Sonoma Slam I

  The first installment of Sonoma Slam, put on by the guys from Lost Coast Kayak Anglers and Pacific Outfitters, was a great success. Part of the proceeds from the event benefit the BMX track in Ukiah (another of Pacific Outfitter's passions). This was their first freshwater event and may expand into other lakes in the north coast region in the future. Thanks to Aaron and Greg of Pacific Outfitters for putting it all together.
  Congratulations to the winners, The Placer County Cartel teammates Racin Rob and Auburn Trout Dude, and yes, Rob's on a hot streak having won the BSS-II the previous week. Also, congrats to the second place Salty/Williams team. I got paired up with Cajun (Greg) and we were both feeling a bit like fish out of water. Greg is of course a saltwater slayer and I'm far more comfortable trolling for trout and steellhead at the other end of this lake, so finding ourselves in essentially a bass tournament was a little intimidating. We managed to steal third place with a true "hail Mary".
  There were a few surprises and a little second guessing for me in this tourney. Team Dynamite landed the largest crappie I've seen in lake Sonoma at 15", nice frypan filler! It was the biggest scoring fish of the tournament with 12 points per inch plus a bonus inch for catch and release, totaling 192 points. I was surprised the average size smallmouth were under the norm I've experienced in Sonoma.  I also got a BIG surprise picking up a largemouth in the most unlikely location and method (more on that later).

  Lessons learned;
1. Stick with what you know.
2. Rely on good intel.
3. When conditions are less than ideal (heavy winds), refer to points 1 and 2 above.

  I had talked to my buddies at the local tackle store who are more comfortable on the bass side and got some good intel. It was nice payback as they are usually bleeding me for info on trout, kokanee and kings. I got in a couple hours of scouting Friday afternoon before the meeting. The winds were up as predicted, which made it tough to try some of their tactics. When I did mange to get the wind to cooperate in positioning my kayak the advice seemed to pay off with two fish, either one of which would have put our team in the winners spot on Saturday. Unfortunately, I couldn't overcome the wind to duplicate the same scenario when it counted. Others were already tying up the spots that matched the pattern I wanted, so we moved on. The guys were fishing my spots in reverse of the method that worked for me Friday as they would park offshore and toss into shore and the spawning beds. I had been advised to park with my back up against the bank on the points and fan cast out into about 20' of water working uphill toward the beds. The bigger females would be out in the depths staging or retreating as the smaller bucks were sitting up on the nests.
  We started off trolling down the Yorty creek arm past the crowd. Most had not fished Sonoma before and congregated in the area close to the launch. I knew a few would head out around the corner to the Cherry creek arm, so I planned to head further up the main channel on Dry Creek to an area that still offered some trolling lanes in between all the sunken timber. This area had produced a few trout for me in the past as well as a number of nice sized smallmouth while trolling. I thought we might be able to get up there early and beat the winds. Unfortunately, as we exited Yorty into the main channel, the winds were already producing small rollers and little whitecaps.
  The area just outside of Yorty and Cherry creek is a wide shallow slope with lot of flooded trees just under the surface (lots of donated trolling gear over the years), so we tracked diagonally across toward the west shore were the original channel runs deeper. With the winds hitting our starboard, I couldn't avoid drifting a bit off of my intended course and did show the tops of the dreaded hardware nabbing trees on my graph when my port side rod doubled over. I thought I might loose one of my go-to trolling lures for Sonoma, a chartreuse Tazmanian Devil. As i pull the rod out of the holder I feel a strong head shake and the battle is on. It feels like it has some serious heft to it, but it's not acting like a trout. My mind immediately went to smallmouth, and a fat one at that. I got it closer to the yak and it peeled some serious line. a couple moves later I see St. Croix troling stick bent all the way through the handle wrapping under the yak like a pretzel. I got the tip around the bow and then it reversed course, tip back to port and I finally get a glimpse....it's a largemouth??....suspended in the main body while the rest are in spawn??? I'll take it! Ends up being 22", big fish for the tournament.

  With the broadside winds, we had pushed well off course, but, at least we were into the channel on the west side. Back on troll and headed straight into the swells now, I settled in to a long upwind paddle while Greg seemed to have a much easier time with a steady peddle stroke in his Hobie, the occasional sip of his coffee in hand. It would be nice to have my hands free right about now, not for the coffee, but for clearing the debris that seems to have hung in my port side lure (how many fish missed while trolling a stick wrapped tn the hooks?). Even a sip of coffee in this wind would cost me a good ten yards in reverse! I bear down as we're headed up to where the main channel narrows, then widens with a large protected cove on the west side before the bend at the north end of the lake.
  When we reach our target, it's nice to get out of the wind and we start casting for bass. While Greg works in toward shore, I try to work from shore out, but there are no appropriate distinct sloping points to work. This is where I made the mistake of not following points 1 and 2, stick to what you know and follow good intel. We lost too much time working this area. Had we just reversed our course and kept trolling downwind, we would have been in more productive water. After working this cove and the next, we decided to troll over to Cherry creek where three other teams had now reported fish. The resident bald eagle pair graced us with a display of their own fishing prowess on the way over. I heard that the local osprey had also been showing off. After some more wasted time in Cherry creek we resumed our troll back toward the weigh-in.
  We were sitting on only one fish with about an hour to get back. Greg comments "four trout on the way back and we'll be good". As Greg takes off I release the bail and begin to paddle.....I'm not getting anywhere? I was hung on a submerged horizontal branch. meanwhile, my line is still playing out and sure enough, my pink Taz gets tangled in the tree and is sacrificed to the sunken forest. Several minutes lost digging out a small dodger and custom made spinner for the troll out and I'm on my way.  We headed out in the main channel again and made a wide sweep around the shallow slope, sticking roughly to the original creek channels.
  I was a little ahead of Greg when he yells "fish on". As I clear my line to go back and assist, I realize that we are just about where the hog bass had hit earlier. Go figure. He gets his beauty on the measuring trough, it's 18", tied for biggest trout in the tourney. He's feeling a little better about not getting skunked.

