Big Hands

There were a couple of old plastics hanging from it. Describe it to me and I'll grab it for you ;~) Your eyes have not deceived you.

Yup. With areas like this scattered about. Even with the lake down close to 150 feet, it's still around 25 feet deep about a boat length away from this wall. I left this one pretty big so you can see more detail if you click on it.

How low can it go? About this low. . . . Interestingly though, you can see water flowing into the lake .

Two of them and the most recent was almost two years ago. Yea, it's pretty silly to think a trout would make it down to the Santa Clara river bed, but silliness generally carries the day here. Still, how much trouble would it be to string a net across there?

They still don't stock the lagoon and can't until they have a barrier in place that will stop them from escaping over the spillway at the south end of the lagoon. It's my understanding that this is the reason it doesn't get stocked according to the lake managers. They do still stock the upper from late fall until early spring. A 15 lb striper was caught in the lagoon in January 2020. There is a video of it on YT. I have also heard about an 18 lb striper that was caught there previous to that.

Yep, the one we tangled with was pretty small, about the size of a mouse with wings and they look even more hideous than I expected up close. I finally left a dim light on so I could see that it was a bat ticking my line and not a bass biting the worm. There were hundreds, if not thousands out that night. Like moths or gnats. They took until about 11 pm before they went away. We woke up to one flying inside of our house in early 2020. No idea how it got in. When they fly, they really do look pretty goofy on their own just like in the old movies where they jerk them up and down on a string. Not super graceful in tight quarters.

I was night fishing a few weeks ago and the bats were thicker than I have ever seen them. They were continually running into my line and it was hard to tell if I was getting bitten or batted ;~) Sure enough, one got tangled up in my braid. Luckily I had a couple of fish handling gloves stashed aboard and my son held the bat in a gloved hand and I did my best to cut the braid off of it. There was one tiny strand I couldn't get untangled from it. Gruesome looking creatures up close.

For all I know, the Helicopter lure is the greatest lure ever. I refused to buy one just because of the "as seen on tv" way they were marketed ?

I did hear from someone that returned from Clear Lake a few days ago that his trip was not particularly fruitful, but it is Clear Lake. I know there are not even a lot of places to launch there right now too. But there's a good chance that the guides up there have a pretty good idea of what to do. And it is Clear Lake. Sounds like he might be referring to Castaic Lake for one of the two lakes. Casitas could be the other. Castaic (as far as I know) still holds the official state record with a 22 lb bass that was taken from here (I live in Castaic) a few decades ago. As Tom mentioned, Castaic is not pumping out monsters like it did back in the day, and it is about 150' low. That means Tom could show you the currently dry land that produced many of his behemoths when there was water on them, LOL. Still, the fishing by local standards, has been very good to excellent for the past five months. I have actually been enjoying the fishing and checking out all the topography that rarely get exposed like it is currently. If he just wants to check it out and fish at Castaic with an actual guide, then Tom's suggestion of Rich Tauber is an excellent choice. I don't think I know of any other guides I would give a higher recommendation to, but there are some others that provide a good experience too. If he wants the best chance for a DD bass near LA (or even a 7 pounder), I would probably have to recommend the Castaic Forebay (lagoon) just below the dam of the main lake. The pic is from a few weeks ago when we were waiting in line to go night fishing. This other pic is of a seven pounder that I weighed for this angler in a lagoon float tube derby this past Saturday. It was only good enough for 2nd big fish. The biggest weighed in at 10.33.

No sir. I don't usually bring my rods to TX because my buddy has a ton of rods for me to use, and I don't want to let the orcs that work baggage at the airports do what they do. But the rods I used with 6 lb mono were all rated as MH with line ratings at 10-17, 10-20 & 10-25. I know that because I still have them and I went and looked at them to be sure. The 6 lb mono has so much stretch that I could get away with a heavier rod. Old school Bionix, Lightning Rods, and a Shimano Jimmy Houston that was my favorite. Action is probably a little slower than today's fast action rods, but not moderate. The rods I use in TX are usually 6.5' to 7' MH or H with 17-20 lb mono. That seems to be the norm for just about everything. Most of the water I have fished in TX, you can't give the fish much room to play around or you're going to be battling a fish and a tree ;~)

I caught a 1-1/4 lb bass on an original AC Plug BITD. The fish wasn't much bigger than the plug. Other than that though, the smallest we ever caught with them was at least five pounds. In my experience, 4 to 6 lb mono has quite a bit of stretch, but I have also put multiple bruises on my stomach setting the hook with 20 lb mono when I fished out in your neck of the woods.

