All three species of saltwater bass came out for anglers in the 2022 Coastal Social North Event in April! The 2022 edition of our tournament featured a total of 15 teams of boats, along with 16 kayakers who all took part in the tournament, which benefits CCA California.
The Coastal Social Tournaments series allows teams of up to three anglers and kayakers alike to turn in and weigh up to three total fish for a combined bag. One of the best parts about it is that most, if not all, fish weighed in or measure go back in, promoting conservation of all saltwater bass species.
Costal social was started in 2021 by Matt Florentino from Aftco and Chris Arechaederra from CCA CAL. This idea was really started thanks to Greg Garfinkel, a Calico Conservation, as all three of them came together to help support CCA and promote practicing catching and releasing calico bass, Furthering the phrase of “slow to grow so let them go.” Joining the team this year was Dave Brown from Okuma Fishing USA as he served as weighmaster for 2022.
The bass certainly showed up and did their part this weekend as our top boat and team of the weekend was team Hook Up Baits: Chad Gierlich, Ron Lee, and Al Vasquez. They were able to turn in a whopping 18.10# pound bag. Team Reyes Swimbaits came in second place in with a very respectable 16.7# bag right before weigh in closed. And coming in third place was Anthony Harris and Connor Warren with a 12.87# bag. Biggest fish went to Chad Gierlich who turned in a 7.8# bass.
On the kayak side of things, we had another great turnout of bass as Kevin Nakada came in first place with 55.50 inches measured of bass. Following Nakada was Dave Brown with 54.25 inches, and in third place was Jimmy Salazar with 54.20 inches. This is the second year in a row for Salazar to place in the top three of this tournament series.
As always, coastal social could not happen without our many sponsors including 22nd Street Landing, which hosted our weigh in station. We also have Promar & Ahi USA, Daiwa, Aftco, Okuma Fishing USA, Hook Up Baits, Fishing Syndicate, Kredo Art, Costa sunglasses, and Baja jerky all participate and help us sponsor the event.
Thank you to everyone who finished in the Coastal Social North tournament, we cannot do this without all of you.
This is a two-part series, with this tournament being the first one, and our next tournament will be in San Diego on September 17, 2022. Our weigh in station will be at Dana Landing in Mission Bay. Registration for that tournament is now open and can be done at coastalsocial.org. CCA Members can register for $50 and non-CCA numbers for $85, with a membership to CCA included in the price. Call proceeds to the tournament go directly to CCA California, and towards fighting for all of our rights to fish here.
