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Sunday, April 16th, 2006

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    Water Temp: 58-60

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: I went to Cachuma on easter sunday. Headed out to Santa Clara cove and went far back to the barriers. We got 4 Largemouth in the 1-3 lb range and a 3 lb smallmouth.
    City: Ventura

    Tips: Texas rig with gary yamamoto spider baits.

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    Water Temp: 58-59

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Fished Jackrabbit in AM and got 2 small fish on Pop R. Swirl on Spook but no takers. Tried Craw Color crank but no luck. Fished Johnson walls going in with spinner, nada, not much on screen either. Best luck on Jackrabbit and off Outhouse Point with a dropshot. Lots of smallies.
    City: Santa Barbara

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    Water Temp: 57

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: A nice Easter Sunday and not many boats on the water this morning. Ramp is still closed till7AM but Ranger did open it at 6:35 today. Weather started out great! Nice temps and looking towards a good day but rain is in the forecast for late afternoon.
    Hit Cachuma Bay along wals with drop-shot and FX People Worm. Hit on 4th cast and a nice 3 pounder. Trolled along wall in Bay and hit another smaller Large then 2 smallies. Tossed a craw colered crank and picked up three more smallies. Slowed down so headed towards E-Point -- Still slow and only one smallie, Hit Clark Canyon area with nothing to show. Weather deteriorating at about 11:30 and headed towards Santa Cruz Point. Two more smallies but no big mouths. Light sprinkle and skies dark towards santa Ynez -- Headed in. Hard rain in Los Olivos on the way back.
    City: Santa Maria

    Tips: Cranks and drop shots seemed to work early - No luck on Sammie Swims -- Points and walls are holding fish -- Better weather will help.

Saturday, April 15th, 2006

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    Water Temp: 60

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: slow fishing in am,picked up after noon,drop shot ox blood robo 4.5,1-5 feet,rocky areas

    Tips: ox blood robo 4.5 inch,drop shot,shake fast

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    Water Temp: 59

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: I fished dawn to dusk on Saturday and the fish really put on the feed bag. I think they liked the extra foot of water they had over last weeks dropping of 3 feet. I caught fish on everything everywhere. I fished the clearwater portion of the lake and early on got into a senko bite that literally went on all day long. The afternoon bite seemed to produce some better weight. I could have put away everything in the boat and just used a ripbait and a senko. Spring has sprung and they are not looking like they are going to hold up much longer. I never did see a largemouth on a bed during my entire day on the water. Big fish was a five pounder that I flipped under some nasty stuff. I could not get another flip fish over 10 inches so I stopped flipping and backed off my presentation. I'd rip a bait until I got to a likely spawn area then I'd plunk the senko in the areas infront of what I'd been flipping. Bingo! They would flash on the way out to eat the bait and run like hell after they did get the bait. I had a 3 pound largemouth tail walk 15 feet and dawg me like a smallmouth. All and all I felt my Saturday was epic and worth remembering. I don't often get to fish a senko so it was fun to experiment with them. I saw a lot of folks tossing blades but I was happy with my set up and didn't want to fuss with something that was working. I tossed my huddleston for hours for nada and flipped my 3:16 mission fish but was unable to get anything going so I just caught fish. 3 of my smallmouth I considered to be "chunk style" but the rest were respectable with the ocasional runts in the mix. Two of those three came on senkos and the other was on a ripbait. My two better largemouth came flipping and on the same senko that I caught all my fish on.
    City: Santa Barbara

    Tips: Brown....jigs,senkos,worms....Ripbait was Tennessee shad in nature which I made long,long casts with and with wicked rips with my 7 foot rod I eliceted just as many strikes as a slower rip pause technique. I guess you just have to be at the right spot at the right time. I observed packs of up to 10 fish all largemouth cruising the backs of coves but they were all less than 12 inchers??? I wonder what that means?

Saturday, April 8th, 2006

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    Water Temp: 56

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: I fished Saturday and stayed in the lower portion of the lake from opening until 11:00. I did poorly from Santa Cruz to the Narrows. I dumped 3 flip fish "largemouth" trying to get them out of the jungle and into my hand. Other than those fish nothing seemed to get me so much as a nibble whether on shallow flats/points/dropoffs/deep it just didn't seem to matter. At 11:00 I went up to clearer water and had a limit of smallmouth in no time and a 5 and a half pounder on a Huddelston swimbait. I went in and had lunch and later picked apart the smallmouth in the clearwater and BOATED two flip fish from clearer debrie fields towards the backs of the coves and called it a day while still whacking the smallmouth.
    City: Santa Barbara

    Tips: If you use a rip bait in the clear water you will catch fish just nothing that will win you any acolades or awards. It was just fun fishing with just enough challange to make it interesting and the thrill only a smallmouth can add to a battle. If you are thinking big largemouth think deep or super shallow. The smallmouth appeared to be in the beginings of the bays but not the backs. Rather on the small points infront of the smalish coves and wall indentations along the entrances to the bays. The farther I went into an arm ripp'n the less success I had. I caught fish on three colors of jigs so I guess color doesn't matter! This coming storm SHOULD put the fish off one more time. Yes, some fish are in the early stages of spawning but the are rare and are likely smallmouth with these water temperatures and influxs and releases of water all of which just makes for grumpy fishing!

