Just wondering what thoughts everyone has on rising water and the tactics for fishing it. Casitas is almost full and probably will be in the next few days. The water is coming up pretty quick, anyone have any thoughts, pointers or tactics to suggest?
Peace
Rich

Casitas 2005... That was some of the best fishing in years at that lake when the water came us just like it is right now. All of the flooded brush... yummie!

Any size to those brush fish in 05?
I got a bunch in the 5 pound range with the biggest at 7.5

Well... unfortunitely, I was only able to fish part of one day. The Mercury was in the shop for most of the year. I had 3 fish one morning (2 - 10's and an 8 or a 9). There were a few guys that got them good though. I think Rod and Todd Thigpin had about 30 over ten in a couple weeks.

If anyone's looking for a very good shot at a fish over ten pounds this year you should look Rod up. He is now guiding on Casitas. His website is www.rodthigpin.com

He is, in my opinion... THE best big bass fisherman on the lake.

SWMB8R has a very good point... I had the pleasure of fishing with Rod on the lake last year, and not coincidentally it was my best day on that lake with a 7 and a 9. With the lake rising and off color water especially, I would hire him in a second if you want to see what is really going on at that lake.

My next post was going to be to ask who I should hire as a guide on Casitas for swimbait bassin. Looks like it will be Rod Thigpin.
Thanks guys
Rich

I think that Rod has somewhere around 400 bass over 10 pounds with the majority of them from Casitas. There is no better choice in my opinion.

This is a good question for those of us who live on the central coast or Southern Cal. We see drought type conditions one year that draws the lake way down, then after a number of big rain storms, after getting to that saturation point the lakes start to rise rapidly filling in those areas that were high and dry for over a year (some times longer). So I have a question, How long after a rise like we have had in the last week or so do the bass start moving shallower?

Does it depend more on Water temps? I believe Casitas is in the mid 50's. Or with all the new structure and forage do they just start moving up right away?

Thanks,
Bryan

To fish is to live!

I approach it like this: If it is raining and has been so for a couple of days, I start shallow and usually stay shallow. If the lake is rising I start off shallow and only go out deeper if the fish are not biting, but continue to check shallow through out the day. I hate fishing deep and it is surprising how many fish are in shallow water even in the winter, but when the water is rising I am always looking for active feeding fish up shallow.

Lotta ins, lotta outs, lotta what have-yous

Brian...

I was out there the Monday before last before the lake started to rise rapidly. The water had come up a couple of feet the week prior due to the first semi-major storm. I found fish both shallow and deep (had fish on both ends of the spectrum). As far as fish moving up and staying up (ie spawning mode)... it is more dictated by water temp than anything in my opinion but fish that are moving up vertically in the water column to feed are dictaded more on feeding windows. I found fish in 6 feet of water over 11 and I found fish deeper than most are willing to fish. To answer your question... that's up to the fish. There are no standards but as the water starts to stabilize and warm up... the fish will follow suit.

I watched a show just the other day. I think it was "a day on the lake". The angler was Mike Wurm, he said "when the water rises bass move in immediately". I'm not sure if the temp has anything to do with it. But I'm with him if the water moves up I'm fishing shallow in the new flooded cover. Its paid off for me in the past....BassMan

http://www.calfishing.com/dc/user_files/4392-ranger_boats.gif

I will be fishing with Rod Thigpin on the 19th of feb and am looking forward to it. I appreciate all the input I recieved on this post. I got my built in swimbait compartment done on my boat. I have storage for about 70 swimbaits on 5 2' stainless rods. I will try to get some pics up when I get home from work next week. Thanks for all the tips on rising water guys. I really appreciate this site there is another one I go on from time to time and it is real big but sometimes there are a lot of pretty negative posts between poster's. I really like the fact that a kid could come on this site and things are kept above reproach.

Peace

Rich

Is it safe to say that as the water rises the bait moves up immediately?
The bait moving up as the water rises will dictate what the bass will do? Right? Wrong?
Thank you


Just trying to learn guys

I am hoping to research this further this weekend. I will be at Casitas Prefishing Saturday & Cal Fed Event Sunday. I am a nonboater hitchin a ride on Saturday, but I am hoping to give the shallow flooded areas a try. Weedless swimbaits, senkos, jigs, maybe even the spinnerbait.....Weather is suppose to be pretty nasty on Sunday....so we will see!

Bryan

To fish is to live!