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Event Article:
Pros and Press on Pardee Lake |
Fishing with FLW Pro Anglers Greg
Gutierrez and Richard Dobyns on Lake Pardee
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Date: |
4/30/12 |
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Location: |
Lake Pardee,
California |
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Event Dates: |
April 29,
2012 |
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Reviewer: |
Team
TackleTour |
Introduction:
In what has become an
annual tradition Ultimate Bass Radio Host and Pro Angler Kent Brown and the team
at Lake Pardee hosted another event which brought together Pros and Outdoor
Writers to talk shop and go hunting for both largemouth and smallmouth bass in
this Northern California fishery.
Cal and Pro
Angler Greg Gutierrez (Double G) head out
There is no doubt that
Lake Pardee is home to some seriously big fish and previous events have
showcased what this lake has to offer. At this time of year the lake can be an
excellent swimbait lake as the bass are gorging themselves on Kokaneee and
Rainbows. Weekly plants of 1.5-5lb. Rainbow trout are common here which makes
Pardee a popular destination for trout fishermen that regularly troll the main
lake and river mouth.
Pro Anglers
Bub Tosh and Kent Brown ham it up for the camera
This year Cal and Zander
were paired with FLW Pro Anglers which included Greg Gutierrez (Double G), for
the morning session, and Richard Dobyns in the afternoon session. As you might
have guessed Richard is following in the footsteps of his father, Gary Dobyns,
and is also very involved in the rod business which bears the family name.
Cal and Greg
fish swimbaits early
At 6am we met Greg at the
launch ramp. On this particular morning he had just found out that he was
narrowly edged out by Jeff Michels, only a single point separated the two in the
Western Everstart Series Angler of the Year. Though this was no doubt a tough
pill to swallow Greg showed up to the event wearing his characteristic grin and
came ready to fish.
Zander goes
finesse...
Greg doesn’t spend a lot
of time on Pardee in particular but has attended these events the last few times
and has built up some knowledge about the structure and a few spots on the lake.
Known for his flipping prowess you would think the first place we would head
would be the few areas where tules line the coves but instead Greg stopped at a
shallow submerged island where he proceeded to whip out a swimbait.
...and lands a
tiny smallie
This approach was just
fine with Cal who often employs the “go big or go home” mentality and brought
only a single rod to the event, a swimbait stick. Together they made cast over
cast hoping to draw in one of those giant Pardee bass. Zander on the other hand
was hoping to get the skunk off the boat and tied on a drop shot rig and worked
the drop offs.
Greg points
out fish hiding near structure
As is often the case
finesse fishing produced results first and Zander boated a 10, ten inch Smallie
that is. Greg soon did the same boating an equally “impressive” largemouth rat.
That was enough to persuade him to make a move and the next stop was the tules
and submerged timber. Adjusting quickly Greg tied on a weedless dropshot rig and
a variety of flipping rigs and proceeded to pound the structure.
Greg lands
another little fish, time to make a move
The bites were few and far
between early on but whenever a fish so much as breathed on the lure Greg would
stick them quickly. Greg has a very positive outlook on fishing and even as he
was contemplating his next cast he would constantly joke around with the guys.
One of Greg's
strengths is flipping structure
Greg flips up
a few fish
Greg described some of his
favorite techniques and at the very top of his list is topwater fishing, thus it
was no surprise that he was looking for that swimbait bite early on, and like
Zander and Cal one of his fondest fishing memories was of Amazon Peacock bass
crushing his topwater prop baits.
Though fishing
in the morning was tough Greg was a pleasure to fish with
After a relatively tough
morning it was back to the dock to compare notes. The two pros that did the best
were local heroes Taylor Parsons and Russ Graves who had both boated some really
impressive largemouth on swimbaits. While many anglers reported seeing many beds
on the shoreline there were very few with any fish locked on.
Russ Graves
shows us two quality fish
Next
Section: Fishing swimbaits with Richard Dobyns
