Noy Vilaysane Interview

[SU News]

A few weeks ago Noy Vilaysane competed in the WON Bass California Pro AM tournament at Clear Lake.  The first day Noy broke a record with a huge five fish bag weighing in at 41.76 pounds, anchored by a double digit swimbait eater that weighed 11.76 pounds.  Day two he managed another 21.87 pounds followed by 25.64 pounds on day three.  Noy finished the three day tournament with an impressive 89.27 pound total bag.  His results were more than enough to secure his position in first place as he finished the tournament with a 20 pound lead over the other 125 boats. 

Noy was kind enough to do an interview with us and share some insight & stories with the Underground.

Day 1, 41.76lbs.  Noy (right), AAA Ryan Furno (left).

Where are you from?

San Diego.

How long have you been fishing for?

I'm damn near 40 years old.  I’ve been fishing ever since I was a kid with my pops when he took us out and it just stuck.

When were you first introduced to swimbait fishing?

I'm not sure. 2008 or 2009.  I saw one of my buddies hammer one off a Huddleston so I was like “you know what, I’m gonna go ahead and try out one of these big baits. Then I caught one off of it and I was like “Oh okay, these baits do work” haha. 

One time I was out fishing a soft bait and I’m just slowly retrieving it and a jogger was like “Hey buddy! You catch anything off that?”  I’m like eh not yet.  The guy goes “Man that bait is so big, is there fish in here that can eat that thing?”  All of a sudden my rod loads up; BOOM, right as I’m talking to him and it ends up snapping off.  I was so pissed that would have been so epic – talking to a dude about that then getting that solid fish and landing it.  But I lost my bait and the fish. 

11.1 that fell for the Hinkle Trout.

That still makes for a pretty good story.

Well I got it on a Go Pro.  It’s going to be one of those bloopers that I save.

Do you have a lot of footage?

I do.  We have a lot of footage.  I think one year we caught more than 10 double digits and 3 teeners all on film.

Are you going to release a video of some sort?

Umm I’m not sure.  Because the thing is like how we fish certain lakes… a lot of people throw the swimbait but they're not throwing it right. You know, it's like the angle, the time and stuff like that.  A lot of the time we will hit a certain area, at a certain angle, at a certain time and it always works.

When you first started throwing swimbaits what was your goal?

You know, I had always heard stories of 16 - 17 pounders.  Me and my brother, we caught big fish before but we never weighed them.  So that really got me interested in wanting to see how big these fish get and let’s see if we can land a couple of these big girls.  So we started doing more research on swimbaits and then the fish just kept on getting bigger and bigger and bigger and I'm like damn this actually pretty fun.

After a while you just want that one.  That one that could change your life.

I stuck one over 20 for sure.  For sure.  Positive.  100% guaranteed.  I caught her on accident too you know.  My brother and I were just dicking around.

I lost a couple of swimbaits already and I'm like and you know, what I’m gonna go ahead and tie on this old Huddleston.  I took a cast and wasn’t even paying attention.  I let it sit there for a long time and was just BSing with my brother.  I went to pick up my rod and I’m like damn, I’m stuck.  My brothers like “what are you stuck to?” I’m like I don’t know because my lines out here in front of the tulles. I asked him if he remembered a rock or a tree being there and he’s like “nah”. 

So I’m pulling on it and it’s not moving.  So I’m like WTF is going on.  Now I’m trying to get the lure off the tree or the rock or something like that popping it and popping it and I felt the head shake.  I’m like THAT’S A F#$%’ FISH!  So I set the hook and my line is coming up.  I’m like oh it must be a ten pounder or something like that.  Nope, this thing was over 20 for sure.  This fish didn’t jump or anything, it came in pretty smoothly. I got it right next to the boat.  This was like 2011 back when they still had the trout stocks.  You could have dropped a volleyball right in this thing’s mouth and it would have dropped right in.

My legs start buckling when my brother gets the net.  We had one of those small average green nets.  My brother’s trying to net her and she wouldn’t even fit in the net.  I’m thinking WTF are we going to do??  I told my brother “Lip her!  Lip her!”  My brother’s like “I’m not sticking my hand in there!”  At the time I had two trailer hooks, top and bottom.  She wasn’t moving or anything, she was just hovering right there so I decide to reach down myself.  Right when I reached down all she did was shake her head just once and my line snapped.  I’m like OH MY GOD.  All she did was submerge down slowly.  There goes my fish of a lifetime right there.

I'm still mad at my brother for that for not taking a hook.  That’s going to haunt me for the rest of my life.

When did you hear about Swimbait Underground?

I heard about SU 4 or 5 years ago maybe longer.  Maybe even when they first started.   I'm not sure actually.  People were talking about Swimbait Underground, cause down here swimbait fishing is a big thing.  Because you know people were rocking a couple other brands and of course Swimbait Underground.  I think Matt (Purcell) was the one who really got me interested in SU.  Because you know he’s one of my good buds.

How long have you been fishing tournaments for?

I started fishing tournaments in 2011.

How have swimbaits influenced your approach during tournaments?

This is how I view the tournaments.  Anybody can go on out there and catch a worm fish, a drop shot fish, a crankbait fish.  Stuff like that.  And you’re catching 3-4 maybe 5-6 pounders, but when the time is right and you’re looking for that big kicker- that swimbait really comes in handy.

