I was hoping someone may be able to give me some advice on what lakes to focus on and more or less what will the bass be up to that time of year (pre, spawn or postspawn? Never been to california before so have no idea what to expect. My brothers in the navy so i'll be on my own for the first 3 or 4 days of the trip. Heard dixon rents little jon boats and its small so figured that'd be an alright spot to start. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Or if any of you have an open seat and want gas covered shoot me a PM.

I used to live there, all of the lakes are small. That'll be right in the middle of the spawn. If you like sight fishing, some of the smallest reservoirs in SD like Dixon, Poway, Murray and Miramar have gin clear water and big bass on beds. If you like more "traditional" fishing, El Capitan, Lower Otay, Hodges should be good. There's a website in San Diego called sdfish.com that has info on all of the lakes, and has fish reports published weekly so you can get up to date info on where you may want to focus.

Not all of the lakes rent boats, so check into that before you go too. Dixon, Poway, Jennings, El Capitan (on the weekends), Wohlford do though (there may be more).

Make sure to check what lakes are open on the days you want to go fishing most are not open all the time. If you can make a drive of about an hour and a half definetly recommend Diamond Valley Lake it is north of San Diego but fishing has been and probably should be awesome especially with the spawn on!!! Good Luck

Make sure to check what lakes are open on the days you want to go fishing most are not open all the time. If you can make a drive of about an hour and a half definetly recommend Diamond Valley Lake it is north of San Diego but fishing has been and probably should be awesome especially with the spawn on!!! Good Luck

X2 on Diamond Valley. Dixon is open 363 days a year.

Thank you for the responses guys. I'm definitely going to try and get out to diamond valley but i'm afraid that I'd have to hire a guide, which would be a stretch for me with my college student income. Looks like I'll be trying my hand at Dottie Jr at Dixon for the most part.

If anyone has any further advice I'll be checking in all the way up until (and during) my trip, and I'll post back with any reports I have. We'll see how a Potomac River basser will fair out on the west coast.

So anything I should make sure I stock up on before I head out to san diego? i was going to bring some swim baits i've got that I'll never have a chance to throw otherwise, and then some of my favorite bed baits anything in particular i shouldn't forget or work well out there? I was just going to throw a white jig and a lizard at the beds

Specifically any swimbaits y'all recommend?

in the smaller lakes like dixon, poway, miramar (all trout stocked) trout imitation swimbaits are gonna be your best bet in that category.  Also, because the lakes are heavily pressured be prepared for the finesse tactics if you aren't stickin' any.  I have good luck drop shotting a 4.5" roboworm.

spot on with the tactics for bedding fish they should be starting up right around that time you are here! good luck hope you can get some quality fat bass ;D

in the smaller lakes like dixon, poway, miramar (all trout stocked) trout imitation swimbaits are gonna be your best bet in that category. Also, because the lakes are heavily pressured be prepared for the finesse tactics if you aren't stickin' any. I have good luck drop shotting a 4.5" roboworm.

spot on with the tactics for bedding fish they should be starting up right around that time you are here! good luck hope you can get some quality fat bass ;D

X2- bold bluegill and green weenie 4 1/2 roboworms for Dixon.