I live in SoCal and the lake I fish is highly pressured. There is a long patch of what looks like eel grass but I am not sure. The water has a decent amount of clarity and is not dirty at all. I shore fish and the water drops off pretty deep Do you guys have any color recommendations or lure recommendations. 

Blue...

If you can fish weightless roboworm 6”. The staple color from what I’ve heard and used are any MM1-3 Arron Magic and oxblood. Deeper water you can go with 4” senko also weightless with usual color like green pumpkin but the dark cinnamon with purple flake works very well in my lake and pudding stone.

1 hour ago, Bass_Fishing_SoCal said:

If you can fish weightless roboworm 6”. The staple color from what I’ve heard and used are any MM1-3 Arron Magic and oxblood. Deeper water you can go with 4” senko also weightless with usual color like green pumpkin but the dark cinnamon with purple flake works very well in my lake and pudding stone.

My lake drops off pretty deep so I don’t think weightless is really possible. Is watermelon red a good color too? Or do you prefer green pumpkin

Live in socal as well, generally dirtier water blacks blues purples or bright colors and cleaner water natural greens and baitfish colors as @Bass_Fishing_SoCal said, roboworms do well, multiple ways to rig them, any trick style finesse worm also works very well, 4.5 inch use 2/0 or 1/0 worm hooks, if you can get away with it weightless and mosquito hooks are really good if you can get away with them rigged thru nose r wacky. You can also dropshot or texas rig them, but weightless is often more effective, until the wind comes at least. 

is a 6.5 inch trick worm too big. and im not really sure if there is shad in socal ive never seen them so i think the baitfish is usually bluegill please correct me if im wrong

You'd probably get a better and more accurate response posting this in the Local Forums Western Division. 

thank you so much I did not know there was an option

On 7/29/2022 at 10:37 AM, radiant said:

My lake drops off pretty deep so I don’t think weightless is really possible. Is watermelon red a good color too? Or do you prefer green pumpkin

I don’t think color is really matter much. How deep are we talking here. If I were you I would worry more about techniques to get around weed edge, inside is easier but outside would get you more fish but harder without boat or kayak. If weed is not thick bass might stay inside ambush other bait fish.

Dropshot around weed edge might be a good technique, sliders head with low profile plastic can get you into the weed easier. I mostly use Fatika weightless to fish deeper water. The weight and slightly low profile can get me through weed or fish around the edge.

 

As for color, I fished in lakes from San Diego to Ventura and the color of the 6" Roboworm that consistently caught Bass was a Grape color, in fact there are lakes in a city park in San Gabriel where the only coly that got bit by the larger bass was Grape, so don't over look that color, as well as the colors mentioned.  

23 hours ago, radiant said:

is a 6.5 inch trick worm too big. and im not really sure if there is shad in socal ive never seen them so i think the baitfish is usually bluegill please correct me if im wrong

There are small but healthy threadfin populations in many socal resavoirs, although they are not abundant like other places in the country, lots of small minnows, and golden shiners as well. Bluegill and crappie are food sources for bass in the resavoirs here, some more than others, trout are another food source supplement unique to socal. 6.5 roboworm is large, will get less bites but still works well, 4.5 will get more bites which is why I reccomended it to our new member friend.

 

Too keep things short, fish here get pounded heavily, hence my username, smaller natural worms seem to always work well, though quality of fish is not the best, socal is very challenging, it's not like the rest of the country. The learning curve is very high and it was easy to get frustrated starting out bassfishing in socal. Put in time, it will be punishing but you will eventually be rewarded.

Techniques I do well in pressure, clear water situations are hoverstrolling, small shakey heads, neds and  tube jigs (snapping and fishing like a football jig). Especially with small forage. I’m from Iowa but we have sand pits with extreme water clarity. Another thing I’m going to ask is are you using flourocarbon. Usually in high pressure clear water 90% of the time it’s spinning Rod and flouro for me. I run 8 pound but you may need to run 6

Roboworms colors that consistent priduce.

FX 4 1/2” Sculpin worming Peoples color ( cinnamon-blue neon). FX 4 1/2” Sculpin worn in Baby Bass.

 5” curl tails in Oxblood w/ light red flake, Hologram shad.

6” Straight tail in MM111 and Aaron’s Magic.

Don’t over look Jackall 4.8 Flick Shake worms in watermelon candy and camouflage.

light line finesse spinning drop shot, slip shots down nail weighted. Light line being 6 to 7 lb FC or Copolymer line.

For more details pm your email.

Tom

55 minutes ago, ABart61 said:

Techniques I do well in pressure, clear water situations are hoverstrolling, small shakey heads, neds and  tube jigs (snapping and fishing like a football jig). Especially with small forage. I’m from Iowa but we have sand pits with extreme water clarity. Another thing I’m going to ask is are you using flourocarbon. Usually in high pressure clear water 90% of the time it’s spinning Rod and flouro for me. I run 8 pound but you may need to run 6

I have braid on my spinning so I tie a flouro leader. I only have 12 lb flouro right now so I need to pick up some more finesse line.

On 7/30/2022 at 1:53 PM, PressuredFishing said:

There are small but healthy threadfin populations in many socal resavoirs, although they are not abundant like other places in the country, lots of small minnows, and golden shiners as well. Bluegill and crappie are food sources for bass in the resavoirs here, some more than others, trout are another food source supplement unique to socal. 6.5 roboworm is large, will get less bites but still works well, 4.5 will get more bites which is why I reccomended it to our new member friend.

 

Too keep things short, fish here get pounded heavily, hence my username, smaller natural worms seem to always work well, though quality of fish is not the best, socal is very challenging, it's not like the rest of the country. The learning curve is very high and it was easy to get frustrated starting out bassfishing in socal. Put in time, it will be punishing but you will eventually be rewarded.

I've just recently moved to SoCal for work (3 weeks ago) and have only fished Puddingstone twice and got skunked both times. I was using familiar techniques I used in the CA Delta but could not entice any bass though I did see them chase a lot of shad. I tried 110 sized jerkbait (shad pattern), paddletail swimbait, and margarita mutilator 3 6" roboworms (straight tail) on a drop shot. 

 

Do you have any suggestions for more successful outings in the future? Thanks.

When I lived and fished in So Cal mostly Lake Castaic 40 years ago I used a Smittys handpour black, brown and orange.

You have the right lures just competing with bass targeting Shad can be frustrating.

Shad colored Splash-It, Hologram Shad worm and 3 1/2” Reaper U.S. Bait Co. Slip shot* (finesse C-rig). 5” 301 Senko wacky rigged weightless. 
Tom

* search site “slip shot”