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Cachuma Lake and Reports

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Thursday, Apr 18
Hi: 76 ° F
Lo: 49 ° F
Today
Partly Sunny
Precip: 0%
Tonight
Patchy Fog
Precip: 0%

Friday, December 16th, 2005

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    Water Temp: 57

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Smallmouth biting in 10 - 35ft on jigs. All the smallmouth were between 2 - 2.8 lbs. A couple of largemouth mixed in but small.
    City: Oxnard

    Tips: Fish steep rock with a 1/2 ounce Yamamoto spider jig (two piece) 5" twin tail. Watermelon red flake. Fish slow. Fish were not agressive

Wednesday, November 23rd, 2005

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    Water Temp: 61-62

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Partly cloudy and warm. Took a couple of hours to run up. 2 nice dropshot fish. Both off ledges in 20-25 ft. Increasing clouds in advance of weather change but lots of fish on screen. Trout guys are having to go deep 5-6 colors. Lots of folks catching blue gill and red ear. Red ear are in 30-35 ft and biting meal worms. The campground is full! Quite a few boats out but not that many after bass.
    City: Santa Barbara

    Tips: Happy Thanksgiving!!

Sunday, November 6th, 2005

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    Water Temp: 62-64

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Pre storm conditions, partly cloudy. Variable winds, no afternoon gusts. Lazy day throwing a drop shot with wife for 3 hours. A couple of small fish but nothing great. Lots of Red Ear being caught but overall about small hand size. Trout starting to come up shallower, wife caught 15" on drop shot plastic worm in 12 ft.
    City: Santa Barbara

Friday, November 4th, 2005

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    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Lanched and it was pretty cold and i decided to try my luck in the weeds in santa cruz bay was suprised to see that the water level has dropped a good six feet since april. i started out with a buzzbait but no takers. i switch to that new lure from storm that resembles a shad. i had a blast with about 13 .8-2 pound bass in a one hour span.i headed to harveys cove and worked a white yum dinger around in the bushed and caught a huge blue gill weighing about 2-3 pounds. saw lots of minnows still wondering if anyone hasan explanation? Also i saw a huge red eared slider about twelve inches long swim by. i have fished cachuma for many years and have never seen a turtle. ui alsosaw alot of crawfish. some 3-4 inches in length. caught two 2.5 pounders in the shallow branches in the cove farthest north west. water is starting to cool and i am waiting for the big fish. kelly and Garett good to see you guys getting along. i have noticed many angry anglers on the lake lately. So have even yelled at me for casting in their spot when i was about three foot ball fields away and behind them. Well good to see some nice anglers. And to everyone i will see you on the water.
    City: Santa Maria

Friday, September 30th, 2005

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    Water Temp: 69 to70

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Reports are still for "slow". Launched at 7am with personal assistant in 62 deg weather w/light West wind and bluebird sky. Temp was 100 by 11:30. No takers and few follows on a buzz and a crank on steep banks. 2 dropshot fish on flat at 25 ft. Staff reports little action on anything. About 8-10 bass boats out, prefishing WON?
    City: Santa Barbara

Monday, September 12th, 2005

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    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: fished double buzz in the morning for 2 keepers and plenty of dinks. Then slow rolled blades for 2 more keepers and 3 more that came off at the boat. no bites on drop shot or shaking worms??fished friday the 9th for 4 blade fish with in first 20 min, 2 crank smallies before noon, and 2 drop shot fish by 2pm. all keepers
    City: Ojai

    Tips: stick with the blades all day for a limit

Sunday, September 11th, 2005

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    Water Temp: 71.5 to 73

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Launched at 7am. Clear skies and 51 deg. despite forecast of overcast. Threw big double buzz bait as I learned from Kelley Ripa!! Lots of follows but no big fish (I need more practice). Ended up with 3 dinks. Big guys seem to still be hiding. Water temp and day time temps are slightly lower than last week.
    NOTE: Launch now opens at 6:30am.
    City: Santa Barbara

