Oneil Forebay, CA 11/8-11/19

I got stuck down in San Jose this weekend, so I decided to fish the NCKA Money For Friends tournament to benefit Chef Stefano, who is battling cancer right now.  This is an on going series and this time the target was striped bass.  It's a virtual tournament meaning you can fish whatever water you choose to with results being on the honor system.  I choose to fish Oneil Forebay as it's my "home" striper waters down there.  I headed out Saturday around noon in order to get an afternoon of pre-fishing in.

Got into a little action on Saturday but they were all sub legal schoolies.  I also managed a couple bonus largemouths.  Woke up Sunday morning and headed back out.  I worked my way down the weedline not really getting into much action.  Finally I spotted some birds working out in the middle of the lake and headed that way.  There were A LOT of small puddles of working fish spread out over a large area.  It took me a bit to figure out a pattern, but after a number of lure changes I settled on a small storm swimbait as the hot lure.  Over the next couple hours I caught about a dozen fish, all small schoolies in the 14-15" range.  After the bite slowed down I worked my way back to the weedline and finally caught a keeper, although barely a keeper at 19" (18" is the limit).  Looks like a 20# stringer of 2 stripers from Lake Mendocino is in the lead, which makes my 2 pound 10 ounce fish look like bait.      Although I think I caught the most fish, too bad they were all schoolies. 

Fun weekend, but I can't wait to get back home and get back to targeting salmon and steelhead.

-Allen