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Sunday, January 20th, 2008

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    Water Temp: 58-60

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: This Lake is heading Towards being closed because of a POSSIBILITY!!!


    If you can help with a show of support it would mean alot....I started a new job 10 days ago so I'm out but anyone who reads this report and can make it to the meeting It would be swell of you if you could make an appearance ....Will it make a difference in the out come of the meeting....My gut feeling is no and they are going to shoot themselves in the foot to prove it.




    Location: So. Cal
    Sun Jan 20, 2008 3:40 pm Re: Quagga Mussel

    Article in the Ventura County Star:

    The next board meeting is Wednesday, February 13, 2008 at 4:30 pm. The location has yet to be determined. I will post here and it will be on the forum as soon as I find out It will be posted here. It is entirely possible that the board will be voting to close the lake at this meeting.
    City: Ojai

    Tips: Keep abreast of this subject by reading the forum page and being an involved member and not just someone who reads a report and takes what they can get. It's our resource and we need to keep it available....They are chipping away at our freedoms here gang....Make a difference! The Premiere bass lake in the U.S.

    Rip

Saturday, January 19th, 2008

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    Water Temp: 57-58

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Got there late about 10:30am. Hit up the area around Dead Horse and found 2 fish on a DD-22 and 1 on Texas rigged plastic around 20'-25' within an hour. Found 1 more about 2:00pm on the DD-22 at the East side of the island. All fish were 1.5-3 lbs nothing big -- tough bite.
    City: El Segundo

Friday, January 18th, 2008

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    Water Temp: 56

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Not as good when I was out there on the 29th. If you know me I threw swimbaits from noon till close. Heard it was tough out there, had a couple of followers and one good bite. Going out there on the 19th. Trout they planted were about 12 inches and very dark in color. good luck chief
    City: Oakview

    Tips: I got lucky to get a 10 & 9 a week after the plant on the 29th. Should be good in the next couple of days. Break out the big stuff.

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    Water Temp: 58-60

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Threw swimbaits for 4 hours. I had a 5 pounder on an osprey in less than 15 feet in the first 20 minutes then it was dead for me. They just planted trout this morning so it should help this bite even more. Keep chuck'n and winding with something you believe in and you'll do fine...
    City: Ojai

    Tips: It's time to toss your big stuff kids as the bigger girls are start'n to think about things a little more seriously.

Saturday, January 12th, 2008

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    Water Temp: 58-62

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: First out..The lake is up 2 feet and a little dingy but unfortunately the shad are still up by the truckloads. I tossed a huddleston for 4 hours without a follow or tap but that's fishing..Flipped to a spoon and had limited sucess. 8 bass for the day and one spot was good for 4 fish in short order. None were much over 2--2 1/2 pounds.... I had a three surprises in 10 minutes when I found what I think is an off shore boulder with smaller rock all around or an outcroping with a crevice..either way if you dangle a spoon down along it and get it to fall into the "hole" there were some big ol' catfish in there. The first one was 20 pounds or so and had the tail of a freshly eaten trout sticking out of it's throat. The very next drop produced a bigger catfish that I estimate at 5 pounds bigger with a hell belly on it...Really a fine looking fish and after cutting off some line, retieing, and re locating the hole about 5 minutes later I stuck another cat that started rolling like an alligator and broke me off after a minuter or two...I don't carry a net so It was fun wrestling withese big blue channels and getting my spoon back...Was surprised by the trout tail. I caught all spoon fish in 40 to 55 feet.
    City: Ojai

    Tips: With all the shallow bait the big fish are up and it's my thinking that a big juicy get it all in one bite rainbow is better than a supersized order of shad. A spinnerbait should elicite a better reaction size fish and the shallow worm biters that you can dropshot up in the first few hours have bigger fish right in there with them at this time. But the better fish don't seem to prone to making an error yet...Maybe the warm water will finally push the fish onto a craw bite soon as I believe Floridas are more prone to spawn early than Northerns....But that's just me we'll have to wait and see what the comming weeks bring. The big tournament on the 25th should be a hoot and I hope to learn by watching. Come to the lake the 25th and watch the spectical that is big bass at it's most pure form...50 boats with some of the best sticks California has produced going toe to toe. It's sure to be a barnburner.

