Alondra Park/Lake

So I had some time this evening and wanted to cool down outdoors so I grabbed 2 rods and headed to Alondra. I left the red worms at home because I wanted to focus on some artificial lures. I threw out a top water lure with no luck, but I saw some blue gills following the lure in. I picked up my light rod with 2 lb test and tied on a minijig. I've never caught anything on a minijig before but I tossed it out and tried various retrieves. A couple of nibbles but too me, it still looks like the hook is too big for the small mouths of the juvi blue gill. I persisted and finally was hit strong and reeled in a palm sized blue gill. Ended up with a total of 2.

Now to work on getting my first fish on some top water action.

Rocks at King Harbor

Spend the evening at the rocks by Joe's Crabshack again. I wanted to try out fishing for some Opaleye since you see so much of them off the rocks. I didn't have any frozen pees in the fridge but I did have a small can of sweet peas so I gave that a try. They hit that like it was candy. The largest one I caught was about 8 inches, but I wound up bringing in a total of 8 which were released. For such small fish, they sure put up a good fight. The peas were hard to keep on the size 14 hooks because they were cooked and like mash. I would think the raw frozen peas would keep bait better but would they be as successful. Nice to catch a new fish.

I dropped some cut sardines and caught a 12 inch barbed spotted bass which was recently added to teh DFG's do not eat list.

Some guys left me their shrimp that they were fishing with, but I was shocked to see that it was the common shrimp you would buy in the store and not bait shrimp. What a waste. I gave them a try but didn't get any nibbles.

Weekend of fishing

Both the wife and I took the Monday, May 17th off from work so we could spend some time together. We had a 3-day weekend of fishing. On Saturday we ventured out to the Castaic Lagoon with no luck. the water was super clear but nothing was to be had. We through out some nightcrawlers, Senkos, and Texas-rigged Roboworms but no bites at all. On Sunday we got to the upper lake at 6am and were on the waters with a rented boat. We cruised throw a few of the coves for a few hours on the fishing side of the lake. Nothing at all. We went to the other side of the lake to find the famous buoy line to see if we could find some stripe bass. Of course nothing. Seemed quiet because with all the other fishermen there, there wasn't much action at all. At 1pm, we called it a day.

On Monday morning, we headed over to Kenneth Hahn Lake to fish with the peoples. Wife got her first catfish there which was huge. I would guess it was about 5 lbs and caught with chicken liver. I caught a bluegill with a redworm that was about as big as my hand. Took a break for lunch, and then headed out to El Dorado. There we rangled out some more bluegills by the boat rental shack. The the interesting one was when I tried to drop shot a live nightcrawler. The hit was big so I thought it might have been a LMB bass, but it was just a large bluegill with a large size 1 hook in it's mouth. We move to the other side of the lake and the wife pulled in her fist stock trout that was about 12 inches on the chatreuse powerbait. There was another guy there pulling in trout every 5 minutes, so I asked him what his secret was. He was using the same color powerbait as us but I couldn't figure out what I was doing different. I was using 2 lb test and a brass treblehook. I wonder if I can drop shot with powerbait?

I'm starting to realize that I really don't have the skills necessary to fish for LMB. I really don't know how to work the lures, and am afraid I might end getting frustrated and buying tons of expensive equipment and pay for a guide to take me out to the lakes.

First Large Mouth Bass

Hit up El Dorado this morning before work, after I heard there was a recent trout stock. I put out one pool with some yellow powerbait which everyone else was using to catch trout. While waiting, I threw out a 3 inch Rapala trout color by the ranger station. After a few throws, I got one close to the reeds and bam, I set the hot. It was a small 10 incher but I will cherish this. After taking a picture, I released it back to grow. After a couple of more throws, one got too close to the reeds, and I loss the lure.

El Dorado

I put in a couple of hours fishing this morning before work. I flylined a Senko and drop-shotted a roboworm with no success. I gave my first try with a spinner bait with no success. I saw a couple of jumpers in the 4th lake as I drove and walked around the entire north side of the park. Still my quest for my first ever large mouth bass is still on.

King Harbor in Redondo Beach

Went out to King Harbor in Redondo Beach yesterday and fished off the rocks by Joe's Crab Shack. I have very fond memories with my father when we used to fish there in 80's. He rigged up his bubble and feather for the bonitos and I rigged up some anchovies for the bottom for some calico bass. He would chat it up with his fellow anglers and chew on some jerky. This is before they built the cement wall and the rocks went out almost 20 yards depending on the tide. Those were some great days.
The early evening started to get really windy, so I rigged up the wife with some cut mackeral to see if there was anything at the buttom. There were some other anglers there thowing out some plastics. I tried to go old school and threw out the bubble and feather hoping to catch some bonitos. No luck. The other anglers started catching some mackerels and 1 bonito on their lures. They started to piss me off because they made so much commotion over not watching to touch the mackerels to unhook it. The worse part was when they caught a cuda. It looked like it was barely under legal size, but they took forever to release it because they were taking pictures. When they threw it back, I can see it wasn't going to survive as it floated on its back and slightly waved it tail. The current brought it passed me on th rocks, but eventually a pelican snagged it up.
I switched up the Kastmaster and hooked up a couple of small mackerels which I released.

Aqueducts AV

So I had to make a trip out to the Antelope Valley to visit the inlaws. I've been reading a lot about stripe bass and catfish being caught in the ducts so I wanted to give this a try. Went to 3 spots: Palmdale by Avenue S, Quarts Hill by Avenue N and somewhere in between. I baited up with some chicken liver and mackerel chunks but didn't even get a nibble. I through out a crank bank and had a couple of juvenile follows but nothing else. I might have just been bad timing because there was no one else fishing from 10am-2pm. Gonna have to give it a try either earlier in the morning or later in the afternoon.