OCdockskipper

If you are using string on your reel, should we assume you are using thread as a leader?

Out of the nearly 300 homes that border our lake, there are literally 3 people who fish for bass seriously enough to want the weed beds around. There might be a dozen or so folks who don't care while the remainder want a lake that looks pretty. Remember, this is Southern California - for most people who live here, the outdoors and hunting/fishing are mutually exclusive . The HOA wipe out the weed beds about every 3 years or so, when they get large enough that homeowners can see them from the docks. After a week or two, the bass that had been living in the weedbeds adjust and start using the other cover in the lake (docks, undercuts in the concrete seawalls and the planted brushpiles). It actually makes the dock fishing better, I'll often find 2 or 3 fish under a dock instead of solitary ones.

I started using one a year ago, but I am still self conscious that I look like a hoodlum with it on. When I pass by other folks, I'll pull down the mouth area so I can speak with them & they can see me smile.

You did the right thing. You made the school panic and then had your lure drift to the bottom as if injured or dying. That is a recipe for a strike. Until I saw it film footage of it, I never realized that bass will "hang out" with bluegill or other forage and not bother them. I used to think the moment a bass saw prey, they would attack. Not the case. They will ignore prey until they decide not to & then eat them. A trigger for that attack is often the forage panicking or being eaten by something else. Stickbaits work well for this, but base your lure selection on the depth & cover of the area you are fishing as well as the size of the forage and the time of the year.

My daughters boyfriend was going to join me fishing yesterday and I planned on it being a pretty good day. He hasn't done alot of bass fishing, but is enthusiastic and a quick study. Weather and water temperatures had been dropping for the first time in months and the forecast called for an overcast morning, so I figured topwater and moving baits may be the ticket for the first few hours until the fish moved deeper or under the docks. What I hadn't anticipated was one of the stranger days of my life, not all of which involved fishing. I woke at 4:30 am and noticed my wife wasn't in bed with me. I figured I must have been snoring and she fled the scene, but as I went to the bathroom, she came into the room fully dressed. Apparently I had slept through her getting a midnight call that her Raider-like brother was drunk at a club, her picking him up and bringing him to our house to sober up, him going outside to smoke a cigarette but then forgetting which house was ours, him knocking on the neighbors door asking to be let in, him falling down & busting his head open on the neighbors planter (resulting in the police, fire & ambulance showing up), him getting stitches at the hospital and then walking out before they were done examining him, she picking him up 2 blocks from the hospital bringing him back to the house again, him going out to smoke again (this time in the backyard) and then once again falling over & cutting the other side of his head. All this between midnight & 4:30 am. Yes, I did sleep through all of that, my wife is an angel. So I got dressed and took all the gear down to the dock. I realized I had left a flashlight I use in our other car, (it is still dark outside) so I went out to retrieve it. I had parked the car up tight to a hedge to avoid potential door dings on the other side and as I tried to wedge myself in, I lost my balance & fell into the hedge. Had they neighbors been watching, they would have thought I was the drunk. I get the boat set up and as daylight begins to approach, no sign of my daughters boyfriend. I know he works hard during the week, so I figured he overslept. I sent him a text to let me know when he arrived & I would double back to the dock. I got in the boat, went to a point and fired out a cast with a Zara spook. As anticipated, I immediately hooked up...with a bluegill. I figured it was a good sign nonetheless, until I went the next 90 minutes without a strike. I cycled through different baits, different type cover, shallow & deep nothing. Then, when I was working a jerkbait over a weedbed in 7 ft of water, I realized as i looked at the depthfinder that the weed bed was no longer there. What I ended up finding out later was that days before, the HOA had treated the lake with some kind of weed killing chemicals and had dredged (by hand) some of the more problem areas. The cover I had been fishing no longer existed... Not knowing exactly why the weedbeds were gone, I made some adjustments and caught a few fish. My daughters boyfriend had indeed slept through his alarm (he hadn't missed much), joined me near 8 am and I was able to put him on a few fish (we even had a double). However, as we were working a couple of docks, a party boat came towards us being driven by a women in full muslim garb. There were a half dozen other women dressed the same way and single man in the boat, so I am assuming they were his harem. I know nearly everyone on this lake and they kind of stuck out because I had never seen them before. Apparently they didn't know me either because they drove their boat between us and the dock we were casting to, laughing & taking pictures. I was going to say something, but realized from their chatter, they most likely didn't speak English. Near noon, my daughters boyfriend had to leave and the sun had popped out. I put on my buff & sunglasses and headed over to another cove to flip, pitch & skip some docks. As I made it to the back of the cove, a woman came out of her backdoor, intently staring at me with her arms crossed. I waved hi but she didn't flinch, staying like that for a good five minutes. I know I might look like a criminal with a buff pulled up, but I have been by her house over 50 times in the last year. She is just now noticing me?? I work out of that cove down to another and once again, a different woman comes out her back door looking at me. This time, she is chattering with someone inside in a foreign language. As I pass by their dock, a man comes out & in a heavy accent says "Please do not throw your line into my boat". I may not be an Elite pro, but I am a much more accurate caster than that. I assure him I won't and he retreats back into the house with his nagging wife in tow. By this time, I am completely spun out, unable to figure out what in the world is going on. As if to put an exclamation point on the days adventures, another smaller party boat again filled with folks that are speaking a different language, comes down the cove between me & the docks I am fishing. However, since I was skipping the docks at this time, there wasn't much space between me & the dock. They manged to fit their boat in between, at full speed nonetheless. I loudly said "Hey!!" as they passed, to which they smiled & waved. Ugh. I put my rod down, went back home & took a nap.

