Castaic Bass Club Blog

November Meeting

First of all Yes Virginia there is going to be a December Meeting at the usual time and Place on the 10th.  There are no club dues or tournament fees at this meeting.   The T.O.C. will be on the 13th and the Holiday Party at El Chaparral on the 20th.  The restaurant is located at 19132 Soledad Canyon Road in Canyon Country.  Their phone number is 661/252-5599.  The fiesta starts at 11:00 AM.

As you know the November meeting marks the election of officers for the coming year.  This year it was a simple confirmation as there were no contested positions.  The board for 2010 will be Mike Iljin, President, Ron Licari, Vice President, Eddie Carr, Presidents Assistant, Nick Langer, Weigh Master, Tony Franks, Secretary and me, the Treasurer.  With the grueling business of the election out of the way the pairings for Pyramid were done and then we had a pretty good raffle.

Tournament Results

How many ways can you say windy and Lake Pyramid in the same sentence?  You have to admit that this time it was different.  This time it was cold and windy and also it was windy from the get go, we didn’t have to wait until the sun came up before it started blowing.  Given these conditions the results were not a great surprise.  Finishing in First Place with an incredible 2 fish that weighed a total of 4.56 pounds were Roger Larocque and George Reed.  They also had a 3.07 pounder for the tournament Big Fish.  Wes Carpenter and Adam Boyd also caught 2 fish that totaled 4.47 pounds and was good for Second Place.  In Third Place were Mike Iljin and Eddie Carr with one 2.05 pound fish.  Forth Place went to Nick Langer and Tony Franks who also caught 1.  This one fish is significant for two reasons.  1) it was the only other fish caught in the tournament and 2) it gave Tony just enough point to squeak into First Place for Angler of the Year ahead of Mike Iljin by a mere 3 points.  It was a close race at the end and our congratulations go out to Tony.

Mike’s

First and foremost, I want to thank the club members for their support during my family’s scare last month. Cassie loved the flowers that the Club delivered to her and they are a constant reminder to us of the well wishes from our extended fishing family.

Since this will be the last news letter of the year I would like to thank all of the Board members: Bo, Mark, Shelley, Eddie and Nick for all of their help and support this last year. They have made the Castaic Bass Club one of the finest clubs that has ever fished a lake.

We will have our last tournament of the year at Castaic on December 13th, so if you plan on fishing and can not make the meeting on Thursday, please be sure to call and or e-mail a board member before the start of the meeting at 7:00.

There is a special event going to be held at the Sports Complex in Castaic called The Celebration of Life. This event is to honor the life of fellow fisherman Ron Smith who passed away suddenly just a few months ago. The event will be held on December 20th, the same day as our banquet. We are hoping to wrap up our banquet between 1 to 2p.m. so that club members could still have a chance to drive over to the lake and participate in the event. There will be plenty of things for the kids to do and see, so bring them along. Below is a list of the day’s activities.

Take care,

Mike

Ron Smith “ Celebration of Life” Family Festival

Event and Volunteers Schedule:

May Meeting

Everybody that’s ready for this month’s newsletter raise your hand. Wait, I did that one already. Remember that after this month’s meeting we would like as many of you as possible to stay and help the board plan next year’s tournament schedule. If you want to suggest a different venue this is the time to do it. Also start thinking about the two day tournament up at Lake Lopez in August. The information you might have heard at the last meeting regarding boat inspections and quarantine was INCORRECT. The situation at Lopez is almost exactly the same as the procedures at Cachuma.

Tournament Results

If you didn’t go to Cachuma you missed a great time. We all love to tournament fish or we wouldn’t be in the club to begin with. The overnight tournaments are an immeasurable opportunity to get to know one another better. Every boat caught a limit of keepers; just some of us can count better than others. It is a tough tournament when you have the Big Fish in your boat and finish in 7th place but that is what happened to Mike Iljin and Gary Priddy with Mikes 3.19 pounder. In first places for the tournament was one of our three-to-a-boat teams with Victor Nardiello, Tony Franks and Chaz “Hook Setter” Valenzuela. They averaged a little over 2 pounds per fish for a two day total of 10 fish at 20.25 pounds. In second place was the team of Walter Klondracki. It’s somewhat confusing how Walter ended up fishing alone but it was all on the up and up. Anyway the team of Walter had a two day total of 10 fish for 18.88 pounds. Third place when to Nick Langer, Adam Boyd and Nick’s guest Danny Deldo with a total of 9 fish (three guys, 9 fish, I told you some of us count better than others) at 18.79 pounds.

Mike’s

Carol Martens will not be able to speak at this Thursday’s meeting. Her husband is sick and she is helping out with the business. Carol said she is very much looking forward to speaking at one of our meetings and will gladly do so as soon as things settle down around the house.
Wishing all of the dads a HAPPY FATHER’S DAY.
See you on Thursday,

The end of the line…

The other day I was fortunate enough to fish in a benefit event for disabled veterans of the Iraq war. The organization is called Wounded Warriors and the event was held at Vail Lake in Temecula. I was invited by Roger LaRocque who was not only one of the sponsors of the event but also, with his friend Paul Douglas, provided the entertainment. Not many of you know this but Roger is a very accomplished musician. There were about 60 boats in all and all of them were volunteers. Each boat carried the owner and two vets. Our own Tony Capparelli was boat #58. I saw Tony present his two new friends with fishing rods and then proceeded to instructing them on how to tie a Palomar Knot and how they were going to win the tournament. Just another one of those moments when you are proud to know people like Roger and Tony.

A couple years ago I had to opportunity to help out in a CAST for Kids event down at the lower lake at Castaic. My partner that day was Mike Munson. All of the children that participated were disabled and as I remember a large number had Down Syndrome. Some of them probably did not remember what they had done that day when they woke up the next morning but, from what I saw, some of them will be fishing for the rest of their lives.

There are all kinds of charity events held for those in need. Horseback riding, swimming, picnics and lots, lots more. I haven’t seen that the others have the hold that fishing does. Fishing is accessible to everyone and can actually change someone’s life. We are very, very lucky. We can fish, we can teach, we can reach out. We can help others learn to enjoy the sport we love.

Written by Shelley Singer

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