My back is still out, and as much as I hate not fishing, I stayed home today. Since I can’t fish I figured I’d at least write about it…

2005 Plastic Navy Tournament Trail, a synopsis of what an Amish angler learned and did.

Event#1: KayakSportfishing.com Tournament at DanaPoint
This was the event I planned to do well in. I did the opposite. Why? Well the biggest reason is I went against my instincts and paddled north to the kelp off the point. I should’ve gone south to the hardbottom areas off Capo. I know I don’t fish kelp well, and I know I fish hardbottom well. I scratched a couple fishing the bottom between the kelp stringers. Those came on 5” Big Hammers in scrambled egg. I tried the Zoom Super-flukes and Assalt grubs in the kelp, but got nothing but a few short-bites. There was a few guys (Robert and Steve) who did really well in the area, but they were fishing the boilers. It never occurred to me to do that. In March I think deep, not shallow; my bad. The guys who did go south, did well and they were fishing where I would’ve gone. Lesson learned: fish where I’m most confident, my lack of confidence definitely hurt me on this one.

Event#2: San Diego Sailing Center in Mission Bay
This event was one of 2 on Mission Bay and it was these events I figured I’d do poorly at. I fished my normal T-rigged Assalt Ringer Worms and Saltshakers, 1 1/4oz Revenge spinnerbaits, and tried a little trolling with a Rapalla Rapshad. Well this event I only got one fish. It was a decent one for Mission Bay, but I need 5 of those. Lesson leared: After this event I spent a lot of time trying to figure out why I couldn’t seem to do well in Kayak fishing events, yet had done so well in floattube tournaments. I posted about my dilemma on a couple boards and got some good advice. But, it was a big revelation when I found out what my problem was. The problem was my game plans and how I was implementing them. In the days of fishing from a shark doughnut I was in grad school. I worked in my studio at night and had few daytime classes. So, I had most of my days to fish. Before tourneys I could get 3-5 days pre-fishing in the week of the tournament. My game plans were based on that, and I didn’t waver from them. I stuck to them, even when the bite seemed slow. It paid off. But, these days I have a regular 8-5 job and only fish on Saturdays. I realized I couldn’t stick to a game plan so strickly, because my pre-fishing info was always at least a week old. Also, I learned to not try to force a bait to work, but rather cycle quickly through my baits. Stick with the one getting the most bites, then switch once it’s not getting bit. This seems obvious in hindsight, but it took me 2 years to figure it out. This revelation though is what landed me in 4th place in the trail.

Event #3: Fastlane Sailing Center, Mission Bay
This was my first event post-revelation, and what a change for me. I cycled through my baits in an area I pre-fished a lot. T-rigged Saltshakers and Ringerworms in amber/red flake and a heavy blade got me 3 fish, then trolling a Norman crank on the way in got me my 4th(never got #5) I ended up tied for 7th place with 2 others. I ended up w/10th since I had the smallest big fish. This was my best finish in MB and my first top ten in a yak tourney. Best of all though, one of the guys I tied with was Matt Moyer. He has given me plenty of tips on fishing the blade for spotties and is always ready to give more. He is one of the best if not the best on MB and it was an honor to stand next to him. Lesson learned: mostly this event reinforced my approach to tourneys. Best example of this; I had done 4 Saturdays of pre-fishing before the event, every time one bait stood out. Assalt Cobra jigheads with homemade skirts and Zoom grubs for trailers. These things killed it all 4 days. The day of the tourney the fish wanted nothing to do with the jig. The tourney before I would’ve spent half the day tossing that bait. But, since I had finally discovered the obvious, I didn’t. I went back to them here and there, but they never got a legal.

Event #4: Plastic Navy Calico Chaos, La Jolla
This event was a big one for me as I ended up in 3rd place. I had a game plan to fish the boilers and deeper hard bottom, then the kelp if the inside didn’t pan out. I fished the inside stuff for a couple nice fish and eventually had to head for the kelp. In the kelp I only found 12” and 13” fish, so I head back inside for tournament weighable fish. Inside I got my 4.95lb, and another to weigh. The big one and 2 of the others came on a Owner Sledhead rigged Gotcha Trout Killer in bubblegum. The other fish and many non-weighable legals came on 5” scrambled egg Big Hammers. Zoom Super Flukes in baby bass got a few also. Lesson learned: be flexible and fish where I’m confident

Event #5: Plastic Navy at Shelter Island
This event was pretty lack luster for me, I caught some fish and placed OK. Dropshotting 7” Fin’s Fish from Lunker City got me plenty of of cookie cutter 13” fish, but they needed to be 14”. I think I got 2 to weigh on the DS. The other 2 came on 5.5” purple prism chovy from Big Hammer. Of course the second fish destroyed my bait, and I didn’t have anymore. Lesson learned: make sure I have extra baits

