April 23 fish report
| Thursday, Apr 23 2009 11:10 PM
Last Updated Thursday, Apr 23 2009 11:10 PM
LAKE ISABELLA: Still very good trout action and the crappie bite has taken off this week with quality fish in the 11/2-pound range showing at Camp Nine and Joughin Cove on minnows. The best trout bite has been on floating baits, nightcrawlers, and small lures fished at the auxiliary dam, but fish are showing around much of the lake. The largemouth bite is still sputtering along, but the fish should be stacking into the shallows. Catfish still oddly slow.
KERN RIVER: Slow action in the lower river with only a few trout reported, but more and more smallmouth and largemouth bass are starting to be caught. The upper river is fair to good for wild fish. The fly anglers have been seeing a broad range of insect hatches, including a major crane fly hatch that has the fish focusing on these big bugs in the evenings. But there's also been hatches of black stones, yellow sallies, big march browns, and sporadic blue-wing olives.
AQUEDUCT NEAR TAFT: Very good striper action on fish from 3-5 pounds, mostly on blood and sand worms, but also fish are Gitzits and Lucky Crafts LDR 10s and 15s. Catfish are still mostly slow, but the carp bite is pretty good. Tim White, Alysa Jalving, and Dan Evans, Bakersfield, caught two-fish striper limits with fish to 7 pounds on anchovies. Jorge Madnigal and Jose Tapen, both Bakersfield, had a pair of 6-pound cats on anchovies, and a legal sturgeon (at 50 inches) was reported this week.
HART PARK LAKE: Fair bass action on minnows, nightcrawlers and plastics, but bluegill are improving. Carp are excellent on Powder Bait.
TRUXTUN LAKE: Fair to good bass action on nightcrawlers and plastics with the fish still spawning. The carp action is also very good with a lot of fish to 6 pounds, occasionally bigger, on dough baits. Bluegill improving.
RIVER WALK PARK: The bass and bluegill bites are fair. Best bass action on plasics, nightcrawlers, and small swim baits. Bluegill best on crickets, wax worms, and meal worms.
MING LAKE: The bass bite good on nightcrawlers, minnows, and plastics, but the carp bite is even better with a lot of fish topping six pounds. Best action has been on Powder Bait. The lake is closed boating-only now into August while repairs are made, but the lake is still open to fishing.
BRITE LAKE: DFG trout plant this week.
BUENA VISTA LAKES: The crappie bite came back on here with fair action on small minnows, and the bluegill bite has started with the best bite on wax worms. The bass action has slowed to just fair with the best bite still on minnows and plastics, but the catfish bite is starting to take off on cut baits. There will be a catfish derby May 2 with a $250 top prize for the biggest cat and $100 for the smallest in two age categories. Carp bite good on Powder Bait mixed into a dough, with a lot of carp over 5 pounds.
WOOLLOMES LAKE: No reports.
SUCCESS LAKE: Bass fair, but the crappie bite slowed. DFG trout plant last week.
KAWEAH LAKE: Good bass bite on live bait, plastics. Still few crappie reports. DFG trout plant last week.
Other regional lakes
CACHUMA: The largemouth and smallmouth bass bite has been fair to good with most fish shallow for spawning. Plastic worms and nightcrawlers top baits. Trout action fair with trollers getting fish in 25 to 30 feet of water on Needlefish and Rapalas. Crappie remain fair to good in the narrows with the fish averaging better than a pound and showing on small jigs. Redear still spotty, but the catfish bite is starting to take off.
CASITAS: Continued good to excellent bass action, and shad were available for netting all of the past week until Wednesday this week.
CASTAIC: Stripers and largemouth bass bites have remained good. Stripers have been particularly good at the back buoy line with a lot of fish into the 5-pound class, and even more bigger fish this past week right after the trout plant in the main lake last Thursday. The launch ramp and dam have also been good spots with most fish showing in about 15 feet of water on cut baits. Top fish reported was a 15.8-pounder caught by Jon Salkeld, Castaic, who also had a 9-pounder fishing trout-like lures at Kong Island.
LOPEZ: Bass action is good at the dam, main lake points, and up in the coves, with the fish spawning.
