Franks wins his First Pro-Am at
Clear Lake
By Bill Hutcheson
USAC Staff
The weekend of May 15-16th was a busy one on Clear
Lake with a bevy of bass events occurring, but the top dog of the
weekend was the U.S. Anglers Choice Pro-am hosted out of the Konocti
Vista Casino in Lakeport. The big question of the third event of the
USAC season was whether or not the big fish would show with the higher
water levels and non-traditional springtime weather patterns that the
region had been experiencing in recent months.
While Clear Lake’s big fish would prove to be few and far, it was the
weekend of perfect fishing weather that ended up being the talk
amongst the angling field. Air temperatures in the high 70’s and a
scant hint of wind blessed the angling field for the weekend’s
competition.
Chris Franks of Peteluma, CA was fishing his first Pro-Am ever and
managed to best the field of 90 seasoned anglers with limits on both
days totaling 45.81 pounds. Franks barely edged out veteran angler
Mike Tuck by a margin of .09 pounds, claiming victory and $10.254 in
winnings.
“I have been bass fishing my whole life but only got into tournament
fishing with team events about 4 years ago”, Franks stated. A week
before the USAC Clear Lake pro-am, I fished in a small tournament and
took second place. I found a lot of pre and post spawn fish and felt
like I had a good pattern going, so I went ahead and signed up for the
Angler’s Choice tournament”.
Chris pre-fished three days prior to the tournament, checking out
dozens of spots from the southern end all the way up to the northern
end of the lake. “I was targeting spawning flats using a Jig Monster
swimming jig to locate fish”, Franks stated.
On Day one of the tournament, Franks drew amateur angler Dale Taft.
The duo started off junk fishing in the northern end of the lake and
had managed about 18 pounds in the northern end of the lake first
thing in the morning. That all changed however when Franks bagged his
big fish of the day, a 7.83 pound largemouth that was taken on a white
Jig Monster jig. At this point, the duo had bagged the days weight of
23.78 pounds by about 11am.
On the second day of competition, Franks drew Ron Fussell as his
partner. Fishing proved to be a bit tougher and Franks was concerned
as he had only a 2 pound fish in the livewell for the first hour of
fishing. By about 10am, they had accrued a 15 pound limit but needed
more. Franks moved to an area where he had spotted a 6 pound fish the
day prior. Chris used his Powell rod to toss out his bait and the fish
which ended up tipping the scales at 6.13 pounds took it on the first
cast. This helped to anchor their day two weight of 22.03 pounds which
was good enough for the victory.
Second Place and $5,600 in cash went to Pro Angler
Mike Tuck for his 45.72 pound-two day sack.
Second Place honors were bestowed upon
Antelope, CA angler Mike Tuck who narrowly missed out on taking home
the Clear Lake Champion title. “I made good decisions all tournament
long and I would not have changed anything I did except for lose a big
fish”. Mike commented about his performance. “I was able to pre-fish
the lake for two days. I started down south and the fish were not
moving up like I expected they would be so I spent the last day and a
half working the northern end of the lake where the fish were already
moving up on beds”.
Tuck made note during practice where the big bed fish were that he had
seen and despite being #73 out on the first day, headed immediately to
his first big fish spot. “I’d seen a good one during practice and left
it alone, so I wanted to hit that fish immediately”. The plan worked
as Tuck pulled up on that spot first thing and after 3-4 casts with a
4” Canyon Plastics white tube jig, reared back on a 7.74 pound
largemouth which ended up being the second place big fish on the first
day of competition, earning Tuck $656 in option money.
Tuck and his day one partner, Jack Kemper had their limit in about 30
minutes and by 9;30 that morning, had the bulk of the weight that they
would accumulate that day. “We basically cruised around on the
trolling motor looking for bigger fish and if they looked like they
would improve our weight significantly, then we would fish them”, Tuck
stated.
