Received a call from Dan Kenney that has a regional TV show in the Northeast that wanted to get a swimbait show taped when he was out in California. The original plan was to go to Perris (ugg) since he didn't like the idea of renting a jonboat. After telling him about the pontoon rentals... he felt that the platform would be good for filming. I called Art Berry to see if he wanted to join us. He was free so we met at DVL on Sunday (1/25).

After getting mic't up in the parking lot, we headed down the ramp to see the best conditions we could ask for. Cloudy skies, nice 12 MPH wind... beautiful. On the water, we hit a few spots looking for Stripers but after seeing no signs of them, started fishing Largemouth. There had been a deep bite on rubber as well as a shallow bite on hardbaits. We started running points and I quickly put a 5 to 6 in the boat on an 11 inch Nate Bait (The bait is sick by the way). You really needed to trigger the fish into eating but when you got one interested and really worked the bait, you got bit. Art hooked and lost a fish about the same size on a 10 inch Triple Trout shortly after. We went on fishing hardbaits shallow in the windy conditions and went outside and fished deeper with Stocker Trouts and Hudds in the calmer waters. Ended up finding a good batch of fish that really were packed up. I hooked one on my first cast that ended up ripping off the trap hook as I was reaching for it at the boat. It was maybe a 4 poundish fish. As I was rerigging... Art set up on one that came off 1/2 way in... I cast out and got short bit 3 times on the cast before hooking the fish. It too came off. I spent a little time re-rigging a trap hook while Art kept fishing. On his next 3 out of about 8 casts he hooked and lost 3 more fish. One was a donkey that he played about 1/2 way to the boat before coming off. It was the right fish but they were just eating the baits funny. The bite shut off with as many sorelipped bass that went back and told their friends. With about an hour left... Dan and Art fished while I intermittently fished hoping that Dan would get his first swimbait fish. he ended up getting 2 bites fishing deep but didn't put any in the boat.

With about 15 minutes left... Art got about a 3ish fish on a 10" Triple Trout as well as about a 5 pound Rainbow on the same bait.

Art if you are reading this... thanks for showing this old dog a few new tricks. I had a great time.

Too bad you weren't able to land more fish. A day on the water is always a good time.
What brand of hooks did you use?

Gammi's... Owners... it didn't matter. They were really tentative in eating the rubber. Harbaits on the other hand, when they committed... they committed. The shallow fish were the agressive fish for sure.