NACIMIENTO: The bite for spotties is very good on plastics, jigs, and spoons in the narrows and off the rocky shorelines with the best bite mornings and evenings on fish to 4 pounds. Largemouth and smallmouth action is nearly as good. White bass are stacked up just before the narrows (second bend continues to be hot spot).
PIRU: Slow trout action with the most recent DFG plant four weeks ago. Power Bait, nightcrawlers or plastic trout worms have been the top baits.
PYRAMID: Good striped bass and largemouth bass action. Stripers are best in the main channel and below gate house on cut baits. The largemouths are mostly shallow and showing on nightcrawlers and plastics.
SAN ANTONIO: Shad are showing on the surface in big schools and it's pretty easy to dip net some for bait. The bait is translating into a fair to good striped bass bite with fish to 9 pounds reported last week.
SANTA MARGARITA: Still fair to good bass action with a lot fish still shallow.
Eastern Sierra
General trout season reopens Saturday.
BRIDGEPORT REGION: East Walker River has been dynamite with flows still low and very fishable. Lots of nice fish showing on dries, nymphs and streamers. Many anglers are reporting 30-fish days, which is unbelievable for the Walker. The whole region opens this weekend and all the roadside waters, from the West Walker to Upper and Lower Twin to Bridgeport Reservoir have been planted.
JUNE LAKE LOOP: All of the main lakes in the loop are ice free and all have been planted for the opener. Full report next week.
MAMMOTH AREA: Upper lakes basin still mostly locked in ice with limited road access, but all the other waters in the region, including Crowley and Convict Lakes, Mammoth Creek, Convict and McGee creeks, and Rock Creek have been planted with trout. Rock Creek Lake is still frozen. The upper Owens River and Hot Creek are open to year-around fishing. Very good midge hatches in the upper Owens and sporadic baetis. Hot Creek has also been good.
BISHOP AREA: The lower Owens River remains good. Fly anglers are seeing some caddis and mayfly surface activity, but most of the action is subsurface on midge patterns fished pretty deeply under strike indicators or streamers swept along the undercuts and tailouts. Pleasant Valley Reservoir has been very good for lure, jig, bait and fly anglers, and a DFG plant went in this week. Owens Gorge good for small browns on small dries with some stones coming off now. The Bishop Creek drainage looks good for opener. Sabrina still has ice, but there is open water.
BIG PINE TO LONE PINE AREA: Spotty action, but DFG plants in all of the waters this week for the trout opener should kick everything into gear, including Diaz Lake.
Trout plants
KERN: Alder Creek, Brite Valley Reservoir, Cedar Creek.
LOS ANGELES: Castaic Lagoon.
TULARE: Bone Creek, Bravo Lake, Dry Meadow Creek, Nobe Young Creek, Peppermint Creek.
Ocean report
LONG RANGE YELLOWFIN: Historically, the long, long-range season ended in February or early March, but this year the fleet is continuing to take trips to the Hurricane Bank and points as far south as Clarion Island for the giant yellowfin tuna. The Royal Polaris docked in San Diego Tuesday this week with 14 fish over 200 pounds. Jackpot fish was a 242-pounder caught by Steve Franco, Pacifica. He also had a 225-pounder. The boat had near-limits of tuna for everyone on board, and all were quality tuna, wahoo.
ROCKFISH EXCELLENT: While most surface bites are still sputtering locally because of cool water conditions and some wind, the rockfish action has been very good this past week all along the coast from San Diego into Channel Islands.
YELLOWTAIL, SEABASS UPDATES: Water temperatures are still keeping the yellowtail and white seabass action mostly slow at Catalina and the Coronado Islands. There have been a few yellowtail reported in recent days at the Coronados, but this bite hasn?226-130?t recovered from the last cold snap. A few seabass are showing on the backside of Catalina, where squid is generally available, and a 42-pounder was caught on Saturday. Bait receivers in Los Angeles Harbor generally have had squid this past week should this bite start to kick in.
CALICO, SAND BASS UPDATE: The water temperatures still have not recovered along the coast to perk the calico and sand bass action in nearshore waters. Until those temperatures hit the low 60s, this bite is likely to stay tough and another cooling trend late this week could continue to delay this action.
