Largemouth, Smallmouth Bass:
The Senko bite is improving daily as more fish move shallow from their main-lake winter sanctuaries. There are quite a few Smallmouth leading the charge as they spawn in slightly cooler water than their Largemouth cousins. Fishing the shallow drop-offs 5-10′ from the bank has been productive as this presentation “pulls” fish from the shallow and deep side of the bank. We have been targeting the East-facing rocky points and cuts as they are in the sun the longest and are the first to warm up. 5″ Green Pumpkin/Black Flake Senkos have been our mainstay color, fished weightless on a Gamakatsu finesse wide gap wacky hook. There is also a good dropshot bite in 15-25′ of water as the bigger Largemouth continue to migrate shallow. We are rigging our dropshots with C3 Baits Ice Picks in the Neptune Shad and Captain’s Magic colors. The afternoons have been more productive as the water is at its warmest and the fish are more active and likely to be shallower.
Striped Bass:
The Stripers have been hard to find as they are foraging on the huge blooms of freshwater shrimp in the main lake. Targeting the Stripers with the fly-coring/Producer Fly technique will be our main presentation as soon as we start trolling for them in the coming days. May is typically the start to our Striper season and we are expecting a great early summer thru fall bite.
Castaic Afterbay:
The Bass are moving shallow and the bite is getting better on a daily basis. A lot of fishing pressure here lately as most of the locals are choosing this small park lake over the chaos at the upper lake. Still mainly a finesse plastics bite although there has been a few big fish caught on swimbaits lately.
Castaic Lake Conditions:
Water Temp Surface:
56° – 60°
Water Temp at 25′:
50°
Water Clarity:
15′ – 20′ visibility. Clear
Water Level:
20’ down
Jim – 661 Fishing
