As darkness fell upon us, we broke out the heavy gear with florescent line and prepared to fish the many rockpiles throughout the south end of the lake with big Jigs, brush hogs and 10 inch Power Worms. Our first stop was a deep rocky point in the Konocti area. I started out with a new 5 inch Berkley Power Hog in green Pumpkin and Hemphill was using a black/chartreuse Weapon Jig. "Most of the fish have been coming from 8 to 10 feet of water this week," he explained. "We have a lot of moonlight right now, so they might be a little deeper. As soon as the moon goes behind the skyline, the fish should move up shallow."

To my amazement, I had a solid hit on my very cast with the Power Hog and set the hook into our first good fish of the night, just over 4 pounds. A few casts later, I hit another fish weighing 3-1/2 pounds and things were starting to get exciting. We spent the next 15 minutes working over that point 5 to 25 feet of water and just when we were thinking of making a move, the Power Hog came through again, another 3 pounder. At that point I had four fish in the boat and enough of a cushion to give Larry a little razzing about his fishing abilities or lack thereof.

Of course he made me eat my words when he put the next fish in the boat, our largest fish of the night at 7 pounds, 3 ounces. "See what happens when you make the guide mad," he joked.

It was around midnight when the moon fell behind the outline of beautiful Mount Konocti and Hemphill decided to move to a series of docks where he expected the fish would be holding in shallow water along the pilings. He was right! As I pitched the Power Hog into a few feet of water along the first dock, a fish grabbed it and immediately charged the boat. I reeled as fast as I could and set the hook when I finally caught up to the fish. It gave a couple good pulls, then broke water and threw the hook. "That was a good one," said Hemphill. "I never did get a good hook set," I replied. "It's tough when they're rushing the boat like that."

We ended up taking three more fish along those docks, one was just over the 4 pound mark and the other two weighed 3-1/4 and 3-3/4 pounds. Two of the fish fell for the green pumpkin Power Hog and the other fish hit a 10 inch Power Worm. After a quick photo shoot in Konocti Marina, we released the four fish we had put in the livewell for pictures and made a run for the Clear Lake Oaks Arm where the evening had started.

"Lets hit a few offshore rockpiles near the boat ramp before we call it a night," said Hemphill. "I took several fish on spinnerbaits a few nights ago, so let's give it a shot." We idled over a couple of his secret spots where he tossed out bright yellow marker buoys. "We'll let things settle down for a few minutes, then move in with the trolling motor," he said. "It doesn't take long for the fish to move back into position."

With cooler than normal temperatures and a stiff breeze blowing, these weren't exactly ideal conditions for throwing spinnerbaits. Fortunately, the fish hadn't figures that out when a 4 pounder smashed my chartreuse Stanley Wedge in 8 feet of water. A couple minutes later, Larry was running his black Terminator spinnerbait through the same spot and he hit the second big fish of the night, a gorgeous 6 pound, 7 ounce trophy.

We managed four more hook-ups and two fish in the boat over the next hour and then decided to call it a night. It was nearly 4:30 am, but we were both wide awake from the adrenaline rush of big bass trying to rip our G.Loomis rods out of our hands. Total fish count for the night was 15 fish and our largest five weighed in at an amazing 25-3/4 pounds. Just another night for the Lunkermeister, but one that goes into the record books for myself.