I misread this at first and thought you were saying it takes several hours to get the right one "in". I figured you were either using a Snoopy pole with 2 lb test or had come across some new Zen method where the fish gets so bored of being hooked that he eventually just jumps in the boat.

Great bag!! Interesting contrast between the 9.10 and the 8.77. The latter is nearly an inch longer, but over a 1/4 lb lighter. You can see the girth differences on the ruler, the 9.10 takes up nearly the entire width of the ruler while there is substantial space on the 8.77. Neither fish looks fat nor skinny, the 9.10 is just thicker for a longer amount of length. The two 8 lb fish I caught this July were both over 24" (61 centimeters), so it seems like the 8.77 is normal for her length while the 9.10 is the unique one. Hope she has a good spawn next spring.

Thanks for the info Onvacation, I appreciate it. I have a portable Hummingbird depthfinder that I believe will fit in my luggage, I am planning on taking that with me. If you go to lake 35 and see a dude from California in a rental boat sitting on that creek channel, that will be me

I am assuming the domestic goose wearing the cowboy hat was caught in texas...

Speaking of which, did you have to do time for the assault charge or did they just put you on house arrest?

I was fishing with a friend of mine and he caught a bag of grapes. When asked about it, he replies "I kept the bag & released the grapes".

The Delta Smelt is on the Endangered species list for the same reason the gnatcatcher (a bird) and the El Segundo blue butterfly are - to be used by one group of people in an attempt to control the actions of another group. The coastal portion of California, from Oregon down to Los Angeles, is hyper liberal. The population in this area is large enough to create legislative & bureaucratic action that affects the more moderate & conservative portions of the state. They will use anything, including animals improperly placed on the Endangered species list, to enact their agenda and create havoc for those they oppose. They have no interest in protecting wildlife, otherwise they wouldn't have pushed for a solar farm near the Nevada desert that was killing birds to the tune of 100 a day for the first year of operation http://www.desertsun.com/story/tech/science/greenenergy/2015/04/23/ivanpah-solar-plant-bird-deaths/26273353/ . I was born in Southern California, have lived here over 50 years and watch as what was once a wonderful state is being destroyed from within. You may have visited here, but with all due respect, you are blissfully ignorant of the politics at play. What you perceive to be actions to protect the native wildlife are anything but.

Or when they ask you what you are using. Not "If I may be so forward & you'd be willing to tell me, what did you use to catch those fish?". No, it is the demanding "What are you using?" as if you are in the middle of a deposition. If they had any wits, they could look on the end of the rod & figure it out.

I fish them deep in the same ways Scaleface does. My user image is of a Red Eye shad that had been choked while hopping it deep.

Great information, thank you very much. With that amount of grass & hydrilla, the boat rental with the electric motors sounds like the way to go. When I looked at the area in Google maps, it looks like you can drive from lake to lake. I rented a small SUV, so that would make it easy to haul the electric motor, battery & gear if I switched lakes. Have you noticed any difference with the 3 catch & release lakes (16, 31 & 32)? I wondered if those 3 lakes received less pressure? Again, thanks for the info.

I expect ignorance from others on the water who don't fish. I have a kayaker on my lake who regularly paddles between me and my casting targets, he just doesn't care or does it to see if he can tick me off. All I do is say "Feminine hygene product" in a normal voice after he passes, loud enough for him to hear but not loud enough to make it appear I am speaking to him. My patience with fishermen who lack etiquette depends on their age and/or skill level. I'll give kids and extreme newbies a pass and try to teach them not by yelling at them, but by setting a good example of giving other people room. The two worst situations from people who know better were both on Lake Mission Viejo while fishing with a buddy. Folks there have no issue cutting you off multiple times as you moved down a bank. When I say cutting you off, I mean pulling 10 yards in front of you to fish a particular spot as you approached it. Then, after you change direction and go a different way, they do it again at another spot. You have to wonder if it was karma that an algae bloom killed 90% of the bass in their lake. Sorry for the fish but it couldn't have happened to a more deserving crowd.

