"They stole my bait again." at Castaic 5/25

[fishinone]

OK, the plan was to wait until the weekenders split on Monday then troll Castaic till closing.

Donnie, Luis and I started trolling at about 2 O'clock. We found fish schooled in the expected places and couldn't get a hit. In 2 1/2 hours of trolling we got one hit and it didn't stick. I'm not sure that my guests even believed that I saw the hit.

We switched to Plan "B" at about 5:30, anchored up down near the buoy line and caught 28 dinks. It was wide open but we had to loosen our drags to give them a chance to pull a little bit.

Mike, who I met at the buoy line last year told me they slayed fish until they started putting water in, down in the corner passed the buoy line, then it shut down. There were 5 boats fishing the buoy line but not doing really well. The buoy line is down and the section that they were tied on was moved from it's regular position.

So, Donnie and I bailed fish while Luis said "They stole my bait again.""They stole my bait again.""They stole my bait again.". OK. to be fair I need to say that Luis catches more than his fair share of big striper from the Aqueduct.

With 22 dinks in the fish hold and 6 released we went back out on the troll. We jumped from place to place checking out the schools that we had seen earlier until we found some cooperative schoolies. On a pass out a point we saw active fish on the fishfinder and hooked up the outside pole and then the inside pole a few yards later. The inside came unbuttoned on the way in and Donnie boated a 2 1/2 lber.

We set back up and started through them again when the Lake Police came along with their blue lights flashing claiming over the loudspeaker that the lake was closed. It was 7:30, the lake closed at 8:00. I have no appreciation for "Civil Servants" who overstep their bounds, but out of respect for the office we packed it up and headed in.

It wasn't what I was hoping for, but it was far better than a skunk. We had a good time out there yesterday.