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Castiac Lake hot for winter bass
By STEVE MERLO, Bakersfield Californian, e-mail: merloworms@earthlink.net
January 17, 2003
Castaic Lake, once the gem of bass anglers worldwide, has suddenly started booting out an incredible number of quality fish in the 2-to-5 pound range.
The largemouth are hitting worms and jigs in a wide variety of locations that are not too deep.
My lovely wife Candy and I fished the lake a week ago and found the bass eager to cooperate. While our best five of the 12 we caught weighed a shade under 14 pounds for ninth place, the tournament winners had 18 pounds, with second a few hundredths behind them. Nearly every entrant managed to catch a limit and most of their weights sagged the tourney scales to between 10 and 13 pounds.
Some anglers, including our team, reported catching their fish in 9-to-15 feet of water, but others had decent success in much deeper haunts. One team caught their fish over 50 feet deep, but the vast majority were much shallower. All of our fish but one were caught shallow and that fish came late in the day at about 37 feet. It weighed 3.30 pounds and wasn't even close in the big fish pot that paid five places.
Split-shotting, drop-shotting and jigs seemed to be the mainstay, with spoons accounting for the deeper fish. An occasional big striped bass to over 20-pounds is also spiking the action, with most of the line-siders taking trout imitations near the launch ramp.
Isabella Lake OK for small trout
Two days ago, Candy and I decided to leave the bleak fogginess of the San Joaquin Valley and venture up to the Kern River Valley for a little trout fishing. Local reports suggested quite a few nice fish were being caught in the river, with some of them weighing in the 3-to-5 pound category.
Leaving Bakersfield under terrible driving conditions, we were soon blessed with bright and sunny conditions even before we hit the mouth of the canyon. We were hoping to get a jump on the same type of angling we enjoyed early last spring on the lower river.
During that memorable period, we caught a ton of big holdover rainbows to almost 7 pounds, but our expectations were quickly dashed by the off-colored flow from the dam. We opted to drive up to fish above the lake.
Greeted by chilly 33-degree air temperatures, our luck at Kernville Park and later at the cemetery proved as frustrating as it was cold. Even with the river running clear as a bell and conditions appearing to be perfect, neither of us managed a single bite in the icy waters.
Fortunately, we ran into a local fisherman who directed us to try our luck in the lake, rather than the river. Rearmed with another report of some huge 5-pound rainbows being caught, the two of us drove around to Paradise Cove and joined the bait-dunking crowd already there.
Now I won't say we set the world on fire, because we didn't, but after a couple of hours we did manage to catch nine little rainbows while missing several more. They weren't 5-pound fish, either, with the largest maybe hitting 10 inches, but they were fun.
The local anglers, daily regulars to the lake, one might say, advised us that the big-trout bite had died recently. None of them stayed longer than an hour and we never saw another fish taken other than the small ones we managed to catch. We left a bit disappointed, but we'll be back a little later in the spring, around derby time, when the lake has been replanted.
Kern Refuge good for waterfowl
Armed with a Kern Refuge reservation card, Dale McDonald and I took advantage of the draw and spent a few hours hunting ducks Tuesday morning. Shooting in Unit 2 over decoys and being as picky as we could, we managed to take our 10 birds by about 11 a.m.
The thick fog blanketing the area kept us at bay for the first few hours. When it finally lifted, we took a mixed bag of puddlers and a redhead. All of the birds decoyed nicely and were taken without losing a duck.
TBWA reminder
The seventh annual Tulare Basin Wetlands Association dinner and banquet is only a little over a week away. Tickets are going fast and last year's fete was a complete sellout.
Held each year on the last Friday of waterfowl season, proceeds from the fund-raiser help to buy, maintain and enhance critical waterfowl habitat in the southern San Joaquin Valley.
This year's event will again be at the Wasco Elks Club, between Shafter and Wasco on Highway 43. A barbecued steak dinner will be served, with both live and silent auctions of guns, wildlife art and other outdoor gear highlighting the evening, along with a huge raffle.
Contact Joe Cavello (661) 663-0802, Daryl Franks (661) 978-4050 or Bill Caughlin (661) 663-0802 for more info.
Spotted Bass highlight angling
Good numbers of Spotted Bass (not to be confused with the lake's famed White Bass) are biting at the popular impoundment located northwest of Paso Robles. The reservoir is chock full of the hard-fighting fish and anglers are reporting some 50-fish days.
Although the majority is small and running only 12-to-14 inches, the spunky bass are a ball to catch. Many fishermen are fooled by the toughness and tenacity of the spotted bass during a fight, only to be disappointed when a 12-incher comes to net.
A smattering of white bass are also showing, but most are still deep and unavailable until the first week of April when they spawn. Some crappie are hitting, but smart anglers are focusing on the spots.
