Night Fishing Castaic Lagoon

[George Cawthorn]

Been to busy to make a report for a while so I'm playing catch up.

Recently it has been freakin' hot in LA. We had a string of several days in the 100s some pushing 110.


As a result the water temp has been around 77 and the bite during the day has not been as good as at night.

So I've been doing some night fishing to escape the heat, and try to be around when the bite is good. I have heard some major stories of explosive bites going off after midnight.

Got up to the Lagoon around sunset. Pretty and calm as usual at that time of day. Dang I just love this lake....in a big way.


Pretty soon it was getting dark. This photo shows the wake of an animal that is otter like, you can see its head to the left and wake behind it, also tons of smaller bait fish hitting on the top.


It was very comfortable short sleeve weather but a little insect repellant is a must. Stayed warm in the 80s even after the sun went down. Had a very bright half moon over my shoulder and clear skies.


First bite came on a 5.5" Tiki Stick worm, brown color, on 10 lb. P-line Halo T-rigged weightless, baitcaster. This puppy scaled out at 4lbs. It was around 9:30.


Picked up another good bite at around 10:00. 5 3/8" BPS Stick-O-Worm water melon, T-rigged weightless, 8 lb. P-Line Halo, spinning gear. This one was 6.5 lbs.


This was the best I did but I did see a guy to my left score a really nice DD way down the exposed rocks where the buoy line usually is floating when the water level is not so low. He was whoooping and hollering and I could see why.. the fish was huge.

It was nice to be out there but anyone going and staying late should be aware of all the critters around. Many raccoons, coyotes and rattlers going off.

I'm planning on making another night trip next monday.