Mike Faez wins FPT Clear Lake with 29 pounds - flying solo!
When anglers arrived for Friday’s Clearlake pre-fish, they were met with the warm temperatures and the flat clam wind conditions predicted all week long by various forecasting agencies.
But nature, as it is known to do, had plans of its own, and contradicting all previous forecasts, dropped lower temperatures and sustained winds in 20-25 mile range, on anglers all day long, ruining the plans many had for targeting the big females many had recently spotted on spawning beds throughout the lake.
And while many participants with fully rigged 18-20 foot shiny bass boats posed aggressively at blast-off, preparing to battle the elements as they were, one angler, Mike Faez, played it as safe as possible and navigated his 14 foot aluminum boat to an area within eye-sight of the Redbud Park ramp to bag a 5-fish limit that went shy of 30 pounds, proving the old saying “Boats don’t catch fish…fishermen do”, is alive and well.
Mike indicated that he had his hands full trying to keep his small boat positioned in the howling winds, and found netting fish was not so easy without the help of his absent partner Jon Serengrini. And staying in that area all day, he used Yamamoto and R2Sea soft plastics, to win the day and capture his very first Future Pro Tour win.
Congratulations Mike Faez on a well-deserved victory that was way overdue!
Youth Angler League kids show up in force!
The FPT’s Youth Angler League – presented by Gone Fishin Marine and Daiwa, a division designed for grade thru high schoolers to participate in, saw youngsters build on their bass fishing skills, with some youth having weights better than our equal to the top ten finishers in the adult division!
Young Murdoc McGinnis captured 1stplace honors in this division, earning a new Sea Eagle boat and a custom trophy with an 18.28 pound 5-fish limit, with Logan Dicon grabbing 2ndplace on the strength of his 17.86-pound bag. Logan’s 2ndplace finish was good for $100-dollar cash prize.
Rounding out third was Timothy Albrecht with 14.95 pounds, receiving $75 cash for his efforts.
The Youth Anglers division allows kids to fish from the bank, and even though he had to do just that, Westly Gritts finished just out of the money with a 14.66-pound limit that earned him some great prizes for 4thplace!
What a great event! .and a big thanks to all that came out to be part of it.
Next up…the Future Pro Tour rolls into Lake Camanche on May 18thto see if some of those Motherlode region bass feel like playin!
See you there!
FPT