I spent the night getting ready for fishing with Takahiro by redoing my rods so I could have more reaction baits tied on.  We started in the Black Brush area fishing a tree line/channel edge with DD22‘s.   We each caught one small keeper on the crank.

The Top Crank is what Omori used, bottom is the Crank I caught my fish

We ran to several more spots and caught nothing throwing cranks, by this time I started to mix in a Jerkbait and trying to fish my finesse carolina wacky rig, but it was tough to do so when he was fishing cranks and moving the boat so much.

My wacky rig was a weedless gamakutsu hook and then a 3/16oz Tru-Tungsten sinker pegged about 24″ up

 I ended up picking up my 2nd keeper on the wacky rig throwing out the opposite side of the boat.  We continued to hop and would move shallow to deep and back and forth.  It was obvious he was scrambling because his main pattern was not producing.  He even tried looking for spawners some.  We went back to his starting area and I caught one over 6lb throwing my wacky rigged ball breaker into the deeper channel area.  Unfortunately that was the last keeper bite I got, caught several short fish.  Tak managed to catch 3 more small keepers on the DD22, weightless senko and brush hog.  Tak weighed 4 fish for 6-10 and missed the cut after being in 15th after day 1 and I weighed 3 fish for 9-11 and that moved my up from 49th to 46th.

Had to stick around for the pairings & I was paired with Jason Quinn.  I was pretty excited, he seemed to be on some good fish and told me we would be doing a bit of everything.  We started out on a large flat on the south side of the Mexican waters.  I quickly caught a keeper & 2 shorts on my wacky rig.  Quinn then threw his 10″ worm and boated a small keeper.  We then ran to some bushes which he flipped and missed one.  After that we ran into another arm and fished a bush flat and I caught 4 fish on a Green Pumpkin Cyclone Lighting Blade, 3 of them were keepers including one over 3lbs.  Quinn only caught two shorts on his spinnerbait.  He then caught a reel nice keeper off a big tree with his senko.  We then ran and fished some swimbaits over some tree tops in 28ft of water.  Quinn got one nice fish on his swimbait and I caught 3 big stipers on the Optimum 6″ Titan pictured below.

 
After that we got into a nice calm flat creek with a nice ditch running in it and we both filled out our limits and culled fish.  He did his damage flipping a pumpkinseed sweet beaver with a 1oz TT Flippin Weight and a weightless senko.  I caught my fish, including a 5lb fish on a pumpkinseed power slug.  After that, Jason really started running pockets flipping the beaver and I did not have much good water to fish.  Quinn ended up culling once more and had a limit for 13-7 and my limit ended up being 13-1 which moved me up to 32nd place.  It was kind of disappointing to get my fish early everyday and then get stuck with mediocre bags at best.
 
Back at the weigh-in Derek Remitz sacked them again and took over the lead.  Todd Faircloth crushed a 36lb bag on a swimbait which he claims all happened in about a 15 minute stretch.   Also congrats to Seiji Kato from Japan on his big win on the co-angler side.  Sounds he like he caught a huge bag the last day out of the back of Grant Goldbeck’s boat, and caught his fish with a unique wacky jig finesse rig.
 

Here is a pic of the Zappu Inchi Wacky Jig Heads.  He used a little 3 or 4″ worm with these jigs on the final day to make a huge comeback and paired it with 7lb flourocarbon.

It was a lot of fun, took forever to wait for them to hand out the checks.  All in all a great experience.

Rich
RichLindgren.com 
Rich’s Bassin’ Forum
Bass Fishing Tackle Blog

I met Derek Remitz early in the morning at his motel to get loaded up and we were on the water before sunrise.  The very first ledge we fished he caught one over 6lb and shook off another bite.  I was trying a few different baits at the time, but honestly if felt good just to wet a line & be bass fishing again 

We hopped to the next ledge and we both pulled on some fish.  We basically spent the day driving around with the graph and looking for ledges and then we would stop and fish for a few minutes, get a few bites and leave.  We also went up and looked in a few pockets and flats and there was limited activity.

Derek caught most of his fish on his Omega Custom Lures 3/4oz football jig and a few one a 1/2oz Tungsten texas-rigged senko.  All my bites came on Carolina Rigged 10″ Power worm (Camo & Green Pumpkin).

Angler Alley was pretty cool before the pairings meeting, got to meet several pros and check out all the new wraps.  I drew Glenn Delong from OH.  Looking at his BASS stats, I have almost as much career earnings in BASS as he does   His best finish ever was the WildCard qualifier, and that 12th place & a good sponsor has him on the Elite Series.

