Good weather accompanied even better fishing for the fourth leg of the San Diego Saltwater Bass Showdown at Shelter Island this last Sunday June 22nd. This leg of the event sent participants out to catch 5 of the heavies calico and or sand bass they could muster-up.. Fishermen were also offered the opportunity to take home a nice cash prize for the heaviest calico and sand bass brought to the scales that day. Here's how the guys and gal did:

First place was gathered in by David Morgan and Mike York. They fished the mantel of the Point Loma kelp forest with Berkley flukes and weighed in a heft bag of both calico and sand bass topping the scales at 16.79 pounds. The limit was bookended by the heaviest sand bass of the tournament at 4.83 pounds and nice calico weighed in at 3.51 pounds.

Second place went to Robert Reinert and Derrell Fontenot with a combination 5 fish bag weight of 16.32 pounds. The team caught the heaviest calico bass of the event with a nice 6.75 pound kicker and finished off the limit with a 2.26 pound sand bass. This team fished the holes in the kelp forest dropping Western Plastics' Gordo grubs through the openings and than ripping them back up to the surface.

Here how the balance of the teams finished:

Team * Largest Calico * Largest Sand Bass * Total weight

Tom Buckalew - Brett Le Long * 3.46 * 3.26 * 16.02
Bill Hokstad - Bill Garber * 4.92 * -0- * 14.31
Jesse Halbig - Kyle Rockwood * 4.62 * -0- * 13.58
Larry Evans - Eli Evans * 3.37 * 1.06 * 13.27
Kent Palmer - Scott Palmer 5.74 * -0- * 12.81
Jimmy Linville - Kale Luis * -0- * 3.61 * 12.75
Mike Ryba * Kyle Eady * -0- * 3.68 * 12.68
Laurie Howerton - Ed Howerton * -0- * -0- * 12.00
Eugene Roberts - Doug Bury * 3.53 * -0- * 11.71
Doug Hokstad - Dave Hokstad * -0- * -0- * 11.02
Bill Schaefer - Brandon Cotton * 2.39 * -0- * 10.66
Phil Brown _ Gerry Mahieu * 3.00 * -0- * 10.43
Dave Easton - Brian Sanner * 2.50 * 1.69 * 9.57
Andy Wright * Matt Kim * 2.44 * -0- * 9.30
Mike Graham - Derwin Chang * -0- * 2.42 * 8.39

We are happy to report that all fish caught and brought to the scales were in an alive condition and released alive back into San Diego Bay.

Special Kudos are to be give to the team of David Morgan and Mike York winning Angler of the Year honors for their consistanty high finishes in the past four San Diego Saltwater Bass Showdowns.

The last Saltwater Bass Showdown for the 2008 season will be the fish-off Sunday, July 27th. Only a select few of the 45 teams that have fished the Saltwater Bass Showdown this year will make it to the 2008 fish-off.

The San Diego Saltwater Bass Showdown and tournament director John Cassidy and his staff would like to thanks our sponsors for this season's support: El Cajon Ford, Angler's Arsenal, Quantum/Zebco, Gamakatsu, Rod and Reel Radio, SPRO, The Trolling Motor Doctor, Western Plastics, Sea Tow, Chef Chris Mesa and Hamilton Meats, All Outdoors Radio Network and Tommy Gomes from Un-Butter and Catalina Offshore Products.
Qualifiers for the 2008 Showdown fish-off will be posted later. Thank you to all who fished with us this year. If you don't make it to the fish-off, make sure to make plans for the Team Open coming in November.