Tackle Express Castaic Fishing Reports

Another influx of water from the forebay put a damper on an otherwise fair Bass bite. The lake came up another six feet on Thursday night and repositioned fish all over the lake. Smallmouth didn’t seem to be effected like the Largemouth, as they were schooling up on the rocky, extended points. The dropshot with a 2.8 Keitech fat Swing Impact swimbait outfished the standard finesse worms and we are also continuing to get bites on the 5″ green pumpkin Senko. There is a decent crankbait bite when the fish are active, mostly on the red clay points in the mornings and afternoons.

Swimbait fish are showing after another mid-week Trout plant with fish from five to ten pounds hitting for determined anglers. 8″ Huddleston Trout and bigger Glide baits like the Deps Slide Swimmer 250 are getting the bigger bites. Smaller Stripers are still hitting trolled Alabama rigs and Yak Flies on lead core line with a few schoolies mixed in. 

Good to excellent bite on fish averaging two pounds. Fewer dinks in the mix this week. Wacky rigged Senko’s, dropshot rigs and light-line Carolina rigs are all getting bit. The topwater bite is ok with small walking baits, poppers and flukes the best bet. Netting Shad is very inconsistent, they are there one day and then gone for a week or more, but there is a developing algae bloom which could keep them shallow this Fall.

C3 Baits Shimmy’s in the Neptune Shad color pattern fished on the 6lb. Carolina Rig continue their dominance. This is a hard presentation to beat, as the Bass tend to slow their activity level once the sun gets up. The outer weed edge in 20 to 25 feet of water along the Eastern shore continues to hold quality Bass to seven pounds, along with South end along the rocks. 

With the lake continuing it’s drawdown to 150 feet, we’re at the old drought line around 120′ which means the sticks and bushes are high and dry. While this is good news for our terminal tackle it also means we are seeing the lake at a level not witnessed since it was filling up in the early 70’s. The once rocky, clean shoreline has given way to 50 years of mud and silt buildup.

Striper fishing remains solid with Yak flies and Shad flies employed with the fly-coring technique, as well as umbrella rigs and small swimbaits trolled slowly in the twenty to fifty foot depth zone. The points in the Fish Arm, Center Point, and the area around the island in the Ski Arm are all holding fish of all sizes. Huge schools of 10″ Stripers are just about everywhere on the lake smashing the small baitfish, but very few of the bigger models are showing up on the surface as the Shad remain deep with the falling water.