Castaic Lagoon: Thurs 5/13, Home Again plus a Six

[George Cawthorn]

Been doing some fishing in out of the way places lately due to the windy conditions at Castaic.

On Tues. I made another trip up to the high desert. It was still pretty nice up there.


Beautiful scenery and cactus in full bloom. Very pretty.


I did not get any bites but I did see a lot of bass fry in the water.


Have not seen this yet at the Lagoon though. Wind eventually caught up with me and just before leaving I was engulfed in a huge dust cloud which took about 30 seconds to pass by.

Got a lot of dust in my eyes and gear. Little dust devil caught me off guard.

Had some time off on Thurs. so I decided to head up to the Lagoon early. Weather forecast was good.

Got there at about 6:15. Conditions were calm and glassy. Air temp was 53, water was 58. Sky was partly cloudy but later clear, barometer was 30.99 and falling.


I was looking forward to a good day based on all I could see. Sun soon came up and it started to get warm.

An older couple had beat me to my usual spot so I set up about 20 yards to the east of my living room. They turned out to be nice folks who are retired and do nothing but fish all the time.

Went through all my usual goodies and then switched over to the Fat Ika.
After getting a couple of taps while passing through one particular area I cast back out on the same general line and while coming about half way in, kabooom...... I get slammed really hard.

Fish came on in about fifteen feet of water and was really angry. Took a lot of time to wear this one out. Finally after one jump and a couple of strong runs the fish ran out of gas and I brought it in close and lipped it at the shoreline.

The older feller to my right said he thought it looked like a seven pounder... well lets throw the puppy on the scale and see. Took the Shimano spring scale down to just a sliver over six pounds. Wow... my best fish of the year so far.


Nothing else for the rest of the day though. Got really hot after a while and I decided to pack it in around noon. Air temp was up to 78 and water had got all the way up to 65 in the shade. Seven degrees up in five hours, man that is a lot.

When I left there was still one guy in a tube down in the corner.


Side note about lure selection:

As they say "Match the Hatch".


This is why I like the Bonzai cinnamon neon core worm so much.

[Fire Ball]

Congrats on the new PB for 2010. Match the hatch with the Bonzai? Do the bass really eat those dragonflies? Haha.

[ukey28]

Congratulations on a very nice fish! Super pictures Damselfly Pornography!!! I've got some bad news for you though. Your bass fry are actually Gambusia. Its a small fish in the toothed carp family used for mosquito control. Bass fry would have a line down the side and the bat on the tail and a longer taper without the distinctive pot gut that gambusia have. Cool shot just the same. Great Fish geo.

[George Cawthorn]

Thanks for the ID on the Gambusia Frank. I didn't know the difference.

Still waiting to see fry of any type in the Lagoon. Have seen a few sculpin and mud dogs though.

Fire Ball the bass actually do eat the dragon flies. Often the dragon flies fly very close to the surface of the water almost skimming the surface and sometimes hover. I have seen bass jump out of the water and hit them on the fly.