Castaic Bass Club Blog

February Meeting

Well the January tournament came and went. With one of our best turn outs in a while with 17 teams. The day started out as calm as I have ever seen Castaic Lake. How ever by weigh in time the winds were a blowing. At weigh in only 3limits weighed in with Kevin and his guest taking 1st place with 8.20 coming in 2nd with 7.67 pounds was the team of Jeff and Tony and rounding the top three was the team of Mark P. and Adam Boyd with 6.82 pounds. Big fish Honors of 4.59 go to Ralph Rosa fishing by himself due to a sick partner. Kevin and his partner reported going through a lot of fish through out the day. Most of the teams all agreed that it was a tough day all in all. Afterwards a small group showed up at Mc Donald for a quick lunch. February has the club returning to Castaic Lake. With the weather ideal for fishing we’ll see if the fish think so too. Hope to see you all at the Thursday meeting @ El Torito’s come out early and have some dinner before the meeting. Please remember if you can’t make the meeting please call a Board Member to let them know if you are fishing on Sunday so that we can make sure you get paired up.

Thanks,

Ron

Mike’s Place

First and formost is this report on Wes. This is a copy of what Mark Poulson sent me. This is dated 1-27. The second part is an update from my call with Wes on Superbowl Sunday.

Mike,

Wes just called me with an update, and asked me to pass it along to you to send out to the whole Club. Wes finally had the CT scan that had been postponed, and they found a total of three spots on his liver, and two on his left lung, the original and one small new one. They’re not sure if the three spots on his liver are really three, or just the result of the biopsy on the first one. The first tumor on his lung had “only grown from 2cm to 2.6cm” since it was first detected, and Wes said that was good. They also found several abdominal lymph nodes were infected, but the cancer hasn’t spread to his bones. His doctor and nurse practitioner both said he’s treatable. The doctor said there’s a pretty good survival rate with no bone involvement. He is waiting now to meet with the oncologist to develop a treatment plan, and he says they’ve fast tracked him, so he expects to meet with him early next week. He’ll know more once they’ve met, and mapped out a plan of attack. He was much more upbeat when we talked. Fingers crossed.

Sunday 2-6

I called Wes this morning to find out how he was feeling. He had his first Chemo treatment on Wednesday. Wes said he felt fine afterwards and went fishing on Friday. Well all was good until Saturday when the effects of the treatment finally kicked in. His joints hurt and he felt like cr@p. Today, Sunday, he feels a little better but not good. Seems like he is passed the worst part of his first treatment and he might be able to fish with us next weekend. Prayers and best wishes for a speedy recovery to Wes. We’ll see you all on Thursday.

Take care,

Mike

May Meeting

The May meeting is historically a short one with a few of the members already staking out territory up at Cachuma.  Pretty much the dues were collected and the pairings were done and it was time to go.  This does not mean that nothing important was talked about.  Remember that our Next meeting on June 10th is when we will be selecting lakes for next year’s schedule.  This is NOT an ongoing process.  The June meeting will be your one and only chance this year to have input as to where you would like to fish in 2011.

Tournament Results

Well, I was right, the tournament at Cachuma was the funnest.  The weather was the best.  Saturday morning dawned with fog on the lake that gave way to a thick marine layer that did not clear until about 2pm.  This was great news for those that like to throw blade baits or for people (like me) that had never hooked a spinner bait fish before.  Water clarity and wind depended very much on where you were and when.  Saturday night Chef David prepared Carne Asada with all the fixen’s and nobody walked away hungry and yes, he remembered the salsa this time.  Sunday’s launch was much the same as Saturday’s except the morning fog was thicker and the sky cleared earlier.
When all the weighing was done and the dock talk was running down the finish came down to this.  In First Place with a total of 10 fish weighing a rockin’ 21.09 pounds was the team of Jeff Jue and Adam Boyd.  Jeff also had the tournament Big Fish for the tournament at 4.64 pounds.  In Second Place was (you guessed it) Kevin “Keh-Ching” Miner and Marcia Thompson with 10 fish at 18.30 pounds.  If you are keeping score that is 2 wins in a row for Jeff and 5 checks in a row for Kevin.  In Third Place was our only 3 person team for the tournament, Bo Viescas, Tony Franks and Bo’s guest, his son Jake.  The three of them pulled our last limit with 10 fish at 15.71 pounds.
See you at the meeting on Thursday and remember that after the regular meeting we will be staying to talk about schedule.

Mike’s

It’s almost Summer time, that means things are heating up and that includes your live well.  Check your fish often.  Make sure your recycling pump is on and working.  If you want input on next year’s schedule than be at the meeting on Thursday or call someone and ask them to speak for you.

Mike

November Meeting

First of all Yes Virginia there is going to be a December Meeting at the usual time and Place on the 10th.  There are no club dues or tournament fees at this meeting.   The T.O.C. will be on the 13th and the Holiday Party at El Chaparral on the 20th.  The restaurant is located at 19132 Soledad Canyon Road in Canyon Country.  Their phone number is 661/252-5599.  The fiesta starts at 11:00 AM.

As you know the November meeting marks the election of officers for the coming year.  This year it was a simple confirmation as there were no contested positions.  The board for 2010 will be Mike Iljin, President, Ron Licari, Vice President, Eddie Carr, Presidents Assistant, Nick Langer, Weigh Master, Tony Franks, Secretary and me, the Treasurer.  With the grueling business of the election out of the way the pairings for Pyramid were done and then we had a pretty good raffle.

Tournament Results

How many ways can you say windy and Lake Pyramid in the same sentence?  You have to admit that this time it was different.  This time it was cold and windy and also it was windy from the get go, we didn’t have to wait until the sun came up before it started blowing.  Given these conditions the results were not a great surprise.  Finishing in First Place with an incredible 2 fish that weighed a total of 4.56 pounds were Roger Larocque and George Reed.  They also had a 3.07 pounder for the tournament Big Fish.  Wes Carpenter and Adam Boyd also caught 2 fish that totaled 4.47 pounds and was good for Second Place.  In Third Place were Mike Iljin and Eddie Carr with one 2.05 pound fish.  Forth Place went to Nick Langer and Tony Franks who also caught 1.  This one fish is significant for two reasons.  1) it was the only other fish caught in the tournament and 2) it gave Tony just enough point to squeak into First Place for Angler of the Year ahead of Mike Iljin by a mere 3 points.  It was a close race at the end and our congratulations go out to Tony.

Mike’s

First and foremost, I want to thank the club members for their support during my family’s scare last month. Cassie loved the flowers that the Club delivered to her and they are a constant reminder to us of the well wishes from our extended fishing family.

Since this will be the last news letter of the year I would like to thank all of the Board members: Bo, Mark, Shelley, Eddie and Nick for all of their help and support this last year. They have made the Castaic Bass Club one of the finest clubs that has ever fished a lake.

We will have our last tournament of the year at Castaic on December 13th, so if you plan on fishing and can not make the meeting on Thursday, please be sure to call and or e-mail a board member before the start of the meeting at 7:00.

There is a special event going to be held at the Sports Complex in Castaic called The Celebration of Life. This event is to honor the life of fellow fisherman Ron Smith who passed away suddenly just a few months ago. The event will be held on December 20th, the same day as our banquet. We are hoping to wrap up our banquet between 1 to 2p.m. so that club members could still have a chance to drive over to the lake and participate in the event. There will be plenty of things for the kids to do and see, so bring them along. Below is a list of the day’s activities.

Take care,

Mike

Ron Smith “ Celebration of Life” Family Festival

Event and Volunteers Schedule: