I spent this past weekend up at lake Shasta fishing the WON Bass Pro/Am. The trip started on Thursday around noon when I left San Luis Obispo and made the 6 and a half hour drive North. I checked in and met up with Felix Camacho who had been there since Tuesday and who I was going to be pre-fishing with on Friday. We went for dinner with Mark Hinson, Jared Litner, and Gary Boyd and then it was back to the hotel to rig some baits and get to bed. <P>Day 1: Prefish<P>Felix and I were on the water around 6:30 and ran up the Pit arm. We started back in the river and hit spots all along the way coming out towards the main lake. We looked for a reaction bite early but it wasn't happening. We caught a couple fish drop shotting 3" pro comp ventilator guppies (thanks Pete!) but nothing on the jigs. They were all spots except for one smallie I caught on a steep bank. Around 10 or 11 we ran up into Squaw to check some banks that Felix had found fish on earlier in the week. First bank we pulled up Felix catches 2 or 3 decent spots right away. We shook off a bunch more bites as we worked down the bank, it was really loaded with fish. Basing on the way that bank looked we tried some other areas and found the fish were holding on similar stuff but they were all small ones. Felix was hoping to find some areas with some bigger fish so we picked up again and went down by the dam to check another area. We caught a couple more spots here on the dropshot and Felix had a fish or two on the jig. It was a pretty fun day and we had lots of bites although the biggest fish was only about a pound and 3/4. I did catch one on a cardiff plastics swimbait which was cool but it was a fluke deal as no other fish fell for the swimbait. Went to Taco Den in Redding for dinner and then to the draw for the partner pairings. My first day draw was Randy Pierson of Oakdale and my second day draw was John Prevost of Oakley. Talking to people the story was pretty much the same. Lots of small spots with the occasional 2 and a half mixed in. Mark Hinson stuck a 7-5 black in pre-fish and there were other rumors of an 8 and a 6 caught, but the big fish were pretty scarce. <P>Day 2: Saturday - 1st day of the tournament<BR>Up at 4:15am and walked over next door to meet Randy, my pro, who was also staying at the Motel 6. We were in the 4th flight with a 3:45 weigh in. We fished in the Pit again and started out looking for some bigger fish ripping, throwing blades and spooks. The fish weren't going for it so at 8 or so we moved to an area that Randy had done well on in pre-fish. Right away he starts catching them on a texas rig worm but mostly smaller fish. I caught 1 keeper on the drop shot and Randy had a couple on the worm before we switched to carolina rigging baby brush hogs to fill out the limit including one real nice 2 and a half pound spot for Randy. We worked this area thouroughly and caught about 15 fish off it. In the afternoon we went for the reaction bite again to try to add some weight to our limit but it just wasn't happening. We weighed in 7.48 pounds for the day which put us in 54th place but only about 5 pounds out of 1st!!! I was happy to have caught two of our keepers but they were the two smallest ones and I missed quite a few bites on the carolina rig. You really had to let them keep biting and biting on it until the tip was loaded up before setting the hook. Not exactly like when those Margarita largemouth inhale your jig and you can just drop your tip and stick 'em! Went to the bbq over at California Custom after weigh in for some very excellent spaghetti and sausage. A big thanks to everyone who put that on, it was great!<P>Day 3: 2nd day of the tournament<P>Last day of the tournament and we were in the 3rd flight with a 3:30 weigh in. We fished the Pit arm again and went straight to an area where John had caught his entire limit yesterday in the afternoon and culled all of the morning fish. I had one bite on the carolina rig but didn't even set the hook. That was it for that spot but we figured on coming back to it later. The next couple spots were slow also, we could see the fish on the graph but they just didn't want to go. After 2 very small fish on a point John gets our first keeper around 9 drop shotting a 6" worm. I added 3 after that on the carolina rig and then John filled out the limit and culled a small fish of mine. So by 10:30 we had a limit but it was very small, probably not even 5 pounds. I was missing fish again on the carolina righ which was frustrating but it was almost as if there was nothing you could do. John missed a couple on the drop shot where the fish were swimming away with the bait before he set the hook and they still didn't get it! At 1 we ran back to our first spot and this time they were biting. John caught 5 or 6 fish including two pound and a half fish to cull some smaller fish. I couldn't get bit here despite trying a bunch of different worms. So now we had about 6 and a half pounds, which we new wasn't going to get either of us a check so we ran to some main lake stuff where I picked up a small fish and farmed 4 or 5 bites. The big fish obviously weren't there so we ran up the Sacramento arm to another area. We both got bit ripping here but they didn't stick. Went back to dragging plastic but couldn't get 'em. Weighed in 6.75 for the day and fell to 62nd place. <P>Overall everthing about the tournament was cool and I enjoyed fishing with everyone who I fished with. I learned a thing or two about c-rigging, something I don't do normally which was good also. Next week the lid will probably blow off Shasta and guys will be catching 15 pound limits ripping but that's just the way it goes. Next stop, Clear Lake April 29-30. Now THAT should be a fun one.