Castaic Upper Lake 2/24 First Striper! Late Report

[Swank909]

So we started the day off early, Brandon got to the house at 5 a.m and we loaded up the car. We got to Gallions at 5:45 and ran to the Fresh Sardines, only to find out they hadn't received any for the day We got in line at 6 (10th or so in line) and into the park at 6:30 a.m, rented our boat and headed out.
Since it was our first time out on Castaic's beautiful waters we didn't really have a clue what to do or where to go, other than what we've read here on the forums. In our attempt to find the buoy line (we heard people race towards it in the morning) we followed a train of boats down the wrong side of the lake! Took us forever and a day to get to the wrong side in our rental, we then tried to fish some kind of a buoy with no luck.
We finally made it to "The buoy line" and threw everything we had at the water. These 2 guys (and a girl, one guy had a yellow sweater) in a rental about 30 feet from us caught at least 12 stripers in the hour we watched them. They were doing the same thing we were so we didn't give up hope. Then At around 4 p.m we got our first bite, and I caught my first striper!
We finally left the buoy line because it was getting late and the fiance had to use the restroom so we packed up and called it a day. We stopped at the floating restroom before the marina and decided to tie down since we wanted to stretch our legs. Brandon did some quick scouting and see's this hog swimming around about 10 feet down, easy double digit LMB so we ran back to the boat and got the poles. Brandon was throwing some huge (I think it was a 7 inch) swimbait and I guess he was just going to fast cause when the swimbait came out of the water that bass was still chasing it.
Some guys on a boat came cruising through and just kept laughing at us!!!! They wouldn't be laughing if they had seen that huge *** bass, they'd probably be up on that restroom with us haha

Bait used: Fresh Anchovies (Brandon caught them on Friday) and Frozen Sardines

and Just a few quick pics:


Nice shot of Brandon's back and the Ghost ship lol (Super glad Brandon brought the extra rope)

Victory shot

I would also like to point out that the DFG Warden was out patrolling and checking licenses, as well as the Sheriffs department (Always glad to see my money at work).

And a quick thanks to everyone who helped us out with the proper rigs and our bait questions. Special thanks goes out to Fishbones. Thanks for the help and the phone call bro, we really appreciate it, this fish is for you

[marzocchi]

Congrats on your fist striper. There will be many more to come.

[Shock]

Congratulation on you first catch....You will be addicted now...

[BrandonFish]

was a super cool time all though i never got bit. that lmb was huge she was patrolling her bathroom she came close to eating that old rusted hook plastic :D i got to watch dan bring up his first striper congrats dan!!! we even split the striper fillet lol
hopefully thers no rain for this weekend so we can go have a halibut slay
i forgot the 2 we met real cool people was it razor blade/slayer? and his buddie great race btw! lol! thanks guys for the help. and fishbones you da man!