BASS Fishing Club PUMPS up to Fish! - SANTA ROSA, CA OCTOBER 10th 2005

The Sonoma County Belly Boat BASS Club has hit the next level with national television ESPN2 presence again and some big bags at their recent tournament at Clear Lake, Lakeport, CA!

These guys and gals are not your normal BASS anglers! Well almost, except for the way they get on the water. As you can start guessing from the club’s name with Belly Boat in it, it’s not a fiberglass 250 horsepower-fishing group but a man-powered inflatable boat group!

Now, don’t think air mattress! Nope, these crafts have thousands of dollars invested in them from the original conventional round inflatable tube from years past to the newer style of “U” shaped inflatable tubes and now the high tech style of Pontoon Kick Boats. Sonar, GPS, Live Wells, cache of rods, trolling motors (not allowed during tournaments), running lights and all the bells and whistles most think of on a conventional BASS Boat these crafts have. These anglers are very serious and looking for the win!

Santa Rosa’s own Rich Caro, starting President of the 22-year-old Sonoma County Belly Boat BASS Club (SCBBBC) was recently featured on ESPN2’s newest show, BASS Tech where they took a Kick Boat and added all the toys a BASS Fisherman/woman would need, and with a little sparkle! Featured on the show were Professional Fishermen Gerald "G" Swindle, Skeet Reese and others turning Rich’s surprise new Kick Boat into a mean BASS Tournament Fishing Machine!

Saturday & Sunday October 8th and 9th the SCBBBC blasted off for their 19th Annual Clear Lake Invitational BASS Tournament, which was held at Clear Lake State Park, Lakeport, CA. with over 41 anglers present. In attendance were anglers from the Lake Shasta area, Lake Tahoe, San Luis Obispo and Southern California including all over Northern California.

As busy as Clear Lake can be this time of year Anglers were able to fish together and respectively with the Anglers Choice Northern Division TOC Tournament being held Friday before their Invitational and Saturday the first day of the Tournament. Sunday presented a little less pressure. However many other anglers were on the water pre-fishing for the Bassmaster event scheduled for next weekend, not allowing all the pressure those bass have been receiving to slack much!

Day One - (Saturday) all anglers caught fish! Big Fish for the day was 7.56# caught by Deren Kozenko with second Big Fish for the day being 5.32# caught by Bill Sweatt. The first day First Place was Deren Kozenko with 14.99#, Second Place Bill Sweatt with 14.29# and Third Place Matt Cahill with 11.74#.

Saturday evening at the Cole Creek Campgrounds inside Clear Lake State Park the Club held a Casting Contest sponsored by the Bear Republic Brewing Company in Healdsburg, CA. Then the Club held a donation raffle to help with fees for the 2006 season with some prestigious donations from AC Pro Shops, American Maple, BASS West USA Magazine, BASSanglerprofiles.com, BassMedics (Rejuvenade), Bill Lewis Lures (Rat-L-Trap), Black BASS Action Committee, Bucks Bags, Fish JC Baits, Flowmaster, Gamakatsu, Gary Yamamoto Custom Baits, Jeremy Brumbelow 's CUSTOM JIGS, Minn Kota, Outdoor Pro Shop, Power Pro, River 2 Sea (R2S), Scott Green Guide Trips, Setyr Rod Company, SpecialtyTackle.com, Sun Day Afternoons, Todd & Ben's Tackle & YO-topia Toys.

Day Two - Sunday October 9th, the second day launched on a nice calm morning bringing in the Big Fish of the second day of 7.75# by Bill Sweatt and second Big Fish of 5.27# by Paul Fontes. The second day First Place was tied with 15.87# by Todd Iwamoto and Carson Riley, Second Place Paul Fontes with 14.43# and Third Place Joe Castro with 10.8#.

Final Combined Two Day Results are:

1. Carson Riley from Windsor, California with 27.22#
2. Bill Sweatt from Santa Rosa, California with 24.90#
3. Paul Fontes from Concord, California with 22.13#
4. Todd Iwamoto from San Jose, California with 21.25#
5. Doug Tyler from Sacramento, California with 21.04#
6. Matt Cahill from Santa Rosa, California with 20.11#
7. Joe Castro from San Jose, California with 19.72#
8. Mike Ayers from Petaluma, California with 18.19#
9. Tim Zandbergen from Redding, California with 17.82#
10. Dave Sternitzke from Santa Rosa, California with 17.80#

The Sonoma County Belly Boat BASS Club, an affiliated chapter of the BASS Federation and holds regular monthly meetings (first Wednesday of each month) at 7:00 PM with the next meeting being held on November 2nd 2005 at the Round Table Pizza located at 1003 Guerneville Rd, Santa Rosa, CA 95403.

The meetings are open to any interested bass anglers, kids to adults, according to William Perez president of this local bass fishing/conservation group. The SCBBBC’s meetings are held the first Wednesday of every month at the same location above.

The Sonoma County Belly Boat BASS Club (SCBBBC) Bassmasters is one of more than 2,800 affiliated chapters of the more than 565,000-member national bass fishing organization’s headquarters in Montgomery, Alabama. Besides an interest in improving anglers’ bass fishing skills, the organizations has acted to improve fishing waters and protect the sport of fishing.

Since it’s founding in early 1968, BASS has become the watchdog of the waterways for sport fishermen. BASS has worked effectively on legislation banning the use of certain toxic chemicals such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB’s), and also the passage of the National Boating and Fishing Enhancement Act, which provides over $155 million annually for boating and fishing programs in the 50 states.

The organization of BASS Chapters into 47 State Federations and six International Federations has strengthened the organization’s ability to respond to threats of problems of pollution at the state level. “These organizations are the first line of water and environmental pollution defense,” said the president.

The Federation will work closely with state game and fish personnel and elected legislative officials for the improvement of the sport of bass fishing. Other projects include the organization o f youth fishing programs and a statewide chapter tournament.

For more information about the Sonoma County Belly Boat BASS Club, complete Invitational Results and photographs you can visit their award winning web site at www.SCBBBC.com along with links there to all of their donating sponsors for their events.

"When I Grow Up I Want To Be A Kid"

http://www.bassanglerprofiles.com/johnstangle.htm