Castaic Lagoon: Sat 8/18

[George Cawthorn]

Hi guys!! I'm new to the board and this is my first fishing report on BassinUSA.

My home lake is Castaic CA. Those not familiar with Castaic, the Lagoon is a relatively small lake situated directly below the dam which creates Castaic Lake proper.

Length of the Lagoon is about 1 mile. Width is usually between 1/4 and 3/8 mile I would say. Since it is small and of relatively shallow and equal depth (60 ft. tops), situated 365 ft. below the dam, conditions change very quickly at the Lagoon and it is notoriously tough lake to fish. The Lagoon is also notorious for large LMB getting up into the 19 lb. range sometimes.

Some say it is possible that the next world record LMB my be caught at Castaic Lagoon. I personally think that is a definite possibility.

Anyway.... enough of the background... on with the report for Castaic Lagoon, Sat. 8/18

I got up to the Lagoon at my usual Saturday morning attack time, 4:00 AM.

Conditions were warm and calm. Water was 74 air temp was 68.

Started off fishing with large trout swimbaits in the dark. Had no bites on those by sunrise and decided switch up a little.

Stepped down to a lightly set up dropshot on 4 lb. mono. Got a few nibbles had two on which I farmed due to poor hooksets and then got one small one, less than two pounds.

Right away figuring the bite might be on now that the light had come up a little I switched over to the Fat Ika and Senkos for a while. No dice on those.

Got back into the large swimmers for a while... like as long as my arms could last casting those monsters.. had some followers but no takers..... one I saw on the tail of the lure was pretty good size, not huge but in the 6-7 lb. range.

Decided to go back to the light dropshot and got another bite, cool well at least I was on the board with two now. Small ones but heck considering the heat.... I'll take it.

Went back to the Ika, had a few nibbles on that but no solid bites today.

Around noon the temp had climbed up to 92 in the shade and I was begining to feel the heat and exhaustion was setting in so I decided to call it a day at 1:00 PM.

When I left conditions were still calm but pretty hot... it was 112 in the parking lot when I got back to my car.

That was it for me today. Two small bass on the light dropshot. Both bites came on the Zoom Tiny Fluke watermellon.

Small bass were biting aressively early in the AM, after that it was slow. Larger fish had headed deep to cool off.

Two that I caught were released of course.

Good fishing to you guy, later.......... geobass

Later on I'm gonna see if I can figure out how to add some pics!!
I'm a total newbie in this forum so you'll have to have some patience with me till I figure it out.

Love all the good info here though, glad to be a new member of the site. I hope I'll be able to add a little West Coast interest to the board.