Dobyns is one of only a handful of full time professional tournament anglers making a go of it on the west coast. He made the move in March of 1999 when he quit his job of 19 years working as a machine operator. "I waited a long time to make that move and made sure my family was taken care of and my kids had money for college first," he said. The 44 year old Yuba City resident has been married to his wife Kathy for 26 years. His daughter Miranda, 24, just graduated from Chico State and his 22 year old son Richard is also an avid fisherman and just competed in his first Pro/Am at Lake Shasta in February (and beat his dad by a half pound).

I had the opportunity to spend a day chasing Clear Lake largemouth with Dobyns on Wednesday, March 3. It was 7:00 am as we launched his Ranger 520 at the Lucerne public ramp. "I just love to fish this time of year and I guess that's because 90 percent of my wins have come in late winter and spring," explained Dobyns. "Just about every tournament I have won was done with a rip bait, a spinnerbait or a topwater bait."

One of the main challenges anglers face at Clear Lake is deciding where to fish. "Clear Lake is really two lakes in one," he says. "The north and south ends are completely different and you have to decide which one to fish. I know we can fish the clean water down south today and probably catch 30 to 50 fish on rip baits, but there aren't many fish over 3 pounds right now. If we gamble and fish the dirty water up north, we won't get as many bites, but we may catch a few fish over 5 pounds."

We decided to fish north in hopes of a couple "picture" fish and started at the northwest corner of the lake between Rodman Slough and the town of Nice. When Dobyns pulled out his spinnerbait rod, it was obvious he wasn't there to catch small fish. He used a 3/4 ounce chartreuse and white Revenge spinnerbait on a G.Loomis 905 flippin' stick matched with a Shimano Curado reel and 50 pound Power Pro braided line. "Every cast on this lake can produce a huge fish, and if you aren't geared up for it, you're in trouble," he explained. "We'll be targeting tule points and the mouths of creeks today and we're going to cover a lot of water."

Dobyns decision to throw a spinnerbait was based on water color. "If there's color to the water, the spinnerbait is always my first choice," he said. "If you're dealing with clear water, a rip bait will always outproduce a spinnerbait. The only time I won't throw a rip bait or spinnerbait is when a high pressure system moves into the region and kills the reaction bite! Then I'll grab my flippin' stick and target shallow cover with a 3/8 ounce Revenge jig tipped with a Robo Kickin' Craw or a brush hog."

Gary hit our first fish at 8:30 while slow-rolling his spinnerbait along a small tule clump in five feet of water. It was a chunky three pounder and Gary made short work of the fish on his stout tackle. I tossed a Clear Lake hitch colored Lucky Craft 128 rip bait to the same spot, gave it a few twitches, let it pause for a couple seconds and wham! Another 3 pounder was in the boat.

"Looks like we found a pod of fish," said Gary. Up to that point, he had been covering water at a high rate of speed. Now he slowed down, backed off a bit and started saturating the area with his spinnerbait. A few casts later, he hits another fish, this one around 2-1/2 pounds. A couple more casts, and he hits one close to 4 pounds. At this point, I just stop fishing and watch the master at work as he boats yet another fish a few casts later.

"Finding schools of fish is the key to success at Clear Lake," he says. "You can throw pattern fishing out the window because these fish will always be schooled up this time of year and they can be anywhere. You might find a big school of fish on a point, but that doesn't mean you can spend the rest of the day fishing points. The next school might be in the back of a creek or inside a small bay. That's why I fish fast and I cover everything."

The same scenario played all over again two hours later as we passed a small bay near Library Park. Dobyns hit four more fish to 3-1/2 pounds from a small tule patch in six feet of water. He also hooked into a big fish that doubled over his Loomis flippin' stick, made a couple big head shakes, then came unbuttoned. I know you're still thinking about that one Gary!

As we headed down the bank, Dobyns decided it was time to break out the rip baits. "My two favorite baits are the Lucky Craft Pointer 128 and the Lucky Craft Staysee," he said. "I throw the Staysee on a G.Loomis CBR 845 with 10 pound P-Line CXX-Xtra Strong. The 128 is a bigger bait, so I move up to the CBR 847 and throw it on 12 pound line. And I never make a cast without changing the hooks out with Gamakatsu trebles. Not that the stock hooks are poor quality, they just aren't stout enough for the fish I'm targeting."

It didn't take long before Gary hooked into a 2-1/2 pounder while ripping a chartreuse shad Staysee of a piling in 8 feet of water. Dobyns works the bait with an erratic retrieve twitching it one to three times, then pausing the bait from one to five seconds. "Changing things up is what triggers a strike when rippin'," he explained. "Don't get stuck twitching the bait the same number of times or pausing for the same amount of time."

We each managed to rip a couple fish over the next two hours, but never got into a big group of fish like we had earlier in the day. Gary did land our big fish of the day, just a hair over five pounds, when he ran a spinnerbait across the point of a small island just north of Catfish Creek. A final stop on the two groups of fish we located in the morning produced a few more fish to 3-1/2 pounds and we headed for the barn.

By days end, we had boated a total of 18 fish under extremely tough conditions with early morning rain followed by clear skies and strong north winds in the afternoon. "I'm pretty happy with our results today considering the weather we were dealing with," said Dobyns. "Give this lake a week of warm weather and the fishing will be unbelievable."

Dobyns also gave a big thanks to his sponsors: Ranger Boats, Evinrude, Yamamoto, Minn Kota, Power Pro, Lucky Craft, G.Loomis, P-Line, Robo Worms, Sawyer and Cook Insurance, Crave Nitro Grease, Lowrance and Costa Del Mar.