Doug,
I just went on our sister site CAFishfinder.com and the last "Bass Forum" post was from 2008. You are going to have to show those guys and gals out there on the west coast how to be proud and show off them biggun pics like we do here on the east coast! Nothing but recipes and salmon talk for the most part.
There are a lot of factors that go into making online communities successful. I suspect that there are other sites that gained traction in CA before CA Fishfinder. We just happen to have a lot of effed-up personalities on our site that make it entertaining.