07-25-2021, 06:52 PM
(This post was last modified: 07-25-2021, 06:56 PM by Anglinarcher.)
I was thinking that I don't see many reports on Cutler, and I suspect at least one MOD will delete this thread for divulging his local pond. LOL 
I took my brother and nephew out for our first trip on Cutler with a boat on 7.24.21. We did not get there until about 4:30 pm, but Benson was completely full of boats (no parking spots). My brother knew about the other launch so we found ONE spot there. Let me assure you, it was not fishermen on the lake. Jet boats, ski boats, wakeboard boats, and near Benson even a few paddle boards.
Having never been on Cutler before, and with a new Helix 7 Mega sidefinder and mapping software, I had to explore. I have a new Garmin on the front with similar features, so I figured with the "flat bottom" of Cutler this was going to be pretty dull. Not so much! There are huge flats for sure, in fact most of the lake is so shallow that if the ski boats knew what they were roaring over it would scare them to death. But, the old river channel is alive and well. I was also of the understanding that there were no weeds in Cutler, due to the carp and dirty water. Oh Contreras, most of the lake shallower than 4 feet has weed growth. Did you know there use to be another dam where Cutler is now, just upstream of the current dam? I did not, but I know where it is/was, and even found some old flooded canals from "the day". On the lower end there a lots of spots where you will find rock outcroppings coming out of the muddy water, just waiting for an unsuspecting boater to be gobbled up.
As for fishing, think about fishing in a swimming pool with 50 kids jumping, screaming, splashing around, etc. The lake is bigger than a swimming pool, but the kids all have jet boats, ski boats, wakeboard boats, and scream up and down the lake. What is the distance between boats at speed? Closer to the dam, the canyon, there are lots of places where there is not enough room for two boats to pass each other on plane and be legal, but they are boarding or skiing by each other. For the record, you are suppose to have a driver, a skier, and a spotter.....who needs some stupid spotter on Cutler anyway, cause they don't have one. How about flying the orange flag? Is that to show a downed skier? NO, it is some decoration flag flown like the American flag on a regatta. It was an entertaining day for sure.
OK, I digress, fishing was slow at best. We were just fishing with all the wrong stuff (remember, I was under the wrong impression about Cutler). We did get some hits. We also saw some fishing jumping in the weeds, not carp, but not able to identify them either. Even saw a couple huge schools of minnows, wrong shape for carplets, but again, not able to get an identification in the water either. We finally rigged up with some fresh carp (gave itself up for the cause), some frozen sucker, some left over BELH minnows (aka chub minnows I had left over from prior trips to Willard) and some Anchovies. At 9:00 PM, in a spot up lake, or was it down lake, that showed promise early on we found some Channel Cats, and one SMB, that decided to give us love. It only lasted about 20 minutes, but hot and fun action. Nothing to huge, and the biggest one decided to perform a Houdini on my Nephew and escaped. Oh ya, the SMB, maybe 1 1/2 pounds, but it too did a Houdini on my Brother. It came unbuttoned in the net and found a new hole that I assume one of the Cats just made. He says it counted, but I said if it was a a bass tournament it would count as ZERO. LOL
Summary: 1) No skunk today.
2) Mostly a big boat playground. 
3) Potentially dangerous shallow water in most of the lake with potentially dangerous rock near the last third of the lake near the dam. 
PS, Water temps were 78 to 79 degrees all afternoon. Cats fought way above their weight class. Water visibility, inches at best. Air temperature, just under the temperatures found at the surface of the Sun.
I took my brother and nephew out for our first trip on Cutler with a boat on 7.24.21. We did not get there until about 4:30 pm, but Benson was completely full of boats (no parking spots). My brother knew about the other launch so we found ONE spot there. Let me assure you, it was not fishermen on the lake. Jet boats, ski boats, wakeboard boats, and near Benson even a few paddle boards.
Having never been on Cutler before, and with a new Helix 7 Mega sidefinder and mapping software, I had to explore. I have a new Garmin on the front with similar features, so I figured with the "flat bottom" of Cutler this was going to be pretty dull. Not so much! There are huge flats for sure, in fact most of the lake is so shallow that if the ski boats knew what they were roaring over it would scare them to death. But, the old river channel is alive and well. I was also of the understanding that there were no weeds in Cutler, due to the carp and dirty water. Oh Contreras, most of the lake shallower than 4 feet has weed growth. Did you know there use to be another dam where Cutler is now, just upstream of the current dam? I did not, but I know where it is/was, and even found some old flooded canals from "the day". On the lower end there a lots of spots where you will find rock outcroppings coming out of the muddy water, just waiting for an unsuspecting boater to be gobbled up.
As for fishing, think about fishing in a swimming pool with 50 kids jumping, screaming, splashing around, etc. The lake is bigger than a swimming pool, but the kids all have jet boats, ski boats, wakeboard boats, and scream up and down the lake. What is the distance between boats at speed? Closer to the dam, the canyon, there are lots of places where there is not enough room for two boats to pass each other on plane and be legal, but they are boarding or skiing by each other. For the record, you are suppose to have a driver, a skier, and a spotter.....who needs some stupid spotter on Cutler anyway, cause they don't have one. How about flying the orange flag? Is that to show a downed skier? NO, it is some decoration flag flown like the American flag on a regatta. It was an entertaining day for sure.
OK, I digress, fishing was slow at best. We were just fishing with all the wrong stuff (remember, I was under the wrong impression about Cutler). We did get some hits. We also saw some fishing jumping in the weeds, not carp, but not able to identify them either. Even saw a couple huge schools of minnows, wrong shape for carplets, but again, not able to get an identification in the water either. We finally rigged up with some fresh carp (gave itself up for the cause), some frozen sucker, some left over BELH minnows (aka chub minnows I had left over from prior trips to Willard) and some Anchovies. At 9:00 PM, in a spot up lake, or was it down lake, that showed promise early on we found some Channel Cats, and one SMB, that decided to give us love. It only lasted about 20 minutes, but hot and fun action. Nothing to huge, and the biggest one decided to perform a Houdini on my Nephew and escaped. Oh ya, the SMB, maybe 1 1/2 pounds, but it too did a Houdini on my Brother. It came unbuttoned in the net and found a new hole that I assume one of the Cats just made. He says it counted, but I said if it was a a bass tournament it would count as ZERO. LOL
Summary: 1) No skunk today.
2) Mostly a big boat playground. 3) Potentially dangerous shallow water in most of the lake with potentially dangerous rock near the last third of the lake near the dam. PS, Water temps were 78 to 79 degrees all afternoon. Cats fought way above their weight class. Water visibility, inches at best. Air temperature, just under the temperatures found at the surface of the Sun.
![[Image: Screenshot-20210727-092903-Chrome.jpg]](https://i.ibb.co/T4HYfsQ/Screenshot-20210727-092903-Chrome.jpg)
![[Image: Screenshot-20210727-094522-Drive.jpg]](https://i.ibb.co/7JcDn3X/Screenshot-20210727-094522-Drive.jpg)