BY CHUCK WOLF
Oakland- Bay Area lakes can produce some excellent bass action, but this season, fishing has been pretty darn impressive with some monsters taken out of some of our lower-profile waters. This month, Bay Area bass anglers have seen several fish over 10 pounds and a good number of fish above 5 pounds. A 5-pound bass is impressive, but trophy bass over 10 are worth writing about.
The latest Bay Area angler to break the 10-pound mark was Andre Mull. He was throwing a Huddleston glidebait on a Fenwick HMX 8.8 with a Shimano Vanford 4000, for stripers at Lake Del Valle. After a bit of frustration with the bigger bait, he switched over to a 3.5-inch weighted swim bait. This did the trick, and the East Beach monster came to the net after a striper-like fight.
Estimated to be in the 11-pound range, this is one of the larger bass to come out of Del Valle this season. Though not as large, Dr. Al Hurwitz has been seeing fish in the 3- to 4-pound range and enjoyed a season of smallmouth to 3 pounds. Michale Malave has been seeing fish in the 3- to 5-pound range, and there have been plenty of smaller fish taken this month.
Earlier in the month, Ryan Reynolds took a monster 11.2 pounder at Lake Chabot while throwing a Brock Hiroshima glidebait. Jeff Earney and his daughter Rosealie took a 5.02 pounder while Steven Mears landed a 5.13-pound largemouth.
There have been a number of smaller bass taken from Lake Temescal, but we’ve seen anglers like Dorien Tobes take fish to 9 pounds and we’ve seen similar fish taken from Contra Loma, Lafayette and Horseshoe. Given that these fish are not planted, that’s some darn impressive bass action!
