Heartbreak at El Capitan

Fishing Time: 2:30 PM to 5:20 PM

Weather:  Sunny, calm, T-68

Moon Phase: 27% Moon

Location: El Capitan Reservoir (near dam)

Best Bait:  Live shiner fished shallow 3-5 ft of water

Who Went:  Dunc

I start work at 4:30 AM every day at Naval Base San Diego, so most days I’m off by early afternoon.  I’m usually pretty beat and go straight home, but today I decided to head up to El Capitan to enjoy the solitude and sunset.  I left the float tube in the trunk and hiked down to a spot where there are submerged boulders and trees.

I was casting a live shiner underneath a slip bobber and varied the depth from 3 to 15 ft.  Nothing was doing and I didn’t get a bite for over an hour.  It was still nice to sit (not in a float tube) and enjoy the time alone.  Worst part about California is all the people.  There is nowhere to hide, but tonight I didn’t see another soul.  Amazing how beautiful California is, but it kind of goes unnoticed with all the people buzzing around.  Can’t focus on its beauty.  I even had a coyote across the lake talking to me most the night.  Very cool.

I tried another point with more submerged boulders and trees and started casting the shiner in shallower water (3-5 ft), and a funny thing happened.  Many times, while fishing in the past I have been lucky enough to experience the hot bite that happens just before a storm moves in.  Usually it only lasts a short while and for whatever reason it’s when I’ve caught many of my biggest fish.  There were no storms tonight, but for some reason, as soon as the sun went down over the mountainside, the bite was on.  It started with me landing a nice 3.5-pound bass.

Shortly after I had another good take and set the hook on what felt like another good bass, but it only lasted a second as the hook and shiner flew back at my face.  Dang it.  Another quick cast and the bobber was down again.  I set the hook and knew I had a good fish on.  I weaved it through the sunken trees and was lucky enough to land this nice 5-pound bass.  Finally, a real Cali Bass!

It didn’t end there either, and this is where the story goes from awesome to heartbreaking.  I casted again and watched as my shiner floated through the trees following the shiners movements as it swam toward an underwater boulder right in front of me.  The shiner was only 3 ft below the bobber and just out of my sight.  Suddenly out from the rock came a bruiser largemouth in the 6-8-pound class (best guess).  It grabbed the shiner, and rolled about a foot below the water showing me a perfect side profile of all her glory.  She was huge!  Immediately she headed towards the base of a submerged tree.  My heart pounding, I pulled back and set the hook, then realized I was in trouble if she made it to the tree.  I leaned on her to try and change her direction and pop, off she came.  What the #@&%!

I sat in disbelief over what had just happened.  This was my chance at a wall hanger and blew it.  Hind sight is 20/20 so I sat to think… I should have re-tied my line, there were probably abrasions from previous fishing.  My drag was too tight.  I should have let her go to the tree and taken my chances.  Ugh.  Doesn’t matter now.  She’s gone.  

I kept casting, but the moment had passed.  I didn’t get another bite.  In total, the hot bite lasted about 20 minutes.  No bites before, and no bites after.  Those are moments to cherish in fishing, and sometimes you have to let the past go and move on.  With any luck I can catch another big fish to help me forget.  This one will live long in the memory bank, but still an epic evening of fishing, solitude, and sunset at El Capitan.

Post Cold Front Blues

Fishing Time: 8:30 AM to 1:00 PM
Weather:  Cool, slight breeze, T-60
Moon Phase: 12% Moon
Location:  Lower Otay Reservoir
Best Bait: The Ned Rig, green pumpkin
Who Went: Dunc

You get used to the same beautiful weather here in San Diego and when a storm front moves through it makes you think, oh yeah, the weather can change here.  The last couple days have been windy and cold, so I was a bit worried about my fishing this week.  But, with only one day off a week, it doesn’t leave any options of when I can fish.  Today was post storm conditions.  Cold with clear skies after the storm had passed through.  In my opinion, the worst day to fish.

