WON Bass Western Classic at Nacimiento and San Antonio; Angler of the Year and Daiwa Cup

Mike Folkestad and Tami Curtis with Bill Liston (Daiwa)

What a great season!  I fish for the love of the sport and it has been so good to me.  I was able to earn angler of the year in the norther division and winning the Daiwa Cup overall angler of the year. It was an honor to have my sponsor Bill Liston with Daiwa come out to award me the Daiwa Cup. Photo by Angler Bill Snyder

I just finished the WON Bass Western Classic coming in 2nd place.  I fished  a 3/8 oz brown and purple Open Water Jig and Maverick jig for two days using a Yamamoto double tail green pumpkin and watermelon red flake.

The fish at both Nacimiento and San Antonia were in 10' to 35' depending on time of day.  My Lowrance HDs were a big key to locating the bass.

I used the 7' Steez medium heavy rod with a Steez baitcaster loaded with 10 lb Seaguar fluorocarbon.

I moved around alot and if my electronics showed there were no fish in the area, I moved on.

Making the right choices, I came in 2nd place.  Congrats to Darrin Bishop for winning the tournament on the Pro side and taking home a Nitro boat.  Congrats to Tom DiGiulio winning the on the AAA side and also taking home a Nitro boat.

Congrats to Southern AOY Pro John Morrow, Northern AOY (AAA) Dave Nelson, and Southern (AAA) Tami Curtis (the only lady to ever earn this award).  Well deserved all!  Great job!

- Mike

More photos:  by Angler Bill Snyder

Mike Folkestad and Bill Snyder

Mike Folkestad and Gary Freeman

Competitors that got a paycheck

My head-on collision with a BURRO, and a totaled truck!

Leaving Lake Havasu at 6:30 in the morning on highway 95, I was headed toward highway 40. About 5 miles out of the city, from out of nowhere the burro appeared in the middle of the road. I was going about 65 mph. I slammed on the breaks and screamed "OH SH**"! It stopped the truck in it's tracks and the airbag went off. I had to pry the doors open with my feet and squeeze out. Luckily, I didn't even have a bump, scratch or bruise!

To my surprise, I had hit 2 burros instead of 1! It was a sad sight. The highway patrol showed up and put the burros out of their misery.

My wife showed up in my sister-in-law's SUV, we loaded all my fishing tackle into it. Thank goodness, I wasn't towing my boat! My wife, sister-in-law, and I drove home. The truck was totaled so on the way home to Southern California, I purchased the same exact truck (2011 Silverado 1500 extra cab) from Selman Chevrolet for $800 less than I paid 10 months ago. What a great deal!

They now have flashing signs on 95 warning everyone about the burros! Please be cautious if you travel that road, there have been 4 fatalities along that stretch.

Clear Lake California is one of the best fisheries in the country! WON Bass and FLW back-to-back tournaments

Photos by Bill Mays: Courtesy of WON Bass
What an awesome day one at the WON Bass Clear Lake tournament. My 1st day draw was Chris Gilkison. Every fish we caught was 4 lbs or bigger. Anytime you can throw back 4 1/2 pounders makes for a great day on the water. Every fish we weighed in was 5 1/2 - 7 1/2 lbs. Our total for the day was 30.60 lbs!

We dropshotted 6-7" Roboworms, the Folkestad Special. We also fished 5" GYM Senkos, watermelon color, and a 6" swimbait.

Day 2 I drew Tom Ochoa, we had a great day. We caught a lot of 3-4 1/2 pounders. We just could not get the bigger bites. We wound up with almost 20 lbs. The fish came on the same baits as day 1. Clear Lake has got to be one of the best lakes in the US. When you catch 50 lbs of fish and can't win...that's some AWESOME fishing!

I'd like to congratulate Pro Ron Tobey and congrats to my good friend Co-angler Allen Todd for their win at Clear Lake. Great job guys! Also, congrats to Co-angler Dave Nelson who achieved the Angler of the Year title for the North Division. I feel fortunate I was able to secure the Angler of the Year in the North. It's really special to me coming out on top in the North when fishing against the great northern anglers.


