RE: Chris Zaldain wins 2005 Clear Lake Open,
Samurai TI,
May 16th 2005, #1
RE: Chris Zaldain wins 2005 Clear Lake Open,
zaldain,
May 16th 2005, #2
RE: Chris Zaldain wins 2005 Clear Lake Open,
BuzzFish,
May 16th 2005, #3
RE: Chris Zaldain wins 2005 Clear Lake Open,
swimbait,
May 16th 2005, #4
RE: Chris Zaldain wins 2005 Clear Lake Open,
fish24,
May 16th 2005, #5
RE: Chris Zaldain wins 2005 Clear Lake Open,
bassinzink,
May 16th 2005, #6
RE: Chris Zaldain wins 2005 Clear Lake Open,
swimbait,
May 16th 2005, #7
RE: Chris Zaldain wins 2005 Clear Lake Open,
Gordon,
May 16th 2005, #11
RE: Chris Zaldain wins 2005 Clear Lake Open,
Bassin,
May 16th 2005, #8
RE: Chris Zaldain wins 2005 Clear Lake Open,
swampy,
May 16th 2005, #9
RE: Chris Zaldain wins 2005 Clear Lake Open,
SurferDave,
May 16th 2005, #10
RE: Chris Zaldain wins 2005 Clear Lake Open,
bass to the end,
May 16th 2005, #14
Way to go, Chris's!!! (Oh-and you, too, John!) ;- ),
jsmith,
May 16th 2005, #12
RE: Way to go, Chris's!!! (Oh-and you, too, John!) ;- ...,
Deacon,
May 16th 2005, #13
RE: Way to go, Chris's!!! (Oh-and you, too, John!) ;- ...,
Chris,
May 17th 2005, #17
RE: Chris Zaldain wins 2005 Clear Lake Open,
Doug T,
May 16th 2005, #15
RE: Chris Zaldain wins 2005 Clear Lake Open,
CATCHEM_CARO,
May 17th 2005, #16
RE: Chris Zaldain wins 2005 Clear Lake Open,
Chris,
May 17th 2005, #18
RE: Chris Zaldain wins 2005 Clear Lake Open,
Samurai TI,
May 17th 2005, #19
RE: Chris Zaldain wins 2005 Clear Lake Open,
Banana_Clip,
May 19th 2005, #20
RE: Chris Zaldain wins 2005 Clear Lake Open,
FISH JC,
May 19th 2005, #21
RE: Chris Zaldain wins 2005 Clear Lake Open,
CATCHEM_CARO,
May 19th 2005, #22
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zaldain | Mon May-16-05 10:17 AM |
Member since May 21st 2003
53 posts
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#28150, "RE: Chris Zaldain wins 2005 Clear Lake Open"
In response to Reply # 1
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Hey thanks alot guys. First off, I want to thank John, Paul, Mitch, and Zelenka for putting on the biggest BNT event to date and kept it smooth as always. Thanks to the sponsors who also made this event possible. Here's my report:
I didn't get to Clear Lake until about midnight friday night, the whole way up I knew I was going to fish Lucerne the first day. I really haven't spent much time in Lucerne but decided to just go fish. As we blast off, I start working the obvious structure (docks,trees,etc.) while kicking towards Nice. I started off with reaction baits like rips, traps, and spooks for about the first hour...no love. With the weather warming up, Clear Lake's spawning period is about to bust loose, I thought I would look shallow and poke around in places I knew fish spawn. As the sun came out that morning, I went back into some areas way in the trees and brush and found myself a HUGE aquarium. There where fish everywhere! but not all bass, there were carp, bluegill, some crappie, and hundreds and thousands of shad. At this point I found my first bedfish, a small 2lb. male locked on a nest. Something I thought was really interesting was the fact that this fish was bedding up in this little cove filled with shad, there where huge clouds of shad constantly swimming over the bed and right in front of his nose...he didn't care at all. I pitch a 4 inch roboworm at him a couple of times and he eats it, first fish in the box. At this point I told myself I can run this pattern and hope to spot a couple of big females. I found two creeks that were loaded with bedding fish but all males, saw some big girls but they were still deep and not willing to get into bed :( . I ended up with a limit of male bedfish that was good enough for first place in my group the way the bite was going. I weighed 8+ lbs.
