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California Bass Fishing
Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 2:31 pm
by brendanc
Over the past few years west coast techniques have been becoming more popular nationwide. Everything from finesse fishing with hand poured lures, to lunker hunting with giant swimbaits. They are extremely effective all around the globe and something that any angler should have in their bag of tricks.
I'd like to open this topic and invite anglers from the west coast to share their ideas, techniques and approach to using these various presentations. As an east coast angler, it would be interesting to me personally to get some first hand perspective and compare how I have used certain west coast presentations in the northeast.
These message boards are here for everyone to use and share information, make new friends and learn something new. With over 1,000 registered message board users (many from the west coast) we should have no trouble getting input. There are many users out there, who like to just read the message boards, but message boards are only as good as the information shared by the community... so all of you readers don't be shy, join in the conversation, we'd really like to hear your thoughts and opinions on this and any topic... If you are not interested in a topic being discussed, post a new topic that you would like to hear about.
Brendan
California Bass Fishing
Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 7:55 pm
by George Cawthorn
Great to see you open this topic Brendan.
My home lake is Castaic CA. Which I fish about one day a week.
What's going on right now, if you could call it a trend is going to the extemes on both ends.
The big action is coming on large trout swimbaits or light dropshot and T-rigged set ups.
And by light I mean 6 lb. line or less. Big trout swimmers, 10 inchers fished on 20 lb. P-Line is pretty normal I would say.
Myself and a lot of others are commonly fishing dropshots on 4 lb. line or less these days. At that weight line, it becomes a toss up as to what is best..... mono or flourocarbon line.
More bites but more breakoffs too.... drag settings, fresh line, soft rods and playing the fish with finesse become critical. You can not do much horsing around with a decent size bass on 4 lb. line.
But if you play it right you can get ten pounders on 4 lb. line. Some of my friends have done that.
I'm still undecided about that but for sure when I'm up to 6 lb. on the dropshot I go with the flourocarbon line usually Maxima or BPS XPS. I've had good results with both of those.
There is also a leaning toward smaller worms and other baits on the dropshots. 4" curly tail Roboworms and lures like the Zoom Tiny Fluke are begining to get bit a lot when things are tough.
The best results I've had lately have been on the lightly rigged dropshot setups with the tiny flukes and worms and the lightly rigged T-rig setups with the Fat Ika.
Light rigged Fat Ika on 6 lb. flourocrabon line, 3/0 Gamakatsu black chrome EWG hooks, seven ft. medium hard action rod with baitcaster reel.
Light dropshot setup. 6'6" Medium Light spinning set up. 4 lb. Maxima Ultragreen line with #6 Owner mosquito dropshot hooks. Tag line about 10", 5/32 oz Mojo slip sinker krimped onto the end of the line with a pair of pliers.
A lot of the places I fish at Castaic are pretty rocky on the bottom and the Mojo weights are pretty skinny and slip through the rocks most of the time without snagging.
If it gets windy and I need more weight on the dropshot I just put on two Mojos, that is usually enough but with the increased weight they snag more easily.
Weightless T-rigged Ika as described is great for going over rocky bottoms without much snagging.
Good fishing to you guys, later....... geobass
California Bass Fishing
Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 2:19 am
by johnnie crain outdoors
Good info and topic. I'm sure any angler who fishes clear water situations woul;d be interested in hearing all the techniques used under those conditions. I fish Bull Shoals lake some and it's very clear, makes my 14 # line look like a rope. I despise light line, but even more so despise getting skunked.
Here's the part I don't understand??? If some anglers are using 4# line to catch fish how can other anglers use huge lures and heavy line and have success. Any answers? Johnnie
California Bass Fishing
Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 3:19 am
by George Cawthorn
Johnnie, I think a lot of it has to do with the terrain of the lake bottom and surrounding cover.
Also the type of lures and presentation. For the cranks and fast moving lures I don't think the bass have that much time to think about it.. reaction bite.
When you're doing dropshot in really clear water the fish have a lot of time to examine the lure and decide to go for it or not. Even on the slow fall presentations line visibility becomes a big factor.
Now in western clear water terms we're talking 20 plus feet visibility not being uncommon... sometimes 30 feet if it hasn't been windy and the lake hasn't been chopped up by heavy boat traffic.