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    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished from 6:40 till about one lake opens at 7 now. Caught a limit of smallmouth 1-3 pounds. Most on a shallow running crankbait on the North Western side of the lake. Was a nice day today and the fihing seems to getting alot better so i am excited for the up coming weeks when the bite will start to ge hot. Didnt catch one large mouth maybe they are still deep but the small mouth bite was good. also caught a 2 pound trout in six feet of water on a shallow jerk bait thought that was wierd but fishing seems to look promiseing for the up coming weeks if there isnt another huge cold front.
    City: Santa Maria

    Tips: Crankbaits and also caught a bass with two crawfish in his mouth if that tells you anything lol

Thursday, April 6th, 2006

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    Water Temp: 56

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Everything down at the Island end is muddy. Didn't see a lot of big debris though. Back of coves with inflow also muddy. Seems to be lots of fish in Jackrabbit on the flats; only dropshotted with 7 yr old and he got 3!! Fish on screen in Little Cachuma but no biters.
    City: Santa Barbara

Sunday, March 5th, 2006

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    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Does anyone know where to buy crawfish at.

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    Water Temp: 54-56

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: I fished Sunday and while it wasn't as epic as the week before it was still an all day pick on both largemouth and smallmouth. I would have to say that spring has sprung and you can start fishing the historicly better spots now and catch fish. Basically I fought an east wind all day long and was still able to find fish that were willing to bite. In some spots we caught as many as 10 fish on worms and jigs after we went to them over and over and over we still would catch one or two more. Big fish of the day ....I was rip'n a jerkbait when I got hammered. At first it took off for deep water,then after a few headshakes it screamed right at me and under the boat. I was using 8 pound maxima and I had to play the fish which is something I rarely do. At that point I told my partner for the day to get my net out of the back locker. I had trouble keeping her from diving under the boat and had to clear my trolling motor on two seperate occasions. My partner asked if catfish ate ripbaits and I told him it wasn't a catfish as it wasn't swimming like one. I exclaimed I just wanted my bait back which of course my partner scoffed at...But it was true I just wanted that rip bait back. I finally grabbed my line and forced the fish up to the surface while leaving the drag light in case it wanted to go on another tear. Up popped a huge carp with my bait stuck under it's chin. My partner < now dubbed a tree hugger ! > wouldn't let beat the sucker over the head with an oar so we realesed one of God's creatures back to fight another day. He says it was 25 pounds....I don't care I just don't want them in my lake! I say spring has sprung because almost all the largemouth were smaller males. My best bait for the day was a brown jig. My partner caught them on a blade,Crank,worm,jig,ripbait. The water was up two feet from last week and had gained alot of color yet wasn't muddy. The inflow is slow and clear so the mainlake water temps. are cooler and didn't warm much through the day and won't likely do much again this coming week. I won't be fishing this style next week as I'm go'n hunting for the bigger girls a different way. The color for the jig didn't matter as I used 3 different Yamamoto twintails with the same results. My partner caught his dropshot fish on Robo worms in Arrons Magic and Oxblood. I think a MMM III would be a great pick! Crank was craw colored and the blade was white with dbl. chrome willow.
    City: Santa Barbara

    Tips: The best method for us this day was to fish the ripbait or blade until we connected and if the spot was conducive to fishing it slower with the dropshot or jig we did and found our best spot this way....otherwise we just let the wind keep shoving us along while we kept slinging away...we revisted our better spots all day long and caught fish on them every pass through.

Saturday, February 25th, 2006

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    Water Temp: 54-56

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Had an awesome day on Cachuma Saturday. I took out a new friend and we were the only ones in line when they opened the gate so off we went. Because I had some preconcieved ideas about where the fish were and what they were doing after the snow of last week our morning started slow. I missed one and my partner dumped one. We hit another spot just like the first and my partner got a largemouth on a blade but I didn't want to throw blades as the water was VERY clear. The coming rains should help that out a bit. We kept at it and had a slow pick on both largemouth and smallmouth on cranks,blades,jerkbaits and dropshot. Around 10:30 the wind picked up in earnest and I picked up a spider jig. On 3 consecutive casts I caught smallmouth that were 3+ pounds. We went in and had lunch and back on the lake the wind had died off some and so had the bite. we caught maybe 6-7 more fish and I put him on the dock at 4:00. I went back out and fished until 5:15. The last hour and a half the fish went nutz. I lost count on the smallmouth and had 3 very nice largemouth also. The smallmouth were all very big..For Cachuma as they were all at or better than three pounds. I caught some and there would be fish chasing the hooked fish trying to snatch the bait out of the hooked fishes mouth. It is still early and the water has cooled so the fish backed off aways waiting out the late winter pattern before their push to spawn. It will only get better so put on some fresh line and sharpen your hooks so you are ready when The whole lake goes off.
    City: Santa Barbara