Saturday, September 10th, 2005

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    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Went to Cachuma today with a partner. Went straight to Santa Cruz bay and started fishing the grasslines. Caught several 1-1.5 pounders one nice ~ 2 lb, and the rest of the day we caught more 4-8 inch fish than you could shake a stick at. Talk about aggressive, the little ones were hitting cranks bigger than they were. Partner even managed to caugh a trout on a crank bait. Partner caught one real nice smallie that was loaded with 1 inch or smaller shad. Winds were howling later on so piloting the boat was a chore. Over all it was a fun day. Just wish the fish were bigger. Can't wait for cooler weather and the really big fish
    City: Lompoc

    Tips: cranks, senkos in 0-16 feet of water. Shad color for both

Sunday, September 4th, 2005

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    Water Temp: 75

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: I hadn't been to Cachuma for a visit in months and the boat was down so I took fellow nutcase Jim Garrett up on a generous offer to ferry me around. Launched without a hitch and ya gotta love the three day Labor day weekend crowd as they were stacked in the campgrounds but I think I only saw 2 Bass boats the whole day....The trout are up at 5 colors now where as they were at 7-8 two weeks ago so something is moving. I had a decent morning of getting to know Jim and catching a few decent fish. I wouldn't say by years past standards that things are on fire but there is the beggings of a topwater bite starting to appear and it bodes well for the fall. Interesting side note that while we were having a little breakfast an area about 1/2 an acre in size just started boiling so we went over to investigate and I tossed out a dd16 and had a CLOUD of 6 inch bass follow it. I talked to some friends who are actually fishing for these fish with their kids and they said it was non-stop....I wish they would stop but I understand the need for keeping the kiddies interested. We are in for a heck of a fishery. We caught some dropshot fish even a few legals and cut out around 1:00 ish. Thank you Jim for get'n my line wet and for posting for all the others who haven't as it is much appriciated...Side note: there are still BIG crappie being taken by the trout trollers at the same depths as the trout and there is a bluegil bite for the first time in years.

    Later Rip
    City: Santa Barbara

Thursday, August 25th, 2005

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    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Took the RV and Boat up. Fished Thursday AM with a little fog around. 2 Pop R fish in Santa Cruz. Got 4 more split shot in 20 ft. A regular there got 5 or 6 including a 6.5 weighed at the dock. Regulars are reporting slightly improving conditions. Using everything though, Buzz baits and shallow cranks, blades, etc. No fog Fri, 2 small fish.

    American Bass had a tourney Sat and hoping they report some of their experience. They clammed up to me!
    City: Santa Barbara

    Tips: I am optimistically saying that the bite is improving!!

Friday, August 5th, 2005

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    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: was wondering were u are catching all the bluegill
    City: Santa maria

Tuesday, July 12th, 2005

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    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: No morning clouds, light winds all day. Casual fishing with a friend and his Grandson. Saw lots of carp! A few small bass follows on a shallow crank then nada. Resorted to meal worms and blue gill. Kid caught and released about 30 and had a ball.
    City: Santa Barbara

Thursday, July 7th, 2005

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    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: i went out and saw that the water temp was very high so i used a fast presentation with a buzzbait and had no luck. Then i tried a fast moving jig no luck. then i moved to a cove across the way from the farthest restroom south and tried one of those new storm crankbaits that resemble bluegill. i casted it and retrieved it in a erratic motion and had the best fishing day of my life. In a span of 1-2 hours i had boated around 20 fishing on one shoreline. depth 2-10 feet. largest fish 6pounds 10 ounces. i had seen this before this time of year because the fish get tired of shad for some reason and switch over to eating bluegill that take much longer to grow so they are probly just the right size. to bad i wasnt entered in a tournament
    City: Santa maria

Tuesday, June 28th, 2005

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    Water Temp: 70 to 72

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Very slow! Went for top water. No luck. Fish are hiding somewhere!. Got a couple of bites off the walls with a leadhead but nada. Weather was overcast, burned off at 10am. Light wind.
    City: Santa Barbara

