leeroythecat

Went to Del Valle today and got skunked on LMB. I did see that Del Valle is more of a Striper lake and I've never really fished for stripers since the majority of methods seem to involve trolling? I don't have a boat so that's a bit difficult for me. What are some of the beginner setups I need to start Striper fishing in the Bay Area lakes like Del Valle/Los Vaqueros? Want to start since these lakes are predominantly Striper.

Hi! I'm looking to go fishing this Friday. Saw boats don't take reservation and are all first come first serve. I'm looking at the 3 lakes below: Del Valle Lake Chabot San Pablo Reservoir Which one of these would be the least crowded and would be able to get a boat at? How early do I have to show up to get a boat usually?

Sounds good. What are the good areas to fish near Austin? Anything on the way from CA -> Austin?

I'm planning to go from SoCal (Los Angeles) to Austin as a trip (driving) starting early December. Will be in Austin for 3 weeks before coming back to SoCal. What are some lakes/ponds I should definitely try to fish? What kind of gear should I be bringing on this trip? This isn't purely a fishing trip as probably will bring 1 rod maximum. What tackle? I'd love to try fishing for bass/bluegill. I do have an ultralight with a vanford 1000 or a medium/light with a 2000 Daiwa BG.

@Hammer 4 I've found that as the sun rises, I'm not even able to find the fish anymore. What's your best methodology for finding the fish within a lake like that?

Yeah I heard it's rough. It's just a tough skunk sometimes when there's so much anticipation and you gotta wake up super early to head out.

Interesting. My Senko worms looked a bit twisted and not as straight as yours...I have trouble putting on the top part on the top of the hook. It won't go past the 90 degree angle of the hook...

Tried to chase. Only thing that happened was my stuff got caught in the weeds. Wanted to throw lipless crankbait but didn't think the treble hooks on the bottom of the lure was a good idea in those weeds :S

Went on a solo fishing trip to DVL today. Wanted to share what I used. Setups: 1. 6'10" Medium Light/Fast (Spinning) Daiwa BG 2000 2. 7'5" Medium/Fast (Spinning) Daiwa BG 3000 3. 7'11" Medium Heavy/Fast (Casting) Shimano Tranx 300 Rented a Premium Bass Boat with a trolling motor. I started at Rock Quarry and noticed many Largemouth attacking other fish maybe 1ft from the shore. I began by throwing my casting setup + 6in Shad colored swimbait. I would position my boat parallel to the shore and then retrieve the lure towards me. Fished from 6-6:30am. Next up, I tried Watermelon with Black Flakes Senko worm + Brown colored Ika on my spinning setup from about 6:30 - 8 AM. Tried my best to throw into the areas where I saw the bass attacking the baitfish. Unfortunately, kept getting snagged and losing my Senko + hooks and spent a lot of time retying here. 8-9:30 AM: Moved into a deeper part of the lagoon and started drop shotting in about ~25 feet of water. Looking at the sonar, there looked to be some vegetation. Used the oxblood red flake worm as @WRB suggested in a previous post of mine. This time included transportation between the rock quarry (go straight from marina turn right at the first bathroom) AND going to the tree line/lagoon to the left of the marina. The lagoon to the left of the marina had heavy waves and I got caught up in vegetation a lot. Went home after skunk. Water temperature was around 76F and air temperature was a cool 70-80F. Unfortunately, I didn't catch any fish so therefore don't have any additional information. Self Analysis: I feel that I spent too much time fishing with the Senko in the shoreline when I should have moved to dropshotting much much sooner. The only issue was I didn't know where exactly the fish were so basically I would park in the middle of the cove with around 30ft water and then just let the boat drift around with the dropshot hanging off the side of the boat.

I would call them but they are closed until Wednesday and I was planning to go Wednesday morning :S

I'm thinking of fishing Diamond Valley Lake in SoCal on Wednesday. Unfortunately, it looks like the bass boats (trolling motor + fish finder) don't appear to be available on the website anymore for that day. The only thing that seems to be available is the small aluminum boat with oar/anchor. Since I will be fishing alone, is it worth going if I cannot secure one of those kinds of boats if I am fishing alone? Seems like a huge pain in the ass to just keep drifting and drifting or having to go back to the motor to re-adjust my positioning.

Understood thank you. I will go buy some swim baits to try this out. since I’m getting there at 6 am in the morning do I throw topwater first or should I go straight into trolling? I’m also planning to throw some dark colored Senko toward the shoreline or should I not given that the bass should be relatively deep now

5-6lb line? Is that flurocarbon or mono or does it not matter? Thinnest I have is 6lb mono or 8lb fluro... Also, if I don't have a boat, I'm assuming I would need to rent the "premium bass boat" with the sonar option for trolling right? How do you recommend I troll? I've never trolled in my life but would love to learn how to.

Hi Everyone! This is my first post here and wanted to introduce myself and also collect some advice from folks here. My fishing background: I fish often in the local SoCal reservoir lakes (Carbon Canyon/Yorba Regional Park). Caught 2 dinks on a Dropshot back in April that got me hooked. Since then, I've gone to Silverwood Lake and Diamond Valley Lake once. Got skunked at both places. Since then, I've gotten a bit more experience just reading and learning more on the internet. It seems that a majority of bass fishing resources on the internet and targeted towards easier Bass lakes in the midwest and not really oriented towards the heavily pressured lakes in SoCal. I'm planning a solo trip to DVL within the next 2 weeks and would love to get some advice on the setups I'm going to bring. My plan is to go on a Wednesday morning and rent one of the "premium bass boats" for myself. I plan to bring 2 spinning rods and 1 casting rod. 1. 6'10" Medium Light/Fast (Spinning) Daiwa BG 2000 2. 7'5" Medium/Fast (Spinning) Daiwa BG 3000 3. 7'11" Medium Heavy/Fast (Casting) Shimano Tranx 300 In terms of lures, I've bought some pumpkin colored 6" roboworms and 5" purple colored roboworms. My plan is to fish near the coves around 6-8 AM with a Weightless Texas Rigged Senko (5 3/8") in the shallow areas and then switch to drop-shot 15-20 feet of water as the sun comes up. Since this is my first time drop-shotting in a deep lake like this, what are the things I need to look for? I can barely see the bottom of the lake so I'm not sure what depth I should be drop-shotting in or where I should be trying since the lake is so big. Could I get some additional advice on the above to make sure I don't get skunked again? I did bring some lipless crankbaits + topwater but don't expect to be bitten on those.