spotted bass in margarita

[bmshepherd]

About a year ago i saw my first spot come out of Santa Margarita lake. Since then I keep hearing of them caught more often. Today I was out there and saw a friend of mine who had about a 3 pounder. Everyone takes them out when they catch them but I think it might me a lost cause at this point. I can't believe someone would sabotage such an awesome large mouth lake by bringing in spotted bass. All we can hope for now is this lake has such abundant cover and plenty of food to maintain both largies and spots. I know that some lakes have both and are ok but only time will tell. Now that there have been so many caught and they have already gone through at least one spawn, is it even worth taking out the spots that are caught. What do you guys think?

[swimbait]

The ospreys need some food since they don't stock trout any more. Help out the native species by offering them something invasive.

Spotted bass are the worst fish ever.

[sker13]

Spotted bass are the worst fish ever.

That is a lame *** comment...However, I love Margarita and don't think they should be in there. It might be too late. Shame.

[Bassin]

From what I have been told Naci used to be a very good Largemouth/smallmouth lake..Now its all about Spots. I have also heard of spots coming out of San Antonio, not a lot, but a few. I caught a Spot last year in Margi, just so happened that there was a bunch of buzzards near by so I threw it up on the bank. It would be a sad thing if Spots took over Margi. Its like you say, just have to wait and see. Good news is Margi put out a bunch of double digits last year, so as for now, I would say the fishery is doing pretty good. If there were another lake in the area that would sustain a Spot population, I would have to say Lopez would be the one...lets hope that doesn't happen.

[swimbait]

Nice. No really, I stand by what I said 100%. Spotted bass are a scourge. They're like mackerel or stunted brook trout. Can you imagine how epic our fisheries would be if they were strictly largemouth and smallmouth? I'd so much rather catch 5 decent largemouth than 50 spots. But no, people can't be happy. They have to get their stunted sardine bass so they transport them illegally to all of the great lakes like Margarita, Pedro, and San Pablo. Travesty. Seriously.

[CN]

Nacimiento was a great Smallmouth Lake. You would catch Largemouth but not near as many and now if you catch one it's a rare catch. If you do it may be a Hybrid but hey you can catch 25 1-2 pound Spot's anytime. They are in San Antonio I have cought a few and know of other's catching them. So far not many but I doubt the F&G put them in there and that suck's.

Mike Nance

[jazzwannabe]

About a year ago i saw my first spot come out of Santa Margarita lake. Since then I keep hearing of them caught more often. Today I was out there and saw a friend of mine who had about a 3 pounder. Everyone takes them out when they catch them but I think it might me a lost cause at this point. I can't believe someone would sabotage such an awesome large mouth lake by bringing in spotted bass. All we can hope for now is this lake has such abundant cover and plenty of food to maintain both largies and spots. I know that some lakes have both and are ok but only time will tell. Now that there have been so many caught and they have already gone through at least one spawn, is it even worth taking out the spots that are caught. What do you guys think?

I caught a small spot at Lopez last summer.

[bassrman]

I caught 4 spots in Margi last year! I left em all on the bank for the bears to eat! ,and that's what I would like to do to the knuckle head that planted them!...

[Delaney]

I agree 100% with Swimbaits comment above, and yes, it is a travesty that this continues to happen. No other word for it.The only reason this continues to happen is utter disregard of constructive, intelligent thinking. No problem can be solved until a problem is admitted and identified. DFG, bass organizations, and fishermen, continue to let this happen.

[John Barron]

Back in the 80's Naci was a great fishery. You could catch nice smallies and largemouth. It's a shame to ruin a great fishery like Margarita
jb

[PapaJohn454]

Here is a nice photo comparison of the two different strains taken from
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=htt ... sAO606zCBQ

[drew]

Santa Margarita is a very diverse fishery. It seems that the spots requirements are different then LMB and they may only occupy certain portions of the lake. As of today SM has LMB, stripers, spots and maybe smallmouths. I believe because of the shallow areas and vegetation that the LMB will be dominate. My question is could the spots be introduced through the river? The river is one of the few in the world that runs south to north and at times it does become static. Since Naci dumps down stream could the spots swim to SM?

[bmshepherd]

Since i wrote this another friend called me and said that he was out there the same day and that he also caught close to a 3 lb spot. I feel like they are taking over quicker than I had expected. I am amazed to hear of them in Lopez and San Antonio as well. They are fun to catch but the reason the central coast is/was so awesome is because our lakes are all so different. I just wish that Naci could have stayed the only local lake with spots. If Margi and Lopez get ruined I will be furious

[vinny]

Like I said on another thread, the only help we can get on spotted bass is to remove all size and bag limits and make it mandatory to kill them once they are removed from the water-no released fish.

[Kevin Cheek]

I caught 4 spots in Margi last year! I left em all on the bank for the bears to eat! ,and that's what I would like to do to the knuckle head that planted them!...

It is possible that this is mother natures way of setting things in motion. It very well could be someone planted these spots in there, but another way to look at it is that we all need to remember that migritory birds also carry eggs on their feathers and on their legs. I dont see why we need to blame people for this, when it was just a matter of time before mother nature did it! I love the lakes over there on the coast, but l can see no reason why anybody would just throw a spot up on the shore to kill it!

A friend of mine has had a pond for 3yrs now and never put any fish in it, and now on any givin day we can go out to it and catch bass and catfish out of it. Nobody has ever stocked or dropped any fish in it, we were told by a biologist that this is just mother natures way of reprodution. The spots over here in the valley co-exist with the blacks, and the smallies, and some giant #'s have been caught all over the valley. You guys look at this as a problem, maybe you should look at this as there is nothing you can do about it,it will be what it will be. Spots are fun to catch, they are real aggresive fish and they fight hard. Im sorry, l dont see this as a negitive l see this as a positive.

Well, for what its worth this is my two cents.

[CN]

I agree Kevin about just throwing them up on the bank and the possibility of bird's transporting them. I fish both of these lakes all the time and only within the last maybe two years is when they showed up in San Antonio. I dont know for sure when they were introduced into Naci but it's been probably 15 years or more and it's taken that long for some bird's to transport them to these other lakes. Especially San Antonio and Nacimiento they are what 3 mile's apart as the Crow fly's.

Make's a guy wonder but then again if they were like the average they catch up at Bullard's Bar nobody would be complaining at all.

[Delaney]

Why is it that birds only carry spotted bass eggs?

[swimbait]

Why is it that birds only carry spotted bass eggs?

ROFLMAO.

Nailed it!

These things are getting transported by fishermen, period.