You couldn’t ask for any better weather than what we experienced at El Capitan reservoir for the California Bass Contender event on Saturday June 10th. The morning heavy cloud cover and flat calm conditions lasted well into the mid morning hours until it finally cleared up before noon. It wasn’t too long after a slight breeze picked up out of the south making for a gorgeous day on the water in East San Diego County. Also picking up at the same time the breeze did was the greenbacks that decided to get with it as sixteen Bass Contenders were in search of something to talk about!
The Basscontenders would like to congratulate the June 2017 El Capitan Champion David Mendez for his victory at the battle down near the border of México where his five fish limit of 12.47 pounds of Lobina Large Mouth topped the sixteen man field. Since David’s arrival to the CBC in January 2017 he has made his presence known as an angler to watch and fear as he lurks dangerously from the mean streets of Boyle Hieghts where when it comes to bass fishing they take no prisioners! Infact David is so skilled he has been known to be able to roll a burrito with one hand while he fishes with the other. He also once was bitten by a rattlesnake, after five days of excruciating pain, the rattlesnake finally died. Don’t mess with him unless your gonna bring your ‘A’ game cuz homie don’t play that. Great job David sounds like you had a great day on the water bringing home the victory!
Rounding out the top of the leaderboard was part two of the “Three Amigo’s” hailing out of beautiful downtown Baldwin Park Bowlen is Bass Contenders finisher in the money who is no stranger to the leaderboard, the familiar face of Alfred “The Assassin” Vasquez who’s five fish limit of 10.00lbs solidified his catch and a second place finish. Alfred ‘The Assassin’ is also famously and widely known on the street to be the “Hee” in Mejicano. Talking about familiar faces… no face is more familiar, or better lookin, than the third place face from East Covina and third place ‘point getter’ and one of the four remaining original founding active members Mr Conrad Apodaca Senior who not only looked good fishing for third place in his pressed and creased tournament jersey, he also managed to bring home the Big Fish award for the El Capitan tournament tipping the scales at 2.79 pounds. Conrad who also shares equal man skills is known to be able to share his Tijuana stories at any dinner party without making anybody uncomfortable. He also enjoyed another El Capitan award along with the big friken sack of bass from David Mendez securing them both the Big Boat award with a combined weight of 19.23 pounds.
The derby at El Cap was plain and simple just a great time to be out in the great outdoors. We had a lot of fun hanging out together in line early around 4:30am where it was quite peaceful under a bright full moon and everybody having fun telling stories and just getting along. It seems like this group has been on chill for the past several months thanks to our new President Gabby Hayes who has kicked off the effort to just make the club fun again. Just a reminder please remember the next July meeting will not be on Wednesday July 5th it will be held on Friday July 7th at Michaelangello’s where we will also hold our annual awards banquet. Dinner is provided at this meeting so bring your appetite and bring some extra money for the special raffle that will include a whole line up of G-Loomis rods and an array of many Shimano reels from Curado to Chronarch. Grand prize is a G-Loomis NRX rod and Shimano Chronarch 100 both raffled separately. Don’t miss this awesome Friday night event its gonna be a great time!
The Bass Contenders would like to give a shout out and welcome to first time guests and all around real cool guys Johnny Abyad and Chad Crews. Chad Crews who strikes an amazing resemblance to Dale Earnhardt Jr fished with Nelson Barrios (photo below with blue hat) and Johnny Abyad who looks like himself (photo below with Nelson) fished with Derrick Yoshinaga at the El Cap event both guys came back with a solid ‘A’ rating and both weighed fish in their first event which is encouraging news. We hope you guys enjoyed the group and we look forward to seeing you both again on the water. Also fishing with Alfred Vasquez was guest Roger Harbert photo below with bow tie and red jacket. One last shout out to CBC member big Manny Guillen for reactivating his active membership in just three short consecutive meetings and events which is the way we like to see continued participation.
THE TACKLE BOX:
1st place: deep cranking in the wind uphill
2nd place: d/s and rip baits in the wind
3rd place: deep cranking in the wind uphill
Read ’em and wheap boys. The Tale of the tape:
Air temp 47-80 degrees overcast morning clear afternoon
Flat calm clouds at launch, 3-5 mph 11:00, 15-20 mph end
Water clarity: 1-2 green stained up front, brown and dirty in the back
Water temp 74-76 degrees 77 in the backs
Place/Name/Fish/Total
1) David Mendez 5/12.47
2) Alfred Vasquez 5/10.00
3) Conrad Apodaca Sr 4/6.76 BF 2.79
4) Mark Pavlinac 4/6.58
5) Big Ed Cazares 4/6.39
6) Derrick Yoshinag 3/4.09
7) Conrad Apodaca Jr 2/3.03
8) Nelson Barrios 2/2.85
9) Manny Guillen 1/1.49
10) Dan ‘Pops’ Colgan 1/1.43
11) Gary Crouse 1/0.97
G) Johnny Abyad 1/1.78
G) Chad Crews 1/1.00
16) Gil Bowman 0/0.00
16) Mark Chadaeyne 0/0.00
G) Roger Harbert 0/0.00
Big Fish: Conrad Apodaca Sr 2.79lbs
Big Boat: David Mendez/Conrad Sr 19.23lbs
“Stay Thirsty My Friends”. See you on the water: Big Ed!