Fishing for the past couple of weeks has been great in some of our Central Coast Lakes. Lake San Antonio has seen its share of tournaments lately and the most surprising news is very few fish have been seen up on beds and the ones that are there are hard to catch. The successive cold fronts that have rolled through have kept them pushed down in most of these lakes but this week promises to be warm and I suspect this weekend will see some great fishing. Texas-rigged worms and shallow dropshotting has caught most of the fish recently in San Antonio with some Senko and reaction fish, mainly crankbaits in the ‘river’ area. Gold Coast Bass Club is in the lake this weekend along with ABA so that will put most of the tournament activity up there and leave the other lakes wide open. If you're planning to fish San Antonio don’t overlook Senkos and spinnerbaits in brushy areas and ripbaits along rock or mud banks. Green pumpkin Senkos, shad crankbaits and white spinnerbaits should put some fish in the boat.
Nacimiento continues to produce fish in large numbers with lots of action around the marina in 10 to 30 feet. Several people, including Casey Langley and Steve Collup, have reported watching the fish take the bait, usually a small worm or try splitshotting the Tiny Brushhog. Look for fish to be at the backs of the arms and on the rock walls adjacent to spawning areas. Crankbaits, spinnerbaits, ripbaits, Senkos and maybe topwater should produce fish. There have been some white bass reported in the River and Las Tablas.
Santa Margarita Lake has gotten some good ‘press’ lately on Rob’s sites and Phil Van Zee seems to know where they live. With the water so low fish should concentrate on rocky structure and school heavily on any grass that starts to grow. This can be a great time for ripbaits and crankbaits that skim the tops of the weeds when they grow. Keep a close eye on your graph; good electronics can identify weed growth long before we can see it. Fish the flats areas and especially the breaks along creek channels and where the mud turns to rock for staging fish. I've talked to people who have been trying to get fish on the Senko but with little success. Spinnerbaits, rattletraps, and of course trout baits are producing. Try weighting the plastic trout and getting it down on the bottom real slow. We have a product called Sticky Weight that will attach to the treble hook or your line and being almost pure tungsten will get the bait down fast. Sptlishotters and trout fishermen say they NEVER hang up in the rocks with this stuff.
Susanne, Jared Lintner, and I fished Lopez Lake today with great success. Of course when we got there the wind started blowing so we threw reaction baits and connected with some quality fish from 2 to 5 pounds in the Pozo Arm, Lopez Arm, and Wittenberg Arm. Susanne wanted to learn the Senko technique for her upcoming tournament in San Antonio so we went into some protected coves and caught Senko fish. I had heard there was a good worm bite and caught a 2.5 and a 3 shaking a Texas-rigged Midnight Zipper worm. It wasn’t exactly wide open but there were fish everywhere and they bit hard. Smokey Joe Excalibur rattletraps, Rogues, and spinnerbaits caught most of our fish but they seemed to be keyed into flats areas. We didn’t fish anything deeper than 15 feet so there may be some fish out there. Warm weather will pull the fish into the brush and onto beds; we saw several empty beds. 61 degrees was the warmest water we found. Crappie have also been up and down with some reportedly good catches. Trolling has produced most of the trout and casting small Krocodiles and Kastmasters have caught some good fish. Susanne’s brother caught and (long range) released one in the 3 pound class in Cottonwood Cove on an inflated nightcrawler.
Cachuma has been producing sporadically but some big ones have been caught including a ten pounder reported by Santa Maria angler Roger Birt. Spinnerbaits on the flats and Senkos in the brushy areas have put fish in the boat for several people I've talked to. The trout baits have caught some fish for some anglers but not as many as will be caught in the next few weeks. Good luck, email or call for more info.