WINTERS, Ca – With the Coors Light Future Pro Tour’s opening act of the 2014 season set to get underway this Saturday, EVERYONE is anxious to see just how cooperative Lake Berryessa’s huge population of largemouth, smallmouth, and spotted bass will be when the wrath of over a hundred teams laced with a double dose of “cabin fever” descend upon them like the plague.
It is late March, the temperatures have been in the 70’s for weeks, and everyone knows that the big females are up ready – or preparing to get ready for their annual spawning ritual that will make just being on the water alot of fun for the entire field, win, lose or draw.
Veterans and long time members of the tour feel especially excited about this year’s season opener, as it represents to many, over a decade of friendly rivalries, the reuniting of friends, and a day of excitement that is comparable to opening day of the baseball season.
“This is our 12 year with the tour, noted Joey Gomes, of Livermore, California who fishes with his brother George Gomes III. This event usually turns out to be our throw out event, in that we have so much fun the night before at the seminars, barbequing, and staying up late, that we can hardly concentrate on fishing the next day!”
Berryessa has some BIG springtime bass!
But fun won’t be the rule of the day for some competitors, as many look forward to drawing “first blood” and establishing a healthy lead in their quest for one of the few coveted berths needed to qualify for the tour’s year-end championship dubbed the Future Pro Tour Classic, to be held in the first week of March in 2015 on Clear Lake, where the winners will receive the keys to a new Ranger Z118/Evinrude package valued at nearly $40,000.
The word from those pre-fishing is that the big fish are up – and biting, and that many have moved up and into the backs of creeks, which means anglers can expect big fish and big limits at the scales come weigh-in time, and predictions that it will take over 20 pounds for a five-fish limit is in no way out of the question. In prior FPT season openers on Berryessa – in late March, several anglers have brought double digit fish to the scales including a 14.98 pounder caught by Jason Milligan in 2007, so who knows what will happen on Saturday!
There will be an optional pre-registration seminar and free raffle at Pleasure Cove Marina on Friday March 28th, from 4-6pm, and late signups will be taken at the ramp the morning of the event from 4-6:30am, with limited membership fees of only $5 per angler available to those that want to “try out” the tour or can only fish this event.
So get ready…. rain or shine…as the Coors Light Future Pro Tour comes to the Napa Valley to present another exciting season opener…the “Grapes of Wrath!”
See you all on the water!
FPT
www.futureprotour.net
916-768-0938
