I'm still around Rob, thanks for remembering me. I'm more of a lurker right now, I don't really have anything to talk about... I do almost check in daily though. Here is a rundown of my last few years.

I got into swimbait fishing just before the height of it. I got serious about it in November of 2005. It started with a couple trips in late October, I caugt a few fish with an 8lber being the biggest and had tons of followers. The day after thanksgiving I had an incredible day, 17 hudd fish in one day. It was an insane day and to this day i have seen nothing like it again. Bass were chasing trout everywhere, all I had to do was cast to the boil and fish on! The spring of 2006 I had some really good days. Caught several over 10lbs and even got my dad onto a couple of fish over 10lbs. As always with swimbait fishing it was hit and miss but it was usually more hit than miss.

2007 was a different year, got rid of the wife that would get mad if i wasn't home from my fishing trips by the time she got home from work. I am kind of ashamed to say it but in feb of 2006 I actually left a red hot bite because I didn't want to get in trouble because I wasn't home when she got home.... My dad couldn't believe it, I caught an 11lber on my last cast and said to my dad... "Time to go". He couldn't believe it. I puts lots of time on he water and put some good trips together. I did see bass gorging on trout a few times and could not get bit. I mean insanely gorging on trout. The bass would chase trout like a dorado would chase a flying fish and yet they wouldn't bite. I caught a couple over 10lbs but noticed that the fishing wasn't as good as the previous year.

2008 again, different from the previous two years. Fished some of the old haunts and some new ones. Could really tell that it was going to be a tough year. The saving grace for the year was the day that Don and I had. We caught 12 or 13 fish in one day, four of which were over 11lbs. We both had limits over 40lbs and our best 5 between us were over 53lbs, definitely a day I will never forget. Didn't catch many fish other than the fish from that day. Bought a house on a small private lake in May and got married again in August, this time to a wonderful woman who encourages me to do the things that I love to do.

2009, the slowest yet. December of 2008 started out pretty good, my first trip yielded a couple of good fish over 7lbs and broke one off over 10. Couple of other trips in December were ok with a couple decent fish. January was a pretty good month and what I thought was the start of a really good year. Some 5's and 6's, one over 8 and a day with two 10's in three casts. My next trip after the two 10's was in early February, I think I caught a 3 and 4 early that day and then the bite shut off. I think I went again the next day, it was cloudy and showers were in the forecast. I got to the lake and launched, as I was idling out I thought to myself, "it's going to get ugly today". I proceeded to fill up my livewells before I even got to the first spot.......got skunked and haven't caught a swimbait fish since. I made a bunch of trips through feb and into mar and never got bit again. I fished hard last year but just couldn't put anything together.

I think that everybody throwing the same baits has definitely slowed down the big fish bite. Like every technique there are peaks and valleys in how hey work. We appear to be in a valley right now for swimbaits and big fish. I think it will come back around, maybe there will even be an upward swing this year. A lot of the weekend warrior swimbait fisherman have put their swimbait stuff in the garage already. Another thing that may be having an effect on the fish is the drought we are currently in. Seems like the fishing took a turn for he worse when we had the first of several dry years. Hopefully we get some rain this year and fill up those lakes that really need water. Those big fish need to spread out so they don't see so many of the same baits.

Other than that I have been working a bunch, we eradicated over 390,000 marijuana plants this year in Fresno county so that kept me busy most of the summer. At home I have been working on my own little fishing experiment... Tagging fish and tracking their lengths and weights, but that's another story.

I'm going to hit the 2010 season hard just like I did in 2009, hopefully the results will be better!

Jake J

http://calfishing.com/gallery/v/members/jakej/