Skinner days

[Matt_Magnone]

Posted this to a member on the DVL side when he asked and figured I would slap it up here too at request.

Sorry I'm not on this site as much as I used to be. Too much other stuff going on lately.

Needless to say Skinner has and will always be one of my favorite lakes. It's tough at times and excellent at others.

Spent the majority of the year on the ocean but needed to get the bass boat back on the water. Being that Perris has been a little fickle and me living 5 minutes down the road from Skinner I've been soaking it there.

Bass bite has been slow to fair but it's definitely biting. I'm finding most of my fish on outside structure in 20-40' of water. I'm targeting "random" type stuff. Just little irregularities on the bottom. One thing I do different out there when metering is more or less looking at cover/structure vs. looking for arcs on the graph. I'm fishing a lot of stuff we would normally call void of all life. Deep fish at Skinner tend to be mud bellied so finding them on the graph can sometimes be a useless venture. On every fish finder there's 1-1.5' of dead zone that the transducer will not pick up. Now think about how many 1-4 pound bass it would take to fill 1-1.5'. Technology is rad, but it can sure mess with our heads when we're fiending to find a fish.

I've been living with the 4" spinning rod in my hand fishing mainly darter heads and spins. On the warmer days fish have been nudging up into the Tule lines and I've been able to pick them on the Thin Senko but for the most part I've been deeper. Water has been sticking around that 54-56 degree zone but random days I saw it get higher so generally it's "low and slow" fishing although with the water temp dropping, there should be some killer reaction bait fishing getting ready to happen.

This year I made it a goal not to pick up the swimbait sticks like I normally do. It's been more traditional fishing for me.

Hope this helps :)

47381

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47383

[Hoot951]

Posted this to a member on the DVL side when he asked and figured I would slap it up here too at request.

Sorry I'm not on this site as much as I used to be. Too much other stuff going on lately.

Needless to say Skinner has and will always be one of my favorite lakes. It's tough at times and excellent at others.

Spent the majority of the year on the ocean but needed to get the bass boat back on the water. Being that Perris has been a little fickle and me living 5 minutes down the road from Skinner I've been soaking it there.

Bass bite has been slow to fair but it's definitely biting. I'm finding most of my fish on outside structure in 20-40' of water. I'm targeting "random" type stuff. Just little irregularities on the bottom. One thing I do different out there when metering is more or less looking at cover/structure vs. looking for arcs on the graph. I'm fishing a lot of stuff we would normally call void of all life. Deep fish at Skinner tend to be mud bellied so finding them on the graph can sometimes be a useless venture. On every fish finder there's 1-1.5' of dead zone that the transducer will not pick up. Now think about how many 1-4 pound bass it would take to fill 1-1.5'. Technology is rad, but it can sure mess with our heads when we're fiending to find a fish.

I've been living with the 4" spinning rod in my hand fishing mainly darter heads and spins. On the warmer days fish have been nudging up into the Tule lines and I've been able to pick them on the Thin Senko but for the most part I've been deeper. Water has been sticking around that 54-56 degree zone but random days I saw it get higher so generally it's "low and slow" fishing although with the water temp dropping, there should be some killer reaction bait fishing getting ready to happen.

This year I made it a goal not to pick up the swimbait sticks like I normally do. It's been more traditional fishing for me.

Hope this helps :)

47381

47382

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No swimbaits Matt?

[Matt_Magnone]

No swimbaits Matt?

I've been throwing them a cast or two at a time just to see followers. It's harder for me to put the swimbait down than it is to pick it up. For the most part though, I've been avoiding the technique. I'm having a lot more fun getting back to basics. Don't get me wrong, I'll be back to chucking big soon enough, but I have some things in store for the year that require me to brush up on my regular game. I just love fishing and there are too many techniques I've avoided because I had my heart set on catching trophy fish.

[NFCD I]

Thanks for the update on Skinner Matt. Are you having problems keeping the small, 8" to 10", bass off of your small darter baits?

[BassinPLS]

Matt,

Thank you very much for the great report on Skinner. Skinner has always given me fits! Also, I was not aware of the 1.0' - 1.5 foot dead zone on the fish finders. That sure explains why the water looks empty in the winter. I had a buddy pre-fishing next to me at Perris several years ago who had a video camera. He said he did not see a thing on his graphs; but the video camera showed bass all over the place bellied down into depressions in the mud!

Thanks ago for the post. It is always great to read your informative posts! I just need to remember to keep it slow this time of year!

Tight Lines

[P.A.W.]

Hey Mat! Good to have a first hand LMB report to add here!