Cali Bass Fishing

Fishing Time: March 29 to April 2

Weather:  Partly cloudy, breezy, scattered rain, T-70s

Moon Phase: 29% Moon

Location:  San Diego County: Lake Dixon, El Capitan, Lake Jennings

Best Bait: Live shiner 

Who went: Bobber John, Rick, Dunc

Shortly after arriving in Yuma I realized I was only 2 hours from some of the best bass fishing the west has to offer.  San Diego County is home to quite a few lakes that are known for producing some monster largemouth bass, including the infamous Dottie. Dottie was a sought after female largemouth bass that finally died from natural causes and when found dead was over 25 pounds.  She would have shattered the current world record of 22-pounds 4-ounces.  She had a dot on her gill plate so Dottie became her nick name.  That said, it didn’t take much to persuade my fishing buddies into making the trip down to fish some of these epic lakes.  We planned the trip for the week after I left Arizona and it worked out perfect.  After 3 months in Yuma, I packed up my house, loaded the boat, turned in my house keys, and off I headed for So. Cal. 

I picked up Rick and John from the San Diego airport after dropping my boat and gear off at our camp site near Lake Jennings.  After picking them up from the airport we took a quick detour to the San Diego Bay to try our luck for some ocean spotted bass.  Rick has had success for them in the past, but we hit it right at low tide and the fishing was tough in the shallow mossy water.  

So, after no success for spotted bass we headed to Lake Jennings and set up camp for the next four days. 

DAY 1:  LAKE DIXON

This is the lake that the infamous Dottie once called home.  You can’t launch private boats, but you can rent boats from the marina for $35.  

The lake itself wasn’t much to write home about.  It was slightly larger than a community pond, and almost everyone there was more interested in catching the stocked rainbow trout instead of largemouth bass.  

The water was extremely clear, deep, and the bass were spawning on beds everywhere.  Unfortunately the bass were extremely skittish and the fishing was really tough.  In fact, by noon we hadn’t caught a fish, and on top of that, we hadn’t seen any big fish.  Call it crazy, but we were off the lake at 1:00 pm.  Dixon Lake wasn’t what I had hoped for.

The mood didn’t waver though, as the next lake is the one we were the most excited about.  El Capitan Reservoir is known for producing some amazing bass, big blue catfish, and monster crappie.  Rick has actually fished it before with one of his buddies that grew up in San Diego, so we weren’t completely blind going in, which was nice.  He told us where to find a deep underwater hump that had produced many double digit bass.  If that doesn’t get you excited I don’t know what will.

DAY 2:  EL CAPITAN

We launched the boat early and the temps were cold.  

We motored straight to the deep hump and started slowly dragging live shiners along the bottom.  Live bait fishing was a bit new in my book, but I have to admit it works extremely well.  We instantly began to land some nice bass in the 3-4 pound range.  

By noon we had already had a good day and decided to go explore.  We found some nice looking areas and caught a few more decent bass, but never did find the double digit bass.  I think the bass in Cali have seen every bass lure on earth and catching them on plastics was extremely difficult and according to Ricks local buddy, has been for quite a few years.  Live bait was the ticket to most our success.  All in all it was a great day on the lake.

DAY 3:  EL CAPITAN

Second day on El Cap Ricks friend Salim that lives in El Cajon, CA joined us.  Salim is a local that has put many days on El Cap, so it was nice to have him show us around and give us some insight.  Salim took us to an area where he catches large crappies in the 17-18 inch range.  We saw crappie all over the fish finder suspended in deep water, but it was tough to get them to bite.  Rick finally put a decent one in the boat, but that was the only one caught.

Later that day I dropped Rick and Salim off on shore so they could explore and fish from the bank.  Bobber John and I went to find more crappie from the boat.  However, we didn’t get to fish long before Rick was waving us back over to the shoreline.  When we arrived we couldn’t believe it.  He had a 20 pound blue catfish lying on shore that he caught on a worm underneath a bobber. It was the highlight catch of the trip.

Later that evening we hit the deep underwater hump again and put a few more nice bass in the boat.  El Capitan was a blast and made our trip to Cali a success.     

    

DAY 4:  LAKE JENNINGS

The last day in Cali we decided to keep it close to home and fish the lake we were camping at.  Lake Jennings is also known to produce its fair share of monster largemouth and the lake was unreal with almost perfect clarity down to 40 feet!  By far the clearest lake I have ever seen or fished.  We started the morning throwing topwater, and had two blow ups, but neither bass decided to hang on.  We caught a few chunky bass slow dragging live shiners, and then went hunting for bedding bass.  

We found quite a few, but again it was tough fishing with the clarity of water and the pressure these fish see every day.  We saw many bass in the 6 to 10 pound range that got our hearts pumping, but just couldn’t get any of them to commit. 