The golf course pond and park lake that were the only really close fishing spots are right across the street from each other. . . . and right next to the high school. . . and plainly visible from the street that goes across the front of the high school. . . . and over the fence of the athletic field. And, I didn't have a car until right before graduation, so I walked to school, so I'm pretty sure everyone could plainly figure out what I was up to. LOL. Other than that, it would have been a brilliant plan ;~)

Ugly Stik rods get a lot of bad raps, many of them deservedly so, because they have long been made so their best feature was that they could stand up to a lot of abuse. But they have apparently stepped up their game with a 'carbon' rod the goes for $80. I guess they are good enough that Matt Robertson (Bassmaster Elite angler) qualified for the Classic fishing Ugly Stiks this year. Finished 38th in AOY standings, which is better than a whole lot of other Elites fishing with much more expensive gear. Still doesn't make me want to fish with a Ugly Stik ;~P, but I could if I had to. Good, bad, right, wrong, or whatever, he is obviously a much better angler than I am. But as a young man from humble beginnings that's chasing his dream, he does what he has to do. None of this means that anyone should be looked down on for having the means and desire to acquire and use nice gear. It's not like you have to get approval or qualify to use fancy fishing gear, and I will be the first to say that nice gear is fun to use and can make fishing better in at least some circumstances. I also know there are folks that can kick my butt with 10 year old monofilament wrapped around a coke can. This is just a hobby we can all enjoy in our own way. For the OP: If you don't really have much in the way of financial constraints, then knock yourself out, grab a knowledgeable friend and head to what you believe to be a reputable tackle shop and let them kit you up. Your shot in the dark might hit a bullseye, or not, but you'll figure it out as you go. For those with financial constraints, this pursuit is much like any other. The entry level gear will get you into the game, but generally has some shortcomings if you find yourself in it for the long haul. Entry level has a place for those not sure if they're into it, or just want to dabble occasionally without without spending much. Mid priced gear is generally going to give the best bang for the buck. Relatively modest increases in price can be much nicer to use compared to entry level gear and more durable. High end gear can be nice to use, superior even when optimized by using it to it's potential, but sometimes it can also be fragile. Boutique gear can just be fancy or sometimes fancy and performs well.

I would say that better equipment (in this case, a $400 to $600 rod) probably does make us a better version of the fisherman we are, but it really doesn't make us much more capable than the fisherman we are with a $150 rod.

I took several years off from fishing Castaic, and to me after fishing it pretty regularly the past year or so, it's a different lake. I don't remember there being a large presence of any baitfish other than shad, and now we have the minnows there in pretty big numbers. But the biggest thing for Castaic is that the stripers finally made their way in from Pyramid and it's a different ecosystem. Still, there used to be several lakes in SoCal that would produce numbers of very large bass every year. Casitas, Isabella, Hodges, Sutherland, Dixon, Vail, Poway, San Vicente, Otay, and Wohlford among others. And those lakes don't have stripers, so I don't know exactly what is going on there.

Sounds to me like there are some things about this person (at least some of which are fishing related) that appear to chafe your undercarriage a bit. And you implore us to "don't be this person". I think we can all agree that being a serial flake is never cool. But I also took the post to mean that you were criticizing his approach to fishing as well and I took Tom's post to be addressing that part.

TL/DR: More data (information) is needed to give a well reasoned response to that question. ============================= Millions of bass (that are bigger than 3 lbs) have been landed on rods shorter than 6'4". I have landed many myself up to over 10 lbs. With that said, I don't currently use any rods that are less than 6' 10" and generally prefer rods that are 7' to 7'7". The thing is, that there are so many different variables that could make a shorter rod useful for some anglers, that I can't simply dismiss shorter based only on their length. Canoe/kayak fishing could certainly be one of those uses where a shorter rod could be useful. Longer rods could be problematic in some situations. Chances are that someone before you has figured a decent way to deal with many, if not most of the constraints you are facing. If you can articulate those constraints, you'll likely get some good feedback on how others have successfully dealt with them. In this case, details matter. Without them, the accuracy of the responses you get will likely not be all that useful.