FLW...what a loser tournament for me! Wound up fishing swimbaits the whole tournament. Just couldn't get it going. Bad choices. Catching 7 fish, weight about 24 lbs.

Congrats to my good friends Pro Mike Tuck for his 1st place win and to Pro Joe Uribe for 2nd place, and Pro Richard Dobyns for wrapping up the prestigious Anlger of the Year Title. Also, congrats to Co-angler champion Chad Leblanc and my good friend Lester Albury for the prestigious Co-angler Angler of the Year Title.

How quickly the fish can change....

When I rolled into Lake Roosevelt, I went fishing the 1st day. There was a high of 38 degrees and ice cycles hanging on all the brush and it was still there when I left the lake at 5 pm. The picture to the left is the water coming out of the bilge pump freezing as it hits the cold air. Water temp was 48 degrees, it was a cold miserable day. I caught 3 fish.

Water continued to warm during practice to where it got up to 53 degrees during the tournament when you could catch about 17 fish a day. Fish were in about 20-25' staging on breaks and points. With the cold water it was real important that the retrieve was really slow, a lot of "dead sticking" giving them a lot of time to find the bait. Drop shot, senko, and jigs worked. The reaction bite was nonexistent for me.

On the 2nd day of the WON Bass tournament, I drew Tami Curtis which made for a great day. Tami caught 7 fis.h before I got a bite. At the end of the day she had caught 12 and I had caught 5, but I managed to get some of our bigger bites, raising the limit to 11 1/2 lbs and good enough for 11th place. Thanks Tami!

The following week was the FLW tournament and the water continued to warm. Reaching 55 degrees int the morning. It was noticeable that the fish were moving shallower. We were having a full moon and the bucks were moving into the shallows, coming up out of the deeper water and staging at the edges of the brush. By the end of the 2nd day, they were back in the brush. It seemed that everyone was fishing back in the brush. I had a poor tournament catching small limits each day. Fishing was still good catching 17 fish a day.

If I had to buy the tournament back, I would have gone in the brush and pitched jigs, but that is hind sight.

Mike's Tackle:

Spinning: Fuege Rods and Reels with 10 lb test Seaguar line
Bait Casters: Steez Rods and Reels & Zillion Rod and Reels with 10-15 lb Seaguar line
Lures: GYM Senkos, Maverick Jigs with GYM trailers, Roboworms

2 tourneys back to back; WON Bass & FLW at Lake Shasta, CA...and it RAINED A LOT!!!!

When reaching Shasta, water was higher than normal and rising. The weather was cold like normal there, with the intermittent rain showers and snow with the days high of 38 degrees. Fishing was slower than normal. The main body was really tough. You had to go up the rivers to find any concentration of fish.

Most the time the fish were deep in the 40-60' range. To use a drop shot, darthead, or senkos, you would need to use a very slow retrieve. The fish were very inactive. Then we had a weather change to bright sunny skies with a high in the 50's. I assumed that this would bring the fish shallower and more active, especially in the afternoons, but the fish did not change. They remained deep, however they did come up just a little bit in the afternoons.

In the WON Bass tournament I managed to place 3rd, with a weight of 19.65. Day 1 my partner was Rick Kendrick, and Day 2 I fished with Aaron Leon. They were both great fishermen, we all caught our share of fish, and Leon caught one of the "big fish" weighing 2.55. They both place high, good job Rick and Aaron!

In the FLW tournament I placed 38th. The last day was a struggle, with only a limit of 5 lbs 10 oz.

Photo by Bill Mays with WON Bass

The fish were caught on:
(all on 6 lb test)

• Dropshot - 6" Roboworm Prism Shad
• Darthead - 6" Roboworm Prism Shad
• Senko - Green Pumpkin
• Steez trigger stick rods and reels and Fuego spinning rod and reel

BTW: We found a great place to stay in Redding....The Oxford Suites. If you ever get up there, give Sandra Sims a call. She's the Sales Manager and a great host.
Be sure to call her. (530) 321 . 2287
They are totally fisherman friendly. They have a great breakfast and evening appetizers that are included with your room. After battling the weather each day it's nice to come back to warm cooked food at the hotel.