Later in the afternoon we were cruising the shoreline sight fishing and saw a large shadow swimming down around 15 ft near the bottom.  I motored up on the fish and couldn’t believe my eyes.  It was a monster female largemouth bass.  We couldn’t keep the excitement in and were literally jumping and hollering, all while we threw everything we had at her.  Unfortunately just like the other big bass, she casually swimmed off without a care in the world.  Once she finally went out of sight into the depths I looked up to see about 5 boats surrounding us that were all staring at us like we were crazy.  I can only imagine the scene, watching 3 guys from Utah literally freak out over seeing a fish.  People must have thought we were nuts, or on drugs, either way I didn’t care, I have never seen a bass that big and may never again.  The bass had to be over 15 pounds.  Wouldn’t that excite anybody!

Lake Jennings was the last hurrah to the trip and the next morning we left camp at 3:00 AM so I could get John and Rick to the airport for an early flight.  From there I hauled my boat all the way home from San Diego.

CONCLUSION:

Cali bass fishing was extremely difficult.  Our best plastics produced very few bites.  Live shiners were the ticket to the majority of our success.  These bass see a ton of pressure, and therefore, seem very skittish.  Almost all the lakes are filled with quagga mussels and because of this the water is extremely clear, which makes fish very wary.

The highlights were fishing for largemouth on deep structure.  This was new to me and helped me to expand my knowledge for largemouth bass fishing.  Ricks 20 pound blue catfish was awesome and broke up the monotony of chasing largemouth for four days.  Even though we didn’t catch the 15+ pound bass we saw at Lake Jennings, it was really exciting seeing a bass of this magnitude swimming around.  Something I will never see in Utah.

I would definitely do this trip again and thank Rick’s friend Salim for showing us the ropes on Cali bass fishing.   He also provided us with fire wood and shelter from a heavy rainstorm that hit us on the second day.  Thanks Salim!

Goodbye Arizona

Fishing Time: March 21 to 27, 2016

Weather:  Windy, T-90s

Water Temp:  Morning: 68 degrees, Afternoon:  75 degrees

Moon Phase:  Full Moon

Location:  Colorado River, Arizona

Best Bait:  Shad spinnerbait

Who Went:  Dunc

I had a good last week of fishing before saying goodbye to my waterfront home in Arizona.  The weather has been hot and the fishing is getting tough midday.  It’s the mornings and evenings that produce fish.  The burros are getting active as well.  They walk up and down my street all night heehawing loudly.  Crazy animals. 

A couple days this week a front moved through and that turned the fishing on!  I landed my biggest fish of the trip during this cold front on a spinnerbait thrown in the back of a cove where the wind was pushing all the baitfish.  I didn’t get a chance to weigh it, but it was all of 5 pounds.

A few more good fish were landed this week and it made it hard to want to leave.  However, I miss my family and the time has come to say goodbye to Arizona.  May we meet again someday?  

Post Spawn Blues

Fishing Time:  March 14 to 20, 2016

Weather:  Hot, calm, T-90s

Moon Phase:  38 to 93 % Moon

Water Temp:  Morning - 68 deg, Afternoon - 73 deg

Location:  Colorado River, Arizona

Best Bait:  KieTech noisy flapper (topwater frog)

Who Went:  Dunc

This was a fun but challenging week of fishing.  I think I caught a total of 2 or 3 fish through the entire work week.  All caught on a Texas-rigged green pumpkin senko thrown near boat docks.

To start the weekend off I took a slightly different approach.  Live shiners!  It’s definitely a post spawn bite and the fish are extremely finicky, so why not see if they can resist some live bait.

I got off work a bit early on Friday, so I stopped by the bait shop and picked up 20 live shiners.  You can’t fish with live bait in Utah, so I figured it might be fun to try it.  Unfortunately, the shiners produced two bites that evening, but no fish.  I started to get a bit bored sitting there staring at a bobber and noticed just before dusk the fish started rising near shore.  I put on a Kietech noisy flapper (topwater frog) that I have been itching to try.  Two casts later I had two fish in the boat including a fun surprise with this beast crappie. 

Saturday I got on the water early only to be met by about 50 bass boats sitting in front of the docks waiting to take off.

This place is crazy with bass tournaments and this one must have been a big one.  There is only one little outlet to get on the river from the lake I live on and the tournament boats felt they had the right to block the inlet to the river.  Wow, Just another reason to dislike these “elite fisherman”.  More on that later. 

I weaved my way through the masses getting dirty looks the entire way, and then took off upriver in darkness to get to my spot before the rush of idiots followed.  I went back to the same spot where topwater produced the night before and started throwing it again.  It didn’t take long before I got a few hits and landed a couple bass.  Topwater is a blast and I love working it in and out of grass like in the photo below.

Soon the sun came up and everything went dead.  I decided to try the live shiners again and got one taker, but again couldn’t set the hook.  Apparently I need some learnin on live bait fishing.

