Feb 28th and Mar 1st.
Just wrapped up the Berryessa CTT Pro-Am event on Lake Berryessa. Fishing ranged from great to very tough depending on the day and weather. Fridays prefish brought beautiful stable weather and the bite was great. We ventured around the lake looking for that winning pattern and spot. Although we never found that, we did find a very solid bite for 18+ lbs a day. Fishing shallow early with reaction baits and jigs. As the sky brightened and the sun got higher we found a very consistent bite dragging jigs in 30ft of water.
Saturday and the first day was prefrontal and storm. It never rained on us, but the front passing through was evident. As expected the bite was decent, but things were changing. On our initial run to our starting spot we had a break down and would be without a big motor the rest of the day. We trolled over to the nearest bank and began fishing. I caught a 3lb and 7.23 lb spotted bass in the first 20 minutes, both coming on a shakey head up shallow. Then the bite seemed to slow for us. Not sure if it was location or the bite just slowed. We fished for ours and slowly filled out limit. We culled a couple times and headed to weigh in. It was about 1.5 hours to get back as we didnt have the big motor to get on pad.We weighed a bit over 17lbs and were in 8th place after day 1
Sunday brought post frontal conditions and very cold and stiff wind. The fish seemed to have pulled up over deep water and suspended. We tried but could not get them to bite. Eventually we found the shakey head with a 4in senko was working a bit. We caught a mixed bag limit and culled 3 times. One of which was a 5lb large mouth that we caught where I had caught the 7 the day before . We headed to weigh in and heard the bite had been tougher for most. Our bag weighed 15.5 lbs and was enough to move me up to 6th place for the event.
The bite is changing on Berryessa and should fire back up with stable weather later this week.
I want to thank www.Monsterfishingtackle.com for the support and speedy delivery on everything I needed for this event. Check out their great line up of everything you need and place an order. If your in California it will be there the next day.
As I mentioned last time, this is a great circuit to get out and learn as well as test your skills. If you want to learn fast, sign up as a Co angler and get out on the water. The next event at Clear Lake promises to be a big fish slug fest. Bill Cook and staff do a great job of putting on a great event. Check them out at https://californiatournamenttrail.com/.
