What has happened to Cachuma? To many things it could be....

[Kelly Ripa]

In light of the weights at the Top Stick tournament and weights from tournaments held this year it is evident that Cachuma has undergone a dramatic change from her former glory. Is it just a stage or cycle it's going through? Runoff from the Zaca fire? The lake went up 70+ feet in the March miracle in two weeks and went up 65+ feet 2 years ago with our Nasty Dec. storm that filled all of our reservoirs in 10 days. Timing of the runoff...i.e. colder water in March I would think would have had a more dramatic effect than in December yet that was not the case. It appears that the shallow fish population was the most effected. Yet In the last 2 years I have run into acres and acres of 9 inch largemouth and smallmouth as well. When you see 100 acres of the lake boiling and find these fish you think...Great this is a good thing. So where are all those smaller fish? There has been a really good comeback of shad/bluegill/crappie during this time yet....The swimbait bite is all but non-existant and finding a larger smallmouth or largemouth is neigh on to impossible. I think Ron C. had the big fish in the Top Stick tournament and it was less than 5 pounds. The habitat is in good shape...the water this year was problematic and had a bad algae outbreak. Water quality related problem? Fire retardant in the runoff? Has anyone seen a lake take a hit like this before? Seems as though it might be years and years before the lake returns to what I think of as normal. I would think that if it was from to much runoff to quick than the other lakes would have experienced this problem to some degree. Castaic was solid mud for months without these effects. Lopez was different. They were just finished with the dam yet all that runoff was let straight out as fast as it came in and the lake level was fairly stable during that time. I'd like to hear from a fisheries type (Mike G. comes to mind) comment on the likely culprit that impacted this fishery (bass) so hard and so fast. Any thoughts on the problem. I know about 40 anglers that were scratching their noggins a week ago....What do they think about Cachuma? I mean other than she sux....

Rip

[DL]

The numbers of sub-catchable size fish were amazing as well as the amount of bait in the water(bluegill, shad, etc.) The water color and temps were nothing out of the ordinary either. I am bar far not an expert, but a couple of years down the road Cachuma should be alot better than it is right now. There is a ton of new cover in the water(wood, flooded brush, and downed treees) that should only help as the lake rebounds from whatever funk it is in now. I think one of the most important factors that will impact Cachuma is the amount of rainfall she gets, and how stable the water levels are over the next 2-3 years. I talked to a few guys and they were marveled at the amount of bait and the numbers suspended fish that were in 20-60 feet of water. There were a number of times when I would drop a spoon or drop shot thru a school of these fish and they would part like the red sea and slowly swim off screen, into the black hole that has become Cachuma....

[TopGrJim]

In my humble opinion, I think the lake is just too damn full of food. The fish are gorged on minnows, etc. I see grebes sitting around with a minnow hanging out of their mouth; too full to swallow? Regular guy up there claims only fish coming on jerkbaits (wounded baitfish?).

The trout fishing was great all the way thru August with guys limiting in an hour or two. I think that indicates a healthy water condition. Fragile trout, I think, would be the first to die if the water was impure.

Jim G

[fishinman]

THE QUAGGA MUSSELS ATE ALL THE BIG FISH!!

[Topwater Terry]

Rip has some pretty good points here. I also would like to know what a fisheries biologist might say about what has happened at Cachuma (or should I say noncatchuma). I can also point to those rainy periods and see what happened afterwards. When I started fishing the lake in 1993-1994, it was full of keeper sized bass. That came after the lake was a puddle a couple of years before when the lake was a puddle. When the water came up the fish had a great spawn and survival. When the water was dropping in 2002-2004 there were a lot of nice fish, but few small ones-pointing to poor survival of young bass. Of course, fishing got really bad in 2005 when the lake filled in just a few days, the fishing sucked because fish in about 1000 acres spread out into 3200 acres. Same things happened with fish spreading out at Piru and the dead sea up by Ojai. But the next two years were great at Cachuma, the lake was full of keeper sized fish. What is happening now is just crazy. Mike Hart told me as far as he could tell there has not been a tournament limit all year so far larger than 9 lbs, at least until his 10lb limit the other day. Where in the world did all the fish go? Is the PH screwed up from the fire runoff? Was there a fish kill? Too much bait in the water? One thing for sure-it should be on fire the next couple of years!
Terry

