I haven't done any reports lately because of Covid 19! A lot of lakes were closed or with reduced capacity, so I didn't want to cause any stampedes to any particular lake. My fishing as been real streaky! I get hot at a lake and play it out and then go stone cold. So we will just talk about Wohlford now and wow it's been real good to us! A fellow FNN'er reached out to me about going fishing and was probably the Luckiest thing that's happened to me in awhile. His name is Robert and he's a good fishermen, but what he does that I would never do is talk to everyone! I'll ask questions, but I'm not the kind of guy who they will tell their ATM pin number too! Lol (they did to Robert) So the first time we went to Wohlford together we were drifting for Crappie and Catfish. Robert got some nice Crappie he caught on a lure from Mr. Williams at Lake Elsinore. (Mr. Crappie himself!) I was fishing with the best lure the Manager at Sav on tackle knows and I caught crap on it! Lol We also caught a few nice catfish. As we were getting out of the boat at the boat dock, the dock attendant noticed we caught a few Crappie. He told Robert he loved fishing for Crappie at the Lake and only took this job after he retired from the post office to be able to fish more. Robert ask him if he's been doing any good lately and he responded he caught 13 real nice ones yesterday! (his buddy caught 16) Where Robert asked, and he told us the 3 best spots to fish for Crappie in the Lake! They either bite live Minnows or Crappie jigs, which ever you prefer to fish with. So armed with this information we made an Evel plan to go the next week.
So the next week rolls around and we decide to go with Live Minnows and fish the Crappie float. (1 of the 3 places the gentlemen told us to try) A big school of nice size Crappie were just waiting for us! They were all over a pound and many of them were closer to 1 1/2. (we caught 14 of them that day) We didn't get much on the catfish and called it an early day. The next week I brought the whole team there and we fished with 3 boats. However, we couldn't get the good size Minnows only dinks. The dinks worked ok but the Crappie were half the size and half the size. They came in 2 sizes that trip, 3/4 pounders and dinks that weren't worth keeping. (we still caught 14 Crappie, half and half in sizes) Plus a few more nice size catfish and some dink catfish too. The next week Robert went by himself and had some good bait and caught 10 nice Crappie, plus a few catfish. Now the story is going to do an 180 on the catfish. Their is a gentlemen who writes story's on the best San Diego fishing website. (he's the catfish pro on that website for Lake Wohlford) Robert reaches out to him and the guy tells him his rig and the secret catfish bait that they can't resist! (once again the guy gives Robert his pin number to his debit card!) Lol
We all meet up Sunday and make a bait exchange. We traded some dinky minnows for the secret catfish bait. We started off fishing the Crappie float with minnows and got 2 ok size Crappie and 2 dinks. Robert did lose a big mystery fish. It was my turn to fish one of the 4 ice fishing holes they have in the Crappie float. I catch a dinky crappie and then change poles. (I'm glad I did!) I get bit and it starts burning drag! (this isn't no Crappie!) Now my Tuna instincts kick in! In Tuna fishing when hooked up, I want the corner stern position. (I can move either way easily) So I jump up to the hole and every time he runs, I stick my rod down in the hole. (I've got 4 pound test on a trout rod) Outside of the Crappie float, a big fish jumps in the air and makes a big splash! (could that be my fish?????) After a long fight, I see my split shot weight come up to the rod tip. (I know the fish is right there but I can't see him) I tell Robert to go up there and grab him! It's either a nice catfish or a Bass. Robert get's up there and say's it's a big ole bass and grabs him by the mouth! It's a nice Medium size Bass! Wow that was really kool, but it shut down the Crappie fishing! On to the catfish with the secret bait!
To test the bait, I'm going to fish with standard catfish bait and Robert is going to use the secret bait only. 2 hours later I had 2 bites and 1 landed fish and Robert had 20 bites and 8 landed fish! (he only kept the bigger catfish and C&R the small ones) Since we were drifting at a good pace, we missed a lot of bites and the ones we did hook were mostly in the mouth for a safe release! Now it was my turn to try the secret bait! It was 4-8 bites every drift! The catfish were literally jumping over themselves to get to this bait! In the end we had 60 bites and maybe 25 catfish landed all but 1 on the secret bait.
What is the secret bait????? I'm going to let you guy's figure it out by giving you a bunch of clues. It's not Shrimp, Mackerel, Night crawler, Chicken Liver or Dough bait. It's the same bait the guy's go crazy over for Stripers at Lake Castaic. With that amount of clues you should be able to figure it out! Lol
