Castaic Bass Club Blog

January Meeting

Our meeting got off to a slow start last month due to it being the first one of the New Year. Lots of paper work to update, names addresses, phone numbers, emails ect ect. Mike made his announcements. Eddie and I circled around and did the pairings for Piru. We had to have 2 boaters with 3 in the boat. It’s important that we get our boaters out on the water. Right now we only have a total of 15 active boaters we have a couple that are in repair mode or paperwork issues. We had a nice raffle to close out the meeting. Hope to see ya all at the February 9th Meeting 7pm.

Tournament Results

Well ole Piru Lake had it out for some of us last month. With reports of a tough bite or no bite at all the light threat of rain looming over us. It turned out to be a very nice day to be on the water. All in all if you look at the over all results we as a club had an impressive weigh in. We had 38 fish weighed in for a whopping 94.87 pounds. That’s a 2.50 pound average. I for one couldn’t believe what the lake was kicking out for a January tournament with 53-degree water temp. I was of the mindset that we were going to be fishing deep water all day but that was not the case.  Anyhow with only 2–5 fish limits being brought to the scales. Here is how it went down. In first place Ron L. and Gary P. with a 5 fish total weight of 13.74 #’s and with 2nd big fish of the day @ 4.32 #’s. Second place goes to Lenden R. & Tony F. with a 5 fish limit for 12.47 #’s. Sitting in third is Mark P. & Eddie C. with a 4 fish limit of 9.53 #’s. Taking Big fish Honors this tournament is Orin T. with a big fish weight of 4.67 #’s. Congratulations to everyone nice job!
February finds us in our very own back yard fishing Castaic Lake on the 12th of February. Non-Boater fee for this will be $35 we will be launching from the west ramp. Please remember to have your boat retagged after you go out pre fishing. Write a note and place it on your dashboard the tagging area for Castaic is easy to drive past.

Be safe and I’ll see ya on the water.
Ron Licari
VP/TD

Mike’s Place

The year started out great and it is shaping up to be another fun time out on the water. The weather may be a little warmer than usual, but the water temps are still quite cold. The past few weeks the temps have been hovering around the low to mid 50 degree mark. Water levels are up and the fish are showing signs of life. Please remember to take care of your deep caught fish by needling them as quickly as possible. Some fish are caught shallow but show the symptoms of deep caught fish, mainly floating. These fish also need to be needled immediately. Remember to leave a small amount of air in the bladder otherwise the fish will sink to the bottom and lay on their sides. Make sure that there are still a few bubbles still coming out when you remove the needle. If in doubt, call over to another club member for help with this procedure. Please take care at all times when handling our most valued prize, from catching to weigh-in to final release. Help protect and preserve.

Thanks and see you soon.
Be safe,
Mike Iljin

The Meeting

The issue of 3 versus 2 “Throw Out” tournaments in our schedule was again discussed and voted on at the meeting.  The original intent of 2 throw outs was because some of the members could not attend the 2 day away events and should not be penalized.  The club overwhelmingly voted to retain the 2 throw outs rule.  Another rule change was the adoption of the Troy Rule.  The Troy Rule was created by Mike Iljin, who is also the Tournament Director for Angler’s Choice Castaic Trail. The rule is in response to what to do in the event that an angler falls into the water during a tournament.  In this case, the angler is allowed to go on shore to change into dry clothing and return to the tournament with no penalty beyond the obvious loss of fishing time.  The anglers comfort and safety, especially during times of cold weather, are tantamount in importance.   There is to be NO removing, replacing or changing in any way the anglers tackle.

I cannot say enough about guest speaker, Bill Siemantel, who honored us at the February meeting.  We have been fortunate to have some very fine speakers but Bill’s wealth of knowledge and willingness to share is unparalleled.  Not only did Bill bring his years of experience, his sponsor, Spro Lures, sent him with a passel of goodies for our raffle.  THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH.

Tournament Results

The tournament at Lake Piru went much as expected.  It was tough and not in the ‘just complaining because I didn’t catch fish’ kind of tough but tough for everybody.  Stained water, no pattern, changing weather and wind throughout the day, did I miss anything?  There were zero limits brought to the scale.  Three boats had no fish but the actual number of anglers that blanked was far higher than that.  Rodney “Secret Lure” Scott and Eddie Carr brought 4 fish to the scale that weighed 11.39 pounds and got them first place.  In second place were Walter Kondracki and Yours Truly with 3 fish at 11.08 pounds.  Big Fish also goes to Walter who landed a nice 4.38 pounder.  In third place came Kevin Miner and Chef David “Aquaman” Sanchez with 3 fish that weighed 6.82 pounds.  David also joined the elite group of members of the prestigious Castaic Bass Club Swim Team.  David performed a nearly flawless Push And Miss with a one half lean back in the AW Sh.. position to kick off the morning and earning him an average score of 5.8 for the fall.

Mike’s

The start of last month’s tournament was kick started by David Sanchez’s dunk in the drink. It seemed ironic that minutes before we had discussed this very same scenario and many of us couldn’t believe the event that was unfolding before our very eyes.  A quick response from Jeff Jue turned this potentially serious situation into not much more than a soggy and cold Chef David. The members rallied to David’s aid with many articles of dry clothing.  After a fast shedding of wet clothes, and an equally fast dawning of dry ones, all was right and the day of fishing and fun began.
The Castaic Bass Club Swim Team welcomes its newest member: Chef David Sanchez.  Even though we can make light of it now, we must always remember safety first and to take care of each other.

On another note, I will be bringing some LOGOWARE sweatshirts, sweatpants and a few long sleeved tee shirts to Thursday’s meeting.  It will be on a first come first serve basis for the sizes that are left. I do not know when we will be able to make a replacement order since our embroiderer requires a large minimum order. Any new members or those that want another Club jacket, please let me know on Thursday and I will try to put an order together that is large enough for our guy.