[buck64]

All my years of fishing ive never seen that much bait being ate all day long , had fish boiling around boat most all day ,as for bigger fish i caught few in practice I still think their there ( mabe not as many in the past)but they have so much food they just dont want are fake stuff.Congrats again Mike good job Buck

[Kevin]

Give that lake a little time and it will be back. All the lakes go through cycles and it's only a matter of time before Cachuma is good again.

[propgun]

You know there is to much bait in the water when your graph reads 23 feet then jumps to 7 feet and goes black then right back to 23 feet in a matter of 10 yards. We caught a lot of 11 1/2 " to 11 3/4 bass. These fish are on a suicide mission we caught fish smaller than our spooks and spinner baits. It truely is amazing what these little bass will try and eat. With all this bait in the water the birds are trying to eat anything that looks like a wounded bait fish. I had a blue hering case after my topwater bait several times to the point I had to stop throwing it and leave the cove. These fish need time to grow and with all the bait it shouldn't be long.

[Ron T.]

I dont know guys , my experiance in the past is that the summer is just plain tough when it comes to big bites . I have seen lots of warm weather derbies out there when 9 to 12 lbs. would win . Last winter I had several big fish in the 7 lb. range . I think the summer is what it is for whatever reason . I know for a fact the big girls are still there . Try again this winter and you will see .

[Ray L.]

I was going to stay off this but I will chime in.
When the water came up so quick the fishing was down right awesome.
Rip and I caught 'em good that early spring.
The problem was that the bait did not come up with the fast rise. aka crawdad's and shad. The fish kept getting thinner and more anorexic because of this. The fish came up but no bait. Then the spawn that does kill some fish from stress. I am sure more died than normal.
That summer was still good on different swimbaits.... right rip
But the fish did have a mortallity rate much higher than normal.
Big fish are there but not in the places you would think because of the bait. AKA Trout, red ear and such.
I know of at least 3 people who found monsters this spring in different parts of the lake.
Those fish are still in the lake just in spots that are not the usual spots to fish. Think a little out of the box and you can get them.
I have 1 friend who caught an 8 and a 6 within 10 casts of each other. He thought out of the box. Mind you I did give him some help thanks to an old friend who used to fish that lake a lot
I do agree the lake is not the same but it will get back to what it was in a couple of years. There is enough bait to help the small guys grow to be able to eat those trout in the lake.

[ToadCkr]

I used to fish that lake quit often a few years back and did quit well in tournaments there....Until the big rains came a 3-4 years ago and filled that lake, making it look like chocolate milk...I was actually up there for a few weeks at that time, when they were not allowing boats on the water because of the extreme water conditions(floating debris...etc) I personally witnessed a huge fish die off over the next few weeks...I coudln't tell you the number of 3-6lb class fish i saw floating, along with hundreds of bluegills/redears in the 1-3lb range...Definately a site for sore eyes...I looked like a massacre occured...So much for the days of 20lb sacs being weighed in, now your lucky if you get 10lbs...Cachuma used to be a pleasure to go to...but anyways thats my 2 cents...I suspect something was in the runoff water suspected by Kelly, but I saw with my own eyes a sad trajedy at what used to be an awesome fishery

[mark poulson]

It might also be that the bigger fish found "homes" on deeper structure when the lake was down, and haven't found the need to come shallower, except to spawn. There's always deep shad. Maybe they just figured it's easier to feed deeper.

[Team Fugowee]

It might also be that the bigger fish found "homes" on deeper structure when the lake was down, and haven't found the need to come shallower, except to spawn. There's always deep shad. Maybe they just figured it's easier to feed deeper.

