Slade House

I was the one who started the previous thread. Update on my fish. I recently moved them from a their 55 gallon tank to a nice 125 gallon tank (with stand i got for $100 on craigslist, nice) . I added a heater , bigger air pump as well. My crawfish didn't survive, so i got me a cool new blue one. I caught them when they were 4 inches long in april by using a bare weightless tiny gold snell hook (without anything on it*IMPORTANT) and i would dance it on the surface until a baby would bite. put them in my livewell and drove them home. If you decide to do this know that if you bring home 5 baby bass, 2 will survive the first month. if you bring home 15 , then maybe 3 or 4 will. here was them in their old tank here is them feeding about 2 weeks ago. ALSO YOU CAN ORDER LIVE BABY BASS from carolina biological supply on their website. they also sell blue catfish and bluegill i think. http://www.carolina.com/game-fish/largemouth-bass-living-pack-of-3/145400.pr?catId=10507&mCat=10476&sCat=10477&ssCat=10504&question=

Lakes are deep out here, and usually clear. bring your spoons if youre going to be on a boat. if you're near santa ana, check out Laguna Niguel Lake, i'd go there over irvine lake. boat rentals are cheap there too, and they're planting trout on regular basis. remember that unlike back east chartreuse doesn't work out in california. crankbaits colors should be translucent and if i were you, i'd have a drop shot rod (no more than 10 inches between weight and hook), a Texas rig/ shakey head (tungsten is good to have), and a swimbait rod / jerkbait /spoon rod. also , you need to use 12lb or less flurocarbon on your casting reels and a 8lb or less flurocarbon leader on your dropshot spinning rod with an alberto knot. as for colors for soft plastics. green pumpkins, watermelons, black and blues. also senkos are huge out here (though i refuse to use them).

NO

I heard this guy one time yelling "get in the boat!!" "im telling you you better get in this d**n boat now!!" and i was like man that guy is really getting angry at that fish. So i see him later and i go "man , you were really yelling at that fish to get in your boat, why?" and he goes "no, i was yelling at my stupid dog who was running around on shore and wouldn't get back in the boat."

I have to agree with Tom on this one, Casitas is like the Augusta golf course. I fished all over VA (Potomac, Lake Anna, ocququan, and all the private ponds in between) for 12-15 years , slayed it. Fished all over florida, Alabama , etc. No problem. I bought a bass boat , started fishing at Casitas cause i live near it, and I went 38 days before i caught my first fish. I had to throw out most of my east coast tackle cause it just don't work there. I thought I was a good bass fisherman , until i came to Casitas. When it comes to fishing Casitas , there isn't a TV show , website, or youtube video that can give you the advice you need. That's the allure. My friend caught a 12-1 in July, and had days in august he caught 8 or more, but he got blanked the whole month of september, and into October cause he couldn't figure out the pattern. thats casitas for you .

http://www.outdoornewsservice.com/#!DFW-trout-stocking-to-resume-soon-at-three-major-SoCal-waters/c18sh/D8737306-7375-425E-ADFC-2D27C22B3F2A " Trout plants from the Department of Fish and Wildlife will resume soon on at least three major waters in Southern California -- Lake Skinner, Lake Casitas, and the Castaic Lagoon (afterbay) -- and the agency is working on environmental documentation that will also allow the state to again plant Cachuma Lake and Lake Piru at some time in the future. But “soon” is a relative term, and those plants could resume as “soon” as the end of the year or as “soon” as late next year for Skinner, Casitas, and the Castaic Lagoon. For Cachuma and Piru, the resumption of stocking may still be a year or more away." speaking of world record bass, looks like Casitas , Castaic Lagoon, and Skinner will finally have trout plants resuming sometime soon. Its been a few years since trout was planted at any of these locations. 2 of these places have produced 20lb+ bass before . WIth Casitas requiring anyone wanting to launch a boat to wait 35 days after passing mussel inspection to do so, the light fishing pressure there is kind of a gurantee. wooohooo!

just use an alberto knot and tie on a 10 to 12 foot leader of flurocarbon at the end.

"BasswesternUSA" on ? network because they actually give you the exact bait they;re using each time they catch a fish; and unlike all the other shows it actually applies to where i fish. then "facts of fishing" with dave mercer cause he is hilarious and they show all the bad things that happen when fishing too.

