How`s the Bite

[bstolton]

Anybody been on the lake fishing for Stripers this week ? Have they started stocking Trout yet ? Thinking about going out on Sunday and just wondering if their biting.

[Ssortasober]

Trout were stocked last week. I went Monday, trolled the dam, Chemise bay, and Millers cyn with big swimbaits, small rapalas and roostertails til noon for nada. Try the inlet, some boats tied up there seemed to be doing ok. I wanted to find my own fish. Bad choice

[seal]

Trout were stocked the week before last, if they dumped last week and I didn't hear about it that would be quite a shock to me. The bite has been slow overall with some flurries of action, actually as far as schoolies go a decent bite ended almost a month ago very strange this year and for me compared to all the years I've fished there one of the slowest, the LMB's didn't even seem to turn on this fall. They have not been listing any of the plants on the DFW's website, good job DFW!

Bad news continues to be lack of shad, silversides everywhere but apparently the stripers are preferring the calorie count of a baby LMB to the skinny silversides, most stripers I've sampled were chocked full with greenies.

On the positive side there is a low pressure system scheduled to come thru next week, prior to the last low pressure a couple weeks ago there was a nice 2 day flurry of stripers but on the negative side giant full moon might mitigate any uptick in the bite.

[bstolton]

I`ve only been up there twice this year and both times got skunked. If I cant get the stripers to bite, then sounds like I`ll be trout fishing.
Thanks for the Info.

[BassinPLS]

Seal,

A Great post!

[zen]

i was out there yesterday with some buddys we rented a boat and caught 3 stripers most of the lake seamed dead biggest was 16 1/2 in all caught with rapalas

[P.A.W.]

Trout were stocked the week before last, if they dumped last week and I didn't hear about it that would be quite a shock to me. The bite has been slow overall with some flurries of action, actually as far as schoolies go a decent bite ended almost a month ago very strange this year and for me compared to all the years I've fished there one of the slowest, the LMB's didn't even seem to turn on this fall. They have not been listing any of the plants on the DFW's website, good job DFW!

Bad news continues to be lack of shad, silversides everywhere but apparently the stripers are preferring the calorie count of a baby LMB to the skinny silversides, most stripers I've sampled were chocked full with greenies.

On the positive side there is a low pressure system scheduled to come thru next week, prior to the last low pressure a couple weeks ago there was a nice 2 day flurry of stripers but on the negative side giant full moon might mitigate any uptick in the bite.
Man, the exact same situation at Skinner. No shad, stripers eating bass, very slow for the last month.... etc. etc.

[seal]

Stripers have been in both lakes for many years and until last several years the shad had been plentiful but now seemingly non-existent at least at Silverwood. I'm sure some get back in via the aqueduct but hell we all know that the stripers love to sit in that area and ambush just about everything. I have been discussing this with others for quite a while and would love to have professional input on whether or not they have been completely eradicated or if this is just a cycle and they still are there in sufficient number and also if they could be re-stocked at some point. The lack of forage seems to be having quite an impact on the LMB's. I know the stripers prey on silversides too but they definitely seem to have a preference for the greenies.

Kwin?

[P.A.W.]

If I remember right Kwin's last census at Skinner showed no shad. I can tell you that the number of stripers taken last year went way up. I won't relive the old threads about multi limit poaching, but between that and the odd lack of stripers this year tell me that something else is afoot. No way did the stripers eat all the shad. Never have I seen so many micro stripers this time of year. Usually we see them in August boiling and chasing midges and new hatched silversides. Even trolling near the bottom we're hitting 4-6 inch fish mid November.

[seal]

If I remember right Kwin's last census at Skinner showed no shad. I can tell you that the number of stripers taken last year went way up. I won't relive the old threads about multi limit poaching, but between that and the odd lack of stripers this year tell me that something else is afoot. No way did the stripers eat all the shad. Never have I seen so many micro stripers this time of year. Usually we see them in August boiling and chasing midges and new hatched silversides. Even trolling near the bottom we're hitting 4-6 inch fish mid November.

The striper size and population fluctuation I think is kind of common. I've seen the same cycles at Mead and Silverwood. This year the fish being caught are nice and plump 14" to 18" schoolies but I sure miss the 3-8 pounders from several years back. I do believe the swimbait insanity that hit Silverwood after DVL went south took a big hit on the bigger fish. Lot's of individuals were fishing the off limits areas and keeping the big ones to brag about and feed the neighborhood oh and sell um to businesses, yep I said it and pretty much believe and know it to be true. Oh well now that it's a tougher bite most have moved on and eventually the population will recover, I'll be there when it does but sure as hell won't publicize it on the Internet, lol.

[bstolton]

The striper continue to beat me at the game of fishing. We trolled for about 3 hours with trout swimbaits, krocodile spoons and various colored flukes, including baby bass green for Nada.
We then bait fished with anchovies and sardines for Nada, then my buddy decided to drop down a nightcrawler and bam instant hookup ! So we stayed on the worms for the last hour there, but never got another bite. There is so much to learn and try and figure out, I just need to make the effort to get out more often and gain more experience.

