Late Great Lake Casitas

[WRB]

Today I decided to return to lake Casitas and suffer through the 35 day quarantine period.

After a month of fishing lake Castaic because the launch ramp at Casitas was so bad and no place to park, I decided to leave and fish Castiac.

Castaic has decent fishing and the water level is up over 70', now has a good smallmouth fishery, OK LMB and lots of stripers, why leave?

I5 (Interstate 5) is the highway I must travel on to get to Castaic and is in horrible condition with bumper to bumper 18 wheelers, can't believe the traffic now it's been 5 years since trailering a boat to Castaic. So I decided to return to Casitas. 

Casitas is now lower than it was in 1958 when it opened and started filling. The problem today is environmentalist will not allow Ventura river water to fill the lake, no deversion of river water is allowed and that is where the lake gets it's water shed run off. Another problem is no grading of any shore areas to build parking lots for the launch ramps is allowed because they can't disturb the birds etc that live in the dry lake bed areas. Why go back to Casitas? The bass fishing is good and may not last another year and the 101 has less traffic, easier drive.

Tom

[weso]

I been contemplating lake casitas since it's about half the distance from ventura than castaic. I just bought my Stratos so I wanted to enjoy it asap and not wait for the quarantine. I managed two small Lrg mouth bass last weekend at Castaic still learning  

[BassObsessed]

My first visit to Castaic about 3 years ago had really high expectations knowing what came out of there in the past. Ended up getting skunked that day and the guide only caught one. It was January but still was a giant letdown.

[WRB]

4 hours ago, BassObsessed said:

My first visit to Castaic about 3 years ago had really high expectations knowing what came out of there in the past. Ended up getting skunked that day and the guide only caught one. It was January but still was a giant letdown.

Giant bass population was decimated during the late 90's and big stripers were accidentally released into the main lake when working on the forebay Elderbery dam located at the end of the ski arm. Trout plants also stopped at both Castiac and Casitas in 2009 causing the giant bass populations to crash. The big bass are making a come back slowly at Casitas, without trout plants don't expect 15+ lb bass at either lake.

Tom

[BassObsessed]

I heard those same reasons why the bass were on the decline after I fished there. It's crazy to go from the Ca. record holder to not even close to the best lake in the state in that  time span.

[jr231]

21 hours ago, WRB said:

Giant bass population was decimated during the late 90's and big stripers were accidentally released into the main lake when working on the forebay Elderbery dam located at the end of the ski arm. Trout plants also stopped at both Castiac and Casitas in 2009 causing the giant bass populations to crash. The big bass are making a come back slowly at Casitas, without trout plants don't expect 15+ lb bass at either lake.

Tom

I'm curious how big stripers are accidentally released.. 

[WRB]

23 minutes ago, Yeajray231 said:

I'm curious how big stripers are accidentally released.. 

There wasn't any striped bass in Castaic prior to the accidental release from Elderbury the fore bay lake. The fore bay was full of big stripers to 40 lbs and thousands got into Castiac. I would estimate the average size striper in the late 90's to early 2000's was 25 lbs, the lake record is 43 lbs in 2004. Today big stripers are rare, they average about 5 lbs with occasional 20 lber, but the lake is full of 3 lb to 7 lb stripers now.

Tom

[iceintheveins]

Having quarantines is absolutely a joke. Lake Mathews is closed to fishing and it HAS Quagga Mussels, proving recreation isn't necessary to introduce mussels and thus recreation should be allowed. The environmentalists are ruining our fishing out here in the west. They are in the minority (less so in California), but they are so well funded and the media, academia, and pop culture allow them to have a big megaphone and swing a big stick. They should be thrown in jail IMO.