Also the line shy factor... some of the lakes I fish at are so pressured that the fish have seen just about everthing... been caught and released many times already and are very wary of anything that does not appear to be completely natural.
When it comes to the big swimmers most of the time when I fish them the lure is running just under the surface. Not much line in the water for the fish to see and most of the time the fish attack the lure from the back. On those I usually use 20 lb. line.
If you are fishing in clear open water with little cover around... I would say 10 lb. tops is all you need to handle some pretty big bass.
At Castaic for example in many spots around the shoreline the drop off is quite sharp. Often times more than a 45 degree angle from the shoreline. You can be 20 yards off the shoreline and already be in fifty feet of water easy with nothing but rock on the bottom.... no grass or trees to speak of.
One of the last reports I read from a friend of my who fishes Castaic a lot was fishing Palmtree rigged Baby Ikas on 3 lb. line and got several bass in the six and seven pound range in the boat that way.
Granted it is a roll of the dice, more bites, more fish lost also. But when the bite is slow just one more decent fish can make all the differnece in the world.
Good fishing to ya, later........... geobass
California Bass Fishing
Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2007 3:05 am
by George Cawthorn
Well guys, I was itroduced to this new way to rig the Yamamoto Baby Ika by a friend of mine in LA who owns his own tackle shop... they call this one the Palmtree Rig.
This is fished on light flourocarbon line, I would try 4 lb. for starters, some guys are fishing this on 3 lb. flourocarbon.
Lure is hoooked throught the skirt end from the top and then the hook is turned out to just slightly protrude on the side under the skirt.
A #2 or #1 dropshot hook is recommended for this.
A small piece of nail or about 1/8 oz of lead from a 1/4 oz Mojo which is broken in half is inserted in the end of the Baby Ika away from the skirt to give it some weight on that end and make it stand up as it's hopped along the bottom with the skirt on top.
Hence the name Palmtree Rig. This is also pretty much weedless.
Check out the link to see video of the lure in action in a test tank. You will see that the action on this is pretty awesome and it has been driving the bass crazy at Castaic lately.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DOCD6cfhe0
Most effective color at Castaic is 194J watermellon.
I cover the tentacles of the lure with Smelly Jelly salt craw. The orange one with the little sissy sparkles in it.
This rig is gonna become top draw for every western clearwater angler in no time.
It is absolutely killer bouncing it stop and go when LMB are looking for dads on the bottom around the rocks.
Good fishing to you guys, later................... geobass
California Bass Fishing
Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2007 7:38 am
by mofish
I know a couple lakes here that the Palmtree rig will work in Thanks Geobass!!!
Sounds pretty awsome!
Nunz I like that power-pro and leader rig myself. You can feel everything down there and still have the leader disapear in the water. Great setup!
California Bass Fishing
Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2007 12:06 am
by George Cawthorn
Coming to you from sunny California this is a most excellent demo of the "multi-rig". An interesting variation on the shaky head jig rigging.
Another secret weapon from the arsenal manager at Fishing 25 tackle shop in Los Angeles. I've met Sinjin, the guy doing the demo and the owner of Fishing 25 is a friend of mine as well.
Here's a link to the demo video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmYTf-HFkqU
Good fishing to ya, later........... geobass
California Bass Fishing
Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2007 2:05 pm
by brendanc
That is just awesome. When you pull that video up, there was another one under it which you can click that shows the Multi-Rig in the water with a worm. I tried to get the link, but when I returned it was not there. Did a bit of searching, but came up with nothing. If you find it again, please post it.
This rig looks look it would be perfect for vertical presentations to suspended bass. I am definately going to experiment around with this rig. Great stuff Geobass.
BC
California Bass Fishing
Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2007 4:58 am
by George Cawthorn
Here ya go Brendan..... the two links to the tank tests of the multi-rig. One with a twin tail Yamamoto spider grub imitation of a crawdad, and the other of a Roboworm doing some pretty freaky dancing and twitching.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ut36FNcCvgU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOObBTRz_PU
I'll try to get any other interesting stuff that pops up on the California scene as soon as I can.
Good fishing to you guys, later.......... geobass
California Bass Fishing
Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2007 2:13 pm
by brendanc
The one with the Roboworm looks great. Thanks for the links. Anyone reading this should check these videos out!