Where have all the giant bass gone?

[Big Hands]

On 9/28/2021 at 3:41 PM, WRB said:

I don’t know of any giant bass lake that supports both stripe bass and FLMB. 

Castiacs Giant Bass population crashed when stripers invaded the lake in ‘95, the lake can't support both predators. 

Castiac Lagoon afterbay below the dam is void of stripers and did continue to support giants until the trout plants stopped. The trout plants have resumed in 2020 by random  schedule due to closing the most trout hatcheries.

DVL was built to be a trophy bass reservoir and started off good until stripers invaded it.

Tom

They still don't stock the lagoon and can't until they have a barrier in place that will stop them from escaping over the spillway at the south end of the lagoon. It's my understanding that this is the reason it doesn't get stocked according to the lake managers. They do still stock the upper from late fall until early spring.

 

A 15 lb striper was caught in the lagoon in January 2020. There is a video of it on YT. I have also heard about an 18 lb striper that was caught there previous to that.

[WRB]

6 minutes ago, Big Hands said:

They still don't stock the lagoon and can't until they have a barrier in place that will stop them from escaping over the spillway at the south end of the lagoon. It's my understanding that this is the reason it doesn't get stocked according to the lake managers. They do still stock the upper from late fall until early spring.

 

A 15 lb striper was caught in the lagoon in January 2020. There is a video of it on YT. I have also heard about an 18 lb striper that was caught there previous to that.

Stripers in the lagoon, it’s toast?

The Santa Clarita River is dry sand for about 10 miles, those hatchery trout need to learn to swim in sand.

Tom

 

[Big Hands]

3 hours ago, WRB said:

Stripers in the lagoon, it’s toast?

The Santa Clarita River is dry sand for about 10 miles, those hatchery trout need to learn to swim in sand.

Tom

 

Two of them and the most recent was almost two years ago.

 

Yea, it's pretty silly to think a trout would make it down to the Santa Clara river bed, but silliness generally carries the day here. Still, how much trouble would it be to string a net across there?

[WRB]

8 hours ago, Big Hands said:

Two of them and the most recent was almost two years ago.

 

Yea, it's pretty silly to think a trout would make it down to the Santa Clara river bed, but silliness generally carries the day here. Still, how much trouble would it be to string a net across there?

The non existent Steelhead would get stopped by the net and swim back to the Ocean then up Ventura River To Coyote creek to the Casitas dam fish ladder.

Tom

 

[slater]

Quote

 

This may sound stupid Tom but you know of the crystal clear local lake I fish...

I have seen many true giants but from my observation they have adapted / smartened-up over time & virtually impossible to catch....

They laugh at your swimbaits, they swim around your drop-shot cuz the see your #6 flouro, kitchen sink doesnt work, etc.....

virtually impossible to catch slipping & off their guard unless you find a stupid one during the spawn...

 

[WRB]

When the FLMB were 1st introduced the belief was they couldn’t be caught using artificial lures for a good reason.

It wasn’t until anglers learned to adjust the lures and presentations to using smaller diameter line, hand poured softer floating worms and anchoring very quietly to wait out the bass to return did catching them become more common.

Basically the artificial lure anglers adopted the live bait anglers methods.

Live crawdads, waterdogs, mud suckers and golden shiners all worked. Today SoCal lakes do not allow the use of any live bait not caught in the lake being fished, can’t transport them.

This leaves fishing during low light, light rain or at night to catch these very wary big bass that have learned to avoid anglers.

For all the above reasons I developed a long cast presentation using hair jigs with pork rind trailers with small diameter line to catch these special bass.

Where I fish they don’t exist anymore.

Tom