Friday, December 28th, 2007

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    Water Temp: 57 (i think)

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Hit Casitas as usual looking for some fish. Started chucking the swimmy and had a couple followers. 1 had to be a pig, the thing must have gone a good 8-10 inches...about the same size as my bait...lol...

    Moved to the points and tossed the dropshot for 3 fish. Got two on back to back casts. Gave up after an hour of no bites. Started on the ice jig and pulled a crappie followed by a trout 30 minutes later. No bass.

    End of the day I catch one more on the carolina rig. 4 fish were all about 2 lbs
    City: Westlake

    Tips: Got all 4 fish in about 25 feet of water of minor points

Thursday, December 27th, 2007

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    Water Temp: 58-61

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: This report is a compilation of 12/27 and 12/30....I had a good morning on the 27th as I got up late and caught fish almost imediately. All on spoons and ice jigs from 40 to 60 feet. On the 30th things were tougher...the bait was lower and the skies were blue...went out late on the 30th> 9:00 ish and came home early 1:00 ish with 3 bites deep on spoons and no other takers or followers. I caught the 9 pounder that Kipp was refering to and it was a kick in the rear because I have not thrown a swimbait up until this time at Casitas all year....WHY??? The conditions have not been favorable until this day. At 3:00 in the afternoon the skies were dark/ the wind was blowing/ and I hadn't gotten a tap on a spoon in hours. I got to a prime looking spot and drug out the swimbait rod and tied up a Huddleston. On my fifth cast much to my surprise a had a tick. I reeled down and swept hard and I was on...After about 10 seconds I realised that my Calcutta 400 had broken something and it's positve stop or whatever was toast which allowed me to reel in two directions(not good) ...I got her to the boat and after a few scary moments I got my thumb in her mouth and had her in the boat. A really, really killer beautiful fish without a mark on her and bright silver/green. I didn't mess her up at all with my hook as I was so slow on the hookset that it was embedded in the lower lip but only just past the barb and it was an easy yank to get the 3/0 out....I fished a bit more but had to take her in and back to where I caught her for release as my battery on my scale was acting funny....I weighed 9 lb. 3 0z. the marina had her at 9....I'll take it!!!! I fished the swimbait for 3 hours on the 30th but no takers. I did catch 3 spoon fish but that bite seems to be tougher not better.Good luck to all and this upcoming storm is a godsend for those who would like to catch a serious swimbait fish as it REALLY REALLY helps to have the skies darkened up and some wave action going on. Just because YOU are uncomfortable believe me when I say it all goes away in an instant once you grab that fish by the lips.
    City: Ojai

    Tips: For the deep bite the meter is king....no marks no fish...here today gone tomorrow/here one minute gone the next. You have to move around until you and the circumstances = the right stuff...Shallow is as shallow does....quick first light and you have to be in the right spot or famine....I hope everyone has a great 08 and writes a report for us. Thanx Kipp as it all helps us guys who don't get out much...

    Rip

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    Water Temp: Didn't look

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Was on the water at gate opening. Most people I saw were either catching shad or buying shad off a couple kids at the dock. Kind of funny but ran into more than one boat with live shad and they were still not catching anything.

    Hit the sunken island first and caught three fish, one worm, one fluke, one Hula. Thought it was going to be a great day. That was it, all the usual spots were desserts, no marks at all. Too much shad in some spots so avoided. Rational, spots with out shad would hit something else, but places with out shad were so empty, not a single mark!

    The three fish were in 1-5 foot of water. Saw fish boiling in the morning almost on shore on the sunken island. (wanted to throw a top water but did not) Later saw no action, even going to the same spots I hit in the morning, like things went deep in the afternoon.

    Did see a guy get a 9 on swim bait. Guess I will try that next time, some day I will get one on a swim bait.

    Back to house chores, not sure I can get back out to after the new year

    Tips: None, fish are deep and shallow, guess experience will prevail!

Monday, December 24th, 2007

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    Water Temp: 58

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Hit the water about 10 a.m. and went straight to Station Canyon. Metered bait in the 50-60 foot range and using a tip on this site began spooning with Hopkins spoons and Ice Jigs (silver/blue.) Caught 5, with the largest around 4 lbs. Used a hypodermic needle to deflate and all fish swam back down. After about an hour the bite stopped and we went searching all over the lake without much success. Went back to Station Canyon but the bait was gone and the wind came up hard out of the northeast. Never did find any more active fish and the wind became unbearable by 4 p.m. Metered lots of fish on points and banks but couldn't get them to bite drop shot worms or jigs.

