BBL Sat. 4/16/11. They were eating everything!

[greenbean]

Went up to Big Bear today to see if the trout wanted to play. I brought my son, Chris and his good friend Aaron. Both a couple of newbies. So I set up the boys for fishing lures. Kastmaster on Aarons rod and Thomas Bouyant on Chris' rod. After a quick lesson ("cast it out when it hits the water reel it back medium retrieve.") I set myself up with a Berkely trout worm on a jig head. The boys are casting and reeling and I make my first cast. Aaron then says "I think I'm stuck or something". I look at the rod in his hand bouncing around and I say "No thats a fish." After a quick fight Aaron lands his first ever trout. All smiles. Then its my turn with the trout worm. A long skinny freshly spawned out female. We land that one and then it's Chris' turn. I'm on he yells out and then lands a really nice rainbow. It went on like that off and on until lunch. It would slow down a bit and we'd try something new. Bait, spinners, different spoons etc. When we change it up they'd go on the chew again. At lunch we went to Big Bear Mountain Brewery. Chris just recently turned 21 and wanted to try the orange blossom ale. I had a grizzly dopple bok. And poor Aaron had a Dr. Pepper. He's only 19. After burgers and beers we hit it again. Caught a few more and called it a day. I didn't keep count but I'd say we released about 7-9 fish (ok a few were farmed) and we took home 7. Arrived at about 7:00 am and left at about 3:30. Conditions: 34ish air temp in the am warming up nicely after mid morning, water clear no wind until 12:00 noon then it picked up a bit. Not too bad wind wise. I've definitely seen worse up there. Good luck and keep yer rod bent!

[christainmetalhead909]

awesome report, great job out there.

[HANG'IN ONE]

Great report I too was up at Big Bear Sat. fished Stanfield cutoff got there around 6:30am took my 2 boys they schooled me they each caught 2, Gulp Chunky Cheese garlic. All 4 were nice holdovers 3 of them full of eggs. Weather was great.

Tight Lines!

[greenbean]

Thanks guys, I was fishing around 100 yards west of Stanfield most of the day. It got a little crowded the later it got in the day. Only 2 of my fish were hold overs.

[yztim]

heading up friday and usually fish the dam area. When you say stanfield, are you actually on the cutoff road, or the north/south side of the lake?
thanks, tim

[HANG'IN ONE]

YZTIM Stanfield cutoff is the opposite side of the lake (east side) where the dam is. You want to fish the West side of Stanfield although I did see people fishing the Baldwin side. Get there early on the weekend.

Tight lines!

[diamondbear]

Good job on those trout guys , Your killing me with these reports as I went up there with my boat a week ago and had motor problems [ Water in my gas tank ] its fixed now and I'll be joining you guys this weekend . Yesterdays newspaper article sayed the DFG has rescued like 400-500 trout [ 3-4 lbers. and 1 @ 15 lbs. ] in the area around the airport , spawners . The water is so high that there seeing fish in places they never saw before and started releasing water from the dam for the first time in 15 years . Stanfield area is the place to fish now I bet . // db

[HANG'IN ONE]

Yeah I could see the water level where it was on the asphalt on the road at Stanfield, weeds, and other debris.

[bowler]

Good job on those trout guys , Your killing me with these reports as I went up there with my boat a week ago and had motor problems [ Water in my gas tank ] its fixed now and I'll be joining you guys this weekend . Yesterdays newspaper article sayed the DFG has rescued like 400-500 trout [ 3-4 lbers. and 1 @ 15 lbs. ] in the area around the airport , spawners . The water is so high that there seeing fish in places they never saw before and started releasing water from the dam for the first time in 15 years . Stanfield area is the place to fish now I bet . // db
They release water all year round from the dam to keep the water flowing in Bear Creek because the creeks is a wild trout stream.

[Kelster]

I should have gone up there and not Lake Gregory. I am thinking about going up there this Sunday and see what I can do. Guess I will try the North side and Stanfield if the North side is slow.

[diamondbear]

The BBL MWD lets a trickle of water out year round for the down stream fishery , but this was a true OPEN THE GATE water release , the news article even showed a pic of the massive water flow coming out under the new bridge being built . cool pic .

[greenbean]

Thanks again guys. The Stanfield Cutoff area is usually good this time of year, especially for holdovers. I read in Jim Matthews report that this was the first time since 1994 that they opened the flood gates at the dam because of high water.

[Big Bear Legal Eagle]

As those of you who have ever maintained an aquarium know well, the single most important step toward having healthy, thiving fish is a substantal water exchange. With the big water releases in December followed by the influx of fresh water and the newest releases, Big Bear Lake is going to be experiencing its healthiest water conditions in over 15 years. The cold, low-oxygen water being released from the bottom of the lake into Bear Creek will be replaced by the fresh runoff entering the lake. Great for the lake and great for the trout stream that will be flushed clean with the higher discharge. And now that the citrus orchards in Redlands and Highland have been replaced with asphault and modern "improvements," Big Bear Lake should be able to sustain its water levels at or near capacity for the next couple of years. See you all up there!!