Casitas or Castaic?

[Hordyk100]

Hi. I'm new here. From Canada (southern Ontario) and I'll be in California the last week of march. I have to be in San Fran and in LA for business and have a completely free day on wednesday Mar. 25th and was hoping to fish one of the these lakes. I will be picking up a good freind in San Luis Obispo on my way down to LA.

I am looking for help on if this is a good time of year for either lake or any another suggestions? Any recommended guides I could hire? I am an experienced bass, walleye and muskie fisherman, hoping to better my 5.3lb LM best and I am under the impression one of these lakes gives one a good chance of a fish over 10? Or if anyone has a spare seat or two in thier boat I am more than willing to cover your costs (or return the favour on a trip to Canada, fishing Lake Erie or the Niagara River or ?). I just need someone to steer me in the right direction.

Thanks in advance for any help! Great forum and I love your state!

Len

[kaneo]

since you are coming down fro s.l.o. hit up casistas, bass are up on beds... should have the lake to yourself's. rentals are expensive though, and private boats have quagga inspections and a 10 day quarantine.... not a lot of shore access ..... good luck

[calico killer kevin]

I'm glad that you love California, but once you get to KNOW it you might be
a little uhh, how do you call it..."not feeling the whole Governator issue"... but
it's okay not even he can ruin California's beauty.

If I were you, to REALLY experience California's fishing at it's best, I would
either charter for tuna down in San Diego or fish Diamond Valley Lake with
a guide in Hemet. Since, there are no tuna at the moment, I would go to
Diamond Valley Lake with either Art Berry, Pete Marino, or Art Hill. For
contact info hit up the Diamond Valley Lake forum.

[PureAle]

Diamond Valley Lake guide trip with any of those guides for sure. 10 pound bass no problem.

PureAle

[AnglerBob]

Hey Hordy welcome to California, I'm a part-time Canadian myself (Vancouver) now so I'm happy to help out a visitor from the Great White North.

Casitas and Castaic are both excellent lakes for catching LMB. Casitas is more scenic and doesn't allow body contact with water, so there are no waterskiers/jet skiers which is nice especially in Summer. Castaic is very close to LA and gets heavy fishing pressure, but still delivers bass to skillful anglers, and has the benefit of a prolific striper fishery.

Since you're coming from SLO you might want to stop and fish Cachuma as well, which has been getting some hot reports on this board as of late.

Kevin's suggestions RE: the San Diego charters/Diamond Valley lake are right on as well—this is some of the best fishing our area has to offer.

I would recommend a guide if you're going for LMB. The lakes around here (with the exception of DVL) don't rent pro bass boats, only aluminum skiffs with small outboards. Our lakes get windy in the afternoon and a trolling motor really is almost a necessity for holding position. The cost of a pro guide around here is nearly worth it for the boat alone, not to mention the guiding expertise! A few years ago, a buddy and I had a great experience with Rich Tauber on Casitas, who caught live shad for us and provided a killer fishing day.

So enjoy. Our fishing isn't always as good as north of the 49th parallel, but our winter weather's better. If only we had Tim Horton's, it would be perfect.

[Jimmo]

Welcome to the boards. I've fished a couple of times with a solid guide at Casitas: Sean James. Do the Casitas trip -- huge bass there and a nice setting and that's where he keeps his boat. And a restaurant/snack bar with killer breakfast burritos. You can check out the guide's site at www.socalbassfishing.com. There's actually a picture of my son and me on the homepage with my son's first 4-pounder!

I'm hitting Castaic next Saturday (along with 80% of the fishing population in SoCal no doubt...).

[WJC71]

You should really hit up Santa Margarita on your way down.
Little to no pressure and there are some hogs in there,

[Hordyk100]

Thanks for all the feedback and warm welcome. Diamond Valley sounds great but I think it will be a little too far out of the way as I will still be in San Fran on tuesday. It looks like Casitas is going to be the right choice.

I will definitely be needing a guide since I won't be bringing my gear. I looked up Sean James and I like what I saw. I read on his site that Casitas is closed to the public because of the mussel issue and this has drastically reduced traffic and pressure. Sean has a boat on the lake so that is great for his clients!

I love CA - I specifically mean the winter weather and the amazing scenery. I've been up and down the coast from LA to San Fran a couple times (March & June).

AnglerBob, how about I drink a Timmy's for ya 'eh'?

Thanks again to everyone for all your help. I will post results when I return.

Cheers,

Len

[lurk 182]

sean is very good. in case he's booked, marc mitrany is very good also. ojaiangler.com