    Tips: Finding concentrations of bait was the key. A tip found on this site really put us into the fish.

Saturday, December 22nd, 2007

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    Water Temp: 53

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: All I can say is wow! It's getting really good up at casitas. My partner and I got out on the water pretty late as the am temps were below freezing. Plugged a breakfast burrito and some jamaican blue mountain at the snack shack, and then headed out to the southeast side of the island. We took Kelly's advice and started where we left off last time, fishing 53-71 feet. That just wasn't on. We had a few 3 pounders but nothing quality. Decided to adjust our approach and moved up to the 47 - 52 foot range. The shad balls were holding a bit deeper than last week but it didn't matter. The ice jig was a waste of time for us. Went to the Duh. After I put 7 fish in a row in the boat my partner was about to take a dump. Finally he hooks up. 14 pound bullcat! nice. By the time he gets the slime off his rig I put 2 more 5's on board. Fish are coughing up shad like crazy. Footballers. We plugged a few more and called it for a lunch at the snack shack.

    After a couple burgies and a quick run to the outhouse for my partner, we finally got back out on the water. I thought we'd go looking for some new water, so we headed to Station. Got a lot of good marks on the outer ledges, but all we could get were panfish.

    We ran a few more spots experimenting with some new baits. Saw a few guys netting shad freehand on the walls around the corner from mudhen point. They looked like they were struggling to get even a couple pieces of finbait. We pulled up outside of them and stroked a few more fish. As the day went on the bite got a bit shallower. By 3-4 pm we were working 41-46 feet exclusively. If you dropped to 47+ you were into the panfish, guaranteed.
    City: Somis

    Tips: Watch out for the chorizo and pepper jack burrito at the snack shack.

Thursday, December 20th, 2007

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    Water Temp: 59.5

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Was second boat on the water. Went to the cove that is thick with shad and tried spooning and throwing an ice jig to see if I could get any takers, nada. They planted on tuesday so I threw the swimbait the rest of the day. Had lots of followers and saw bass chasing trout at most of the spots I was fishing. Finally got one to play with me and landed a nice 9.5 on the swimbait. Threw it some more and only had more followers. Conditions seemed good for the swimbait but couldnt get many to play. Saw other boats netting and fishing with shad, with some success.
    City: ventura

    Tips: Fish were up shallow today, I stuck with the big bait all day. Live shad, spoons would probably work for numbers.

Monday, December 17th, 2007

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    Water Temp: 61

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Played hooky and went fishing from 7:00 until 1:00....Caught a fish right off in 30 feet on a spoon. It went dead with no takers so I moved on. I came upon several boats in a shallow cove and by the wheeling seagulls in the air I surmised that the bait was up and the locals were using live shad. I stayed "offshore" on a breakline and as I slowly eased into the area that was obviously having some action I managed to catch 4 more spoon fish in 35-40 feet. When I did get into the area I found it to be shallow in nature 10 to 5 feet and had a slick of shad just below netting depth but still visable ( I'm sure that earlier the bait had been right on top ) . I never saw a boil the whole time I was there ( 1 hour ) I don't use live bait but it's always intresting to watch the results. The other boat in area was throwing a shad type swimbait and not having any success. The live bait guys caught two three pounders but in my mind they were going about the fishing wrong. If I flyline a shad where there are a zillion shad than am I not one in a zillion? For my buck I'd had taken that healthy bait and flylined them on the mainlake points that have no schools of shad on them....I'm sure that the action would have been at least as good and most likely better. I went about spooning in deep and shallow without any action so I went in for lunch. Back out to my best spoon spot yielded me my best fish of the day...just over 3 pounds and that was it. I am used to catching more than one spoon fish on a spot and this has not been the case for me in my last two outings here. It must be because of a lack of cocentrations of bait so I must be barking up the wrong tree with the spoon....???slow down even more and use a jig or ???? I know the bite is tough right now but fishing for swimbait fish still doesn't turn me on....It probably would have the next day in the rain though ;)....
    City: Ojai

    Tips: The folks I did see fishing artificials seemed to be moving around at a good clip....I think slowing down and hitting them where they live is best somewhere in the 25 foot depth. For some reason my spot for spooning always produces yet some of my others are hit or miss...Strange year. I hope you do better than I have been experiencing...it just seems mighty quiet on my meter at times.

