fresh water fishing recommendations

Gspman

Well-Known Member
Dec 2, 2014
1,283
251
63
North LA county
Hey all,
first thanks for any help any one gives out. I started fishing with gramps when i was like 2. Ive ALWAYS fished top water bass. usually casitas and castaic. the past few years fishing in the area has sucked. I spent 3 years with a boat fishing pyaramid and castaic but sold the boat since it was soo bad.

I have tried fishing for everything on the local lakes with very little luck. we even spent 3 days a cyamaca a few months ago and all we got was "you should have been here last week" (grand daughter did get one small trout.)

now ive got 3 grand children who want to fish. id rather not take them to some stupid stocked pond. does any one have any recommendations for a decent fishing lake for any type of fish. Im up in north LA county but we will drive if need be.
 
Doug,

Fishing this time of year can be tough.....Catfish with nitecrawlers, mackeral, or shrimp is normally your best bet....Henshaw is as good as anywhere.

If bass fishing is the targeted fish. Then early and late in the day is the desired time at a lake like Casitas, Castaic, Isabella, and DVL would be where I would go....Skinny Senko's are always my 1st choice, drop shotting Robo worms, and jerk baits for smaller fish.

For trout it would be the Sierra's....Usual stuff and any of the higher elevation lakes would be good (love Rock Creek)....Streams are blasting right now.

Bluegill just so the kids can catch something....Lake Isabella used to be great, San Vicente down here in SD, Perris Lake for red ears would be good choices.

Pick up a WON rag and see what the fish report says.....Even though it's a week late. It gives you an idea what's best.

ps....May want to consider the ocean or bay....Mackeral are thick as fleas, if you can get a boat into SD Bay......Great for kids.
 
Do you have a boat? If so I would strongly recommend Long Beach harbor over freshwater. The local lakes are miserably hot now and like Sprig said, the only top water action is going to be very early and very late. On the bay it is much cooler and it is loaded with fish. The Federal Breakwater is a seven mile long fish condo complex. If it interests you let me know and I will give you more info or meet you there and help you guys hook up. Calicos, sand bass, mackerel, and many others.
 
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BTW Gsp if you haven't done it fishing the wall is like largemouth fishing. Same gear, similar lures, just way more productive. If you're determined to catch LMB this time of year go onto Ticketmaster and reserve s spot on lake Barrett. You'll catch bass.
 
BTW Gsp if you haven't done it fishing the wall is like largemouth fishing. Same gear, similar lures, just way more productive. If you're determined to catch LMB this time of year go onto Ticketmaster and reserve s spot on lake Barrett. You'll catch bass.

Especially the inside.....Calm as any lake, but the big boys are on the outside at night.....;)
 
Ah you do know the wall Sprig

Yep.....Born & raised in LB & Belmont Shore......1st fished it in the 60's with Charlie Davis (wrote the book, Hook-up).....We 1st fished day time for opeleye, buttermouth, and Catalina blue perch.....Then we started staying into the night for big calicos....Used red shrimp for the perch and pork rind jigs for the calicos.....Over the years, we changed to plastics.....All my five 10 lb cali's came on black jig, black shirt, black 6" Crème worm.....All on the dark of the moon, all in June, and all on the Seal Beach end.

Here's my biggest......14-1 lbs.


ps.......Sorry for the thread jack.

. 14-1_lbs_calico....The_Wall...6-1972[1].jpg
 
Holy smokes! Isn't that close to a record? I've had great trips at the wall but not in that league.
 
Kevin,

Back in 1975 when I caught this girl, they didn't keep records on calicos (hell, we didn't even call them calicos, bull or kelp bass).....I weighted it the night I caught it at an all-night market (certified scale, 6 hours later).....She weighted 14-1.....The following day at Fisherman's Hardware someone said I should have DFG weigh it just for their records.....She weighed 13-4 at 5:00 pm the following day.....That's the weight that went into the records.....They now keep records on calicos and about 15 years ago, a guy got a 14-7 out of Dana Point on a mackeral (open water).....That is the current world record.....I have never heard of any other 14 pounders.
 
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Kevin,

Back in 1975 when I caught this girl, they didn't keep records on calicos (hell, we didn't even call them calicos, bull or kelp bass).....I weighted it the night I caught it at an all-night market (certified scale, 6 hours later).....She weighted 14-1.....The following day at Fisherman's Hardware someone said I should have DFG weigh it just for their records.....She weighed 13-4 at 5:00 pm the following day.....That's the weight that went into the records.....They now keep records on calicos and about 15 years ago, a guy got a 14-7 out of Dana Point on a mackeral (open water).....That is the current world record.....I have never heard of any other 14 pounders.
Well you've got the record on artificials, not that it's an official criterion.
 

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