Day 2 was an exciting day, I heard about all the big fish that were up so I decided to stick with my bedfishing pattern. The weather wasn't quite the same as saturday, we had wind, clouds, and some rain that got me a little worried. I started off with a good 30 min. row, get to my spot and started with a frog and a beaver, got a limit within the first 20 minutes, alot of flip fish. I wasn't getting anything big so I put on the polarized glasses and went bed hunting, saw beds everywhere, some had nothing on them, some had males on them, and some had a pair on them. At about 9 o'clock I spot a pair way back in the sticks, 4lber and 8lber. the 4 was locked on and not moving, the female was kinda just swimming around the area, swimming up, going down, it was frustrating. I work on the 8lb female for 2 hours without pitching once at the male.(the reason the female would come up was because of the male) I gave up on her and the first pitch to the male, whack, in the box. With 2 hours left I start my row back, I get to the campground with an hour remaining, start looking around at all the beds, all males. I spot a 3.5 lber with 40 min. remaining, I got him to eat the 6inch roboworm twice before I poked him with the hook, The fish got me all wrapped up in the weeds and a crossbar of a dock, almost lossed him but culled a 2 pounder instead . I ended the day with 13+ lbs. and a total of 21+ lbs. for the win. I wish we had a couple of days of nice weather, we would have seen some donkeys weighed in. I had a great time on the water with you guys, hope you learned something, I can't wait for the next open.
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bassinzink | Mon May-16-05 01:52 PM |
Member since Jan 11th 2003
968 posts
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#28154, "RE: Chris Zaldain wins 2005 Clear Lake Open"
In response to Reply # 5
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Way to stick'em bro, good job.
After watching Chris in action before i decided to be brave and stand up on my boat. It's really not as hard as people say, especially in the VV. I haven't done it with water in my well yet, still figuring out where to set the frame for my big ass. cz
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Gordon | Mon May-16-05 05:04 PM |
Member since Aug 15th 2002
599 posts
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#28159, "RE: Chris Zaldain wins 2005 Clear Lake Open"
In response to Reply # 2
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"It's not over 'til the fat lady spawns..." or something like that. Friday pre-fish Got on the water in Lucerne around 11:00. Water was calm, sun was already beating down. Saw tons of fish (good ones, too) suspended in the tules and under docks. Hard to catch those guys, though. Managed to boat a couple of 1.5# fish slow-rolling the Terminator. Also noted the location of a few bed fish for tourney day. Overall pretty tough bite. Saturday Day 1 draw in Lucerne. Although conditions (apparently) havn't changed, the suspended fish are all gone. Who knows where they went? After slow-rolling, carolina-rigging, drop-shotting, cranking, flipping, brass-n-glass, senkos, darthead, and everything else in my box, I finally put one in the boat with a white tube pitched into a bed. Nice fat fish, only about 14" but it weighed almost 2.5#. Nothing else to go with it that day. Back at the weigh-in they read off the top ten -- 10th place was 8 or 9#'s, so I'm not real hopeful. The only bright spot is on Sunday the field switches places (guys from Lucerne fish the Keys, and vice-versa). Sunday The wind howled all night and showed no signs of letting up. This is good news for guys fishing the Keys, but bad news for the guys heading to Lucerne. I start out fishing one of the 2 entrances to the Keys, figuring all the fish moving up have to pass through those openings. After awhile I give up and head back into the keys, mostly flipping and throwing a senko. I suck trying to flip out of the kayak! A couple of boats go by and everybody is throwing frogs, so I tie the closest thing I had (a Mann's rat). I get a blow-up within about 10 minutes. I pitch the senko back in as a follow-up bait and fish on! I'm using my drop-shot pole, which is very wimpy, and I only have 8-lb line. Luckily the fish heads for deep water and I just let it get tired swimming around. 4#er in the boat! I throw back in, figuring this was a bed fish and there's another one back there. Get snagged up x( and move in to retrieve it. Sure enough, I spook a good fish. Decide to give it a rest and come back later. Move around to the other side of the dock and get another blow-up on the rat. Havn't fished topwater for a while, so I jerk the bait out of it's mouth before it takes it all the way. x( Can't get this fish to go with another bait. I head way down to the bottom of the Keys to look for more frog water and as I pass M&M I see the wind pushing into the sparse tules out on the main lake. My gut tells me that the fish will position in front of the tules waiting for the wind to blow the bait to them. I pull up on a tule point and first cast nail a non-keeper on the blade. Second cast puts a 1.5# fish in the well...starting to feel like I made the right decision. Probably 10-15 minutes later, fish-on! This one jumps and looks good. I try to lead it out away from the tules but it gets wrapped up! :o I move the boat over the top of it and thank goodness it comes free. Another 4# in the well. One more to go for my 4-fish limit. Maybe an hour of covering water later, and I get my limit fish (2#) on the blade, all slow-rolling. At weigh-in, I'm pleasantly surprised with 4th place! :7
Good job to Chris, Chris, & John plus kudos to the BnT staff & sponsors for a great show! :-)
the godfather
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SurferDave | Mon May-16-05 03:17 PM |
Member since Feb 19th 2004
83 posts
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#28158, "RE: Chris Zaldain wins 2005 Clear Lake Open"
In response to Reply # 9
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Solid work Chris, it takes a lot to pull the biggest limit from where you fish both days in a row. Way to be on point. This is my second BNT event, and like the first one I attended, you guys organized it real nice. Great job to all involved.
