Tournament Weekend This weekend was a big weekend for my fishing club, the Berkeley Striper Club. Friday night started our 5th annual Scholarship Tournament. It's run under a 4 man team format, and I was on a team with three excellent fishermen. How I got on that team, I'll never know. My team consisted of my friends Paul and Alex, and Paul's friend Rich. We had decided during the week to break into pairs and cover more territory. Paul and Rich were going to cover up in Paul's neck of the woods, while I was going to join Alex on his boat and fish his "spot." Originally, we were all going to head out after the Friday evening startup meeting, but Alex and I decided to delay our trip 24 hours because of weather. The south wind was howling Friday night, and his spot isn't very fishable at that time. Paul and Rich went out late Friday night, even though they had boat troubles. They didn't get anything. Not a good start for our team.

Alex shows me how he catches fish

I left for Alex's house late Saturday afternoon. I made a quick stop at Betty and Nicks for some clams. Clams worked into our backup plan. Alex had our main bait, herring, at his marina. I had three rods loaded, a live-lining rod, a rod for throwing jigs, and a fly rod. Alex is a hardcore live bait fisherman, and I would have loved to catch a fish (even a little one) on a fly from his boat.

We left the dock and ran over to his spot. Lines were in the water right around 6:00. I believe we had our first runoff two drifts later. We had three or four missed runoffs between us before Alex finally connects. A short fight later and we had a nice slot fish in the boat. It went into the cooler for dinner at Alex's.

Next drift I hooked up with a fish that came up and raced across the surface behind the boat. I knew what it was, so I put the screws to it before it bit through my leader. A minute later I had a small, yet feisty, bluefish at the side of the boat. It was released without even coming aboard. Surprisingly, my leader was knick free. I put on another herring as Alex positioned the boat for another drift.

On the next couple of drifts, Alex lands a couple of keepers that were too short for the tournament (tournament minimum was 32"). I landed nothing. I'm using the excuse I spent too much time landing Alex's fish.

Alex noticed we were getting some consistent run offs, and wondered if the fish would take a clam. For the next drift, he switched to a lighter rod and a clam rig. We moved back into position for another drift. I just get my herring in the water when Alex yells "Fish on." It's a good one, and I bring in my herring and get behind the wheel. The current is pulling us away from where the fish wants to stay, and Alex is losing ground. I slowly motor us back in, and Alex starts to pressure the fish. After a few minutes, the fish reluctantly moves away from the structure and starts circling near the boat. I grab the net, and Alex pumps the big girl closer.

The first landing attempt fails. The fish sees the net and does an about face. I didn't know bass could turn so sharply. The second attempt is successful, and I hoist the fish onto the boat. We measure it, and come up with 40" - As far as we knew this was close to the biggest fish weighed in so far. It joined the slot fish in the cooler.

I finally get one

We made a few more drifts. Alex got another keeper sized fish on clams (which we released), while I fed a few more herring to blues. We noticed a nearby boat fishing plugs and doing pretty well, so I grabbed my jigging rod, which was pre-rigged with a bass assassin. On the next drift, I hooked up on my second cast.

The fish ran away from the structure, but never came to the surface. I wasn't sure if it was a blue or a smaller bass. As I got it to the surface, I saw stripes. Alex asked if I needed the net, but since it was a slot, I opted to land it without one. The fish was maybe 26", and had two ring-like scars around its body, behind the gills. My only guess is that these scars were caused by a gillnet, and this fish was one of the lucky few to survive the experience. I released the fish, hoping its streak of good luck would continue.

After this drift everything seemed to die. I tried a few different artificials, while Alex went back to herring. Even the boat doing well with plugs wasn't scoring any more. I eventually broke down and switched over to a clam, which was shredded by something small and fast. It was time to make a move.

We tried another of Alex's favorite spots. It was crowded with boats and the incoming tide was slowing down. The outgoing was the better tide for this spot, and that was not going to start for another 45 minutes to an hour. We opted to run in while there was still a little light out.

So far, so Good

On Sunday afternoon I checked in with Paul. He caught a couple of fish from the beach Sunday morning, but nothing big enough to weigh in. He called the weighmaster to see how we did and called me back. As of this writing, our team was in second with Alex's 21.5 pound fish. The lead fish was 24 pounds. However, two weigh in stations needed to be contacted, so the results are not final.

Until next week...