When casitas resumes trout stocking, i'd say Casitas. Its because it is 15 miles from the ocean , and the water never gets colder than 56 degrees or hotter than 82 degrees the entire year. i would count out any lake (castaic, etc) where Stripers have been stocked. stripers just mess up the big bass situation. The record for Casitas weighed 21.19 pounds, Tom has can attest to the 15lb+ fish caught at casitas.

threadfin shad in most so cal lakes but for diamond valley here are smelt (Silks says three species) and there are shrimp, sculpin, crayfish, small bluegill and other young of the year

I totally agree with tom on this one. Lake casitas is just like Augusta golf course. There is very light fishing pressure on the lake too (35 day mussel quarentene after passing inspection ensurees that) When i first started fishing lake casitas a year ago, i went 37 days before i caught my first fish on my boat. The place can crush your soul. but it forces you to become an amazing fisherman. You have to be on top of the bite. Pay attention to solar lunar, pressure, wind etc. I know guys who fish there for years get skunked for weeks at a time because they haven't adapted to what the bass are feeding on, and at what depth. which changes every few days or so. The smallest variable can mean catching a 22 lb bag or getting skunked. The reward though is tremendous , because most fish aren't smaller than 3 lbs, and a 22lb bag of fish in a tournament is good for 5th place.

cool megabass colors from ebay i just bought. also i got a seeker bushido casting rod for $75 today (50% off ) .

Don't believe the hype. all im saying , tried them, haven't caught diddly on them (but i fish in california ) , for the money you;re better off buying something else like Duo's new sick crankbait

and to answer the question. at my lake i caught four fish under 3lbs the entire summer and fall with about 145 days on the water. my average fish is 3.2lbs exactly. the last 4 fish i caught were 7.2, 5-2 (both from that boat launching dock) and , 3-8, 3-6 (all on 8lb flurocarbon). Now i'm not catching more than 5 fish a day, many times i only catch 1 , but when i do its always always over 3 lbs. I watched a kid catch a 4-6, a 6-11 and a 3-5 one afternoon a month ago from the shore. that's what lake casitas is known for. When i lived back east and fished the potomac river and ponds in northern virginia , my everage was 1.2 lbs. Now if you don't have a reliable scale , then you shouldn't be saying anything about how much your fish weighs.

I think we beat this topic to death every 2 weeks , search for the previous 900 conversations about this.

If i could afford to I'd live on Lake Sherwood , but i can't afford to do that yet. so i'd live on westlake village , and fish Lake castias. Ive fished Castaic, Pyramid , Diamond Valley, and none of them compare to lake casitas for the ability to consisently produce fish I catch 5-8lbs , period. its because its so close to the ocean and its underwater topography and its pristine wilderness area. all other lakes are like mcdonalds to me. so iu'd live in Oak View right near lake casitas

Trolling with crankbaits = guys who camp all day with sniper rifles in call of duty.

I was where you were a few months ago. yes it will be good for you to use especially during spawn and espcially on calm and flat days. its all about precision and stealth. WATCH THIS VIDEO AND WATCH WHAT HE DOES WITH HIS WRIST , skip to the 430 mark for him to demonstrate pitching. BEST VIDEO EVER http://youtu.be/Ebt_4Vq4hAA. Get yourself a dedicated pitching rod, at least 7ft 4 if i were you. (im 6ft and use an 8footer)

Hey if you take me fisihing with you on westlake, il take you on my boat on castias.

Shhhh......

1. Missle bait Baby D-bomb green pumpkin red , 8-7, 7-12, 7-2, 6-12, 6-10, 6-10, 6-7, 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 (and green pumkin purple, superbug) also in just d-bomb color too. 3. roboworm hologram shad 6 inch and missle bait fuse 4.4 The worst . Live target anything , 2 frogs crooked out of the box, 3 of their crankbaits broke in the same day.

Nope sorry buzzbaits haven't been workingFor diddly since July or maybe August. No grass no buzzbait. The shad were still spawning last week . I've been going 5 days a Week until this Monday. A lot of my peoples have been claiming jigs in 30-50 feet of water. Also this time of year good to throw big 7 inch roboworms Texas rigged. But the 7.23 lb I caught last Friday and the 6lb I caught on Wednesday I caught in 8 feet of water on shallow flats using a crankbait. So to answer your question. Jerk baits , crank baits , Alabama rigs , deep jigs, split shot , and crankbaits around clouds of shad have been the only things working for me. Throw an Alabama rig with at least 4 blades and a Tennessee shad colored crankbait or jerkbaits , needs to be translucent . Hope that helps

I never said that hyrdowave gives me the ability to catch fish. They're not miracles , their tools to use. that is all. you use each tool to increase the odds of catching a fish. like when i use sidescan sonar and I see a cloud of bait 40 feet off to my right , but i don't see any bass actively feeding on the large cloud of shad and i haven't caught anything yet. so i turn on the hyrdowave and set it to "Shad Frenzy" which is literalluy the undewater sound of bass feeding on a large school of shad. then i start to see bass busting the surface (that is because when bass are feeding around other bass the other bass start to want to feed too , or "firing up a school" ) then i throw out my crankbait and land a 7lber. That happened to me on friday.

oh and i love me a roboworm 4/0 or 5/0 worm hook, but i hate trokar flipping or finesse worm hooks. they tear the crap out of baits, and also ive lost way to many fish because of the big hole the sharp hook puts in the fish and the little barb that doesn't hold the fish

i tend to use 3/8 and or 5/16 green pumpkin tungsten weights because i like to pitch texas rigs .