Hey everyone,

Been fishing alot more. Went up to Santa Margarita and no bites, been fishing a few of the cal poly ponds with no bites. What are the fish eating right now? What color plastics have been working for you guys?

Also, last night at the Cal Poly ponds, just like every other night...There was tons of fish slurping on the surface. And again I couldn't get a bite from any of them. Anyone have any suggestions? Should I throw a bobber with some floating fly line and a fly at the end? I did that in Wyoming for cutthroat trout and it worked pretty well.

Evan

Not sure whats happening at S.M. Lake, but it could be that the bass are in spawn and lock jawed?? If thats true, most people will find the beds and lay a lure on them. The bass will pick it up and move it off there bed and thats when they set the hook. I dont like to bug the bass when I see them on the bed.

At the ponds, they too could be bedding down. I would just toss a spinnerbait and try for reaction bites.

The fish that you are seeing at the surface could be 'gills feeding on hatch, but I am sure they are bullheads (catfish). Never seen trout in those waters.

Good luck,

Too bad the water's too murky to find beds. Otherwise I'd be dropping my lizard plastics on the bed. should i just try throwing a lizard or a bluegill soft plastic jig thingy and just bouncing it off the bottom? I'll give the spinnerbait a try. I'm either going up there tonight or tommorow because I have no classes

Evan

Have you tried throwing a rattle-trap? Its a cacth all, anytime lure.... No guarantees, but worth a try. Good luck...

Hey Evan....I'm Bryan I work in SLO, would you mind showing me the ponds some time this week?...only reason I asked about this week is I leave for Korea Sat. morning and won't be back for two weeks. I have a couple of Ideas to try out at the ponds. Email me mindangler@hotmail.com

Hey Bryan. What ever happened with you worms you ordered?

Hey Todd,

Yeah I finally got the worms.....I have caught one bass on them so far (dropshoting).....Havn't fished them that much yet. And I haven't been to Naci since the Tourney. I will have to go back there an give them a try. It was an awsome deal for those though, I have an endless supply now. Thanks again!

Bryan

Hey, just thought id say that I fish those ponds quite frequently, youll probably see me out there some time. They do hold some decent fish fish, not many but they are there, ive had a few 3.0-4.0s. Bluegill softbaits, spinners, topwater, ive had the most luck on. Bluegill and Crappie fishing is incredible at times, the action on the surface that your seeing is the bluegill.

--tight lines--

This is probably a stupid question, but where are the Cal Poly Ponds?:-)

I fished Santa Margarita a few day ago and caught some small 2 pounders up shallow with a spinnerbait. The interesting thing is a spot I've been clobbering bass lately is now inhabited with Trout. I threw a crankbait and caught Trout instead of Bass that usually are at this spot. I don't know if bass are still there but the trout are the one's biting.....BassMan

I'd be happy to show you the ponds. Im always looking for someone to go fishing with. None of my friends fish. Hit me back at evbouret@hotmail.com.

Evan

>I fished Santa Margarita a few day ago and caught some small
>2 pounders up shallow with a spinnerbait. The interesting
>thing is a spot I've been clobbering bass lately is now
>inhabited with Trout. I threw a crankbait and caught Trout
>instead of Bass that usually are at this spot. I don't know if
>bass are still there but the trout are the one's
>biting.....BassMan


Both times I've been to Santa Margarita I got skunked. What am I doing wrong. I've tried every worm and lure in my arsenal. deep, shallow crankbaits, lipless crankbaits, poppers, double/single blade spinnerbaits, soft bodied jigs, normal jigs, spinners, 6" red worms, some brown lizards, some garlicy ribbed worms like 6" or something, those robo worms, 4" and brown/blue/green. Rigged them weightless, with a bullet sinker, with split shot.

Fished all the spots that it looked like fish would be hanging out in. Where the rocks jut into the water, fished all the structure people put into the water. Even just fished random all without bites.

