Gray’s day
Shasta standout takes opening-day helm in Stren Western
REDDING, Calif. – It was that kind of day, as it tends to be at Shasta Lake: You catch the Snickers Big Bass, you lead the tournament. Once again at this prolific spotted bass fishery, Stren Series Western Division anglers caught throngs of five-fish limits. So it was left up to the few who caught a big one here or there to take charge.
A total of 149 limits – mostly filled out with spotted bass – came in on the pro side Wednesday, leaving just six pros out of the field of 155 who couldn’t manage to catch five keepers. Consequently, weights were predictably tight as a drum up and down the board.
Stretching out from the pack enough to take the opening-day lead was Gene Gray, a pro out of Atascadero, Calif., with a storied track record at Lake Shasta. Buoyed by the day’s Snickers Big Bass – a nice 5-pound, 15-ounce kicker spot that earned him a tidy $250 – Gray’s limit weighed in at 13-11, 10 ounces ahead of second-place Jim Davis.
“I think I just stayed in water that’s been kicking out bigger fish,” Gray said. “I caught a limit in what I consider easier waters, and then I was just going to isolated areas that might hold bigger fish.”
This early in the game, Gray was elusive about where and how he was fishing Shasta Lake Wednesday. Having finished in the top 10 at this event last April and notching another top-10 showing at the WON Bass event here over the weekend, he is playing it close to the vest.
“If I make it to Saturday, I’ll tell you on Friday,” he said, “But I will say that it’s what’s holding the fish more than anything. It’s a food source with a lot of baitfish, and I’m just moving around looking for specific cover. I’ve got probably 15 areas that I’m fishing, and I didn’t use them all up today. I’m kind of saving them.”
With clear, warm, wintertime conditions, finesse-fishing won the day for the top anglers like Gray.
“I’m catching them on worms and jigs in 25 to 50 feet of water,” Gray said. “These definitely aren’t swimbait fish. We were supposed to have oncoming weather this afternoon, but it never showed up. And that may help me because it hurts the swimbait guys up shallow. If the weather comes tomorrow like they said, I’ll just have to adjust what I’m doing.”
Weather, bait choice, pattern – none of it would have helped Gray take the lead on Wednesday if it wasn’t for one of the unsung heroes of all tournament anglers: the service crew. Gray’s back motor acted up on him at takeoff, and he was going nowhere fast until he idled in for a quick fix from Yamaha service technician David Ashcraft.
“I almost didn’t even fish today, but that Yamaha tech had my boat fixed before everybody else was even gone from takeoff,” Gray said. “This guy was just great.”
Davis downshifts for second
Davis, who hails from San Jose, Calif., caught the day’s only other 13-pound-plus stringer on the pro side. His five bass – including a nice 3-pound, 7-ounce kicker spot – weighed in at 13-1 and earned him second place.
“It was a pretty good day,” he said. “I’ve been trying to get swimbait fish, but they weren’t biting. So I just slowed down and caught all spots, all on plastics in 20 to 25 feet of water. The areas I had were places where I was getting follows with the swimbait, so I just went back and concentrated on those spots.”
Tuck third
As the sun went down during Wednesday’s weigh-in, the temperature dropped from the balmy 60-degree afternoon high to about 40 degrees in a heartbeat. Third-place pro Michael Tuck of Antelope, Calif. – who caught a limit weighing 12 pounds, 9 ounces – hopes it stays that way for the rest of the week.
“I’ve been worming all day and slowing way down. It’s tough out there,” he said. “I hope it gets colder because that will get rid of some of those shallow fish. I’m just fishing deep structure, and so far, so good.”
Dixon fourth, Dombrowski fifth
Marvin Dixon of Willits, Calif., and Alex Dombrowski of Duvall, Wash., rounded out the top five pros. Dixon’s 12-pound, 4-ounce limit earned him fourth place while Dombrowski’s 11-11 took fifth.
“I just caught them on worms,” Dixon said. “I probably caught 40 fish today.”
Rest of the best
Rounding out the top 11 pros after day one at Shasta Lake:
6th: Gary Howell of Stockton, Calif., 11-7
7th: Robert Lee of Angels Camp, Calif., 11-3
8th: John Perkins of Whittier, Calif., 11-1
9th: Cody Meyer of Grass Valley, Calif., 10-15
10th: Mike Knight of Montrose, Calif., 10-11
10th: Brett Leber of Dixon, Calif., 10-11
Obviously, each of the top 11 pros caught five-bass limits Wednesday.
Interestingly, thanks to all the limits, a mere 7 pounds, 6 ounces separates first-place Gray from 148th-place Jason Hooper. So expect the new four-day, cumulative-weight format to get a real workout this week as the leaderboard shifts radically from day to day.
Keller commands co-angler lead
Weighing in with Wednesday’s third and last catch over the 13-pound mark was Charles Keller of Redding, Calif., who dominated the Co-angler Division with a limit weighing 13-2.
“I caught them on an 1/8-ounce darter head with a 4-inch worm, and color didn’t seem to matter much,” Keller said. “My partner (pro Matt Newman) just had the spots. We were fishing open water at about 40 feet.”
Rest of the best
Second place for the co-anglers went to Willie Cummings of Tucson, Ariz., for five bass weighing 11 pounds, 9 ounces.
Co-angler Gary Haraguchi of Brentwood, Calif., placed third with a limit weighing 10 pounds, 13 ounces.
Roy Desmangles Jr. of Lincoln, Calif., earned fourth place for the co-anglers with a limit weighing 10 pounds, 11 ounces.
Rounding out the top five co-anglers was Jason Milligan of Anderson, Calif., with a limit weighing 10 pounds, 4 ounces.
Rounding out the top 10 co-anglers:
6th: Charles Bean of Brentwood, Calif., 10-0
7th: Benny Lentz of Cottonwood, Calif., 9-13
8th: Mack Randle of Tacoma, Wash., 9-11
9th: Tom Kendall of Fort Bragg, Calif., 9-10
10th: Kyle Clement of Anderson, Calif., 9-8
Each of the top 10 co-anglers also caught five-bass limits Wednesday. Overall, the co-anglers also had a good day in terms of the limit count: 115 out of 155 of them weighed in five bass.
Day two of Western Division competition at Shasta Lake begins as the field of 155 boats takes off from Bridge Bay Marina at 7:30 a.m. Pacific time Thursday.