Winter on the Bay with the Bamwoozler

It's the day after Christmas and what better way to spend it than fishing with Conway and some friends. After a long Christmas night we were a little slow in making our 6:30am fishing date but luckily our pals were just as slow...not to mention it was 43 degrees out...practically Arctic by San Diego standards.

We headed out at the southern end of San Diego Bay. Surprisingly, there was only one other boat out at 7:30am. I thought everyone would be out testing out their new fishing gear from Santa...rod, reel or kayak. But no, they were smart and stayed in their nice warm homes. Well, the early bird gets the worm!!!

As a Christmas joke, a non-fishing co-worker of mine "wrapped" me a bamboo rod from a piece of black bamboo from his backyard, screwed a Quantum Optix 20 to the "handle" and put the rubber from his old mountain bike handles on as a grip. It's got an interesting bend downward, a natural "hook up" bend, and most of the little nobbies have been cut off but hardly sanded off so there are all sorts of protrusions along the length of the rod. Even the guides are misaligned but for the most part fairly straight. I laughed when I saw it but then decided that I had to put it to the test. I put some 12lb flouro on it and took it out today for it's maiden voyage. I decided to name it "The Bamwoozler."

Much to my pleasure it worked like a charm! Ok, it didn't cast all that well. A straight cast usually ended up about 15 degrees to your left. We'll call it a "fast action" rod and it sort of bounced a little when you reeled down quickly but overall it worked out pretty well. Armed with some 1/4oz lead heads and some MC swimbait plastics I set to work proving that my new rod was full of mojo! As I bounced my little swimbait back to the boat I felt a tug...tug...tugtug...here we go!!! I held my breath and set the hook. The rod had a nice bend in it and whoa...it held! I reeled in my little prize...the rod didn't snap in half, the guides didn't fly off and low and behold...I landed the fish! Here's the Bamwoozler's first fish...a small spotted bay bass. WOOHOOOOOO...GO BAMWOOZLER!!!!

From then on it was a stead picking of bay bass ranging in the 1/4lb to 2lb+ range. The Bamwoozler was a champ!!!!

Conway got into the bass action with a drop-shot rig, some Christmas Tree colored mini-sluggos. He landed at least 6 or 7 nice bass with his drop shot rig...weedless and productive!

Towards the end of our day we met up with some of our yakkin' buddies who were doing some damage on the fish just north of us...Brian, Alan, and John! Brian even managed a couple of nice halibut on the day. No pics so I'll just have to take his word for it! ;-)

Overall it was a great day on the water. The air temps warmed up, we had very little wind, and plenty of steady action on the boat. And best of all The Bamwoozler produced! I might have to talk to my co-worker about a surf casting model!!!!!

Happy Holidays everyone!