I'm fishing from the shore, what do you recommend doing? One day I fished all around the marina, the other day I parked near the camping grounds and walked the banks pretty far, way over to the flat rock walls where the lake gets all skinny. Where are some good spots?

Evan

Evan,

You might try a 4" plastic with a split-shot. I put my split-shot 18-24" up from the bait. I use #1 gammie also. Maybe try greens, browns, or blues. Or maybe shad color. I think I heard you mention something about using the sluggos in Hawaii. If you can find some of those over there, they are an excellent producer. Especially the 3 1/2" models. I like the Lightening Shad and Blue Flash as they almost always produce some fish. You can also fish the sluggos weightless. This method doesn't work very well for me. But a buddy of mine does well with this technique. Just throw it out and give it a couple of twitches and reel slow and twitch and so on. Just thought I'd throw some suggestions out there.

Ive got me some split shot and some 4" robo worms. They're like brown and green and blue, the exact colors you mentioned...perfect. I've caught 3 small bass out of the pond on these...one about 2 lbs.

Yeah sluggos worked dreams in HAwaii. Dont have any here, but I'm sure I'll end up ordering some when my tackle stash runs low.

Evan

Have you tried dropshot? My confidence setup is 4-6 lb. line on light spinning gear with a 3" Meani Teeni worm. My favorite color is purple/red flake/black flake. Go to www.iovino.com and click tackle catalog. 25 worms for $7.

Jake

hey dude, overall I wouldn't stress too much about those ponds. Honestly, there are not that many fish in them, so if you catch one or two every couple trips, you're doing just fine. Quite a few people fish them, and they are super tiny, so it's the same fish getting caught over and over again :)

As far as the stuff splashing on top, I've kind of found over the years that very very rarely do you get bass activity on the surface like that. Odds are it's bluegill, crappie, or carp. A bass has a pretty distinct boil, sort of a slashing slopping boil. When bass are chasing shad on top you'll see a wake and you'll see the bass turning to the side as they splash and go back down. Bass almost always will turn as they strike which is a giveaway when you're watching boils. Bluegill and crappie will make a pop and a very round ring on the surface. Carp will thrash around or jump with their head straight up and fall on their sides. The carp especially can get you worked up because they seem like a big agressive fish on the surface. Typically the bigger and louder the splash is, the less likely it is to be a bass. Just my observations anyway :) Don't give up on Santa Margarita. There's plenty of fish there to be caught and the shore access is good with the lake down low. A texas rig 7" power worm will get you some bites there right now. My buddy who used to come with me would almost always get a few bites per trip on that in the spring. He liked the reddish and junebug type colors.

Im not stressing the least bit about catching fish up there. I got two strikes today on a mini double blade spinner bait with a curly tail trailer. But both strikes were short. Caught one small bass on a gold spinner. My friend caught 5 little ones on a silver spinner. None of the fish were much bigger than our hands. Couldnt get the big ones to hit.

No way am I giving up on Santa Margarita. I have no doubts there is some monsters to be caught in there.

How would I go about catching catfish at Santa Margarita. I've never fished for catfish before. We dont have too many in Hawaii and they dont get very big. What about just a cut baitfish on a hook with a weight to drop to the bottom. Will this catch catfish? I've caught peacock bass this way, but with baitfish hooked behind the dorsal fin and put under a bobber. They're hard to catch with lures. When I fill up the rest of my camera I've got some pictures of the fish we caught this spring break.

Evan

I had a couple of good days there(Santa Margarita) a couple of years ago. Caught all of mine on 6" pumpkin with black flake lizards. I was was in a boat though. And the pattern I was on required a boat or float tube. I was letting the lizards fall weightless along the weedline. It was a pretty cool experience. It was when I first started bass fishing and I discovered the technique by accident. I was actually doing better than the guys that were tournament fishing. Is that weedline growing along the shore now? I'd like to get on that pattern again.

Hey Todd,

I was out at Santa Margarita Sat. morning in the kickboat....no weedline yet....that comes in the begining of summer. I was mostly working points...

Bryan