Some nice stuff to look at today

[Stumpknocker]

I decided that Wednesday was a good day to give it a try at Castaic...cloudy and cool, with wind coming tomorrow...launched and started trolling a u-rig right out of the marina...saw lots of marks on the meter, but mostly deep...and no boils or birds...most of the fish on the meter in the ski arm were 100 feet or deeper...looks like a lot of shad are there too...I figured out that if I trolled over deep dropoffs, there were some fish scattered throughout the water column, and some were shallow and willing to bite. While looking around I saw some nice fields of purple wildflowers

It was a slow pick on schoolies over the dropoffs...about one bite every half hour or so...after I had a few in the livewell and also farmed a few, I headed over to the ski arm...saw this nice bald eagle looking for something to eat and terrorizing the waterfowl...he's in the middle of the pic, on the ground

I picked up a couple and farmed some in the fish arm...then headed for the dock around noon. Here's the 5 fish I managed to get into the boat

The best bite was early...it tapered off as the morning wore on, even though it stayed cloudy, with no wind...beautiful day!

[Lady Quagga]

Nice pic of the wildflowers (I love that purple color they give off) and the baldy.

Nice job on the stripers, too. (Guinness batter forthcoming? )

[fishinone]

Congrats on the catching Stumpknocker!

[Stumpknocker]

Nice pic of the wildflowers (I love that purple color they give off) and the baldy.

Nice job on the stripers, too. (Guinness batter forthcoming? )

Thanks Lady Quagga...The wildflowers don't last long here in SoCal, it was nice seeing them. Guinness batter sounds great, but I used Italian breadcrumbs today...yum!

Congrats on the catching Stumpknocker!

Thanks fishinone...I'm glad they're somewhat cooperative this winter.

[Bassfan]

Nice going Stumpknocker. We're lucky a few of them are still hitting.
Not looking like there's going to be a bait season this year but they taste even better when you only get a few!

[Stumpknocker]

Nice going Stumpknocker. We're lucky a few of them are still hitting.
Not looking like there's going to be a bait season this year but they taste even better when you only get a few!

Thanks Bassfan...we're lucky indeed...I didn't even bring bait this time, counting on the u-rig to come through for plan A and didn't have to come up with plan B. Some of the most memorable fishing I've done is when I caught just enough for dinner for me and my wife, especially when camping and fishing on unfamiliar water without a clue.

[CaCondor]

Hi Stumpy,
IMO those flowers are either lupine or phacelia? A little hard to tell without a closeup. We arrived in Rabat by train passing over a good sized river. Several ocean size rods were arrayed along the river bank on sand spikes. No one close by. Must be large fish to be caught or they're taking no chances��!!

[Stumpknocker]

Hi Stumpy,
IMO those flowers are either lupine or phacelia? A little hard to tell without a closeup. We arrived in Rabat by train passing over a good sized river. Several ocean size rods were arrayed along the river bank on sand spikes. No one close by. Must be large fish to be caught or they're taking no chances��!!

Not sure what kind of flowers, they were high above the cliffs...forgot to bring the helicopter They have sturgeon in those rivers over there, but the long rods might just be for casting distance and/or sinker weight.

[TroutOnly]

you got love trolling ,no buying bait or smelling like sardine..........nice catches...............

[Stumpknocker]

you got love trolling ,no buying bait or smelling like sardine..........nice catches...............

Thanks T/O...agreed...to me the only thing more fun than catching them trolling is getting them by casting lures, but you know better than anybody that trolling u-rigs often beats casting stuff...