Hey Mark P. how was Cachuma

[Ray L.]

Tell us all you won...

[mark poulson]

It was tough.
I was net boy for Jake viescas the first and second day. He caught two for 4+, and that had us in second after the first day. We got skunked the second day, and I think the winners, Ron Licari and Mike Carpenter, had something like 12lb. For two days. Like I said, it was tough.
I think Ron C. is right, the fish are way behind in the spawn. That lake come up so much so fast, there wasn't any forage for the fish that come up shallow with the rising water. In lots of places the shorline move over a quarter of a mile. That's a lot of new lake, for the forage and the bass. I don't think the crawdads move up as fast as the bass, and the shad are learning a whole new lake, too.
We saw bass busting shad in the shallows, and even saw a really big crawdad in the shallows on Jackrabbit, but the thing that really stuck out to me was how many HUGE carp are cruising the shallows.
Forget the trout derby, they need a carp derby! Crossbows!
Mark

[propgun]

Hey mark
I agree lets see a carp tournament with the bows. I couldn't belive the size on some of those carp Swimming in packs.
Ron Licari

[TomG]

I am not sure they are way behind on the spawn, about a month ago I saw lots of fry in some of the major coves. I think the majority have spawned.

[propgun]

I would agree with you it was like a post spawn pattern if you could put a pattern to the fish. Lots of fry and bass were protecting the fry.
Ron Licari

[mark poulson]

Ron,
I saw the fry, too. Maybe the spawn will just stretch out over several more months. It sure is different, and I'm sure Ron C is right that all the new water, plus the mixed up weather, has really made the spawn an unusal one. I've never had that tough a bite in the late spring at Cachuma, but, then again, I've never fished it for bass when it was this high.
Given a choice between drought and this, I'll take this.
Mark

[propgun]

No dout I'll take the high water level over the drought any day. It sure was nice to see water flowing in the creeks. Even though Mike and I managed to find the fish it was a tough bite. To be honest I think that we were just lucky.

Tight lines
Ron

[Ron C]

...my pre-fishing partner Jim Tatum caught a 9 1/2 pounder that was what I call "half spawned out". She was obviously still holding eggs and ready to spawn again (bloody tail, bulging red vent), but it was obvious that she had also already half spawned (concaved belly, beat-up, etc.). I seriously believe that this is what has been happening throughout the entire state this year because of the abundance of rain and the constant cold fronts coming through (and we've got another one coming through right now). Keep in mind that most bass spawn more than once, especially those between 6 and 12 pounds. The 17 pounder that used to be in the giant aquarium at Bass Pro Shops in Missouri spawned four times one spring. Of course that was under controlled water temperatures, too.

How many of you guys have seen the 4 to 6 inch bass in our lakes lately? These fish are three or four months old. That means they hatched in February or March, right in the midst of all of those winter storms. But even during those storms we had a few days of warm weather and water temps hovering around 58 degrees, which was all they needed.

As I said before, I believe that there are still bass in every stage of the spawn in most of our lakes. Don’t forget that bass have been on this earth for millions of years (determined through fossil samples). They have certainly learned to adapt to their environment rather well, I’d say.