Castaic Bass Club Blog

February Meeting

Well the January tournament came and went. With one of our best turn outs in a while with 17 teams. The day started out as calm as I have ever seen Castaic Lake. How ever by weigh in time the winds were a blowing. At weigh in only 3limits weighed in with Kevin and his guest taking 1st place with 8.20 coming in 2nd with 7.67 pounds was the team of Jeff and Tony and rounding the top three was the team of Mark P. and Adam Boyd with 6.82 pounds. Big fish Honors of 4.59 go to Ralph Rosa fishing by himself due to a sick partner. Kevin and his partner reported going through a lot of fish through out the day. Most of the teams all agreed that it was a tough day all in all. Afterwards a small group showed up at Mc Donald for a quick lunch. February has the club returning to Castaic Lake. With the weather ideal for fishing we’ll see if the fish think so too. Hope to see you all at the Thursday meeting @ El Torito’s come out early and have some dinner before the meeting. Please remember if you can’t make the meeting please call a Board Member to let them know if you are fishing on Sunday so that we can make sure you get paired up.

Thanks,

Ron

Mike’s Place

First and formost is this report on Wes. This is a copy of what Mark Poulson sent me. This is dated 1-27. The second part is an update from my call with Wes on Superbowl Sunday.

Mike,

Wes just called me with an update, and asked me to pass it along to you to send out to the whole Club. Wes finally had the CT scan that had been postponed, and they found a total of three spots on his liver, and two on his left lung, the original and one small new one. They’re not sure if the three spots on his liver are really three, or just the result of the biopsy on the first one. The first tumor on his lung had “only grown from 2cm to 2.6cm” since it was first detected, and Wes said that was good. They also found several abdominal lymph nodes were infected, but the cancer hasn’t spread to his bones. His doctor and nurse practitioner both said he’s treatable. The doctor said there’s a pretty good survival rate with no bone involvement. He is waiting now to meet with the oncologist to develop a treatment plan, and he says they’ve fast tracked him, so he expects to meet with him early next week. He’ll know more once they’ve met, and mapped out a plan of attack. He was much more upbeat when we talked. Fingers crossed.

Sunday 2-6

I called Wes this morning to find out how he was feeling. He had his first Chemo treatment on Wednesday. Wes said he felt fine afterwards and went fishing on Friday. Well all was good until Saturday when the effects of the treatment finally kicked in. His joints hurt and he felt like cr@p. Today, Sunday, he feels a little better but not good. Seems like he is passed the worst part of his first treatment and he might be able to fish with us next weekend. Prayers and best wishes for a speedy recovery to Wes. We’ll see you all on Thursday.

Take care,

Mike

June Meeting

Our June meeting was short by design.  Once the regular meeting adjourned a group of volunteer members stayed to help create our lake schedule for 2011.  Every member of the club was advised of this special session and was invited to attend, give their input, suggestions of which there were numerous and vote.  Even if you could not attend, it was clear that you could send in your lake choices by proxy.  Before the list got posted to the website I received complaints about the new schedule.  The main complaint was ‘too many tournaments at Castaic’.  The second was the plan to have a tournament, any tournament, at the Lower Lake.  And finally, the one that bothered me the most was that the schedule was Mike Iljin’s plan and it was somehow rubber stamped by or ramrodded through the membership.   Let me address this last one first.  Mike did not even vote.  He put each month forward and asked for lake suggestions.  It is a fact that a margin of one vote resulted in an additional tournament at Castaic and not at Piru.  This was not “MIKE’S AGENDA” it was voted on by the members present at the meeting.  I guess that actually covered complaints #1 and #3.  Now let’s talk about the lower lake.  I fish it, so do many of the other members.  It is fun and it is a different body of water.  One of the tournaments there will be a family fun day after the weigh-in.  All of the member’s families will be invited for a picnic lunch on the club.  We are going to try to have kayaks available to any member who wants to use one.  It is going to be fun.   I know this is a departure from the usual newsletter and I also know that undercurrent and belly-aching occurs in every club.  If you have something to say, say it at a meeting.

Remember, the meeting in July comes early on the 8th.  See you there.

Tournament Results

I guess we can’t complain about the weather at Castaic for the June tournament unless you were counting on a marine layer in the morning for a blade bite.  That didn’t happen.  This is Castaic so as usual the wind came up in the afternoon, you can almost set your watch by it.

In the end it was Nick Langer and Chaz “Hook Setter” Valenzuela with 4 fish that weighed 14.12 pounds and included Nick’s tournament Big Fish, a very nice 6.23.  In Second place were Mike Iljin and Gary “Net Boy” Priddy with 11.59 pounds. Gary also had the second biggest fish that day with a nice 5.47 pounder (honorable mention, no money).  In third place was (you guessed it) Kevin (I wear an Extra Large Jacket) Miner and Tony Franks with another 4 fish limit at 7.95 pounds.

Mike’s

Summer is now with us and along with the extra crowds comes more heat. While it is very important to take care of our prized catch it is of greater importance to take care of ourselves.  Long hours in the sun can and will result in heat stroke. Take care of each other on the boat, remind your partner to drink PLENTY of fluids and to use sunscreen.  In most cases of heat stroke it’s already too late if you start feeling the symptoms.  Have fun in the sun but be prepared and be careful.

May Meeting

The May meeting is historically a short one with a few of the members already staking out territory up at Cachuma.  Pretty much the dues were collected and the pairings were done and it was time to go.  This does not mean that nothing important was talked about.  Remember that our Next meeting on June 10th is when we will be selecting lakes for next year’s schedule.  This is NOT an ongoing process.  The June meeting will be your one and only chance this year to have input as to where you would like to fish in 2011.

Tournament Results

Well, I was right, the tournament at Cachuma was the funnest.  The weather was the best.  Saturday morning dawned with fog on the lake that gave way to a thick marine layer that did not clear until about 2pm.  This was great news for those that like to throw blade baits or for people (like me) that had never hooked a spinner bait fish before.  Water clarity and wind depended very much on where you were and when.  Saturday night Chef David prepared Carne Asada with all the fixen’s and nobody walked away hungry and yes, he remembered the salsa this time.  Sunday’s launch was much the same as Saturday’s except the morning fog was thicker and the sky cleared earlier.
When all the weighing was done and the dock talk was running down the finish came down to this.  In First Place with a total of 10 fish weighing a rockin’ 21.09 pounds was the team of Jeff Jue and Adam Boyd.  Jeff also had the tournament Big Fish for the tournament at 4.64 pounds.  In Second Place was (you guessed it) Kevin “Keh-Ching” Miner and Marcia Thompson with 10 fish at 18.30 pounds.  If you are keeping score that is 2 wins in a row for Jeff and 5 checks in a row for Kevin.  In Third Place was our only 3 person team for the tournament, Bo Viescas, Tony Franks and Bo’s guest, his son Jake.  The three of them pulled our last limit with 10 fish at 15.71 pounds.
See you at the meeting on Thursday and remember that after the regular meeting we will be staying to talk about schedule.

Mike’s

It’s almost Summer time, that means things are heating up and that includes your live well.  Check your fish often.  Make sure your recycling pump is on and working.  If you want input on next year’s schedule than be at the meeting on Thursday or call someone and ask them to speak for you.

Mike