Event#6: Southwind Kayak Tournament at Newport
I pre-fished for this one 4 or 5 Saturdays, but a clear pattern never emerged. Only one bait seemed to get bit every time and that was the 4” crazy diamond Big Hammer. It got fish both on cast and retrieve and trolled. But, never a lot of them. The week before the tournament I had brought along some 4” oxblood Roboworm curly tail worms, and I worked these along the docks for quite a few fish. So, during the tourney I spent a lot of time doing that and got quite a few shorts and a legal. I also trolled the crazy diamond for one legal. I spent a long time on one point that had water sweeping over it into some eel grass and then down a nice drop off. I was getting bit every other cast, but the ones that I got a good hookset on kept breaking off (this happened a lot on the docks too). I eventually pulled a short off that point and left for better pastures. I worked the small worms off the docks I had got my first legal on, but wasn’t getting bit. I had planned to fish the docks on the deep water side of the channel that runs along PCH, and with a half hour left, I headed over. On my first cast I got my best fish of the day using a amber/red flake (one of my all time favorite colors) Assalt grub on a small darter head. I got bit a few more times, and had another break off, then it was time to get back for final weigh-in. Another lack luster day, but I held my place in the trail so I couldn’t complain. Lesson learned: 6# flouro is too light, I should’ve used 8#.

Event #7: Plastic Navy KFC 4
The final event of the trail proved to be what we all hoped it would be. It was a close race. For me it was a matter of finding that 5th fish. I never did find #5 and it meant 18th place instead of somewhere in the top 10. It might also have meant bumping my good friend HobieTom into 4th place and me taking 3rd in the trail.

I’m not sure exactly where I went wrong last Sat, but I’m guessing I spent too much time in too small an area and the fish caught on to me. Plus, once the 10am wind picked-up (15min late I might add) my drift was all screwed up. I was still covering the same area, but I couldn’t get the yak to lay in a position for me to get a good hook-set. I should mention that if my back hadn’t been out this probably wouldn’t have been as much of an issue. But, enough of that.

The area I fished was off the Bali Hai shoal out in the channel. There’s a wide hump out there and the fish were all around and on top of it. Pre-fishing there with HobieTom and Landwhale the week before I had about 12lbs for my top 5 fish. It was a good place to go back to. Besides, almost everybody else went the other way and I had the place to myself until 11am when HobieTom came to join me. Bait and color choice was pretty simple for me, Big Hammer’s 5.5” Darkside took all my fish. I also got bit well on the 5.5” Christmas Tree. I tried other colors and sizes, but nothing really got bit like the Darkside. I used 1.5oz Hammerheads with the 6/0 hooks. I used red and plain but couldn’t detect any preference on the basses part.

Presentation was obviously the biggest factor. Longline with a twist. I’d let at least 1/2 a spool, then wind in about 10’. If I didn’t get bit I let it settle to the bottom and then do it again. I repeat this until I got bit. Then I’d let out bunch of line, feathering the spool until I felt the bite again (or 1/2 a spool was back out), then I’d let the rod load-up and swing. If I missed, I’d keep winding slowly and if the re-bite came I took up the slack and swung again. I’d do all this until the bait was right under me. Even if I was bit right below me, I’d let the line back out. What this all meant was a very long cast and retrieve process, 4 nice weighable fish, and some 13” fish.

I tried dropshotting, but wasn’t getting bit frequent enough to bother continuing. I also tried a Megabait Bucktail jig, and a Kalin Magumbo on a 1oz spearhead. The results were the same as the dropshot though.

Overall it was a great day. We started the day with a most excellent potluck breakfast including blueberry pancakes, eggs, bacon, sausage, fixins for burritos, danishes, and fresh coffee. We fished during a pretty decent bite. Then we had Plastic Navy’s famous carne asada tacos. After that, the awards ceremony. Then we had the biggest raffle a kayak tournament has ever seen. It was off the hook. Even Lou “MIX ‘EM UP” Dog won, he won a 20” flatscreen TV. After a year of listening to him, everyone cheered (and booed) when he finally won something. The raffle proceeds (about $3000) from the various tournaments Plastic Navy did this year went to the charity organization Friends of Rollo. It’s nice to think that while we’ve had so much fun fishing the trail this year, we also were able to help give many kids the opportunity to experience what we get to do all year.

This year I learned a lot about how I fish tournaments, and how I can improve. The game plan issue, and not trying to force the fish to eat the bait I think they should eat were obviously the 2 big ones. As I’ve picked away at writing this post today (now tonight also), I realized another big issue. In all the tourneys this year I don’t think I ever did weigh a 5 fish limit. I know I always get stressed once I’ve got #4 in the tank. I’m guessing that if I can get over that, I can find myself in 1st one of these days. As it was though I did way better than I had hoped and finished 4th overall. More important though, I’m walking away with lot’s of new friends to fish with and the chance to help make the trail happen again next year.

I want to end this long-ass post by thanking everyone at Plastic Navy, everyone that helped run one of the events this year, all the sponsors that have been donating to the raffles, and most of all the wives (and a couple husbands) that let us out to spend money and time chasing bass around.
Amish Ed
You can't catch it again if it's dead!

Ed, great post! Thanks for the info and congrats on a solid year!