Friday February 25th was the lake Oroville California Bass championships qualifing round. This event is where solo Pro Anglers will attempt to qualify in the top 10 and move on to the next round the regional finals in hopes to make it to the state championships!
Lake Oroville is filling up quickly and this year the water is cold and recent storms have made the lake rise even more! This has made the lake continue to get colder! What this does is make daily fishing conditions change and makes fishing real tough real quick. As would be expected along with the rising water levels the coldest storm front to hit California in some time stacks up the night before this California Bass Championship qualifying round. Temperatures droped quickly as the rain came down hard all night before this event! The creeks in the lake would be flowing in heavy with cold muddy water. All the anglers showed up in the morning bundled up to brave the storm for a chance to make it to the next round the regional finals at Bullards bar if they can find a way to make into the top 10.
The winds were gusting to 30mph plus with heavy freezing rain the lake was chopy and getting colder as the morning went on. After three hours of heavy rain it turned to heavy snow and the temperatures dropped even more! Everything was frozen! The hills turned into a winter wonderland! Snow coverd mountains with freezing cold creeks flowing into the lake! Many Anglers spoke of the coldest day they have ever been fishing in there life! The fishing was extremely tough as some anglers did not even get 1 bite all day!
All the boats arrived to the scales to see how this day would fold out. The storm took a break just long enough to start snowing and hailing at the weigh ins. A find ending to a crazy weather day! Anglers brought there fish to the scales and only a few anglers even had a limit with many blanking for the day! The top weight was over 11 pounds and was caught by Dan Wells anchored by a nice kicker fish over 3 lbs. The top ten was rounded off with just over 3lbs being enough to qualify! Both Dan Wells and Ron Howe of RB Bassfishing qualified to move on to the regional finals!
This is a great venue and hopefully more anglers will support it so we can help to build something special here in California!
There are still many more chances to qualify for the regional finals and have a chance to claim the State Champ Prize!
Here are the Dates
Region 1
Mar 11 – Clear Lake
Region 2
Mar 4 – New Melones
Mar 11 – McClure
Apr 8 – Camanche
Apr 9 – Folsom
Region 3
Mar 4 – Pyramid
Mar 25 – Nacimiento
Apr 15 – Cachuma
Region 4
Mar 20 – Pine Flat
Mar 25 – Delta
Apr 22 – Anderson
Regionals
Region 3 – Apr 29 – Castaic
Region 4 – May 13 – Pardee
Region 1 – May 19 – Bullards Bar
Region 2 – May 20 – Bullards Bar
Championship
June 4-5 Location TBA – But it will be one of the 16 local event lakes!
and we want it to be TBA to keep the playing field level so please don’t ask! For the payback and a shot at the title it will be well worth any trip to any of the lakes.
Lastly – Fields are 50 angler maximum and
*Payout based on a full fields.