Results & Analysis:
2009 3Bs Tournament
The 2009 Beyond The Breakwater 3Bs Tournament was held on June 27, 2009. Twenty-five contestants from all over the Southland fished the waters around La Jolla, down to the Coronados. They found lots of fish, including calico bass, barracuda, and large Pacific greenback mackerel. Most of the fish caught were bass that were just short of the qualifying size for the tournament, but there were a few 15-19" fish caught, and the barracuda reported were all over 28". This article has the final results, and discusses the tackle and techniques used by the top finishers.
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Winning Tactics | |
Equipment Notes | |
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Conditions: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly...
The "good" was the swell and weather forecast, and the fishing reports prior to the event. Small, long period swells, an early morning marine layer burning off by mid-morning, and generally good reports of calico bass fishing in the local kelp beds were all positive factors.
The "bad" included the likelihood of poor current conditions and relatively small tidal swings, which usually lead to slower fishing. Also, the lack of bonito, barracuda and yellowtail in the various fish reports made it probable that "slams" would be few and far between.
The "ugly" was the potential for large amounts of fishing pressure. Two other tournaments, both much larger than the 3Bs, were scheduled for the same day (the Bloody Decks Yellowtail Shootout, and a Kayak Fishing Association of California charity benefit event). The end result: dozens of other boats fishing the same general areas (Editor's note: in our defense, the 3Bs Tournament was scheduled and announced well in advance of the others, but then hey - we're only 25 fly-fishermen...).
Far from the Maddening Crowds...
To avoid the crowds, Randy Norris (last year's Trial Tournament winner), chose to travel down to the Coronados. Unfortunately, he and Free Agent Bryan Ida were greeted by ugly green water, and sub-60 degree water temps. They managed to eke out a few short bass, but wound up coming back up to La Jolla to finish the day.
Boater Division winner Bill Calhoun and his Free Agent Vaughn Podmore, First Place Free Agent Dave Wratchford and Boater partner Rob Baldwin also chose to avoid the crowds, but they did so by working parts of La Jolla well away from the herd.
Bill and Vaughn started out on the outside of the south end of the kelp, where they found smaller fish. They then moved to the inside, where they found more of the same, so they moved back outside and started using larger flies (weedless Clousers and baitfish patterns with lots of flash, olive/white, and chartreuse/white) and the size of the fish increased.
Wratchford and Baldwin also started on the outside in the same general area, and never moved much. "Rob made the call on where to stop, and let me fish the bow of the boat the entire time," said Wratchford. Dave used a #2 Olive/white Clouser minnow, with green flashabou for most of his fish. He reported a steady pick of fish all day, and he and Rob just stuck it out in that area. In the end, Wratchford would amass 90 points - 30 more than the nearest other contestant (Calhoun) and 50 or more points than anyone else.
Second Place Boater Capt. Bill Matthews also opted for the "stay away from the crowds" strategy, but did so initially by fishing Point Loma. This area was productive, but yielded no scorable fish. By mid-morning Bill decided to move up to La Jolla and join the crowd fishing around the Northwest Corner, but eventually decided to return to Point Loma. In retrospect, he thought he might have been better off staying south the entire time.
Third place Boater Steve Petit chose to stay with the crowd near the Northwest Corner of the La Jolla kelp. He and Free Agent partners Mike Forrest and Rocky Tussey fished the pockets along the outside edge, and also managed a steady pick at the bass.
Second- and third-place Free Agents Pete Pelletier and Tom Nielsen fished with Peter Piconi. For the majority of the morning they were anchored up with a chum block near the Northwest Corner of La Jolla, and were consistently nailing small bass and short barracuda. Bigger barracuda were seen in the slick, but wouldn't bite.
Around 11:30a they decided to move out to deeper water (90') and start drifting and blind casting. Most of their bigger fish were caught in this zone, using sinking lines with 3-3.5" light-colored Clousers, or traditional olive/white and chartreuse/white Clousers.
Piconi reported seeing large schools of yellowtail around mid-afternoon, after most of the boats had left. "We had a hard time deciding whether to go after the yellowtail, or get back on time," said Piconi.
On the FOPS side, winner John Dumlao spent most of his time within shouting distance of Piconi, Pelletier and Nielsen, as did 2nd Place FOPS contestant Aaron Field. Piconi actually invited them to fish near his boat, so they could take advantage of his chum slick. Third place finisher Michelle Woo fished a bit further in towards the Point. Fast-sinking lines with Clouser Minnows again did the trick, although Dumlao also used Half-and-Halfs to good effect.
To Chum or Not to Chum? That is the Question...
Most of the top finishers chose to focus on fishing for calicos in the kelp. They used the breeze and the slow current (in addition to electric motors on Calhoun's, and Matthew's boats) to move along the edge, picking pockets and holes in the kelp.
Frozen chum blocks did't help much in this scenario, since the calicos stayed tight to the kelp, or deep (perhaps a function of boat traffic), and there weren't any larger bonito or barracuda around to take up the slack.
Fly Styles and Presentation
By far the most popular fly style was the Clouser Minnow, or some variant. Most people fished 3 -4" versions, in olive/white, chartreuse/white, or blue/white. The most successful versions incorporated a lot of flash. However, other color/material combinations, such as smoke/white or all white with flash produced fish as well.
For some contestants, the presentation played a critical part in producing more fish:
"Vaughn and I had to constantly change our retrieves and alternate between a couple of different styles of flies during the day," reported Bill Calhoun, "We would pick up fish on one particular type of fly, and a certain retrieve for a while, then things would slow down. But changing retrieves or flies would get the bite going again."
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