[kwin]

Stripers have been in both lakes for many years and until last several years the shad had been plentiful but now seemingly non-existent at least at Silverwood. I'm sure some get back in via the aqueduct but hell we all know that the stripers love to sit in that area and ambush just about everything. I have been discussing this with others for quite a while and would love to have professional input on whether or not they have been completely eradicated or if this is just a cycle and they still are there in sufficient number and also if they could be re-stocked at some point. The lack of forage seems to be having quite an impact on the LMB's. I know the stripers prey on silversides too but they definitely seem to have a preference for the greenies.

Kwin?

Lack of forage for LMB/SB at Silverwood?

Surely you jest.

Silverwood is LOADED with food for LMB/SB. Silversides, hitch, blackfish, tule perch, small stripers/lmb/bluegill/crappie, bigscale logperch, sculpin and gobies. Throw in the largest trout allotment in SoCal (thank DWR) and forage is absolutely not lacking at Silverwood. Anglers freak out about shad because that is what they read about/see on TV and are largely unaware of the other forage options available. I doubt ALL of the threadfin have been wiped out and there has recently been the first documentation of American Shad in the lake too (3 of them). They were 18-19" and too big to be eaten by anything that swims in the lake, but with the amount of current generated, it is plausible they could spawn. LMB and SB certainly are not starving to death.

We shocked the lake this week and the abundance of forage options mentioned were clear and present with the most 3-6" SB I have seen in a long while.

[P.A.W.]

Thanks Kwin, My question to you is why do you think we are seeing such huge numbers of 3-6" SB especially this time of year. Normally we'd be seeing lots of 2 to 4 pound schoolies now and normally see those schools of dinks mid to late summer?

[kwin]

Thanks Kwin, My question to you is why do you think we are seeing such huge numbers of 3-6" SB especially this time of year. Normally we'd be seeing lots of 2 to 4 pound schoolies now and normally see those schools of dinks mid to late summer?

the thing with stripers is, the larger they are, the more they require coolwater refuges with adequate oxygen in times of warmer water. with the ongoing drought and warmer climate (and warmer water) we've recently experienced, larger fish have had not had that coolwater refuge in a lot of lakes in SoCal. their anadromous life history where large adults move into freshwater to spawn and then leave to go back to a colder ocean with abundant food is severely disrupted. typically, the hatched juveniles stay in the warmer river/estuary until they reach a large enough size to succeed in the ocean. so the smaller stripers do just fine under the current conditions. it's the larger adults that cannot access any coolwater in our lakes/reservoirs that can't hang since they are trapped in a warmer lake and cannot leave their situation, their metabolism is faster and thus require more food to meet their energy demand. if there are more fish in the lake due to a good spawn or lack of adequate harvest, there are more mouths, that require more food and growth rates could suffer. if the trend of warmer water and prolonged drought continues I would expect an abundance of smaller fish with an absence of the large ones most anglers prefer in most SoCal lakes.

[seal]

Lack of forage for LMB/SB at Silverwood?

Surely you jest.

Silverwood is LOADED with food for LMB/SB. Silversides, hitch, blackfish, tule perch, small stripers/lmb/bluegill/crappie, bigscale logperch, sculpin and gobies. Throw in the largest trout allotment in SoCal (thank DWR) and forage is absolutely not lacking at Silverwood. Anglers freak out about shad because that is what they read about/see on TV and are largely unaware of the other forage options available. I doubt ALL of the threadfin have been wiped out and there has recently been the first documentation of American Shad in the lake too (3 of them). They were 18-19" and too big to be eaten by anything that swims in the lake, but with the amount of current generated, it is plausible they could spawn. LMB and SB certainly are not starving to death.

We shocked the lake this week and the abundance of forage options mentioned were clear and present with the most 3-6" SB I have seen in a long while.

Thank you for the update. I never stated that I thought there was not enough forage, please re-read if that is what you got from my posts. The silverside population is ridiculous and the baby bass are more than plentiful. Yep saw the plentiful beds last year also. But all that aside the bite changes when there is a lack of threadfin in the lake. The open water boils are definitely down, the slurping of the silversides is still there but the stripers don't seem to be chasing them as aggressively as they are the lmb fry. The stripers I have caught have been very plump and well fed. But topwater striper bites that I have fished for many years have just not been there and I'm pretty sure that has a lot to do with shad populations having diminished. The multiple fish species I'm sure are still there but the pattern has changed as they target different forage.

If the stripers continue to target largemouth due to the lack of their favorite forage fish, threadfins, is it not possible that the largemouth population might also diminish in the future?

See as the lakes change we are not all privy to your information so speculation is all we have, that and time on the lake which I feel is also pretty valuable.

Thank you!

[drifter023]

Kwin, thanks for the info that is what I have also thought myself. I have fished silver wood since it first opened when you could fish till 10:00 at night. On a boat.