Castaic tips for Stripers? (after a 2 year layoff)

[duke13]

Hey guys. Looking to getting back to fishing up at Castaic upper lake and catching some nice stripers after a 2 year layoff. Life finally has slowed down.
Read some of the recent posts, great info, thanks.
I usually fish off the dam with sardines, bloodworms and nightcrawlers. I use to drop shot most of the time.
Being that I haven't fished on the lake in 2 years I was looking to see whats been working best. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Couple of questions
Is it better to drop shot or Carolina rig? if drop shot how far up from the sinker should the leader be? what do you guys think works best?

What size hooks? and the best way to hook the sardines? I always tended to lose the bait after one cast.

good luck to everyone as the fishing season heats up. Look forward to reading your post.
Thanks again for any tips you can send my way.

[catchingsomefish]

Ron, AKA Fishinone, put a post up on the tip section a few days back, that might help you in bait fishing methods for Castaic, he usually uses a boat, but I think some of his info might apply to what you are trying to do. Personally, fresh sardines have worked in the past, night crawlers also do well. Hopefully the water on the dam side of the lakes has cleared up, it was green and mucky last Thursday...................Dave

[jowo]

If you fish sardine chunks, I think a lot of the guys on the dam flyline. You'll get more, but a lot more work than bait n' wait. With the flyline, you cast as far as you can, let it slowly sink to the bottom, slowly wind in, and repeat.

[duke13]

Thanks Dave. read fishinone's post. nice info. Appreciate the input. Ill check the dam before heading up.

[duke13]

jowo thanks for the help. I'll check into that flyline.

[TimelessFSR]

It's been a while for me too since I've been fishing. I was there at the dam this past Saturday. Started in the morning with sardines on my 7ft rod...and bloodworms on my longer rod (both carolina rigged). Caught a 3lb??? striper around 9:00am on my shorter rod w/ sardines. Was getting nibbles a lil later on, but nothing took...and when I checked it was probably because my hardware was tangled up. All morning, they weren't touching the bloodworms...so eventually put sardines on both rods. As I started eating my burger around 11:00, I got hit on my longer rod w/ sardines...felt a lot heavier but eventually it broke the line. The wind came up around noon and it seemed pretty quiet for everybody the rest of the day.

[tommibear]

Was out there this past Sunday on the dam. Got a lot of nibbles throughout the day; however, they weren't hooking. Changed hooked sizes and bait presentation, same results.

Was able to land (2) 1/2 lbers [released]. A 7+ lber and 3 lber was landed by someone near the end of the dam.

Weather was good.. slight breeze and weather was not too hot.

[duke13]

Thanks Timeless. I'll take a 3lber any day

[dkinla]

hey duke,

checkout my really old post when I was just getting into striper fishing at Castaic... this is still my basic setup:

http://fishingnetwork.net/forum4/sho...ideo%29-6-28am

hope some of it helps...

[Hitts0n]

Bloodworms double drop shot...or u can go triple...good luck!!