Santa Margarita Lake and Reports
- Bass Lake
- Big Bear Lake
- Cuyamaca Lake
- El Capitan Lake
- Elsinore Lake
- Hensley Lake
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- Lopez Lake
- Lower Otay Lake
- Miramar Lake
- Pine Flat Lake
- Poway Lake
- Puddingstone Lake
- Pyramid Lake
- San Vicente Lake
- Santa Margarita Lake
- Shaver Lake
- Silverwood Lake
- Success Lake
- Wohlford Lake
Sunday, August 14th, 2011
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Water Temp: 67
Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)
Report: After plucking 4.5 lb. and a 2.5 lb. black bass off a piece of classic structure last week, John and I returned this week to the same point. This time we fished a little further out on the point as we were looking for bigger fish. Within just a couple of minutes, John loaded up on a good fish using a T-Rigged black plastic worm on his spinning outfit. Fish put up a great fight and John played him masterfully. Turned out to be a fat 4 lber, but it showed the results of structure fishing (and the fun of using light tackle!).
Back at the marina, Don Lopez told us about a lady, fishing for only her third time and using a drop-shot rig, who nailed a 12.3 lb bass today. The picture of the bass showed it to be a healthy big bass, obviously not short on eating.
City: MontereyTips: Our fish have come off the sides or tops of underwater points using slow presentations at 15-18 foot depths.
Saturday, April 16th, 2011
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Water Temp: 58
Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)
Report: First time back here with son, John, in several years. Lake is at over 100% capacity, making it like a new lake from when we fished it before. Lush green hillsides and full pool make it one of prettiest lakes in California. Fished Picnic Bay without success before moving to White Oak Flat. Tried deeper off-shore areas of the flat looking for pre-spawners and then moved in to fish just outside the mudline along the shore of White Oak Flat. Nailed a nice 5 lb 6 oz. bass on a black Swimming Senko...great fight on a light casting outfit with two classic jumps that got the adrenaline rushing. John caught three smaller bass, one on a T-rigged worm and two on a shad-colored crankbait. Enjoyed the use of one of Don Lopez's aluminum fishing boats, especially because the outboard motor started easily every time and the boat was clean and dry. Don is a hoot to deal with and made our day very pleasant. We'll be returning to Santa Margarita and exploring other areas of the lake on which we've made lots of great fishing memories.
City: MontereyTips: Be patient in finding spots to fish when there are four club tournaments being held there as was the case on this Saturday. Because it was fairly windy most of the day (12 - 16 mph), we found it useful to have a heavy anchor that could keep us stationary while fishing the windward shores (which also seemed to reduce the competition from the tourney anglers).
Friday, November 5th, 2010
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Water Temp: unknown
Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)
Report: Sllloooooowww day at Margi. The 30 degree drop in weather probably influenced the bite more than anything. Got a couple dinks, and 1 solid 3lb fish on the jig up shallow. Couldn't buy any love on the main lake, only fish came at the lower end of the river arm.
City: Santa Cruz
Friday, August 13th, 2010
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Water Temp: 72
Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)
Report: Took my new trolling motor out for a test run. The new i-pilot is really nice! Caught 6 or 7 little bass about 6 inches on rattle traps. Tried floatin a night crawler and hung into a 22 lb. Blue Cat. It was a tussle and alot of fun. 34" long.I released her where I caught her.
She was full of eggs.
Weather was really nice. I tried frogs, crankbaits, spinnerbaits, plastics. Just small fish except for the cat .Largest bass about 11"
City: Maricopa
Friday, July 30th, 2010
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Water Temp: 72
Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)
Report: Launched at 6:30. Headed for the narrows. Tried everything I had but no action. Warmed up to about 85 so I headed back toward the damn. A couple small dunky bass tards.lol Switched to drifting weightless night crawlers. Got about 6 more small bass and loaded out about 5 and headed back to my stabbin cabin. Tried Zarra Spooks for two hours in A.M. with not even a roll.
City: MaricopaTips: Best tip I have is don't fish near me. There will be no fish within 5 miles.
Friday, July 2nd, 2010
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Water Temp: 75.9
Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)
Report: Lets see -- Where would be a good place to start. Humm 6AM -- Left Noon. Fish count=0
Anymore questions?
City: SM
Thursday, June 24th, 2010
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Water Temp: 72.4
Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)
Report: A practice visit to Magri ... Water was like 'bathtub' warm! Hit the flats by the dam tossing into weed lines with senkos and hula grugs. Saw lots and lots of fry bass in the very clear water. Partner and I both located several 'old' beds with nothing near it but smaller fry. Did see one good cruiser in the 4lb range but reapeated nose drop with four or five different baits proved fruitless. Headed to the back in the narrows with dropshot and finally pulled in a few dinks - - nothing to write home about. Saw three or four boats pull out and two we chatted with had same answer -- Nothing Bitting! Temperature was WARM and finally a little wind came in which was very welcomed. Saw my old partner and he said the same -- Had one keeper and lots of small fish.
City: SMTips: Going to be hard figuring this one out...
Saturday, April 3rd, 2010
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Water Temp: Nice!
Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)
Report: Yea but ya had fun Jason!
City: SM -
Water Temp: 62-63
Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)
Report: Very beautiful Lake
first trip to S margarita
marking quality fish @ 40 foot
City: BakersfieldTips: bring Cash LOL
Monday, March 29th, 2010
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Water Temp: 60
Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)
Report: Nice warm day . Good fishing bad catching. Only had a couple takers. No fish in boat. water stained but clearing. Loaded out at 3 p.m. so I have nada on evening bite.