My hunch proved to be right and I had a tough day on the water.  Not only did I struggle to get bites, but even when I got them, they kept spitting the hook back in my face halfway to the tube.  Frustrating.  I managed a few small bass like the one below, but that was it for the day.

It was interesting dropping live shiners below my float tube where I could watch the bait on my fish finder.  I could see fish come up from the bottom to look at it all day, but couldn’t get them to bite.  I didn’t land one fish on a shiner today.  All fish were caught on the Ned Rig in 10-15 ft of water.

New Bait and Techniques Produce at El Cap

Fishing Time: 9:30 AM to 5:00 PM
Weather:  Partly cloudy, slight breeze, T-70
Moon Phase: New Moon
Location: El Capitan Reservoir
Best Bait: Ned Rig (green pumpkin)
Who Went: Dunc

I had family in town last weekend, so no fishing, but I also had a random day off this week on Tuesday, and fished El Cap all day.  I have been doing some research on what winter baits work here in Cali, and came across one that peaked my interest.  It’s a fairly new plastic bait called the Ned Rig.  It’s made by Z-man, however there have been other companies making knock offs for a while now, so it must not be all that new to the scene.  Either way it’s new to me, and I hit the tackle shop before arriving to El Cap to give it a try.  It’s basically a shaky style jig head joined with what looks like a half of a senko.  The plastic is only 3-inches long, and the hook is exposed.  The flat jig head makes the bait stand straight up and gives the profile appearance of a small baitfish nose down on the lake bottom.

I also talked to a guy fishing on a float tube last week at El Capitan that gave me some good intel.  I asked him how he was doing and he said, “really good, all the fish are shallow within 1-5 ft of water”.  This caught me by surprise as I expected all the bass to be deep during winter.  I have focused on 15-40 ft of water, and it’s not to say that some are not deep.  I have done well fishing these depths, but when the guy told me he also caught a 4 pounder in 2 ft of water it got me thinking…

With all my new knowledge, I was excited to try out the Ned Rig and put it to work in some shallower water.  On my 3^rd or 4^th cast it proved itself with a tiny little bass.  Not the size I was looking for, but it gave me confidence in the new bait.  

I continued fishing the Ned Rig and it continued to produce, including one nice bass a shade over 3 pounds. 

I’m sold on the new rig and amazed at how aggressively the bass inhale this bait…

I started wondering if I took some live shiners and put them to the test in shallow water what would happen.  Turns out it was gang busters.  I found a point with some submerged brush and would toss the shiner 3 ft below a slip bobber up near the brush.  I landed a lot of fish using this method and some good ones too.  Some very fat 2 pounders with good fight. 

I also caught a black crappie using the shallow shiner method and it was a bruiser.  I didn’t have a scale or tape, but it was all of 15 inches and probably around 2 pounds.  A fun addition to the bass bonanza.

The fishing was so good, I ran out of shiners for the first time since being here in Cali.  Not a bad problem to have and when they ran out, I just turned back to the Ned Rig and it continued to produce.  I even caught one last 2-pound bass right at the boat ramp before calling it a day. 

I was the last one off the lake and was thrilled with my day.  I must have caught around 15 bass plus the bruiser crappie.  The size of bass was better today with most of the bass in the 2-3-pound range.  Still waiting for that wall hanger, but a great day on the water to say the least.

El Cap is Still my favorite

Fishing Time: 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM

Weather: Sunny, calm, T-70

Moon Phase: 63% Moon

Location:  El Capitan Reservoir

Best Bait: Live shiner 

Who Went:  Dunc

El Capitan Reservoir is definitely my favorite of all the lakes I’ve fished in San Diego so far.  I think it’s because it’s similar to the reservoirs I’m used to fishing at home.  Deep water reservoir, with rock and sand shorelines.  Good underwater structure made up of points and underwater ridges.  Plus, I know it holds some monster bass! 

I skipped finding new water today and hit El Cap once again.  This time I equipped my float tube with my fish finder to help in finding some deep water bass.  I was amazed at how many I saw.  Every point, ridge, or hump, held multiple bass.  The frustrating part was they wouldn’t bite!  I would literally watch on my fish finder as they would come up and look at my live shiner and every time I thought this is the one, he’s going to bite, but then nothing. 