Sunday, December 9th, 2007

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    Water Temp: 63

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: I had not been to Casitas in 5 weeks so I started where I left off. I was surprised by the lack of bites and the inactivity on my meter. I had left biting fish in 50 to 90 feet of water and was catching 10-12 fish per trip last month. I fished hard from first light until 11:30 and had two fish for my trouble. One came on a 1/2 oz. brown jig with a watermelon red flake zoom brush hog tailer in 35 feet and the other came on a 1 oz. spoon in 55 feet. I had lunch with the wifey and went out for one more hour. I have a spot that is very shear in nature with stone and chunk rock that has produced a spoon fish for me every trip this year. I tried this spot for 15 minutes covering the 40+ range and came away with nothing. I turned the boat in tight and dropped the 1 oz. spoon down. I caught a fish before it hit bottom. Same size as the morning fish. At the time it was not clear if the fish had come out from shallower to eat or if I had just got lucky on the drop. Since I was in shallow I went to a 3/4 spoon and caught a 3 pounder 5 minutes later in 25 feet. Hmmm?? I then stayed in tight and mover the boat along quick ( for spooning anyway ) and would pitch forward and get a few rips on the bait and then up and out and repeat. I caught another fish ( same size ). Okay the fish are shallow in my mind. I turned the boat around and caught two more in 25 feet in 5 more minutes. I observed bait in the 125+ range in the morning but could not find or catch any deep fish as in previous visits....Strange that post frontal I would catch the same quality fish as from weeks prior so much shallower. My only conclusion is that the fish are indeed shallower. Were they there at first light or shallower?...unknown...But I did not see shallow fish like trips before. The water warmed and the fish came up and became more active later in the day?? Unknown.
    City: Ojai

    Tips: I would fish in the 25 foot or shallower zone on the smaller points towards the backs of the main coves with a jig or dropshot in a brown color. My spooning techniques are not for everyone but they do allow me to search the water quickly. Swimbait fish should be on tap close to the launch ramp but I did not investigate them. Good luck...keep positive...have fun. ;)

Saturday, December 8th, 2007

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    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Still sucks unless you are fishing live shad...shad are everywhere...Did manage a few bites in the morning but nothing special...
    City: Oak View

Friday, November 30th, 2007

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    Water Temp: ?

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: The bite is slowly improving...Saw some guys sticking some fish on drop shot...it looked like 20+feet...I ended up with 2 bass...7.2 + 8.6lbers

    For 3 hours not bad...give it a couple more weeks and it should really improve...
    City: Oak View

Friday, November 23rd, 2007

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    Water Temp: ?

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Was there I bit after open, the fog was so thick in Oxnard we had too slow it down. No fish, first day I ever been skunked. Did see some fish in the shallows again, three weeks straight. The ones I saw that day and caught the past weeks are similar in that they are very thick and lit up, seem so healthy. Admit I not much good with a jig, new to it, and that seems to be the ticket if you chat at the ramp. Past weeks fish were all on worms.
    City: Oxnard

    Tips: Did find some very thick schools of shad at the docs and many of the fingers, several bass feeding on them. I threw everything I had but have never had much luck pulling bass out of shad schools. Relied on crank baits at other lakes, but doesn

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    Water Temp: hmmm, forgot to

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Tuff bite today, two 4lb jig fish early and a 2 lber on a worm at 9:00 Very FAT fish. That was it for the rest of the day ! TUFF!
    City: Camarillo

    Tips: Green and brown jigs in 25'or thereabouts. Soft biters, more of a pressure bite.

Sunday, October 28th, 2007

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    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: we were the first ones on the water. started with white double buzz got 5 fish from the 2-3 pound range. then went 2 drop shotting oxblood at 30 feet of water. caught a 6-7 pounder
    City: Ventura

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    Water Temp: forgot to look

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: 2 jig bass 2-3 lbs, 2 crappie and 1 trout on spoon. Crappie are HUGE. Bluebird weather made a Tuff bite for me today, but saw some big fish in 10 or less. Was a decent spoon bite a week ago, seems the bait is spreading out and going super deep.
    City: Camarillo

    Tips: I'd go jiggy in 15-40 feet. Bite should pick back up after the weather stablizes.

Sunday, October 7th, 2007

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    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: How do you catch the bass here? saw a bunch cruising the shoreline buy no takers, threw everything at them.
    City: Morgan Hill