  Lines back in the water again we turn towards the Yorty arm. Just outside the bouys my rod loads up and this one gives a little airial show. A nice little 15-1/2" trout and things are beginning to look better. Oops! That second line, tough to clear it while fighting a fish and in this area that means hung in another tree. Sacrifice another to the the fish gods. No time to retie so, I still have my chartreuse Taz for the troll in ("If it ain't chartreuse, it ain't no use"-Lefty Kreh). We're just past Rustler's Camp when Greg mentions we're down to 10 minutes. I quip back that if anything hits now, I'm just going to drag it all the way to the ramp! Sure enough, a couple strokes later, bam, doubled over again. A nice 17-1/2" trout, a quick photo, and a sprint the last 400 yards to the weigh-in. Talk about your hail Marys. We capitalized on landing all the fish we hooked, but still fell one short of a full score. All fish caught trolling Taz Devils, 1 pink and 3 for chartreuse.
  This was my first event in a kayak as I just got my OK Trident 15 about five weeks ago. I'm looking forward to many more. It was much more of a workout than trolling around in the big boat with electric downriggers and a full top for protection from the sun and wind.
  It was nice meeting a lot of guys and putting faces to the forum names. I hope to see more of you on the water.

Doug

The Pacific Outfitters demo fleet heads back to Rustlers Camp

Thanks for the complete report, Doug - welcome to the Madness of tournaments.   

Congrats to the winners, everyone who competed and the organizers.

Why do I feel a PM from RancidRob may show in my mailbox?  "Too late to get in on GS?..."   

Nice to have the hot rod, Rob - WTG to ATD as well.   

That was a great report!  What a hog bass and such a nice looking trout!  I gotta give Sonoma a shot one of these days.  I hear ya about fishing in the wind, ultra brutal in a yak, thats for sure.  Congrats to the winners, Rob and ATD are kicking ass!  Again, thanks for the detailed report, It was a great read.  See ya around!

Great Stuff...Great report sounded like everyone had a blast...cool tourny maybe nxt yr I will make it...

I still have to redeem myself from the toury last fall...

I still have the red swim baits that I bought last yr that will make there way to GS6...

Rob you had enough bro  share the wealth!!!  J/K  Congrats.....

Wow, awesome job on SS1! Congrats to Rob and Adam, ya both make a great team

Freak'n ayh! Way To Go Rob!!!!! And to all the other Winners!

Kinda bummed I had to miss this event; multiple family events and then work called me in on Saturday .

Nice job LCKA and all the sponsors for organizing the event; hope to catch the next one!

ps: More pics please...

Great report and pics., congrats to all who caught fish in those conditions.

Thanks for the report and pictures Doug. Big congrats to the Sac Crew specially for Rob. You should go and buy yourself a lotto bro since you can't seem to do anything wrong at the moment. See you all soon.

Jedmo

Congrats to the winners and thanks for the detailed report and pictures Doug.

Look what we got!

Had another fun day OTW. I like fishing tournaments. I've been on a roll and having a good time. Thanks to Auburn Bass Dude for some last minute pointers and teaming up with me. That is what put us on top. Thanks to Pacific Outfitters for putting on this Tourney. Can't wait for their next one, Trinidad Rockfish Wars 2. The medal is bad ass! So is the rest of the gear we got.
    Thanks again, Rob

Here is the prize pack.

2 Promar crab traps
1 set yakima kayak pads--Rob
1 Stohlquist PFD--Adam
2 Abu Garcia baitcasters
2 Plano tackle boxes
3 Scotty rod holders-2 ATD 1 Rob
1 Ipad cover-Rob
2 Scotty cups
2 Waterproof Phone holders
2 Paddle clips
2 Camelback water bottles

Not too bad for just a day of fishing

Look what we got!

Had another fun day OTW. I like fishing tournaments. I've been on a roll and having a good time. Thanks to Auburn Bass Dude for some last minute pointers and teaming up with me. That is what put us on top. Thanks to Pacific Outfitters for putting on this Tourney. Can't wait for their next one, Trinidad Rockfish Wars 2. The medal is bad ass! So is the rest of the gear we got.
    Thanks again, Rob

Sick Brother  you want to sell one of those rod holders...still pimping my ride and need another....

It would be a while before I could get it to you. I'm headed for the Carribean on Wed for almost 2 weeks.

It would be a while before I could get it to you. I'm headed for the Carribean on Wed for almost 2 weeks.

Carribean....u dawg...well that makes us happy your not making a showing at GS...   j/k u know we love ya bro........u better be sending pics of exotic fish being caught

I'll mostly be catching a buzz!