    Tips: oxblood robo worms, 3/4 oz spider jigs, brown and purple jigs, white with chrome willow leaf blade, Chrome black jerkbait and craw colored cranks. They still haven't settled down onto a typical spring pattern but time will cure this ill.

Friday, February 24th, 2006

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    Water Temp: 54--58

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Just got into bass fishing last year and have been fishing the local lakes. Haven't had a whole lot of success and yesterday was no excetion. Fished mainly lake points throwing crankbaits and dropshotting. Ended up catching 3 largemouth and 2 smallies. Overall another tough day on the water. One largemouth went about 3 1/2 and one of the smallies was about 2 1/2. Weather was absolutly beautiful.
    City: Ventura

    Tips: Anyone have any tips for me. Is there a lot of offshore structure to fish that I dont know about or do most people fish the lake points and shoreline? Any tips would be appreciated. Thanks

Saturday, February 11th, 2006

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    Water Temp: 54-58

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Water Temps are up but There are few fish taking advantage of it. There was a trout and bass tournament going on Saturday. I took a guy named Jeramy sp. out as his father in law had'nt put the new registration decals on the boat so they turned him around at the gate. Not knowing what I was getting into I told him to just bring his rods and the most minamal of tackle boxes and away we went. The local talant was all over my spots buy the time we got away from the dock so I went into the narrows and blanked for a bit. I had Him fish a worm while I beat the backs of the coves. Zip! I had him tie on a white spinnerbait and we went over to arrowhead island and he whacked a really nice smallmouth. We got cut off so I went to my number one morning spot that had been occupied by as it turns out the winners of the tournament....I guess they know what I know about that spot. I had Jeramy fish the worm while I beat the spot for nothing. Got one he says...I look back and he's got a 4 pounder on the worm. Okay! I pulled out and away and we started running the banks with his spinnerbait and me crankin. Wham! he gets the best fish of the day ...Hmmmpf I better get a blade on....we fished for a mile without getting bit. Then I caught two sweet largemouth on the blade. I put him on the dock at 11:30 had lunch and went out to try some new stuff. I got off the water and watched the weigh in...Nobody caught there fish the same way! There was no pattern as fish were caught every way that is possible. What didn't work for others worked for someone else. Cachuma is really in transition now. Things change daily this time of year and they will be hard to pattern for a few more weeks. The spoon bite is gone but the fish are still there! I expect the fish to break wide open by the next full moon...unless we have some weather. None of the other guys are having much fun right now either so I guess the real key is to just go fishing.
    City: Santa Barbara

    Tips: I have been getting fish on worms, jigs, cranks, blades and kreature type baits also. The key is to find the presentation and depth that gets them to eat. there has been no hesitation when I do get bit I am hammered so time should the solution

Friday, February 10th, 2006

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    Water Temp: 55 or so

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: End day of a hot spell, clear skies at 8am. Tried fishing steep walls in Cachuma and wall east end. Switch to leadhead with worm and found one very good fish off Johnson entrance cliffs. Tried various other things for 2 little guys.
    City: Santa Barbara

    Tips: Cooler weather returning with a chance of some early morning fog. Wind came up about 12:30. Not bad though.

Sunday, January 29th, 2006

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    Water Temp: 54

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: I only fished from first light until eleven. I caught fish on crawdad colored cranks in the morning at Arrowhead island but not of any size, Keepers but that is all. I doggedly went back into big Cachuma and tossed blades and cranks until 9;00 with a few small fish and trout and pulled up stakes and fished jigs for another fruitless hour. Back to the spoon! I caught maybe half a dozen in Johnsons and burned down to Santa Cruz for the last hour. I'm sure a fella could dropshot some small fish but the larger fish have not shown scale or fin as of yet. The good thing was there were maybe 6 bass boats on the water and there was plenty of room unless you wanted to toss swimbaits! I just don't feel like wasting my precious time when I have such a limited day. All the prime locations were getting burned and I'm sure the fellas will report on there sucess or lack of it here on the reports page.Wanna Bet! My final hour was spent spooning in Santa Cruz and I am ashamed to say that I sat 75 yards off a father and his two boys and fished their used water. I know I had ten fish ...two were trout....but sadly the size was gone and no smallmouths but fish that tugged my line non the less. The wind was just fixing to blow good when I left which means the bite was only going to get better but ....Honey-do's forced my early retirement. To my credit I did go over and explain why I caught fish on the spoon when the three after switching to the spoon only caught one in my last hour of fishing. I gave them my secret and sent them off to my best location when the wind blows but sadly a friend of mine found them inside a cove staying out of the wind around noon tossing crankbaits.
    City: Santa Barbara