Tuesday, June 21st, 2005

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    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Fished 7am to 10:30 dinging around the lake. Didn't see much. Other fishermen were zipping back and forth so they probably weren't on a good spot or pattern. Caught 2 small largemouths off the wall opposite marina. Motoroil worm on leadhead. Carp are less obvious. Wind came up early at 10:30. Jim at the marina said it has been slow.
    City: Santa Barbara

Saturday, June 11th, 2005

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    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Overcast and mid 50's. Launch 7am with personal assistant (wife, Judy). Light ripple. Couldn't resist trying topwater Pop-R, Spook and Segoi. Worked shore from marina to outhouse pt toward dam. Jumping around. Saw 1 small fish caught on white spinnerbait. After 9am, threw leadheads with worms on wall around Bobcat. Nada! Drop shot on Santa Cruz point for a while. Early lunch and that was it.
    City: Santa Barbara

    Tips: Grilled Ham and Cheese was best bet for the day!

Friday, June 10th, 2005

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    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Overcast with ripple on the water. 55 deg at 6am. Couldn't find any topwater. Tried Spook, PopR and Sugoi alternating. 9am to 10am, 2 small bass on the wall btween Bobcat and Santa Cruz 1/4 oz jighead with green worm. Will try again tomorrow.
    City: Santa Barbara

Saturday, June 4th, 2005

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    Water Temp: 70+

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: I have actually been out every week since my last report and it isn't good. The reaction bite has been nonexistant except for some very lucky few and even then it isn't very good by the standards of years past. At this time last year I was tearing up fish on swimbaits and Buzzbaits. I have yet to get any reaction to a buzzbait this year. There are some shallow fish but they don't seem to want to commit to the swimbait ....I have been tossing my huddelston,M.S. Slammer and my new 3:16 Arramagedon and they don't care how pretty they are they are just not having anything to do with them. I have trown frogs until my arm was worn out and still nothing. I don't think there is a shallow population right now. Hard to think of a reason why...There have been major shad spawns going off and we are into another one as of this week. They were gone last week and it looked like they were going to go off this week but with this new spawn there is just a ton of bait.My best pattern right now if you NEED to catch some fish is to dropshot on the main lake on the walls. It's not a winning pattern but you will get some smallmouth and occasional largemouth. I wouldn't waste my time looking for something that just isn't there. You can blow the whole morning looking for a topwater fish but it is not there and wishing it was has not helped me yet. I will be the first to post when this outlook changes. If anyone else is doing differently it would be nice to see them post. I have been fishing here for over 25 years and this is the worst case of lockjaw I can remember.
    City: Santa Barbara

    Tips: If I was in a tournament it would be splitshot or dropshot with a robo worm 6 inch oxblood light red flake. At the very least you might overcome someones 3 pounder with your numbers! It's Really tough right now!

Saturday, April 30th, 2005

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    Water Temp: 63+

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Water has cleared up even more and there was more activity than last week. I was right on about the jerkbait swimbait prediction. Santa Barbara Bass Club had something like 12 fish for fourteen anglers and two guy's had 9 of those. It is not really that good yet. I got some fish basically all day long and cannot wait for this weekend to see if I can get some of the better fish I saw to go. There were a bunch of fish that seemed uncommited to a bed and a few that were. If it's possible the lake is a foot-1/2foot higher than last week. Smaller fish on dropshot this week.
    City: Santa Barbara

    Tips: If you open your eyes and look you will see the microscopic bass fry that seem to be all over the shallows...you might try fishing your stuff near them and see if you can get one that is trying to protect the fry.

Friday, April 29th, 2005

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    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Saw more fish today than in weeks past. Reaction bite is picking up with a few on the blades and a few on the plastics. Saw a few fish on the beds in pairs. Were on the move now and the action is heating up nicely.
    City: Santa Ynez