I was thinking that could possibly be the case and it could be, but there's not a lot of rip rap in BB that I know of (some, but not much) and though the dam has deep water, I don't know of any rip rap near there and the dam isn't that type. The other one I considered more than others would be Isabella. There are not a lot of other lakes in the area that would be somewhere you would stay for three days. But rather than speculate, I am going to see if he chooses to be more specific so those that are actually familiar with that actual body of water can chime in. =============================== I will tell you to be prepared for things you wouldn't expect along with things you do expect. I see you're from the same locality as I am, and I have fished many, if not most of the lakes here in SoCal at various times of the year. I caught my PB on a crankbait the week before Christmas. There's rules, and there's rule breakers. If I am going somewhere to fish for three days, I want to have at least a few things with me that might not be the first thing I think of when bass fishing in December.

So, I was acting as a 'weighmaster' for a local float tube derby at the local 'lagoon', which is essentially a larger than average park lake that sits at the base of the dam of the 'real lake'. There were three kayakers and myself designated to roam the 180 acre lagoon and weigh in the fish that the float tubers caught so they could be immediately released, and then we would use a radio to relay the catch info to the folks running the tournament. In between weighing in fish, we were also able to wet a line until the next fish needed to be weighed in. Tale #1: I hadn't fished the lagoon for a while and it took a good two hours before I finally got bit. It took a few more bites before I finally got this one fish to commit. Nothing remarkable about landing the fish as I swung it over the side. I grab the leader and raise the fish up between my legs and just as I go to stick my oversize thumb in it's mouth, it attacked me in a futile attempt to free itself. In doing so, the point of the hook impaled my fancy new AFTCO shorts past the barb. Some of you are old enough to remember when Levis 501's had a copper rivet placed right where all the panels come together. Yea, the hook went through my shorts about 1/4" to the right of where that rivet would be. The 1.5 lb bass is now pinned (past the barb) to my crotch, and it was not responding well to my feeble attempts to see if I could back the hook out in the opposite direction that it went in. The first thought I had was to be thankful that I didn't have Go-Pro's on my boat (I never do) recording the incident. Then I have to figure out how I can get to my side cutting pliers in my tackle satchel which sits on the floor of my jon boat and I am sitting on a chair on the casting deck with an unhappy bass pinned to my . . . . 'area'. I fumble around for the side cutters and cut the hook shank up near the eye and slide my attacker off the hook and release it so the mutual combatants can be separated. Then I cut the hook again up close to where it was sticking into my shorts. I then had to sort of . . . . 'drop trou' to be able to pull the barbed portion of the hook out of my shorts while keep damage to a minimum. Then I was once again thankful that I don't record myself as I would have had to smash and drown an SD card. Tale #2: There were only 14 tubers entered, but they did bring in some nice catches including one that I weighed that went 7.03 lbs. Unfortunately for that angler, that was only good enough for 2nd place in the big fish competition. The winning big fish went 10.33 lbs, but what made the catch a bit unusual was that in reality, it was a roughly 9 lb bass with what looked to be a roughly 1.33 lb bass peeking out from the she-cannibal's stomach. That bruiser was a victim of her own gluttony that just had to top off her feast with a 4.5" plastic worm for desert. This has been "Tales from the Trench", where truth is infinitely more interesting (to me anyway) than fiction.

I'd bet they have considered it, and would do it if they thought they could.

It's 9:45 pm. Headed out to the garage to do some re-rigging right now ;~)

It can change every time I fish, which is usually at least once a week. . . . One day, it will be a weightless wacky 5" #297 Senko Another day, it will be a 4.5" straight tail Roboworm on a dropshot Another day it will be a 4.5" curly tail Roboworm in Hologram Shad Another day (at night) it will be a texas rig 7" black curly tail power worm Another day, it will be a wacky rig 4.8" Jackall Flick Shake in Pumpkin Pepper Another day it will be a carolina rig with a 3.8" Keitech Sexy Impact in Electric Shad Another day, it will be a wacky rig 4.8" Jackall Flick Shake in Cola Another day, it will be a weightless wacky 5" #956 Senko Another day (at night) it will be a texas rig 10" Zoom Ol' Monster in June Bug Another day it will be a carolina rig with a 4" Keitech Swing Impact in Electric Shad Yup, it could be a different type of soft plastic every time I go. . . .