Fishing Forum

I got to Castaic Lake at the opening hour of 5:30am. Little Tubie was under the weather and missed out on a nice trip.

Got the tube inflated and on the water with all the goodies and got my craft in postion on the other side of the lake by 5:55. (kicked hard and fast) The water temp was 73degrees, clear and calm. Outside air temp was around 75

Topwater action was already slowed down so I went to the bottom. By 6:45 I hooked into my first LMB. 8 1/2lb



6:55 the second. 7 1/4lb



7:15 the third. 10lb



I had a few hard hit-n-spit fights after that but nothing to bring to the camera and scale.

The big LMB females are out and about. It was a nice day. Left arond 11:00am. Water temp was now 83 and outside air temp 90. All fish were released.
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[cool][blue][size 1]Hey, Kid, great trip and great fish. Too bad you couldn't have caught one big one with the combined weight of all three. [/size][/blue]

[#0000ff][size 1]By the way, who was shooting the pics?[/size][/#0000ff]
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Those were done by a friend named Jim. He is one of the locals out there. Everytime I go out, he is there without fail. I've been trying to get him to join the site but he says he's too busy fishing. ha ha


I am hoping to get that Torpedo this year. I found him hanging out by the tulies near the dam. He still recognizes me even in the tube. He saw me and ran. Those others were sight fished. The water clarity was awesome with about 10-12ft depth visibility. (with polarized glasses of coarse).
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I wanna come play too[]! That just looks like a blast. Keep up the great reports and pics.
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Damn I almost made it up there for the free fishing day but my wife did not want to sit on shore.

Think she needs a tube too.

Nice catches.
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I do have an extra just in case you want to get in a trip before heading to AZ. I was surprised that there weren't more people there for the free fishing day either. The fishing pier was virtually empty except or 2 guys that were fishing it most of the day.
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those are some sweet bass. i sure wish there was a consistant fishery here in utah like that. that is one species i have yet to catch over probably 18 inches. great pics.
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Nice fish. the fam and I are thinking of taking a vacation in September in the Santa Barbra area. Maybe I should make room for the gear and try to get away for a day of LMB fishin in cali.

Majja
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[black][size 3]TubeN2, did anyone ever tell you, you have a BIG BASS[laugh] Or, "does this bass make my tube look small"[laugh][laugh][laugh][laugh][][/size][/black]
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There are some nice ones over here. Come on over I'll take you to my stomping grounds.[cool]
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I think it's the other way around girl. Your new tube makes my Big Bass look like a minnow.[laugh]
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I would love that, as thinkgs get closer I will see what i can do.
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tubeN2: I am afraid that if I lived in a spot where I could catch Bass like that year round from my tube that I would forget to go to work and also forget to take care of my family. (You would recognize me as the scruffy dirty guy on the tube begging for change to buy bait)

On the down side of your pictures, it looks like you were 2 busy catching fish to make it through very many DVD's that day.
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That post was from 04. I didn't have a DVD at that time. It was hard enough just lugging around the VCR and the 8 track player.

Thank God for modern technology.[cool]
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Boy, those are some real pigs! You live in a great part of the world for bass fishing. I've never caught anything over 6 pounds when it comes to bass. I'd surely like to, though. Perhaps I should have moved south instead of north.

Bass are in pre-spawn, I assume?

Thanks for sharing the pics.

z~
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Yes. The bass are in PreSpawn. Some of them are even passing the early rounds on the spawning down here. That's when you get the bigger females. Very good on a Tube and puts even a 10wt flyrod to the test.

I have been fishing Castaic for somewhere around 18 to 20 years now. My best LMB from there was around 6 years ago. It was 18lb 4oz. They have an upper lake that is good for Stripers. My best up there is 48lbs which kept me 2lbs shy of the 50lb club.

I have a zone that I monitored for several years watching 10lb bass get to 17 and 18lb bass. They do have a good diet in that lake.

Castaic Lake happens to be the Primier Bass Lake for the SoCal Zone. The Current lake record is 21lb 10oz. I have seen bigger ones in there but like they say, "Big fish don't get big by being dumb".

There is one in there that always takes a crash at my fish basket full of Blue Gills but shys away from every type of bait that I through her way. It's a BIG girl and smart.[cool]
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That longer growing season in SoCal surely makes a big difference. Are those some of the Florida strain largemouths? Must be nice to live close to that kind of fishing. An 18 pounder would be a fish of a lifetime.

z~
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They are the Florida strain. We do have a few lakes that have soem of the Northern strain too but they are much smaller and don't have much fight to them.

Those are what they designed a 4 wt fly rod for.

I like Castaic because it is only a 30 minute drive from my house. If I go 30 minutes the opposite direction, I can hit the Salt.[cool]
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Yeah, our fish are all northern strain - the 4 weight flyrod variety. I really like catching them anyway, though.

I hope to get into the bass fishing again in May. I tied a ton of new bass flies last fall. I really, really, really like fishing for bass. We just have very limited opportunities to do it here in Oregon. If I could catch those hogs like you had in the pictures I've probably give up on the trout altogether. []

z~
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