I really believe that bass do just eat power bait straight up because of the scent. I mean why would trout eat it like it's the best thing ever and bass not eat it at all? They're both predators at some level. It makes total sense to me that a bass would eat powerbait because Berkeley has something in powerbait that gives off a very fish attracting smell. Sometimes it might be a case of a trout eating the powerbait and then a bass eating that trout, but I think the odds of people landing those fish is actually pretty small. Powerbait hooks are typically size #12 or #14 trebles.

I think the reason you see so much of it at Pablo is because it's murky and the bass don't get a good look at it, and more importantly, San Pablo has more trout fisherman than just about anywhere I've ever seen. I mean anyone who has fished there in the spring knows that there will be 300+ people fishing for trout on many weekends. It's just an odds game at that point since inevitably many bass will swim in front of gobs of powerbait. A lot of bass get caught on nightcrawlers and dough balls there for the same reason.

It's a shame, but a whole lot of those fish wind up getting killed because people are fishing for food or just don't know or care about bass. The lake record and the other 18.0lb fish caught out of there were both caught by trout fisherman and killed. I think both were on nightcrawler/powerbait combos.

Things like this are why I wrote the DFG Commission months ago to propose that no bass over 22" be allowed to be kept. What I've heard since is that the Commission is very reluctant to use slot limits or maximum size limits on bass becuase they think it's too confusing, but at least I'm trying. I'll be bringing this up again during the discussions about draining the dam to try to again highlight the issue.

So far all I hear is no you won't get anywhere, and no the DFG, the Commission, and the EBMUD will do nothing. But I'm still going to try, and I ask for everyone's support in whatever way they can. We can throw up our hands and give up or we can try to do something. We can look at lousy situations and complain or we can try to do something. I'll feel a lot better in the end for having tried, irregardless of the outcome.