catfishruss
05-02-2010, 02:57 PM
All the recent Diamond Valley reports had me salivating at the chance to fish the Jewel once again. So I made the trek up there to see if the kittens wanted to play. I'm fishing from shore but this is an excellent shore fishing lake. So I descended down the hill to a spot that I never fished before in the lake. As soon as I got there I saw a school of about 30 trout. Some of them dinks some of them very VERY nice. Right away I felt like this was going to be a great day. My first 4 casts I toss off my freaking nightcrawlers! Definently overzealous trying to get a line in the watter ha so I finally manage to keep one on the hook (flylined) and after about 15 minutes I get a strike! But missed him! This was to be a theme for the early portion of my day. Anyways several casts later i manage to hook into a trout. I land him and he is a shorty so I let him go. I landed several more trout of the same variety and decided to move furthur down into the cove in search of better fish.
When I got to my next location it was the same thing. Tons of trout swimming along the shallows. I must have seen several hundred trout swimming throughout the day. To be honest though I wasn't really after trout it was more so just exciting to see. So I bust out my catfish setup hoping the bite had started since I hadn't seen too many encouraging cat reports from there. Of course my first 3 cast I toss off the liver I was using. Problem was I was trying to line drive cast the liver rather than lobbing it (too much bassin lately ha). So i made the proper adjustment and within 2 casts I had a run! So I set the hook and this bruiser makes a bline towards the shore. The water is CRYSTAL Clear so I can see where he's heading. After a couple of long runs I get the fish about 20 feet from shore and the hook and bait slip and I watch him swim off. I wasn't really that upset because at least I knew they were biting and fairly quickly. To make a long story shorter I get 2 more runs miss them BOTH didn't even get to feel them and start feeling a bit skittish. After that I settle into a nice little groove. My next run I set the hook and FISH ON! This time he doesn't break my line and the hook doesn't slip! I land what ends up being a nice 7-8 pound catfish.
After that fish The action was pretty much non stop. I was broke of on my 10 lb test several times. I ended up landing 20 fish on the day. The biggest catfish went 16 lbs and some change. Kept 10 and had a lovely fish fry for the mayweather mosely fight! The coolest thing that I saw though was a fleet of about 20 BIG catfish cruising through the shallows through the ultra clear water. I didn't even have polarized glasses on and could see them. First time that I have ever seen something like this and it was awesome. I did sling a chunk over liver into the fleet and got a hook up which made it that much cooler. I'll have more on the water pics next time I'm out there It's hard to keep busting your camera out from shore during that kinda action sometimes. Especially when its been a while ha. Keep in mind though walking uphill with 100 pounds of catfish in a basket is not fun! The staff at this lake is fantastic and friendly and Diamond Valley provides an excellent enviornment for fishing or just getting outdoors in general.
When I got to my next location it was the same thing. Tons of trout swimming along the shallows. I must have seen several hundred trout swimming throughout the day. To be honest though I wasn't really after trout it was more so just exciting to see. So I bust out my catfish setup hoping the bite had started since I hadn't seen too many encouraging cat reports from there. Of course my first 3 cast I toss off the liver I was using. Problem was I was trying to line drive cast the liver rather than lobbing it (too much bassin lately ha). So i made the proper adjustment and within 2 casts I had a run! So I set the hook and this bruiser makes a bline towards the shore. The water is CRYSTAL Clear so I can see where he's heading. After a couple of long runs I get the fish about 20 feet from shore and the hook and bait slip and I watch him swim off. I wasn't really that upset because at least I knew they were biting and fairly quickly. To make a long story shorter I get 2 more runs miss them BOTH didn't even get to feel them and start feeling a bit skittish. After that I settle into a nice little groove. My next run I set the hook and FISH ON! This time he doesn't break my line and the hook doesn't slip! I land what ends up being a nice 7-8 pound catfish.
After that fish The action was pretty much non stop. I was broke of on my 10 lb test several times. I ended up landing 20 fish on the day. The biggest catfish went 16 lbs and some change. Kept 10 and had a lovely fish fry for the mayweather mosely fight! The coolest thing that I saw though was a fleet of about 20 BIG catfish cruising through the shallows through the ultra clear water. I didn't even have polarized glasses on and could see them. First time that I have ever seen something like this and it was awesome. I did sling a chunk over liver into the fleet and got a hook up which made it that much cooler. I'll have more on the water pics next time I'm out there It's hard to keep busting your camera out from shore during that kinda action sometimes. Especially when its been a while ha. Keep in mind though walking uphill with 100 pounds of catfish in a basket is not fun! The staff at this lake is fantastic and friendly and Diamond Valley provides an excellent enviornment for fishing or just getting outdoors in general.