We started on a shallow flat south of Ward’s point only about 10 mins from Diablo East take-off point.  He had a nice one on a green-pumpkin Venom Rattle Shake that came off next to the boat.  He ended up boating 4 small fish out of this spot on texas rigged senko, Venom Rattle Shake and DD100 Pointer.  I caught 3, two on a Pumpkinseed Power Slug (one was about 4lbs) and one on a light carolina 10″ Camo worm. 
Rigged with weightless with a Smart Peg and two Force beads

We fished 3 more areas, he got on more keeper on a the pointer.  We then came back to his starting area and we each caught a couple small bucks, he culled once and all mine were short.

He had 5 fish for 8-11 and I had 4 for 8-11   He was in about 100th place and I was in 49th.  
I would like to thank Trip for covering the Tru-Tungsten & Secret Weapon Lure logos on my shirt with the weigh bag

My dad faired much better fishing with Denny Brauer, he had 5 fish for 16lbs and was in 11th.
 Dad’sbag was anchored by this 7-02

My weigh slipped told me I was with former Classic Champ Takahiro Omori, so I was pretty excited about day 2.  He told me he was catching all his fish on DD22’s and lipless cranks and that we are starting about 10 minutes from launch.  I was prepared to make a big charge, because Omori had 26-5 the first day.
  Check back tomorrow for details on Days 2 & 3 of the tourney.
Rich
RichLindgren.com 
Rich’s Bassin’ Forum
Bass Fishing Tackle Blog

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Well, Jason Quinn and I had a great day, he was great to fish with and is responsible for my favorite jig by Tru-Tungsten.  We caught some fish but nothing huge, we both had 5 fish for 13lbs each.  I moved up into 34th place from 46th. 

My dad had a really tough day bass fishing with Monroe.  Ish spent the entire day flipping shallow bushes and sight fishing.  My dad only managed a few bites and one keeper.

The big stories were Todd Faircloth and Derek Remitz on the pro side.  Todd brought in the biggest bag of 36lbs and surged to 4th.  MN native Derek Remitz, who is also an Elite Series Rookie caught another big bag of 30lbs and took the lead over Steve Kennedy.  I practiced with Derek on Wednesday, he seems to be on a solid pattern that appears to be getting stronger, so hopefully it holds for one more day.  Everyone wish Derek luck tomorrow!!!

Fishing for fun tomorrow and going to the final weigh-in.

Rich

Amistad proves to be tough bass fishing for the boat that I was in again today.  Tak really struggled today, only boating 4 small fish for 7 or 8lbs.  Far cry from yesterday’s 26lbs.  He was very frustrated, we tried a lot of different things.

I was fortunate to get one quality bite dragging a wacky rig in 20ft, it was a 6lb class fish and then I tacked on two other small keepers to give me 3 fish for 9-11 and that bumped me up two spots and kept me above the cut line.  Great to be fishing Day 3 and hope to make a move up the board as well as the payout

My father snuck into the cut as well with two more small fish.  I am fishing with Jason “Hardware” Quinn tomorrow.  Should be a good day, he has been solid so far, but who knows the fish are constantly moving right now and its all about adjustments.  My father is fishing with Ish Monroe tomorrow.

Just another quick note, I will be following up when I get back home and writing more detailed posts about my practice and tournament days including patterns, lures, & pictures.

Wish me luck tomorrow!!!
Rich

Today was a tough day in the boat, we just were not on fish.  Some how I managed to still be in the cut line with 8-11 for 49th place.  Things should be better tomorrow, fishing with Takahiro Omori and he had over 26lbs today.  Caught all my fishin on Soft Plastics today.  Wow did Steve Kennedy and Scott Campell whack them today, 36+lbs for both of them and Campbell had a 12-7 Giant!!!

My dad had a solid day, with 16-6 and that was good for 11th, he is fishing with Todd Faircloth tomorrow.  Other then that, I plan on making a move tomorrow.

Fantasy Team is looking solid:

Thanks eveyone for the comments!!!
Rich

Hey All,

Had good travels, even got an upgrade to First Class on the way here   Stopped at Bass Pro Shops on the way to Del Rio, got in late and got my stuff ready for today.  Had a great day practicing with Derek Remitz today, caught some beautiful fish, more details after tourney.  I do not want to publish anything about he is catching his fish.

Angler’s Alley was cool, lots of interested fans, met several pros and other anglers, even signed a few autographs.  Even had someone recognize me from my website and that person was from Del Rio, kinda cool

My partner for tomorrow is Glenn Delong from Ohio, not really familiar with, do not know what to expect.  On the flip side, my father drew Denny Brauer for Day 1.  Check back tomorrow for updates.

Rich