Dave Pham Go big or go home.
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#28164, "RE: Chris Zaldain wins 2005 Clear Lake Open"
In response to Reply # 10
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good job chris.i only had one fish in the basket out of the 2 day up there
day 1: lucerne got none but i found one bed fish i tossed a black and red flake madman crawdad tube with black brass an glass x( the crawdad was to big for him to swallow but he was relly p.o.d . then i cast a rattle trap at a dock the stupid thing broke in two
day 2: m&m is where i cagut my keeper fish. i went to the frist slough got a bite on a senko in shallow to se if it was a bed fish,it was not a bed fishit was a stupid 4 inch bullfrog. so i moved up the slough to some lily pads or some thing like that so i swicth to a black side by side buzzbait by persder. bam!! got my keeper. I had no will-e-go board so i went down to some guys fishing out of a boat the fish was only a milimeter over 13 inchs.it only was 1.2 pounds but it was fun to catch.
p.s lake hook me up with a swimbait rod and next year lets have the open at state park and koncti :)
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jsmith | Mon May-16-05 05:09 PM |
Charter member
2014 posts
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#28160, "Way to go, Chris's!!! (Oh-and you, too, John!) ;- )"
In response to Reply # 0
Mon May-16-05 05:10 PM by jsmith
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Guess I'm not so surprised with Mr. Zaldain on top; he's been a threat in any tournament he fishes! Mr. Youlden, glad to see you puttin' it all together. And John, I'm bettin' you have some bed-time tales to share, as well -- I'm sure there're some woulda/coulda/ shoulda situations that otherwise might've put you in that top slot!
C'mon, John, tell us a story! :+
(hopin' I can make it to the next one!)
- jeff
----------------------- Every day Congress convenes, we lose a little more of our LIBERTY!!!
(-- Mark Levin, radio-show host/KSFO 3-6pm)
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Chris | Tue May-17-05 03:56 PM |
Charter member
2185 posts
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#28175, "RE: Way to go, Chris's!!! (Oh-and you, too, John!) ;- ..."
In response to Reply # 13
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LMAO! Funny you picked THAT photo. :+ }(
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Chris | Tue May-17-05 04:24 PM |
Charter member
2185 posts
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#28177, "RE: Chris Zaldain wins 2005 Clear Lake Open"
In response to Reply # 0
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I wasn't sure how this split field was gonna work because of the weigh-ins being divided. But now that all is said done, I love it. It forces guys to find fish BOTH days instead of just sitting on one pattern in one area for the entire two days. I started day one in Lucerne racing Chris Z out of the marina. }( A hint of things to come. I started throweing my own crankbaits and a buzzbait cuz I can't resist 'em. Nada. Later I flipped a grove of trees with a beav and got a couple bites but couldn't sink a hook. Later I resorted to the dreaded 4" M.M., wacky rigged on a dropshot. It resulted in 3 fish for 5 lb 9 oz. Once we discovered what was going on in the Keys I knew the guys going to Lucerne were gonna have it tough. The wildcard though, was the size of the fish in the north end. Someone could pull up on a dock and find it loaded with fat chicks. Tourney over. I woke up feeling really good. I've been fishing well this year. The weather looks like it will be a bigger advantage for me than I thought. Yeah, I'm friggin' STOKED. Again Chris Z. and I race off leading the pack of kickboats & tubes into the Keys. He was the guy to beat. I found a great looking key and stuck a limit with Senkos by 7am and a double limit by 8 but was only able to cull once. Then for some strange reason, I never got bit again. I finished with 10 and some change for the day and over 16 pounds for second place.
It's really nice to finally add a small trophy of my own to my grandfathers collection of tourney trophies from the 70's.
Chris
I think I'm gonna go up to Clear Lake again this week and practice some sight fishin. You KNOW it's gonna be good! :7
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