I will be in St. Louis next month (September) and will be staying across from the August Busch Memorial Conservation Area for a few days. I have been doing some research on the lakes & ponds there, but had a few questions for those who have fished it quite often. I'm not looking for specific lures, techniques or spots, but rather want to get a feel for what the lakes are like in order to decide which gear to bring. If you have fished them in the past, I'd appreciate any input you could give in regards to the following: Are most of the lakes similar when it comes to depth, structure & cover or do they vary quite a bit? What is the predominate form of cover and is it dense or sparse? How accessible are the shorelines for most of the lakes? Can you fish most of the perimeter or are you stuck with designated fishing locations? Do the shorelines vary in depth & rate of drop off or are most of them the same? If the latter, what kind of depth are we looking at? Thanks in advance.

No, you don't have to be a strong swimmer to go out on a boat, just realize that by not being one, you are then giving control in an emergency situation to someone else. I am not an expert pilot, so I realize when I am on a plane, I have ceded control of my destiny to someone else. Not necessarily a bad thing, but it makes me think "Do I really have to get on an airplane to make this trip?". I want to be on & around water as much as possible and I don't want to have to rely on someone else's skills if something should go wrong. Therefore, I chose to do what it takes to become a strong swimmer in order to keep that control with me. Different strokes for different folks...

Can you imagine what that fish will try to eat when he gets over 5 pounds? Keep the kids & small pets out of the water!!

I had a double hookup on a jointed jitterbug once. The only way I thought I could get both fish in the boat was to lift the lure up by the lip. As I did, the fish on the bottom pulled the screw out of the lure and escaped. Since the tensile strength of the plastic used in making jointed jitterbugs is 28.5 lbs, I deduced that the second fish weighed 29 lbs, which was kind of odd because it was about 12" long. Aren't most knots rated at 80-90% of the line strength? If the new leader broke in the middle, that means that section of the leader was the weakest point. Weaker than either knot (lure or leader), which most likely were in the 6-7 lb range. So, maybe there was a manufacturing defect in the line. Maybe a no-see-um bit the leader, weakening it. Maybe the bass had a set of clippers in her back pocket & snipped the line when you weren't looking (Big bass are smart). All very interesting...

California, Texas, Nevada, Arizona, Florida, Utah. Was at a lake in Tennessee, but didn't have any gear, so I started tossing some small frogs caught along the shore into the water. Had half a dozen blowups.

It works with largemouth, smallmouth & spotted bass. I have never tried to lip any other fish, they usually have teeth or their mouth is too small.

The trick with this is to press one of your fingers on their stomach. It immobilizes them similar to pressing on their tongue.

Exactly. And don't kind of just reach in, once you go, commit and lock on. Plus you end up changing how you hold the dink about 4 times while unhooking them. I'll shift from pressing on their belly to immobilize them, to grabbing them by the head, to sliding in a thumb on their tongue, basically working around wherever the hooks are. I bet those poor dinks are sore all over by the time they are released

I don't think the OP is asking about the the lake best known by the public. Instead, I believe the question is about describing the characteristics of the lake that you know best. If that is indeed the question, then let me start by describing my home lake as a shallow (12 ft max), bowl shaped development lake (i.e, a lake made in order to build a housing development around it). It is small (100 acres or so) with a retaining wall around the entire perimeter. The predominant cover is boat docks, but not the style you see on most larger lakes. Instead of floating on the water or having pier type supports, nearly all of these docks hang out over the water similar to a balcony. Some are inches above the water, others are over a foot above, but they make great places for the bass to hide under or around. Throw in broken concrete from the retaining wall and some bass become homebodies at some of these docks. Vegetation is nearly non-existent except for some Bushy Pondweed (actual name) that starts growing in the 3 to 7 foot zone in spring, maxes out in summer and dies off in fall. The yearly changes in amount & thickness of pondweed then changes the locations that I find many of the fish every year. Another factor that changes the locations of the fish from where one might expect are the two dozen or so aerators placed in the coves & main lake. The oxygen & current created by these often draw baitfish & predators, especially in the summer & winter.. Most fish caught here are on bottom bumping baits, with the Ned rig and Wacky rigged stick-baits leading the way. The fact that these two baits work well for skipping as well as around the pondweed help their production. Most of the fish are dock oriented, but where they are positioned (roaming near the docks, positioned in front of them, hidden underneath) is dependent on the time of year, time of day and weather conditions. Moving lures will have their days when the conditions are right and can catch more than the slower alternatives, but that is not the norm. Best of all, despite have thousands of people living on the lake, most days when I fish it, I have it to myself. Very few people here fish, those that do are just tossing hot dogs off their dock for catfish or would prefer to go out on a cattle boat in the ocean. It is really odd, I am never out of sight of at least a dozen homes, so I never have any secret spots, yet me & 1 other person are the only ones that fish it seriously (and half the time we fish together). That's Southern California for you...