By STEVE MERLO, Bakersfield Californian, e-mail: merloworms@earthlink.net
January 17, 2003
Castaic Lake, once the gem of bass anglers worldwide, has suddenly started booting out an incredible number of quality fish in the 2-to-5 pound range.
The largemouth are hitting worms and jigs in a wide variety of locations that are not too deep.
My lovely wife Candy and I fished the lake a week ago and found the bass eager to cooperate. While our best five of the 12 we caught weighed a shade under 14 pounds for ninth place, the tournament winners had 18 pounds, with second a few hundredths behind them. Nearly every entrant managed to catch a limit and most of their weights sagged the tourney scales to between 10 and 13 pounds.
Some anglers, including our team, reported catching their fish in 9-to-15 feet of water, but others had decent success in much deeper haunts. One team caught their fish over 50 feet deep, but the vast majority were much shallower. All of our fish but one were caught shallow and that fish came late in the day at about 37 feet. It weighed 3.30 pounds and wasn't even close in the big fish pot that paid five places.
Split-shotting, drop-shotting and jigs seemed to be the mainstay, with spoons accounting for the deeper fish. An occasional big striped bass to over 20-pounds is also spiking the action, with most of the line-siders taking trout imitations near the launch ramp.
Isabella Lake OK for small trout
Two days ago, Candy and I decided to leave the bleak fogginess of the San Joaquin Valley and venture up to the Kern River Valley for a little trout fishing. Local reports suggested quite a few nice fish were being caught in the river, with some of them weighing in the 3-to-5 pound category.
Leaving Bakersfield under terrible driving conditions, we were soon blessed with bright and sunny conditions even before we hit the mouth of the canyon. We were hoping to get a jump on the same type of angling we enjoyed early last spring on the lower river.
During that memorable period, we caught a ton of big holdover rainbows to almost 7 pounds, but our expectations were quickly dashed by the off-colored flow from the dam. We opted to drive up to fish above the lake.
Greeted by chilly 33-degree air temperatures, our luck at Kernville Park and later at the cemetery proved as frustrating as it was cold. Even with the river running clear as a bell and conditions appearing to be perfect, neither of us managed a single bite in the icy waters.
Fortunately, we ran into a local fisherman who directed us to try our luck in the lake, rather than the river. Rearmed with another report of some huge 5-pound rainbows being caught, the two of us drove around to Paradise Cove and joined the bait-dunking crowd already there.
Now I won't say we set the world on fire, because we didn't, but after a couple of hours we did manage to catch nine little rainbows while missing several more. They weren't 5-pound fish, either, with the largest maybe hitting 10 inches, but they were fun.
The local anglers, daily regulars to the lake, one might say, advised us that the big-trout bite had died recently. None of them stayed longer than an hour and we never saw another fish taken other than the small ones we managed to catch. We left a bit disappointed, but we'll be back a little later in the spring, around derby time, when the lake has been replanted.
Kern Refuge good for waterfowl
Armed with a Kern Refuge reservation card, Dale McDonald and I took advantage of the draw and spent a few hours hunting ducks Tuesday morning. Shooting in Unit 2 over decoys and being as picky as we could, we managed to take our 10 birds by about 11 a.m.
The thick fog blanketing the area kept us at bay for the first few hours. When it finally lifted, we took a mixed bag of puddlers and a redhead. All of the birds decoyed nicely and were taken without losing a duck.
TBWA reminder
The seventh annual Tulare Basin Wetlands Association dinner and banquet is only a little over a week away. Tickets are going fast and last year's fete was a complete sellout.
Held each year on the last Friday of waterfowl season, proceeds from the fund-raiser help to buy, maintain and enhance critical waterfowl habitat in the southern San Joaquin Valley.
This year's event will again be at the Wasco Elks Club, between Shafter and Wasco on Highway 43. A barbecued steak dinner will be served, with both live and silent auctions of guns, wildlife art and other outdoor gear highlighting the evening, along with a huge raffle.
Contact Joe Cavello (661) 663-0802, Daryl Franks (661) 978-4050 or Bill Caughlin (661) 663-0802 for more info.
Spotted Bass highlight angling
Good numbers of Spotted Bass (not to be confused with the lake's famed White Bass) are biting at the popular impoundment located northwest of Paso Robles. The reservoir is chock full of the hard-fighting fish and anglers are reporting some 50-fish days.
Although the majority is small and running only 12-to-14 inches, the spunky bass are a ball to catch. Many fishermen are fooled by the toughness and tenacity of the spotted bass during a fight, only to be disappointed when a 12-incher comes to net.
A smattering of white bass are also showing, but most are still deep and unavailable until the first week of April when they spawn. Some crappie are hitting, but smart anglers are focusing on the spots.