Not everyone is confident in the swimbait because you can go out there for 10 trips and get skunked all 10 times. My thing is I know personally that the big girls like big baits so if I already have a limit, why not go for that kicker. 

A swimbait can be anything.  A big wake bait, a rat, a Huddleston. 

Do you have swimbaits on deck for every tournament or just select ones?

I’ve always got them in the rod locker.  If I feel like there has to be a big girl at a certain spot I’ll go ahead and take it out. 

I had one win at El Cajon Ford.  We already had 21/22 pounds, or maybe 23.  I was talking to my buddy and I was like you know we already have good weights; we may as well mess around and try to seal the deal.   We picked up our swimbait rods and were throwing around the soft baits.

I was just BSing with my old partner (Jimmy Nguyen) and all of a sudden an 11 pounder comes up and hammers my bait right on top of the water.  I knew there was a tree right where I casted so I reeled up kind of fast and the bait was near the surface.  All I saw was a big ole mouth come up, a flash, and I felt that thump.  Oh my god.  How lucky is that?

I know that big fish eat small baits too but there’s just something about getting that bite off of a big bait, you know.  It’s VERY rewarding…

How often do you see other anglers throwing swimbaits during tournaments?

Not often at all.  Especially right now, here in San Diego.  You’ll probably see one guy throw a swimbait in like ten tournaments.

Before, guys would throw a lot of the big swimbaits because of the trout stocks.  Now that places have stopped the trout stocks not many people are throwing them now. 

My buddies and I will throw swimbaits regardless of what everyone else is doing.  I think that a lot of tournament anglers are intimidated by swimbaits.

Sometimes it’s not even that the fish is hungry, it’s like they are curious.  All of a sudden this bait is trying to get away and they are like it’s right here anyway I’m just going to eat it.

How did swimbaits contribute to your big win at the WON Bass Clear Lake tournament?

The WON was a three day event.  The first day my big fish came off the swimbait.  The second day my big fish came off a swimbait as well.  Without the swimbaits I never would have got the bag that I did.

Picture from Day 2 of the WON Bass tournament.

What’s your favorite style swimbait to throw?

I like glide baits but I really like soft baits too.  It’s really hard to pick, they are both good styles.

When it’s real cold you have to throw the soft baits.  Once it starts getting warmer, that’s when all your glide baits comes in handy.

Do you have any advice for people throwing soft baits?

Well, I mean the thing is patience.  That’s the key of everything.  Not just swimbaits, fishing in general.  Some people can’t slow roll a swimbait.

I’ve had a lot of success where I’m fishing a swimbait like a jig.  A lot of my success came from slow rolling and not being too impatient.   Sometimes when a fish will bite your swimbait a lot of guys will set the hook real fast, and then just try to crank it.  I’ve had it where I’ve had a little tick but they’re barely just biting it and I know the fish hasn’t inhaled it yet.  I’ll try to keep the same speed until I really feel the rod load up.

Noy holding up a 11.5 lb soft bait eater.

Can you tell us a little more about the 100+ pound Blue Catfish that you caught?

It was like a weird day.  I was fishing the El Cajon Ford tournament.  I remember the whole damn thing.

My partner never showed up.  No-call no-show.  It kind of sucked because it was a partner tournament, you know?  Since my partner didn’t show up I had a disadvantage so I’m stressing out the whole day.

I already knew that there had been some big girls coming out during the winter.

I have a paddle tail ready and everything.   It’s a real tiny little swimbait, about four inches.  I was flipping rocks during the day and hear boom boom boom.  I’m wondering where that came from.  I waited and waited and didn’t see anything.  I hear another boom boom.  I didn’t even look, just picked up my rod and casted out behind me.  Two or three cranks and I hear the line start screaming and I thought I was on a big bass.

It took me 40 – 45 minutes to bring in.  Cause the thing was, she dove.  She dove.  Where I was fishing at the time was 60 – 80 feet.  I still thought that I had a bass on for a while until I figured out that it was a catfish.  I thought that I had 8lb line on because I have two identical setups: one with 8lb test and the other with 4lb.  Turns out I was using the one with 4lb. 

So I’m over here trying to manhandle this fish and then all of a sudden it just won’t move.  I start thinking that I’m going to cut the line but one of the guys I was fishing against, my buddy was like “Hey Noy, don’t cut the line man.  It might be the lake record!” 

When she surfaced I knew it had to be over 100.  The scale was fluctuating a lot so I just had the ranger give me the lowest weight (102.9 lbs) because I didn’t want to kill the fish.

Thank you again Noy for doing the interview.  Congratulations on the big win and best of luck with your future tournaments!

View full record

[CaliBassin]

Awesome writeup! Sounds like a great guy and definitely catches some big fish.  Is it just me or does it seem like he loses an awful lot of swimbaits? Lol

Edited May 7, 2019 by CaliBassin

[mjh1986]

Congrats again Noy!!! Well deserved! Great write up.

[surfk9]

Interesting read.....reinforces the "age old adage " slowdown concerning soft baits....i own plenty just don't employ them enough on a regular basis....believe i'm still connected to tossing hard baits as "crank baits" (although it WORKS for me)...gonna have to make serious attempt with soft baits after this interview...Thanks SU...michel...Go Fish!!!

[stkbass]

Awesome read. Kept me interested the whole time with all the stories..legit!