It's going to be a Crappie year next year!

[etucker1959]

For the 2nd time in 2 weeks I went to a known Crappie lake and checked it out! (This time it was lake Cachuma) Did we catch any Crappie? NOOOO, but we didn't get Skunked either. We caught Catfish, LMB, Bluegill and for the first time in CA, we caught a nice Small mouth Bass! But more importantly I saw the lake and now I know where the floating bathroom is in Cachuma bay. Where the narrows are and where the back of the island is located and where several shallow shelves are located. I can't wait for next spring to fish for Crappie. I finally figured out how to catch Crappie at Lake Wohlford, in addition we are dialed in for lake Hodges too! Now with Piru and Cachuma in the mix, in addition to the Grand prize of Lake Isabella and a pontoon boat up there just for us. I expect to have a very good Crappie year! Lol

[DarkShadow]

Were you on a rental?

[etucker1959]

Were you on a rental?

Yes I was on all lakes.

[DarkShadow]

Yes I was on all lakes.

Nice! I'm thinking of going to Cachuma and trying to get me some green and brown bass.

What were the conditions? Any fish busting on top yet? Shad? How much was the rental? Inquiring minds want to know.

[etucker1959]

Nice! I'm thinking of going to Cachuma and trying to get me some green and brown bass.

What were the conditions? Any fish busting on top yet? Shad? How much was the rental? Inquiring minds want to know.

Let me give you the rundown for a first timer.

It cost $10 to park and they open at 6:00 am. However, at that time no one is in the parking booth at the entrance. So what you do is, go 100 feet to the right and get an envelope and put $10 in the envelope and put it in the box. Put the receipt on the Dash board.

The boat rental opens at 6:30 am and they have a big fleet but their is a crowd on the weekends. (so don't get their too late) All boats must be in at 5:00 pm. The cheapest boat is $93 all day and they have a slightly bigger boat for $120. They even have some boats with steering wheels. Here is the weird part, you put a deposit up front $150 for the $120 boat we rented, but you pay for the boat at the end. So in effect they give you a $30 refund at the end of the day.

As for the fishing.

The Bass fishing was pretty good. We talked to a guy who was in front of us in line for a boat rental. At the end of the day, he caught 10 and lost a bunch! He fished weird too, he got in front of the Looney birds diving for shad and threw top water right around them! (interesting way to fish) He was in Cachuma Bay. It's a big deep lake, so fishing the shoreline of the banks is where you want to fish. My buddy been following a guide on insta gram and he is catching a lot of both kinds of Bass. We found his dumb arse fishing right above the narrows on the bank. (the narrows are closed now) Hopefully, this will help you out a little bit!

[DarkShadow]

It cost $10 to park and they open at 6:00 am. However, at that time no one is in the parking booth at the entrance. So what you do is, go 100 feet to the right and get an envelope and put $10 in the envelope and put it in the box. Put the receipt on the Dash board.

Sweet! I'll be sure to get there at 6 cuz it'll take me like 1/2 an hour to get 12 rods, big gear bag, cooler, trolling motor, battery, etc from the truck.

The boat rental opens at 6:30 am and they have a big fleet but their is a crowd on the weekends. (so don't get their too late) All boats must be in at 5:00 pm. The cheapest boat is $93 all day and they have a slightly bigger boat for $120. They even have some boats with steering wheels. Here is the weird part, you put a deposit up front $150 for the $120 boat we rented, but you pay for the boat at the end. So in effect they give you a $30 refund at the end of the day.

Yeah, I'm socially distancing and going by myself, so I'll take the smallest boat.

As for the fishing.

The Bass fishing was pretty good. We talked to a guy who was in front of us in line for a boat rental. At the end of the day, he caught 10 and lost a bunch! He fished weird too, he got in front of the Looney birds diving for shad and threw top water right around them! (interesting way to fish) He was in Cachuma Bay. It's a big deep lake, so fishing the shoreline of the banks is where you want to fish. My buddy been following a guide on insta gram and he is catching a lot of both kinds of Bass. We found his dumb arse fishing right above the narrows on the bank. (the narrows are closed now) Hopefully, this will help you out a little bit!

Thanks eTuck! Was the guide Rich Tauber? I see him fishing Casitas and Cachuma a lot and saw a few posts he's made as of late. Hopefully my adventure is better than my last trip to Castaic where i pounded the shore for 10 hours for one bite. How is the lake level?

