Castaic Dam - 7/3/10
Just recently bought a fishing license (I know more than half the year is over) so I'm trying to make up for lost time. After fishing at a local park lake last weekend, I went to Castaic Lake for the first time on Sunday with my my parents, my bro, his girlfriend, and my girlfriend to try our luck at the stripers. Got to the east launch ramp gate at about 5:40 a.m. with 12-15 cars in front of us. After paying the $11 vehicle entry fee and the long walk along the dam, we set up three hi/lo rigs on our 8-9' poles with 15 lb test and five sliding sinker rigs on our 6'6"-7' poles with 4-8 lb test. The bait used was large nightcrawlers (we forgot to pick up some anchovies). First bait was in the water at about 6:15. Within the first 20 mins, my dad got a hit. The fish even jumped out of the water a couple of times, which was a cool sight. Once on shore, we estimated the largemouth bass to be just short of 18 inches. After a few pics and a quick revival, the fish was released. An hour or so passed until the next bite and I was able to hook a smaller bass. It didn't really put up much of a fight. I put it next to my size 12.5 shoe and it appeared to be about 14-15 inches. Took a pic and released it unharmed. Another 15-20 mins later, I hooked and landed another largemouth. After a nice jump and a much better fight, the fish was also "measured" with my shoe. It looked almost identical to my previous fish. Back into the water it went. At this point, things started to slow down. We started eating the ridiculous amount of food we brought (roast beef sandwiches, fried chicken, sushi rolls, chips, rice krispy treats, banana bread, etc.) and sat around until the next bite. It was just after 10:30 when we saw some bass cruising the shore about 5' away. We flylined some crawlers trying to entice them. My bro got hit, but couldn't hook up. Next was my girlfriend, a bass took her crawler, but again no success. My dad threw his out and set down his rod. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw his rod getting dragged. I ran over and set the hook. This fish put up the best fight - 4 lb line was peeling as it moved from left to right and the rod was bent pretty good. After landing it, it was a bit chunkier and slightly longer than my previous fish, but still short of 18". My dad got the "big" fish of the day, although it wasn't legal. Continued fishing without another bite. However, my bro did manage to catch a 2" bullhead? (not bullhead catfish) that somehow swallowed an entire nightcrawler and a size 6 hook. He said, "at least I caught something!" as he poked fun at my girlfriend who ended up with the skunk lol. Left at 2:15 when my mom couldn't stand the heat any longer.
We didn't get any stripers, but it was still a fun day. Lots of weeds - every cast without a fish resulted in clumps of weeds covering our hooks, swivels, and sinkers. We saw one guy leaving about an hour before us who was fishing towards the middle of the dam with what looked like a 15' pole. He had 3 stripers - one appeared to be a couple of lbs, one was slightly larger, and one was pretty big (it looked to be at least 8-10 lbs). Other than that, a few guys using lures along the dam caught a few sublegal bass.
Pics haven't been uploaded so no pics on this thread, but I can upload them tomorrow if anyone cares to see some shore-caught largemouth ranging from 14-17".
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Originally Posted by misterBAITer
