Striped Bass Fishing with Bobby Barrack

I am addicted to striped bass fishing. My addiction to catching stripers once contributed to the termination of a relationship with a girl, it has cost me hundreds of dollars and has at times, affected my work performance. Why do I do it and why do I like it as much as largemouth bass fishing…because those fish can pull. They are aggressive and their topwater strikes are nothing short of amazing.

My knowledge about catching linesiders is somewhat limited. I mostly learned how to catch stripers by talking briefly with Steve LaRussa at Coyote Bait & Tackle, reading quite a few articles on the web, and getting out as much as possible during the striper season.  At first, I quickly grew frustrated. It felt as though I was ‘blind’ casting my way through the Delta while hunting for these fish. What I really needed was some direction from someone who knew what they were doing. Read more

Coyote Bait & Tackle’s Team Tournament

Coyote Bait & Tackle has always been the leader of organizing some of the largest bass tournaments in the South Bay. This November, they put on a two day shootout at the largest lake we have here in the Santa Clara Valley, Anderson Reservoir. With over $5,000 up for grabs, local anglers brought bags in that would affirm the lake’s reputation as a small bass fishery. Encountering a tough bite, anglers needed to muster up only a hair over four and a half pounds to be included in the 25 boats that would advance to the final day.

It would take a big 8.05 pound kicker that would lock Gary Wratten and Dave Uyeda into first place on the final day with an outstanding bag weighing 16.23 pounds. With the big fish option, winner take all option and first place check, Gary and Dave brought home a total of $3,510!!

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The Lunker Punker by Black Dog Bait Company

The Lunker Punker crafted by Black Dog Bait Co. was at first, an intimidating buy for me because of the price. The 8” size goes for $54.99 while the 6.5” inch goes for $49.99. I finally coughed up the cash for one of these baits when the striper season rolled around. I must tell you, I do not know what I was waiting for…

This bait looks amazing on the top of the water. The Lunker Punker looks more like a real fish skimming across the surface of the water than to it’s comparisons by ten fold. I once witnessed seeing an Osprey eagle attempt to capture this bait off of the surface thinking it was a tasty trout. It’s action is unlike no other walk-the-dog top water bait that I have seen. It seems to add some spice to it’s walk by rolling on it’s sides when you yank down on your rod, then up righting itself once it stops it’s zig or zag. This action is what greatly contributes to the amount Read more

The 50 Year Storm

Have you ever seen the movie “Point Break”? It’s a classic movie about a bunch of surfers who are bank robbers. The Reeves (Keanu) goes undercover to stop these dudes and needs to learn how to live the surfer life to try to catch these guys. In a nut shell, he finally catches the bad guy, a bad ass dude named Bodie (Patrick Swayze) but has to let him go. He caught him where he knew he’d find him, where the 50 year storm would hit. This 50 year storm would produce waves as big as sky scrapers. Every big wave surfer’s dream. Only once every 50 years would this event show it’s face on the planet. While Bodie is looking at the waves, handcuffed and going to prison, in true ripper fashion Read more