BD Bay Bass Classic

[Chris]

The first annual BD/CCA Bay Bass Classic was held yesterday, Saturday May 11th in Mission bay.

Registration was $20 and we got that and more back with the goodie bag they handed out to everyone.
Ahi/ promar gave out some small coils of 20lb floro with a bag to display in the pics to enter thier side pot. I put on the leader and stuck the bag in the top of my tackle bag and totally forgot about it when I took fish pics. Big goof on my part.

There was a side pot for halibut so I spent the first 3 hours targeting sandy grass flats in hopes of a good flattie and maybe catch a spottie while I'm at it.
Ended up with two halibut, one 17" and one a little shorter I didn't enter and a handful of bass from 9-11.5" . Topped it off with a small cuda and hog lizard fish. Lol.

There was an outrigger canoe race going on and I got stuck in their traffic trying to cross a channel to go pee.... Talk about the most inconvenient timing being stuck 10ft off the shore of a packed dog beach and 10ft from 50 womens paddle teams when I'm about to piss myself. Luckily I was able to hold it and wasn't arrested for indecent exposure.

About 11:30 I checked the stats and even with my smaller fish I was in 30th place out of 140-150 anglers. Decided to go hit some docks and structure and try to atleast make a showing.
Found a row of docks with 3 submerged boat lifts and threw an under spin with 3" big hammer in them and pulled out a 17" bass on first cast. Wrestling it out of there was fun. Had to retie a new leader because it got really chaffed up and then cast into the second and pulled out a 14" spottie! Entered them and checked my stats and I was in 16th with 45 mins to go. Had to retie and put in a new swim bait then nailed a 13.5" on the 3rd cast. This brought me up to 6th place. I spent a little time pounding some posts around the area and had a short bite but nothing stuck. With 15mins left I went looking for another promising spot but the wind was now blowing my boat around like a balloon. Figured that was it and headed back. A couple last minute updates to the entries put me in 9th place with a 70" total and biggest overall spottie at 17".

Award time was interesting. They gave the overall spottie award to the guy with the 3rd biggest fish at 16.5" when there was a 16.75 and 17" ahead of him. I asked the event coordinators if we had been disqualified and they looked shocked and said it was a mistake. They gave me a rod for the largest spottie but didn't do an announcement or anything. BD has been made aware, the guy that won was aware and so was half the crowd when they announced it. We'll see what they end up publishing because BD is really good about event recaps.

Besides that I had a good time. Saw some old faces, including Len and almost had a dog join me which was funny. It swam out 100ft or so and looked pretty intent on getting to my boat.

[Tim524]

 Congrats on placing in the Top Ten and for not getting arrested too !

[skrilla]

Good seeing ya and congrats on the longest spotty!

First time I've taken the kayak out since January and felt suuuuper rusty. I gambled and first went for the sidepots but struck out. When I went for spotties it was all the dinks you could want. I only submitted one 11" model. Didn't bother with the rest of the sub 12" spotties as I saw I needed at least a 60"+ bag by the time I started targeting them.

I've got an email to fire off to the tournament committee concerning one of the first place winners. Let's just say I'm hoping the rules are better clarified and actually followed next time around.

[Latimeria]

I've got an email to fire off to the tournament committee concerning one of the first place winners. Let's just say I'm hoping the rules are better clarified and actually followed next time around.

Well, I'm pretty interested in knowing what went on?  lol


Congrats Chris!  That sounds like it was an interesting tourney at minimum!  Another reason why I don't think I have ever made the SNBF a competition that sometime spawns a "win at all cost" mentality.  People like pushing the borders...  17" spotty is legit.

[Chris]

Good seeing ya and congrats on the longest spotty!


I've got an email to fire off to the tournament committee concerning one of the first place winners. Let's just say I'm hoping the rules are better clarified and actually followed next time around.

Good seeing you too and thanks! Getting 3 decent fish in a row was definitely exciting. Almost enough to make me go bass fish again lol.

Are you referring to the use of a kayak to gain foot access to private docks?

[Latimeria]

Good seeing ya and congrats on the longest spotty!


I've got an email to fire off to the tournament committee concerning one of the first place winners. Let's just say I'm hoping the rules are better clarified and actually followed next time around.

Good seeing you too and thanks! Getting 3 decent fish in a row was definitely exciting. Almost enough to make me go bass fish again lol.

Are you referring to the use of a kayak to gain foot access to private docks?

That was what I was looking for.  lol

[vdisney]

Finishing in the top 10 our of 150 anglers is awesome Chris, many congrats

[skrilla]

Good seeing ya and congrats on the longest spotty!


I've got an email to fire off to the tournament committee concerning one of the first place winners. Let's just say I'm hoping the rules are better clarified and actually followed next time around.

Good seeing you too and thanks! Getting 3 decent fish in a row was definitely exciting. Almost enough to make me go bass fish again lol.

Are you referring to the use of a kayak to gain foot access to private docks?

That's the one. Violates trespassing rule. And there's no denying it with dock photos of all his fish. As far as I know there are no fishing signs on just about every dock in Mission Bay. The dude launched right next to us in his yellow kayak as witnessed by a buddy and myself. A tournament sponsor was also an additional witness.

[jrodda]

Solid placing, kinda wacky with the 1st place drama for a spotty tournament, hopefully they clean that up next year. Those are some nice spotties.