When One Shore Closes, Another Shore Opens ;~)

[Big Hands]

At my local reservoir, they are lowering the lake level to about 130 feet below full pool so they can perform work on the dam. It's now at about 85 feet below full, and is scheduled to drop another 45 feet by around Labor Day, and then begin to refill somewhere around November and be full sometime in the Spring of 2022. It has been dropping an average of about 9" per day since the beginning of May.

 

I know when I have travelled to fish, if the flood gates open and the water drops two or three inches in a few days, you may as well go mow your lawn because the fish are in a funk. But here, not so much. . . .

 

What has been unexpected for me, is that the fishing has not seemed to suffer at all. In fact, it has been very good to excellent the whole time. Bass are often taking baits right sat the water's edge. If I had to guess, I think they have not been affected as much as I would think because the shoreline is relatively steep, so they would not have to move much at all to stay in the same area. But the structure is not totally consistent, and things can change a little vertically speaking. Rock is mostly the structure we are dealing with, and I am getting bit most consistently along the steeper shoreline with large rock features as opposed to the more 'rubbly' shorelines. The water I was fishing two weeks ago is usually ten feet lower and I only have to adjust as the odd features change subtly. What was a rock pile last week is a cliff this week, and it goes back and forth like that. But, there are some odd places where humps that were unfishable last winter became islands, which then became points.

 

TL/DR: The water is dropping fast and the fishing has been unexpectedly excellent.

 

 

[CrankFate]

You’re lucky. They lowered the water where I fish, it killed the bite and the water is now green.

[KYRANGERMAN]

In 99.99% of the lakes I fish if they lowered the level by 130' it wouldn't be called fishing anymore, just hunting.

[WRB]

Got to love the MWD for purchasing water to fill Castiac only to start draining it a month later for 10 year dam maintenance. Waste precious water not mention tax money.

MWD does this every 10 years a scheduled earthquake and dam inspection. 

Castiac is the only lake I know of where bass move up when water is dropping in lieu of moving deeper.

There is a lot of deep structure becoming fishable in the ski arm and center point, problem the stripers tend to school up on outside humps and ledges where the big bass were in the past.

Miss fishing Castiac, if you need a older free guide let me know.

Tom

Tom

[Big Hands]

10 hours ago, WRB said:

Got to love the MWD for purchasing water to fill Castiac only to start draining it a month later for 10 year dam maintenance. Waste precious water not mention tax money.

MWD does this every 10 years a scheduled earthquake and dam inspection. 

Castiac is the only lake I know of where bass move up when water is dropping in lieu of moving deeper.

There is a lot of deep structure becoming fishable in the ski arm and center point, problem the stripers tend to school up on outside humps and ledges where the big bass were in the past.

Miss fishing Castiac, if you need a older free guide let me know.

Tom

Tom

I have been having good fishing in both arms and have been giving the center point some attention (it hasn't been very productive for me though. The steeper banks of the bedrock areas have been good to me though. This morning, I pulled 8 from one spot on the west bank of the ski arm in an hour and a half. I thought the fishing was going to be terrible as the water dropped, and thought the bass would be continually suspended off the bank

 

They have been right on the bank, and still are as of today, especially for the morning bite. Then after a while it has been a mix of tight on the bank and down to 10-15 feet. And many are not hesitating to grab it either.

 

Here is a pic to illustrate what I was alluding to in the OP. There is a green bush at the high water mark in the back of the pocket that I was fishing a year ago. Now, I am fishing the point that comes out from back in that pocket. Same area, but two different types of features. 

[WRB]

Perfect photo ?of SoCal deep rock structure with sparse cover (sticks), soil transition with clay for crawdads.

Tom

[PressuredFishing]

At my favorite lake they are trying to drain it bone dry because it costs too much money to pump in. They tried doing it illegally and an environmental agency and dfg got on them from a inside person. Said sense it's an established ecosystem they can't remove it. I hope they don't remove it but to be honest I'm sure they will eventually win through some loophole. It has dropped over 60% already. Some 8+ pounders in there: ( what a bummer and shame...

[TnRiver46]

23 hours ago, Big Hands said:

I have been having good fishing in both arms and have been giving the center point some attention (it hasn't been very productive for me though. The steeper banks of the bedrock areas have been good to me though. This morning, I pulled 8 from one spot on the west bank of the ski arm in an hour and a half. I thought the fishing was going to be terrible as the water dropped, and thought the bass would be continually suspended off the bank

 

They have been right on the bank, and still are as of today, especially for the morning bite. Then after a while it has been a mix of tight on the bank and down to 10-15 feet. And many are not hesitating to grab it either.

 

Here is a pic to illustrate what I was alluding to in the OP. There is a green bush at the high water mark in the back of the pocket that I was fishing a year ago. Now, I am fishing the point that comes out from back in that pocket. Same area, but two different types of features. 

That’s what our highland reservoirs look like in winter (except there are trees on the bank) They lower them all 30-40 feet every winter for flood storage 

[soflabasser]

The lower water level might provide a good opportunity to catch lots of bass since they might be easier to locate now.

[Big Hands]

2 hours ago, soflabasser said:

The lower water level might provide a good opportunity to catch lots of bass since they might be easier to locate now.

They started lowering the water level at the beginning of May. The bite is normally really good through May and into June, but this year, the bite has continued to be excellent. I think several of the longer coves being emptied has pushed the fish at least to the mouths of those coves.

 

The numbers for me, have been really good. The fish are looking kinda skinny though. Seventeen inch fish that weigh two and a half pounds. They were definitely chunkier a couple months ago.

[Big Hands]

I guarantee WRB knows exactly where this is. The guy furthest back in this pic lost a rig over the side of his boat a week or so back when a fish pulled it over. The water level had already dropped below where he had marked the spot and his rig was nowhere to be found. In February and March of this year, I was catching fish as far back as you can see in this pic.

 

One regular I talked to last week has been foregoing fishing and is full time scavenging the shoreline for whatever he can find. He showed me two tubs full of big swimbaits and several rod/reel combos among lots of other stuff. Last week I found a Little Mermaid Zebco combo, and yesterday I found another spinning rod/reel combo. That one was nothing fancy. Looked like something I would use for 'other species', LOL.

[moguy1973]

I'd be taking tons of pictures of all the structure that is being exposed for when the water is back to normal.