Nick Wood won overall, and California won the state competition
REDDING, Calif. — The California B.A.S.S. Nation was the clear winner on Lake Shasta this past weekend, when California angler Nick Wood won the overall event, the California team won the state competition, and a team from Chico State won the coinciding College B.A.S.S. tournament.
Wood led wire-to-wire in the April 19-21 event, which was made up of 210 anglers from Western states. He weighed in 13 pounds, 14 ounces on Day 1, and he followed it up with 13-11 on the second day and 9-8 on the final day.
“My strategy going into the tournament was throwing big swimbaits,” said Wood. “I was catching fish up on big spawning flats, and I was also catching suspending fish on logs.”
Wood’s main swimbaits were an 8-inch Huddleston in holdover color and a 7-inch Osprey, but he caught his biggest on a 4-inch Keitech swimbait with a 1/8-ounce darter head jig.
Wood’s final weight of 37-1 contributed to the California B.A.S.S. Nation’s total weight of 293 pounds, 12 ounces. The cumulative weight was only 7 ounces higher than Idaho’s, putting California at the top of the 11 state teams in competition. The win earned the California B.A.S.S. Nation a Triton 189 TrX boat with a Mercury 150 Pro XS.
The teammates met every night to discuss their best techniques to help the whole team.
“Everybody was open about how they were catching bass,” said Mark “Chief” Torrez, president of the California B.A.S.S. Nation. “Everybody knew they had to catch fish for the team to win, and they did it.”
Brian Cogburn of Oakdale was the top nonboater on the California team. Cogburn will join Wood at the 2017 B.A.S.S. Nation Championship on South Carolina’s Lake Hartwell in October. The two will vie for a spot in the 2018 Bassmaster Classic.
One of the college teams from Chico State won the 2017 Bassmaster College Series Western Regional, also April 19-21 on Shasta. Tyler Firebaugh and Chad Sweitzer bested the field with 36 pounds, 5 ounces. Firebaugh and Sweitzer also surprised the crowd with a 9-pound, 10-ounce spotted bass they brought to the scales. The pair advances to the 2017 Bassmaster College Series National Championship later this year.
Anglers are still working to qualify for the 2018 California B.A.S.S. Nation State Team. The remaining qualifying events are as follows:
Date Lake Location
June 3-4 Lake Oroville Oroville, CA
July 8-9 California Delta Oakley, CA
Oct. 14-15 Lake Nacimiento Paso Robles, CA
To register to compete at Oroville, contact us at info@calbn.com or call Mark Torrez at (805) 233-0883.
Keep up with the California B.A.S.S. Nation at www.facebook.com/californiabassnation.