City: Maricopa
Friday, March 26th, 2010
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Water Temp: 62.3
Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)
Report: A day to just check out the conditions. water temp is good. Cold [34o] launch this morning at safe light. A few boats already in the water. Headed to the narrows to check out the jig bite past Boy Scout dock. Used my new ZG Jigs to establish a report for my lure maker. Pretty slow with only one small tap... Moved off to Vaca flats and heaved a Hula Grub to the banks and back. Hook Up! Decent 5 but she was unbuttoned at the boat - Sh happens!
Back towards the narrows again with a stop at Jackass. Pretty dead as a few guys were saying the same. Puttered around the back of Jackass with nothing showing except a few suspended fish. Called it a day about noon.
City: SMTips: Fish still slow to react to finese and jigs. No blade or top water hitters today. never saw one fish break water.
Friday, March 19th, 2010
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Water Temp: 59.5
Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)
Report: No fish. Not even a little nudge. Cool in A.M. Warmed up by 10.00 A.M. Wind came about 3:00. I gave it up at 4:00. I enjoyed it though. Surface temp at 59.5 at 7:30 A.M. It was 63.0 at 4:00 . Water was dark. 3 ft visibility. Lake is full at high mark.
Good luck fellers.
City: MaricopaTips: The main ramp is tough to launch for one person. I put in at white oak . Located fish at 25 to 30 feet.Still to cool for them to move shallow.
Saturday, February 27th, 2010
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Water Temp: 55.2
Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)
Report: Tri Valley meet was met with rain, rain, rain, hail, sunshine, rain and a tough bite. HUGE showing of 48 boats hit the blast off at 7:10
Partner and I went to our spot but it was dry. Fished had moved out and locating them after a week, was tough as well. Some good bags a very nice fat lady at 11.9 for big fish. Heard that winning bag went in the high 20's. We only managed 2 keepers for 6 pounds. Wet and tough day.
City: SM
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010
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Water Temp: 52.1-56.7
Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)
Report: Water still a bit stained but clearing. Finally after three trips, I located fish for next weeks meet. Tough go but still located some decent keepers. Some fish are starting to come shallow with the recent great high temps but still, there are sparse and diligence will pay off.
Gotta be pretty slow on your presentation. Be persistant and you will score.
City: SMTips: Mornigs have been foggy so BE ALERT! Still some large debris on the lake.
Friday, February 5th, 2010
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Water Temp: 51.1-52.3
Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)
Report: A visit to check out Margi. Sun was coming out at 9:30 launch. Parking lot only had two trailers in it. Lots of water. Lake is probably 92% if not a bit more. Headed right off to the flats by the dam. Some debri but not too bad. Hit the right cove by the dam with jigs and senkos all the way around. Mothing! Saw some indications of fish at 30 feet but not a tap between partner and I.
Hit the flats on weed lines and up close to the shore. Nothing. Headed to Jackass and all the way to the back of Jackass cove. One small fish tapped a purple senko. That was it! Chatted with four other boats we saw. Same issue. Hit the flats across from White Oak launch with swims, arky heads, jigs. Nada. weather turned very cold witn misting rai. Loaded up.
Stopped at gate for new wire tag and three others were right behind me. Same answer. Not even a tap.
City: SMTips: Lots of good water but it needs to calm downa little. Give it one more week then will head back to check things again. Pretty rough day.
Saturday, January 16th, 2010
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Water Temp: 52
Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)
Report: Taft bass club tournament. Day started great with a 9.25 and a 2 for me and my dad on brown and purple jigs. Bite shut down after that then caught a 6 in about 2' around 12 o'clock
another one near 4 to finish the day with a little over 21 pounds.
City: taftTips: all of our fish came in 1-5 feet of water for some reason they were up close to the bank feeding
brown and purple seem to produce the best for us most of the rest of the club caught there fish on cranks and spinnerbaits
Saturday, November 28th, 2009
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Water Temp: 53-55
Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)
Report: Chilly intermittent wind. Caught three LMB on main lake points. 2 on unpegged texas rigged creature baits around 3# each, and 1 on hard rip bait.
Tips: Pause rip bait 5-10 seconds. Slow with creature baits....both bites were very subtle. Tough bite but 3 nice fish.
Saturday, October 17th, 2009
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Water Temp: 67
Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)
Report: storm came thru acouple days before,thru cranks first thing had 3,all around 2lbs,most of the fish caught were off points with rock,find structure may hold several fish
City: la canadaTips: crawdad cranks,robo rivercraw 4.5 and robo ox blood curl tail,drop shot,fish cranks first thing shuts off 8-9am,then worm points and structure
Sunday, July 12th, 2009
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Water Temp: 76o
Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)
Report: Practice day at Margi. Has been a few months since I was last here and the water has really dropped, so be alert as to some routes you normally take as now there is less than 2 feet at some areas.
A small 9-10 boat meet going on. Chatted with maybe 5 boats and at 10AM, no one had any fish. Was warm out and very little wind.
Tried all my favorite spots as well as hitting Zaca Flats with grass frogs. Not one blow-up which really laid out the rest of the day --- Nothing. Maybe two bites and that was it. Hit shallow, deep, in-between and nothing. Cranks, blades, drop, creature baits nothing seemed to hit on a bite.
City: SMTips: No suggestions other than fish were being caught. No one wanted to fess up to where and what.
Wednesday, June 17th, 2009
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Water Temp: 72
Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)
Report: Beautiful day at Margarita, Lots of weeds along shore looked like it could be a great catching day. Started with top water and caught 3 pounder and had no other hits. Lost good fish on dropshot and that was the two hits of the day, thru everything in the box.
City: santa maria
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