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.
The weigh in was at the Balboa Angling Club, and Captain Jimmy Decker took care of weighing all of the fish.
1st place – Eric Bent with a 4.44 # Calico
2nd was Tom Handzus with a 2.42 # Spottie
3rd was Dave Belden with his 2.20 # Spottie
Congratulations to each of our winners!!
All the fish that were weighed were spotties, with the exception of a sandbass weighed by Dennis Mantei and of course EB’s calico. Quite a variety of fish were caught by our anglers on Saturday including many short Halibut, short White Seabass, Buttermouth Perch, and Yellowfin Croaker. We had 24 adult anglers and 3 juniors participate – Possibly a club record for this event!!
After the weigh-in, the wind backed off to almost nothing, so I decided to take my daughter and my other guests outside the harbor for a quick look around with high hopes that Sedona and Sammy would be able to catch something for themselves. We found the kelp beds just south of the harbor loaded with bait and the bass were on the chew. My daughter and her friend Sammy wound up catching some nice Calicos and Sandbass to nearly 3#’s on Gulp Jerk Shads on Owner sledheads.
At the end of the day, everyone was smiling!
It doesn’t get much better than this!!!
Thank you Lord for another great day on the water!
Pics by Eric Bent