Then came the idiotic masses in there sponsor covered shirts and their $80,000 bass boats.  Man they look cool.  I wonder if all that flare puts bass in the boat?  Apparently it doesn't because each one of them that fished passed me (way to close) were whining about the tough bite.  And then it happened.  As I’m sitting there fishing live bait, two morons all jazzed out in bass flare come working down my shoreline.  I’m not moving because I’m fishing live bait, which as we all know, is cheating in their book.  As they motored closer I started wondering, will they ever go around me?  Then I hear a splash right next to my boat.  These "elite fisherman" were casting within 2 feet from my boat, and to make it worse, one had the gall to ask me how the fishing is.  I stared back at him in disgust and shook my head and didn’t say a word.  Seriously people!  I have no problem sharing the lake, but give me a little distance!
 

Now that we know how I feel about tournament fisherman back to the fishing.  I could quickly tell the fishing was not heating up so I tried something a bit different.  Being that Lake Martinez is only 10 feet deep and full of sunken trees, I dropped a live minnow down about 9 feet and let the breeze blow me across the lake while I enjoyed the warm sunny morning.  Not long into my drift my rod doubled over and about went into the lake.  I grabbed it just in time and sure enough I had a fish on.  However, this was no largemouth bass and I could tell while fighting him.  After a worthy battle I found this small striped bass on the end of my line.

I knew they were in here, but hadn't found them yet.  Now I had found a whole school of juveniles.  I wasted some live bait and caught a couple more before the sun started beating down hard then I ran for AC.
 

I continued to fish the early mornings and evenings through the weekend and my topwater frog was pretty consistent putting a couple fish in the boat each trip out.  The daytime was dead and I never did find a pattern.  Only one week left here in paradise… 

Bad Weather Makes for Tough Fishing

Fishing Time:  March 9 to 10, 2016

Weather:  Cold and windy, T-60s

Moon Phase:  1 to 4 % Moon

Water Temp:  Morning - 59 deg, Afternoon - 63 deg

Location:  Colorado River, Arizona

Best Bait:  Super white KVD spinnerbait (3/8 oz)

Who Went:  Dunc

A storm front moved in this week and Monday through Wednesday was pretty cold and windy.  I didn’t even attempt to fish on Monday or Tuesday.  Wednesday the lake felt different.  The water temps were back down to the low 60s and not many fish were hanging in the shallows.  I found this bat hunkered down on my hallway attached to the stucko.  He too didn't seem to like the colder temps.  

I started the evening throwing a white/pearl Zoom Fluke (Texas-rigged), and then turned to the wacky rigged white/blue pearl Gamakatsu Senko.  Neither of which scored me any fish.  Just before dusk I began throwing a white spinnerbait and within a few casts I had my first bass of the night and the best bass of my trip.  It weighed in at 4 lbs 10 oz.  Finally a decent bass!

Only a few casts later I landed another nice chunky 3 pound bass.  The spinnerbait was on fire, but unfortunately it got dark soon after and the bite shutoff.

Thursday evening I went straight to the spinnerbait and fished it all night.  I landed one small bass right at dark next to my dock, but that was it.  Weird how one night can be so different from the next.

I didn’t get to fish Friday through Sunday because I met my wife in San Diego.  I guess I can take one weekend off to hang with the wifeJ

Plenty of Bass this Week

Fishing Time:  February 29 to March 6, 2016

Weather:  Sunny and clear, T-90s

Moon Phase:  62 to 8% Moon

Water Temp:  Morning - 65, Afternoon - 70 deg

Location:  Colorado River, Arizona

Best Bait:  Wacky rigged white w/blue pearl senko on a 3/0 (1/8 oz wt) gamakatsu weedless hook

Who Went:  Dunc

The family is gone and it’s time to get serious about fishing again.  The bass are on beds, but they are extremely finicky.  Probably due to the amount of pressure they see every day.  I caught plenty of bass this week fishing evenings after work, but size is still a problem.  I’m at least sprinkling in a few 3 pounders here and there, but most are still 1-2 pounds.

I did find a bait that seems to drive the bed fish nuts.  Not having much success with my typical Texas rigged senko, I started trying an assortment of plastics and different types of rigs trying to get the bed fish to bite.  I found one in particular that has worked wonders.  It’s still using a senko, but I’ve switched to white pearl and started rigging it wacky.  I can’t believe how many more bed fish I’m catching with this set up.

One evening I walked down to my dock and saw a little male on a bed.  Out of nowhere from deeper water came an inquiring female and WOW!  She must have been 7-8 pounds.  I took some film, but unfortunately with the glare on the water you can’t see much.  I threw everything I had at her and even had her nose down on a roboworm on a drop shot rig.  My heart was pounding in anticipation, but she soon turned and swam away into deeper water never to be seen again.  Dang it, that was my chance!

On Saturday I went on an adventure to Martinez Lake.  I found a bunch of coves with beds everywhere and it turned into a lot of fun.  I must have landed 20 bass, but again nothing over 2 pounds.  Either way it was a blast.  All caught on my new wacky rig.

I explored more of Martinez Lake and found another bruiser in the shallows.  This one was probably in the 6 pound range and just like the 8 pounder wouldn’t touch a thing.  I must have toyed with her for an hour before giving up.  She just wasn’t interested in anything.  It’s frustrating.