Saturday, June 23, 2012
Seven FIB’er teams participated in this year’s Calico Coastal tournament. The weather was great, but the water had cooled off by nearly 10 degrees in the days leading up to the event, so I’m sure you know what that translates into…….yep, tough fishing! Most teams traveled up to Palos Verdes to fish the kelp beds and shallow boiler rocks which are usually filled with willing biters this time of year. What most found was off-colored water in the mid fifty’s and extremely slow Calico catching. We all met back at Khoury’s dock for the weigh in at 1 PM. Unfortunately only 4 of the teams weighed a 3-fish limit of Calicos.
1st place: Jim Kiech and Dave Shill – 10.66 pounds

2nd place: Tom and Val Handzus – 8.94 pounds

3rd Place: Jerry and Eric Bent – 7.68 pounds and the Big Calico of the event 4.07 pounds.


Despite the poor “catching” conditions, the fishing conditions were great and we thank God for another great day on the water together as brothers and sisters in Christ.
Our final tournament is coming up on August 4th. I hope you can join us.

To say that we were all very excited to fish the first FIB’er Bass Tournament of the year would be an understatement; we were all chomping at the bit to get out there and fish for Spotted Bay Bass in Mission Bay. 7 teams- consisting of 16 adults and 4 juniors – assembled in the gray light at Dana Landing to kick off our first event of the year. The goal is simple, use artificial lures to catch your three heaviest Spotted Bay Bass inside Mission Bay, and weigh them in alive back at the landing. Although the weather was very nice leading up to the event, most teams reported very slow fishing throughout the bay, but in the end, all but one team had fish to weigh in!
Results:
First place – Team Basstache: Andrew & Art Gomez, and Jeremy Glenn.
3-fish limit = 5.19 #’s
Big Fish = 2.06 #’s

After the weigh in, and pulling our boats out of the water, we all gathered in the parking lot for a tail gate picnic. The fellowship was sweet and it helped nourish us for the 2-hour drive back home.
We thank the Lord for another wonderful day of fun, fishing and fellowship in His glorious name!
Finally, congratulations to our winners, and we look forward to seeing all of you at our next tournament, the “Calico Coastal” on June 23rd in Long Beach!

Bay Bass Tournament #1 – Newport Harbor 4/30/2011
Report by, Jayson Quimby
Saturday’s event in Newport Harbor went really well. We had an excellent turn out, and the weather started out perfect. I decided to take Sedona, my daughter, and Tim and Sammy Werle (friends from church). The morning started off great with Tim catching the first fish of his life, on his very first cast. We spent the whole morning targetting big Spotties along the docks and pylons throughout the harbor, and I was very impressed by Sedona and Sammy’s persistence, but although I caught 10-12 fish and Tim caught his share, the girls never hooked a fish of their own in the harbor. As the morning progressed, stiff Santa Ana winds started to howl, and around 10 AM some guys were blown off of their favorite spots.

Thank you Lord for another great day on the water!

Pics by Eric Bent

Report by, Jayson Quimby

On Saturday morning, July 24^th, ten FIB’ers competed in the Newport Bay Bass Team Tournament #2. The format is simple: grab a fishing buddy to be your teammate, stay in the harbor, you can make your first cast at 5:30 AM, catch your three heaviest bass with artificial lures, and take them to the weigh in ALIVE by noon. When I loaded up the boat and noticed stars shining down on me at 4 AM, I was worried that it was going to be a bright and shiny small fish day, but I guess I was wrong! It turned out to be a relatively overcast day until 10AM, and 15 beautiful Spotted Bay Bass were weighed in on the Department of Fish and Game Back Bay Science Center docks.  Competing in the event this year were Floyd Spangler and Dave Shill, Jayson Quimby and Ron Withers, Jim and Jeannie Kiech, Tom and Valerie Handzus, Jerry and Eric Bent. Most of the teams are pretty hush-hush about techniques, lures, and fishing spots, but the following are some observations I made and gathered from my fellow anglers:

1. There was about 4 feet of incoming water movement that day which caused a 5 degree drop in the water temperature in the areas closer to the harbor mouth. I watched the water where we began fishing fall from 68 degrees to 63 degrees in the first few hours of fishing.

2. They are still dredging areas of the bay, and the silt runoff makes the waterways a unique kind of off-colored emerald green.

3. No Sand Bass or Calico Bass were brought to the scales by our teams, but Dave Shill caught and released one short Whiteseabass.

4. They are in the process of replacing the sheriff’s station, Coast Guard, and guest docks at the south end of the harbor.

5. There were a lot of rental boats out fishing the bay catching a wide variety of fish from short Barracuda to Spot Fin Croaker.

6. If a Sheriff approaches you, you need to treat them with utmost respect, or you will be getting a citation – we observed some folks on wave runners make this mistake, and they ended up with citations.

7. The bigger Spotted Bay Bass were caught close to the top of the incoming tide.

The weigh in went really smoothly as each team weighed in a 3-Bass limit of good-looking Spotted Bay Bass.

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Report by Dave Shill

On Saturday, June 19th the FIBers held our annual Coastal Calico Bass tournament out of Long Beach. This is a 2-man team catch and release tournament with a 3-fish limit – artificial baits only. Prize categories went to the heaviest 3-fish bag, the single heaviest fish, and the heaviest fish weighed by a junior angler.
Although conditions for the 5 teams competing appeared to be good for a nice calico bite, most teams found the fishing in the Palos Verdes area to be a bit tough that day. One team however, managed to put three nice fish in the tank. Congratulations to the team of Eric and Jerry Bent, who not only had the heaviest bag of 9.43#, but also the heaviest single fish at 3.55#. No junior anglers participated. Thanks to all those who came out again this year for this event.

Report by Dave Shill

The first Newport Bay Bass tournament for 2010 was held on Saturday May 22 under partly cloudy skies, warming water, and generally pretty good conditions. We had 6 boats with 13 adult anglers and one junior participating. Lots of fish were caught by all anglers, including halibut, barracuda, white sea bass, spot fin croaker and a 50# bat ray. While none of these counted in this event, the bay is still alive with multiple species of fish. This was an individual event,all anglers competing against each other for the single biggest sand bass, calico, or spotted bay bass. The noon weigh in at the DFG Backbay Science Center dock produced lots of contenders, but in the end a 2.11# sand bass caught by Jeannie Kiech prevailed as winner. The rulers of Newport Bay, Tom and Val Handzus, shared 2nd and 3rd place, each weighing a 1.80 spottie. Congratulations once more to all winners, and thanks to all who came out to participate. A special thanks as well to Jerry Bent, whose volunteer work at the DFG allows us use of their facility. Hope to see you all at the July 24 team event.We thank the Lord for His blessing on our club.

Results:

Jeannie Kiech 2.11# Sand Bass

Val Handzus 1.80# Spottie

Tom Handzus 1.80# Spottie

Jim Keich 1.77# Spottie

Eric Bent 1.62# Spottie

Dave Shill 1.61# Sand Bass

Maynard Poynter 1.40# Spottie

Ed Surek 1.36# Spottie

Jayson Quimby 1.30# Spottie

June 20, 2009