    Tips: Wind and fog are your friend and will only make things better during your day at Cachuma. Make sure you can tough it out at the most wind tossed locations and you will have an exceptional day here. The trout are on the top and down to two colors with many fish coming on Rapala's with a lot line let out right on top. The best areas for trout are the mouths of the coves. Going in and out of the bigger coves ..Johnsons and Big Cachuma paid off for all thr trollers when I saw and spoke with them...

    RIP

Wednesday, January 18th, 2006

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    Water Temp: 54

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Cold air temps greeted me along with assorted Eagles and Osprey's. It was a good day to nature watch all day long. I started out cranking my favorite winter holes in Big Chachuma but was only rewarded with some trout and a 12 inch largemouth. I switched to jigs for an hour without so much as a tap. I pulled out and started spooning and things are different from two weeks ago. Yes I caught 20+ fish but they were not of the quality from the weeks before. I mean the average fish was just keeper size I might have had about 13-14 pounds but I had to work for the fish. I did manage 3 largemouth in the 3 pound range but in the morning I had no smallmouth. I had lunch and went back out. Since the wind was picking up I decided to spoon the walls. First cast was a smallmouth. I caught maybe 5 smallmouth but there was no rhyme or reason to their location. I'd get one in 10 feet and the next in 40. The deeper fish seemed larger. I went along the breaks and points using my bouys to precisely fish the areas and found that it made a world of difference as I could look back and relize that the time it takes to take a fish off and start fishing again really puts you way off from where you located that fish. It was strange to me but areas that had produced on my last outing were no where near as good. A bigger surprise was when I located the wood on these areas there was nobody home. The biggest surprise however came when I got bit and could not move my rod. I thought at first that I had a fish stuck in the wood but then it started moving around and by god I just couldn't get her to come up. I spent 15 minutes slowly making ground when I got her up...Well if you ever seen the catfish on the wall at the marina it was bigger. I really just wanted my spoon back so I went to the back locker and got out my net. It is telescopic so that was fun...dealing with this grandma cat and trying to get the net ready. The only problem was she didn't fit in the net! So I worked her up front and got down on the deck and grabed the hook with my needle nose pliers. She then procedid to start rolling like an alligator. Snap! I broke the hook and away she went. I don't know what she weighed but it was the biggest catfish I've ever seen in my life alive and swimming. I figure a modest 40 pounds. The rest of the day was very anticlimatic as the wind just plain stopped and the lake turned to glass. That was it for everything. I managed 3 fish in the last hour and got off the lake at 4:00. Most of my action took place on main lake points on the side that normally gets wind. Once I got on the down current side it was way less productive. I think the fish are moving shallow now and I will only have less action on the spoon even though the water temps fell and I'm sure that a lot of shad died because of it. I did better at 25-30 than deeper. I thought for sure the cold water would have the fish used to seeing more shad dying which to me meant that they would have been on the spoon better as they had shad fluttering around them more but that was not the case. It's time to go shallow and that is were I'll be going on my next trip.
    City: Santa Barbara

    Tips: mainlake areas with shallow deep access were best. If you have wind breakout your dropshot and hit the walls as they are much more active with the wind. They will soon be on the crawfish with a vengance so get you jigs in order!

Tuesday, January 3rd, 2006

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    Water Temp: 55 or so

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Went out Friday, 01/03 and Sunday 01/05. Mostly fishing trout with Wife and GKids. Trolling needlefish worked great Friday but continued warm weather slowed the bite for me.

    Saw bas marking at 25 fet or so along flats. Caught 2 big Crappie trolling also.
    City: Santa Barbara

Friday, December 23rd, 2005

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    Water Temp: 54-57

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Caught 10 largemouths and 2 smallies on texas rigged creature baits in 10-25 ft. A great day on the water for the end of December.
    City: Vandenberg AFB

    Tips: If your bait weighs a little too much, set the hook. Only felt one "bump" all day.

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    Water Temp: 58-60

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Arr at 9am with Personal Assistant. Partly Cloudy about 60 deg. Lgt/vrbl winds. Fished wall a bit. Wife using worm, I threw D14 for 1 fish. Moved to Santa Cruz and drop shot. Got 4 fair fish. Fish seem to be in 18-25 feet. Left at 12:30. Wind just starting to come up from Dam.
    City: Santa Barbara

Wednesday, December 21st, 2005

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    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Does anyone know of any good tackle shops in the Santa AMria area it seems all we got up here is kmart and walmart. well thanks for your time and replies
    City: Santa Maria