Tournament Champion, Devin Harmon.
The SCSC 3/27/04 Tournament
Devin Harmon
Practice Times Four
March 7, 2004…20 days remaining
First time fishing on Mission Bay in about a year. Plan was to re-orient myself with light tackle bay techniques from my Cobra Tourer. I Launched from Bahia point and fished the Mission Bay Yacht Club docks, Bahia Resort docks, and areas between in Santa Barbara Cove. These are the locations that so often hold the 2 -3lb spotties so critical for a high weight total in the tournament. Using my favorite Berkley Frenzy diving minnow in chrome/black and a mostly brown and orange double willow spinnerbait, I could not find a single fish that would even tap at my offerings. I hit all the spots that usually produce: along the docks; behind the Bahia Belle; in the middle of the cove at the intersection of the third row of boats and the three palm trees on Bahia Point; in the middle by the 5mph buoy between Bahia Point and the Mission Bay Yacht Club; and areas between too. Still nothing after over two hours, not even a small halibut, jack smelt, barracuda, or mackerel that so often are caught as incidentals. I fished as I slowly returned to shore for a quick hello to my family and lunch and then found myself right back on the water to prove to myself that I hadn't forgot how at least a single fish. This time I headed directly East toward Vacation Isle and quickly found my line taught and my 7ft graphite rod jumping up and down. Finally, I had hooked into a fish after almost 3 hours of casting with no response. A typical fight ensued to produce a barred sand bass. Happy I at least could catch something, it was still not the target spotted bay bass that I was after. In the next 10 minutes I caught two more sand bass and decided to return to the opposite shore to end the day. On the way, the Frenzy that I was dragging under the kayak found a hungry small halibut that wanted to play. My fishing day had ended with three sand bass and 1 small halibut. Fish were caught at the end of the outgoing tide at zero feet water height.
Lessons learned and things to remember from that day was that fishing is tough (I usually find at least 10 spotties on even on short ventures), the docks that usually hold fish were not, Santa Barbara Cove was slow, and that I could find fish along the channel edge by the north west corner of Vacation Isle.
March 14, 2004…13 days left
My tournament outlook did not seem too positive based on my previous outing. Plan this time was to head north and cover the areas that generally hold decent quantities of smaller fish with the occasional large fish being possible too. This meant that there would be quite a bit of area to be covered in only a couple of hours. Launching again from Bahia Point, I headed first for another shot at the two boat docks and slide dock at the east end of the MBYC. As before, no fish answered my calling. To make even more difficult, the day was very windy which meant a slow wet trip eastward and up the shoreline toward Fanual Park. Finally, while casting a chrome/black Frenzy off the Eastern Shore in about 10-ft of water, a spotted sand bass answered back. Celebrations followed to mark the long awaited event. Ok, not really, but I was happy that I was actually able to find at least a single fish. Heading north I caught my second spottie that turned out to be my last fish of the day. This fish was closer to the park and still along the eastern shore. I continued to work both the shoreline and middle areas with both casting and trolling, but it just wasn't happening. I headed back with ease as the wind pushed me with a rapid pace from the north walking bridge back to Bahia Point. Just over two hours of fishing had ended with only two average size (13 inch) spotties in return for covering a very large area with my lures. Tide was similar in height to tourney day.
Lessons learned and things to remember for the day were that I could find fish along the eastern shoreline as I had expected although in limited numbers, still no fish at the dock areas, and overall difficult fishing.
March 20, 2004…seven days left
My outlook for the tournament was only getting worse. Two outings and hardly a fish to speak about and definitely not even close to tournament numbers. This would be the break or make day as the big event was only 1 week off and I was far from being prepared. As usual, I parked my car at Bahia Point, threw my Cobra Tourer into the water there, and headed for the third time to the eastern MBYC docks. Having no luck on the brown orange spinnerbait that I had tried the previous two trips, I had switched this time to a Strike King 3/8oz firetiger pattern with a gold Colorado willow combination. Almost instantly, I hooked into a drag burner nearby the docks. After experiencing a quite decent battle, I brought a nearly 3lb spottie into my kayak for hook removal and return. Maybe there were quality fish in the bay after all. Wow I had caught a monster, my outlook was changing for the better, but there was still a lot of area to cover before I would be satisfied that I had adequately prepared for the big tournament. This trip I had even brought my depth finder, so I could hopefully find the depths that were holding fish and the best lure to attract their pursuit. As I left El Carmel Point and headed to the SDSC area, I for whatever reason slightly veered to the left ever so close to the entrance of San Juan Cove. This single event turned out to be the factor that I can attribute to my success in the March 27th tournament. I caught a fish. Yes, at this location I don't like to fish and always overlook, my lure hooked into a spottie. What was so important about this was that I have fished in San Juan Cove before, but only once with no success and had basically written it off as a location to not waste my time. But with my prior two lackluster outings, this catch drew me into the cove. Inside I found three quality fish in 6-9ft of water eager to attack my firetiger spinnerbait before the lucky lure decided to part my company and locate itself in the grassy bottom far from my kayak without a line attachment. I was happy as I finally found the spot that I had been looking for, but had lost my one of a kind lure that the fish liked. Not having a lot of opportunity left to fish, it was time to find and confirm other areas. I headed to the eastern shoreline with a new perch Berkley Frenzy in tow on one side of my kayak and an older model Berkley chrome/black Frenzy in tow on the other. Along the way on the eastern edge, the perch Frenzy unexpectedly caught two fish while the chrome/black Frenzy caught only a single fish. The day ended, seven quality fish were caught, and the tournament outlook was getting better. Tide fished was one to two feet higher than on tourney day.
Lessons learned and things to remember for the day were that the dock did hold a monster, San Juan Cove had many quality fish eager to take my firetiger blade, and the eastern shore was still holding smaller fish ready to clamp onto a Frenzy, especially in firetiger color. I still considered the overall conditions difficult.
3/22/04…five days left and ready
My outlook was better, but was the previous trip an aberration or something that was repeatable? Plan was to verify that San Juan Cove was a viable location, practice within the area, and to check the area with my depthfinder to learn even more. Tide water depth was similar to tourney day, so it was also a super chance to experience actual conditions. It was the day to solidify my plan for the tournament. Having lost the spinnerbait that worked in the prior trip, I had to expend a lot of time both on the previous day and on this day to find similar lures locally. Fortunately I was able to locate a 3/8oz spinnerbait from a shop by my house that was close enough in likeness to the lure that I lost to meet my satisfaction so I was fully armed with Frenzy's and blades to attack the day. This time I launched from the SDSC and headed directly to San Juan Cove with my new shiny spinnerbait chiming as the blades hit one another as it hung from my rod tip. Without much effort, I quickly once again found eager and willing spotties attached to my new blades. After three fat spotties landed in my kayak for hook removal I was finally satisfied that the location was good and my techniques and offerings were correct. The new spinnerbait now had chipped paint and was quite bent up, but it had served its purpose well. I know I ended that day with seven fish, the same number I caught the time before, but I cannot remember the location where I caught the last four fish. It simply didn't matter. San Juan Cove would be my target area and if it went cold, I had the Eastern edge to fill in as needed. My plan was set and on my way home I picked up two more spinnerbaits of the same color just to make sure I would be covered in the tournament. As for Frenzy's, I still had plenty and they only needed hook replacement for the big day.
Lessons learned and things to remember were simple this time. Fish were still in San Juan Cove and their size was decent too.
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