Ron Ingram brought in five fish for 12.31 pounds. They also had the third place big fish for the day, coming in at 3.05 pounds for a total winnings of $625.00. Great job anglers.
The Big ol' Pig award went to Tony Yang for his big fish of the day 6.10 pounds, while the husband and wife team of Chris and Leann Lienau took home the Wear-it California life vest and Christopher Dias and Jace Badertscher took home the Safe-&-Easy Boat Cleaner. Thank you to Emerald Nuts for their support and bags of nuts and Breakfast on the Go treats for the anglers. Thank you to all of the sponsors for without them we wouldn't have the circuit that we do.
The staff at the Central Valley deserve a big thank you also for all their help and support. Dave Orange our Weight Master, his soon wife to be Beth, Mark Guisti and Brian Orange, Mike Martinez and Tom Fishburn our staff boats and Christopher Orange our staff helper.
Our fifth tournament will be on Sunday, May 3, 2015 at Pine Flat Lake. Registration, weigh-in and awards will be held at Deer Creek. We hope to see each and every one of you anglers there as this is going to be an exciting angler of the year race.
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