And deep trout!

[Kelly Ripa]

I remember an article I read where they cross bred Smallmouth and Largemouth. The fish picked up interesting characteristics from the genetic background of the two. It seems as though they didn't forage for crawdads like a smallie when they were available and were not opportunistic like a largemouth. That being said I believe that to a certain degree the habits of the fish in the lake were affected by the big push of water that came in AND the habitat that was deposited wily nilly all over the lake. I remember thinking as I stared at the full on oak tree floating around that I wished that I had some way to mark where it ended up.

To that line of thought I think that what I consider shallow fish paid the price for their rush to the banks. Ray and I caught fish VERY shallow and they got thinner and thinner as the weeks wore on until we got smallmouth and largemouth in shallow water together. I think these were the deep fish (largemouth) that live out off shore always until the spawn makes them come in. The characteristics that they lived by kept their survival rate higher while the fish that used to always be shallow summer or winter paid dearly with the characteristics that they lived by until the storm three years ago.

We all know that the better fish didn't stop eating trout and yet they didn't show up in my live well by eating trout baits as they had in the past. There are still big fish in the lake but not in the numbers or in the traditional places and as Ray sez you had/have to think outside of the box. I'm sorry if I have to disagree about the fish being plugged with bait as the main cause for the low weights. That just doesn't make sense to me as I wouldn't be able to catch any fish at Clear Lake and all the other impoundments that have huge forage bases on that theory. Casitas gets tough when the shad are up but not impossible and there are large fish available in the shallows just not as many willing to crush an offering. I see them and don't catch them at Casitas whereas at Cachuma you don't even see them.

I'm sorry if I have to disagree with the summertime blues theory also as these small weights have been the norm for much longer than the dog days of August that we all suffer through on any lake. So lots of dinks eh....Well there were a zillion dinks three years ago and every year since....The dinks of yesteryear should by all accounts be upwards of 3-4 pounds now so where are all those fish now? By my way of thinking (if you can follow my train of thought on this ) the Larger fish that escaped the deluge and the problems that were assosicated with that flood by living and feeding deep are just that...deep or offshore where nobody has found that tree yet.

During the drought we were down to the brood stock and our weights were respectable and when the water jumped in the March miracle it would appear that what little forage base we had left went the same direction as the bass and supplied them with what they needed to get them to the spawn. We had virtually no bluegill or crappie by then yet the bass somehow persevered. Without the aide of a shock boat it is difficult and only speculation and conjecture that will give us a clue as to the larger fish that are missing in action. The water is definitely different based solely on the ugly algae bloom but I think what it all really boiled down to was the timing of the storms that delivered the copious amounts of water in the short time periods. The seriously cold water that flushed the lake must be the real culprit. As Gunny points out the trout didn't take the hit...they like that kind of stuff and the offshore/deep fish were in cold water to begin with so less of a shock when it happened.

Yes the lake will/is coming back but those always shallow fish that I counted on in years past might take longer to come back as they will have to relearn the shallow pattern. Pure speculation on my part....I hope it is a short hiatus as as the summer bite was my second favorite bite on that lake . Sorry this is so long it is just always in the back of my mind....A very crowded place my friends

Rip

[tunaman]

Love your observations and analysis as always, Rip... keep 'em coming! Thanks for sharing.

Roger

[Guy Williams]

The same thing happened to Silverwood and San V when the fire and floods hit them. Big fish are mostly shallower during the winter and the ash ( bad Ph) killed a lot of bigger bass. The little guy's out in way deep water survive and the cycle begins again. Wait 5 to 8 years and the lake will be wild good again, time will get them lakes prime! Lots of shad will help quicken the process too.
Guy Williams

[some guy]

I remember burnt san v. There was a good frog bite in the wind blown debris coves. It was good until the layers got really thick and started to suffocate the lake. Shad died and bass followed.