Mike Stembridge along with father Bill Stembridge have recently thrilled salt water bass anglers with their baits.

PEARL...WHAT UP?

..........For the better part of the last two years, the word “pearl” has been finding its way into the conversational lime-light of several So-Cal. angling tribes... what up? We thought we would take a closer look at Pearl to see what's behind all the hoopla.

HISTORY


....Spend a little time with father and son team Bill and Mike Stembridge and you will quickly learn that both of these guys got hooked on the glass pipe of fishing way early on, albeit at different times and in different bodies of water, but equal in the passion and enthusiasm departments. Bill (Dad) was born and raised in Redondo Beach, where he was introduced to fishing by his father and grandfather. By the age of six, he was marching down the hill armed with the Ocean City solid glass white rod and matching conventional reel spooled with 25lb rope he had received for Christmas. At the pier he would catch the $3.00 AM ride on the Voyager out to the Sacramento and/or California barge.

   
....Bonita to 10 lb. were the big deal back then, with lots of 12 lb. barracuda thrown in the mix. Occasionally, a big school of monster yellowtail would roll in and wipe everybody on the barge out. Anchovies were the staple method, with tuna feathers being the favorite artificial option of choice. As fishing life rolled on, the Ocean City rig was replaced with a Stembridge customized trout rod - extended handle - for fishing light-line. Barge-days turned to half-day trips, which turned to full-day trips. Sometimes, he would go with Gramps or Pops and sometimes, on his own.

....Somewhere around 13 life took a turn, and the Stembridge family moved to Los Alamitos. Fishing was still within a bike rides reach for Bill, but gradually the rod and reel would be replaced by another passion - the surfboard- completely understandable considering the schools of yellow haired, bikini clad groupies who came along with that program back then, heck, and still do.

....In his usual form, Bill dove into surfing head first, and before long not only was he surfing his own custom boards, but he was shaping custom boards for the likes of Dewey Weber and Hap Jacobs – definite legends! Come to find out, both Dewey and Hap were avid fisherman, so before long Bill was back on the fishing program going long range for tuna and marlin, all the while shaping boards and catching waves in between.

....Somewhere along the way, the stork paid the Stembridge house a visit, and son Mike showed up. Bill went to work running the tackle shop down at the Queensway Sportfishing landing, and family life in Los Alamitos casually rolled onward.

....It was his work at the landing that first got Bill's desire to produce a high quality bait fired up. Several ideas would come and go, but nothing really stuck, but he kept thinking. All the while son Mike was growing up fast. A star 1 st baseman in high school, Mike, like dad, had caught the fishing bug early-on and would spend what little free time he had between school and baseball practice exploring the small local lakes in the area for fat large mouth bass, of which he has managed to catch 3 over the 10 lbs - all on 3 lb test line! And guess what... he caught them with a customized trout rod. Mike tells a great story about the first 10 pounder; he brought it home in a bucket to prove to everyone that he had caught it, only to race back to the lake with dad to release it, very much alive he adds.

....Through college - on a baseball scholarship - Mike continued to work the lakes and eventually lured Bill out into the freshwater. It only took one cast and a single strike on a Chug-bug topwater lure to firmly hook Bill on the freshwater scene.

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