Both lakes Casitas and Castiac once considered world record bass potential producing lakes are in trouble. Lake Casitas during the 2023 season can’t produce more the 2 bass caught by any one team this year with winning tournament weights under 3 lbs. no more then 3 teams have caught more then 1 Bass this year. Lake Castiac is similar, except showing some improvement in the fall with a few limits of 5 bass weighing under 8 lbs. What happened??? No one knows for sure? Tom

Didn't the water in California rise by 20+ feet in most of their big bass lakes? I'd think that would have at least *some* effect on the density of populations everywhere just from a geometry perspective. I do sometimes wish I had been born in time for the heyday of this activity, the stories about castaic/casitas and fork in the 70s/80s/90s are things I will never experience. Texas does a good job of managing the bass genetics here but we have issues imo - it's not any one single issue that kills giant potential in texas, but rather a team of problems that all pretty much stem from ignorance or a lack of research the only piece I really get annoyed with is the totally clown-shoes, jokerman-font nonexistent levels of bag limit enforcement down here. When there are enough people, they are part of the habitat I digress I'm gonna say it's the rise in water + poor quality runoff + what sounds like a total lack of management causing the disappearance of big bass at casitas/castaic. But I'm also just some guy who is up way too late

World Class Bass Fisheries in Jeopardy

April 12, 20242 yr

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Super User

The majority of the LMB in Castiac were transplanted from Van Norman a aeration reservoir located near I5 & I405 Freeways.

The 1971 earthquake required the Van Norman dam to be condemned the lake drained the bass transplanted into Castiac as the dam was being completed 3 years before opening to the public.

The Florida strain was part of the state wide introduction of adult size 2 to 3 lb bass planted into both Castiac and Casitas in 1973.
It was the perfect storm for Castiac a virgin ecosystem with lots of new flooded cover, tons of crawdads and Threadfinfin Shad and trout to feed on with zero fishing pressure before the lake opened.

The Elderberry for bay accident was catastrophic for the upper main lake dumping thousands of Striper up to 40 lbs into the lake changing the ecosystem forever.

Tom

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World Class Bass Fisheries in Jeopardy

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