Report by Jayson Quimby
On Saturday July 9th we held our 2016 All 3 in the LBC event. Unfortunately only 2 boats showed up, but the fishing was fun and everyone caught plenty of fish. Tom and Valerie took advantage of the 3+1 format to take the win but about a half a pound. By catching a Spotted Bay Bass, they were able to weigh 4 fish instead of just 3, and that’s how they sealed the win!

Dan Ross caught the big Calico for the event.

Unfortunately, I hooked myself with a treble hook and embedded 2 of the 3 hooks in my hand. Fortunately the hooks came out easy enough and no infection set in – Praise God!

Afterwards we all enjoyed a nice tailgate picnic in the parking lot while we all shared stories about the day. We really hope more FIB’ers and their guests will join us for our next one in Dana Point on August 13th!

It was really nice to be able to host our first and only saltwater bass tournament of the year (Our other 2 had to be cancelled). The weather was very tropical with thunder and lightning strikes throughout the day mixed with periods of heat, and rain. The fishing was very good in some areas, but finding the bigger grade of fish proved to be the challenge for the day. Winning this one with some very nice Sandbass and a Calico were Tom and Val Handzus.

Coming in second place was Neil Richie, Ron Withers, Dorian and Jayson Quimby.

Coming in third place was Komron Aziz, Andrew and Art Gomez

The big fish of the day wasn’t a bass, it was Ron’s 8.9# GAR.

The craziest catch of the day was when Jayson hooked himself with his surface iron. Word has it that he didn’t like where the cast was headed, went to pull it back and blocked it from hitting his face with his hand. Let’s just say a hook in the hand is better than a hook in the eye.

Written by, Jayson Quimby
Our third and final tournament of the year did not disappoint. While we only had five teams compete this time, the catching was really good, and all had a great time! It was based out of Long Beach and teams could travel as far south as Newport and as far north as Malaga Cove, where Palos Verdes meets the sand near Redondo to catch their 3-fish limit of Calico Bass. The weather was very nice, and the Calico Bass bit really well for most teams. Most teams opted to fish the Long Beach Breakwater and the many spots along Palos Verdes. One of the fun things about fishing is you never know what you’re going to catch. Jerry Bent started the morning off with a nice Sand Bass; the only problem was that it was a Calico only tournament.

Another comical thing that happens when Calico Bass fishing with more than one hook on your lure is that sometimes you catch more than one fish at a time. This actually happened a couple times throughout the day!

One of the most exciting things we witnessed was a Kayaker being pulled along by a very big fish outside the kelp line, but we never saw him land it as our attention shifted to the inside of us as Dave Belden, and his three boys worked together to land the big fish of the tournament. We heard them hooting and hollering as the fish entangled itself in the kelp, but eventually the big girl was netted and pushed well beyond the 7 pound mark set for the Megabass sidepot. While the fish looked small from where we were when Dave proudly hoisted the big fish up, she weighed 7.37# on the tournament scale at the weigh in.

As it always does, no matter how many hours we give ourselves, the weigh in deadline quickly arrived, and we all rendezvoused at 1:00 to see how we did.
In third place, with a three-fish limit weighing 7.58# was Eric and Jerry Bent.

Finishing in 2nd place with 12.14# was David Belden and his sons, Micah, Jarod, and Nathaniel.{Picture Unavailable} The Beldens also took home the coveted “MegaBass” sidepot!
Narrowly squeezing out the Beldens was Neil Richie, Dan Ross and Jayson Quimby. Our best three Calicos weighed 12.87#.

Fibers from SWBA on Vimeo.

I would like to conclude by thanking God for blessing us with great fishing, safety, and fellowship during our three tournaments this year. If you are considering coming out, but you are not sure where to start, please feel free to talk to me, and I’d be happy to share what I know, and even spend some time on the water with you to help you get headed in the right direction. You can email me: fibersfishingclub@yahoo.com
I look forward to more fun events next year.