Their opportunity to upgrade came that afternoon when they spotted a
fish that they reported went 7-8 pounds. Tuck hooked the beast but the
fish came off at the net. They left the area and came back later to
try again, spending about an hour on the fish. Tuck caught the smaller
male off the next and released it off the back of the boat. He then
tossed a Canyon Plastics Tora-Tube on the bed and once again hooked
the larger fish. Like a bad dream however, it once again parted ways
with the hook. Knowing they would not have another shot at that fish,
Tuck and his partner felt that they had enough weight based on the way
the lake was fishing to head for the scales early. They posted a
weight of 25.34 pounds which was good enough to place them at the top
of the day one leader board.
Tuck drew Art Naverlund the second day and stuck with much of the same
pattern, targeting bed fish that he’d picked out in pre-fish and day
one of the competition and fishing them on the white Canyon Plastics.
Tuck rounded out day two with a weight of 20.38 pounds, giving him a
total of 45.72 pounds for the tournament worth a check for $5,646.
Third place and $3,500 + hardware shown here went to
Kelseyville Pro Jared Stone
Rounding out the top three on the pro
side was local angler Jared Stone of Kelseyville, CA. Stone had
practiced three days prior to the tournament, eliminating water and
targeting spawning fish with drop shot rigs and senkos. Having
eliminated a bunch of non-productive areas, Jared decided to
concentrate his efforts on both days of competition on the Northern
end of the lake as the warmer water in this area seemed to be drawing
the fish up into the shallows.
Stone drew Am Paul Cunningham and the duo concentrated on Docks and
Tules up north, getting about 15 bites in stained water. Jared did
note that the larger fish seemed to come in the afternoon. Team
Stone/Cunningham hit the scales on day one with 22.36 pounds which was
good enough for 4th place going into day two of competition.
On the final day, Stone pulled Mitch Johnson as his day two partner.
Stone fished many of the same areas in the north and was able to post
20.48 pounds on day two for a total weight of 42.84 pounds and $3,531
in winnings.
On the Am side, it was Steve Ramos of Petaluma, CA who took home the
top honors on the back of a two-day, 43.11 weight. Ramos thought he
was jinxed for the event however as he had boat problems during the
pre-fish and had to cut his practice short. On day one, Ramos paired
with Pro Isaac Budesilich. Budesilich was also plagued with boat
problems as his lower unit went out in practice and the duo could only
go 5mph with the big motor. As such, they spent their entire day
within a mile of the Konocti Vista marina, beating the bushes and
flippin’ with senkos. “We had only about 10 bites the whole day and
Isaac was bagging most of the fish which were hanging on very specific
spots. I did however manage to land a fish late in the day that
upgraded our limit by about a pound or so”, Ramos noted. At the end of
day one, Ramos was sitting in 7th place.
Ramos drew USAC Oroville Lake Champion Chris Zaldain as his day two
partner. Zaldain targeted bedfish in the Mid Lake area in the morning
and moved to the northern end of the lake in the afternoon. The duo
fished dropshot rigs and tube baits on beds in deeper water. “We
caught so many fish that I lost count”, Ramos stated. “The key was to
not spend too much time on the 2-3 pound fish on the shallower beds –
we tried to target the larger fish that were on the deeper beds”.
Ramos, who did not get into any of the option pools, closed out the
tournament with a total weight of 43.11 which earned him $2,000.
Billy Hines of Vacaville, CA had a lackluster showing at Clear Lake
with his 51st place finish. All was not lost however as Hines managed
to best the highest finishing World Boat Outlet Pro angler, WBO owner
Kevin Johnson, which in turn earned Hines a $1,500 Power Pro unit from
World Boat Outlet
Going into the final event of the year, the Cardon Resorts big fish
leader is Pete McCoy of Snelling, CA who bested the prior leader Tommy
Cardoza’s 6.49 pound Lake Shasta Spotted bass with a 8.91 Clear Lake
largemouth. Will this fish withstand the September Delta event? If it
does, it will be worth an El Salto, Mexico bass fishing trip courtesy
of Cardon Resorts in Mazatlan, Mexico.
The USAC Western Pro-Am circuit will close out the season with the
final event of the year at the California Delta on September 10-12th.
Anglers interested in fishing should contact Sonia in the USAC office
at (800) 360-7112 to sign up. |