I covered a lot of water today including the big underwater ridge that I have been dying to fish.  However, I didn’t see many fish on the ridge, and never got a bite.  It was a bit scary to with boats flying by a little closer than I was comfortable with.  I tried another cove nearby and just as I was starting to lose hope on the day, my line started running.  I reeled in the slack, set the hook, and the fight was on.  This fish had some gusto, and after a few good runs I started to get very excited, thinking this was the fish I’ve been waiting for.  Finally, a monster bass!  It seemed like forever before it surfaced and when it did, I was looking eye to eye with a big ole blue catfish!  It was bittersweet.  The fight was awesome, and I have never caught a blue catfish, so that was very cool, but I couldn’t help being slightly disappointed with hopes of a giant bass.  I took a few mugshots of the big blue kitty cat before releasing it near my tube.  He was probably in the 8-10 pound range, so I didn’t bring him on board with me.

I continued fishing the bay and tried fishing a bit shallower to see if anything was more active, but it was the same story as deep water.  Lots of fish, but no takers.  Again, starting to lose hope, my line started running again.  I got a good hook set, but this fight didn’t fight as long.  It felt good however, to land a bass after fishing hard all day.  I took a few snapshots and let it go. I continued to fish the bay, but that was the only bass willing to bite.  Even though I didn’t catch many fish it was fun to land a big ole catfish and seeing fish all day on my finder kept me mesmerized all day long.  One of these day’s those fish will turn on and be biting.  When they do it will be a fun day. 

Lower Otay Lake, San Diego - Back to Warm Weather

Fishing Time: 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM

Weather: AM: Foggy and cool PM: sunny, warm, T-70

Moon Phase: 70% Moon

Location:  Lower Otay Lake - San Diego

Water Temp:  Unknown

Best Bait:  Live shiner 3 ft under a slip bobber on a size 2 mosquito hook

Who Went:  Dunc

I’m back in San Diego after a great holiday break at home.  After two weeks off, it was hard to get back into the swing of working every day.  Yuck.  For my first day off I wanted to hit a new lake that I’ve heard a lot about from locals.  Of course, they talk about how good it is in April and May, but I won’t be around that long, so now is the time!  Lower Otay Lake is near Chula Vista, California, and it looks just like what you would expect from a big bass producing lake.  Shorelines lined with tullies, sunken brush, and trees underwater.  The unfortunate part is due to the tullie lined shorelines there is very limited access for a float tube.  I drove around the lake and there were so many spots that looked good, but access with a float tube was impossible. 

I found the best looking spot I could drag a float tube and dunked it in the water.  Armed with my usual bucket of shiners, I started making my way down the tullies trying to keep my shiner near the bottom in 10-15 ft of water.  This lake was tough because the bottom was so thick with decomposed tullies that my shiner kept getting snagged or covered in moss.  I soon realized this tactic was not going to work, so  I put away the shiners for a bit and went to a 3-inch clear ice fluke and threw that towards the tullies for a bit.  Unfortunately, that didn’t produce either. 

I was a bit frustrated at this point, so I rigged up a slip bobber and pinned a live shiner about 3-4 ft below, and threw it up near the tullies while I munched on a snack.  I didn’t finish my second bite before the bobber went down hard.  After a quick fight I landed the first largemouth of the day.  Bingo.  The bobber was producing.

I continued my slip bobber tactics up and down the tullies and landed a total of 5 bass and missed about 3 more.  They were all small, but it was fun and much better than getting skunked.  I would love to hit this lake again on my boat if I ever get the chance, because there are some great looking areas, and from my internet research, there are some good gravel bottoms and underwater ridges that unfortunately I couldn’t access on my tube.  Good news is, I have avoided a skunk at every lake I have fished in San Diego so far, so no complaints.  Bad news is, I can’t seem to find anything with any size and it’s driving me nuts because I know they are there!  Maybe my time will come…