[classfummy]

I see that it was a deep awesome lake

[chatmar]

For the 2nd time in 2 weeks I went to a known Crappie lake and checked it out! (This time it was lake Cachuma) Did we catch any Crappie? NOOOO, but we didn't get Skunked either. We caught Catfish, LMB, Bluegill and for the first time in CA, we caught a nice Small mouth Bass! But more importantly I saw the lake and now I know where the floating bathroom is in Cachuma bay. Where the narrows are and where the back of the island is located and where several shallow shelves are located. I can't wait for next spring to fish for Crappie. I finally figured out how to catch Crappie at Lake Wohlford, in addition we are dialed in for lake Hodges too! Now with Piru and Cachuma in the mix, in addition to the Grand prize of Lake Isabella and a pontoon boat up there just for us. I expect to have a very good Crappie year! Lol

Heard the Crappie bite is on. Has anyone been lately? Anyone going and want a fishing partner?

[etucker1959]

Since I already started this thread, I might as well use it to describe our Crappie fishing for 2021. Let me start off and say, "I'm not really the best Crappie fishermen that ever lived!" BUT I DO LIKE FISHING FOR THEM ALOT! Because I don't have any real natural talent in catching these things, I must use my Brain to be successful! That means know which lakes have the Best population of these things and know when to go! The Spring bite is always a good one (they spawn in the spring just like Bass do) so I'm looking for any reports of action on them this time of year. Before any of the Big lakes went off, one of our Local lakes goes off on some Big Ole Crappie from shore. These Crappie are nice!!!! Nothing less then 1 pound and I kid you not, 2 of my friends caught something that looked like a 3 pound Crappie! All from shore in a Local lake. These things wanted 2 kinds of Lures. Underspins and Mini jigs under a Bobber. It was never wide open, but our best day was 20 Crappies for our group. It fell off very badly last week and I only caught 2 last Sunday on an under spin lure. So now it's time to go on a road trip for these Crappies!

First up Lake Cachuma.

I first got a report on these things a couple of weeks ago and it was "WIDE OPEN" on Crappie on the troll up there! It then tapered off to a decent bite for those who know how to troll up Crappies. I looked for a weather window (it's a windy lake) and found it Thursday 3/18. Almost no wind most of the day and Sunny sky's! That's the time to go! In a couple of day's after that, it will be blowing 18 knots or more of wind for a week straight! For this adventure, I've got Racer X and Stretch Cunningham with me. The plan was to gather some intell up there on where the Crappies where and fish them most of the day. Hit a few main points for Bass on the way out of there. That was my plan, Stretch had his own ideas! So we started off trolling in the right part of the lake, but with the wrong lures! How did I know we had the wrong lures, instead of they just weren't biting? Because their is a guide boat up there and he's getting bit pretty consistently on the Crappies! Instead of working the problem and changing lures, Stretch wants to throw in the towel and go Bass fishing! So we got a mutiny on the boat!!! I'm running the boat, but Stretch drove so I gave in! So we wasted the next 2 hours losing Bass lures in the Brush!

When Stretch finally gave in and said, "Let's go back to trolling for Crappies!" Yea I thought but we must change up the lures! We did and on our first lap, we caught 3 nice Crappies! I even changed up what I was trolling and it now it was pretty consistent on getting bit on the Crappies! What we got bit on was tormentor lures weighted down. A tormentor lure is a small minnow style lure you can't get anymore! It was my best lure for trout at Irvine lake where I kicked butt there on them trolling! When I found out that was a discontinued lure, I raided every tackle store that carried them and got 92 of them! Stretch was too proud to use any of my lures, so he was kind of a weak link in the chain of getting bit! The neat part of these Lake Cachuma Crappie was their size, a typical one weighed 1 1/2 pounds and even a smaller one was over a pound. None of these small lake Isabella size Crappie for us! Lol The bad part was on these trolled Crappies was their paper mouth tendency! We had 5 fall off the hooks in reeling them in! We did end up with double digits on them landed! So over all, it was Fun day to be on the water in absolutely beautiful weather.

Next stop for us on these Crappies, it looks like we will be heading South in our efforts to conquer the mighty Crappie!

[eah]

Excellent report. Thanks