The sun rose over Long Beach on May 25 and 9 FIB’er teams were in the hunt for big bass and halibut. Our events allow teams to drive to the spot they want to start their day at before the beginning of the tournament with a “lines in” time of 5AM. Some teams started in the harbor in search of Spotted Bay Bass, and others chose to start on the Federal Breakwater or on one of their favorite rock piles out at Izor’s Reef in hopes that they wouldn’t need that fourth fish in their limit because of the brutes they intended to catch before the first rays of light danced upon the water and shut the bite off. In this tournament, you could weigh four fish in your limit only if you had a Spotted Bay Bass in there. Four teams brought a Spottie to the scales and three of those teams placed Frist, Second, and Third, so having that Spottie in there proved to be the key to one of the top spots. With the help of Brant McGlothlin, we were able to move the weigh in to the Long Dock at the Long Beach Yacht Club, and man, what a nice upgrade that was compared to using the “public dock” in front of Khoury’s Restaurant!! Thankfully, all the teams made it to the weigh in on time, but unfortunately, one team member was in the hospital having a hook removed. {At 4:45, on the way to our first spot in the inner Long Beach Harbor, Neil Richie accidentally buried a treble hook into his calf. We tried to remove it, but it was buried, and we decided it was best that a professional remove it with the added benefit of anesthesia and sterile tools. We dropped him off at the dock around 10, but he didn’t leave the hospital until after 7PM}
Nearly all the teams weighed a decent limit, but one team really hit a grand slam. On their first spot of the morning they landed a nearly 3 pound Spotted Bay Bass, and book ended it with a nearly 8 pound Calico Bass for the win! Congratulations to Andrew and Art Gomez: their 4-fish limit weighed an impressive 13.52 pounds! Not only did they win the tournament, but their big Calico won them the Megabass sidepot!Holding down second place, for the second time this year was Jayson Quimby, Dave Belden, and Neil Richie: Our 4-fish limit weighed 11.66 pounds. When we dropped off Neil, we had a decent 4-fish limit in the livewell, but we knew we would need more to be competitive with this crowd, so we made he decision to go back to the inner harbor, and we were able to cull out our Spottie with a bigger one and cull out two of our Calicos with larger Sandbass.
Coming in a very close third were Jerry and Eric Bent: their 4-fish limit weighed 13.53 Pounds. Eric said he caught his Spottie on some ripwrap outside the harbor, and on a 7 inch swimbait…WOW, that doesn’t happen everyday.Congrats!!
No shortage of smiles were had by all as each team weighed their fish.
Maynard, John and Ed with a nice bag that earned them 4th place: 9.88 pounds.

Rounding out 5th place were Jim and Rich with a nice limit: 8.64 Pounds.
Jim also won the Halibut sidepot with this nice 9.28 pounder! Taking CPR to whole new heights, Dave Shill made all of us laugh trying to resuscitate a nice Calico that died on him. We are so thankful that God blessed us with another great day of fishing and catching! Our final tournament of the year will be on June 28 with the same boundaries, but a different format – CALICOS ONLY – We hope to see you there!

____________________________________________________________________________________

Report by Jayson Quimby
Saturday, June 29th began with blue skies, a medium south swell, and lots of willing Calico Bass to chomp our offerings. 8 teams participated in this year’s event. The boundaries were Newport to the tip of Palos Verdes, but I think all teams fished NW of Los Alamitos Harbor, splitting their time between fishing the breakwaters, and the various reefs, and kelp beds of Palos Verdes. The fish bit all day. I had 4 guys on my boat, and I am sure we caught well over 80 fish for the day. I knew it was going to take some bigger than average fish to win this one! Unfortunately, I did not make it to the weigh in. I ran out of gas, but Jimmy Decker was nice enough to offer to take Ron, Dave, and our fish to the weigh in, while Mitch and I waited for Vessel Assist to bring us some fuel.

Every team reported excellent fishing, and below are the results:

1st Place: Tom & Val Handzus- 13.08 #’s with a big fish of 6.33#’s
2nd Place: Scott Reason & Jim Opaleary – 11.77 #’s with a big fish of 4.23 #’s
3rd Place: Andrew Gomez, Jeremy Glenn, and Jackson Mentevier – 10.50 #’s with a big fish 4.69#’s

Join us on August 17 for our final tournament of the year: “All 3 In The LBC”