Central Coast Lakes

[aaronp]

Just moved to the Central Coast and hoping someone can give me some insight on fishing the local waters. I have fished Naci, Lopez and Margarita a long time ago (10 plus years) and had a blast. Recently moved to the Central Coast and looking to hit these lakes hard in the up coming months. Just looking for some general knowledge, not looking for your honey holes. Any help/guidance would be appreciated. PM me if you want.

Aaron

[drew]

I would talk to the guys at the Tackle Wharehouse retail store in slo or Jims Probass in paso. If your into or want to start tounament fishing you can fish the slo ambushers. They have one at lopez on sat. It is a non-shared weight series and you can fish as a non-boater or boater. Check out the Jims probass webpage.

Just moved to the Central Coast and hoping someone can give me some insight on fishing the local waters. I have fished Naci, Lopez and Margarita a long time ago (10 plus years) and had a blast. Recently moved to the Central Coast and looking to hit these lakes hard in the up coming months. Just looking for some general knowledge, not looking for your honey holes. Any help/guidance would be appreciated. PM me if you want.

Aaron

[aaronp]

thanks drew!

[fisherrw]

get ready for some tough fishing. lakes have been low for so long and all that extra water is going to spread the fish out. ive been to Lopez several times already this year and blanked every time everyone else I talked to was not able to hook into anything either. possibly once the spawn starts the fishing will get better but who knows? good luck!

[JRI93]

I will be hitting Lopez tomorrow. Hoping the water has cleared up from the rains. Not sure what the water temp will be, hoping it is above 60. The shorelines are pretty cool right now because the lake was so low that the shore grew lots of vegetation and now that the water has gone up a lot of it is submerged. Compared to the last several years where the lakes were constantly falling leaving nothing but barren mud/rock shorelines.

The muscle inspection process at Lopez can be kind of strict depending on what ranger you get. Make sure everything is bone dry and get a tag on your boat when you leave so if you come back you can skip the process. Naci has seemed to be more lenient the times i have gone. Cachuma is the worst, they have a 30 day quarantine so you cant even get and inspection and launch the same day.

Margarita is the smallest lake but has the largest bass. Lopez has some nice bass as well. Naci does not really have anything over 2 or 3 lbs. I think the lake record is like 5lbs. This is because it mostly all spotted and white bass that don't grow as big as the largemouth.

[birdman920]

yes !.... Margi & Lopez have been slow for the most part ! with Lopez being a little better ! if you are going to Lopez ? Swimbaits/swimjigs have. been getting better quality fish ! & flip'n shallow sheltered coves " have been getting smaller but decent size fish ! 1 more stretch of good weather" & they will be on the beds !.... good luck !

[bmshepherd]

The central coast lakes are awesome! They all fish very different but they will make you a versatile angler. Marg is a great largemouth lake and now actually has a bunch of spotted bass also, usually big ones. Lopez is also a great lake with northern largemouth and smallies too. When the bite is on there you can catch a ton of fish. Naci is mostly spotted bass from 1-4 lbs but big spots do exist there and largemouth seem to be on the comeback there too. San antonio was a great smallmouth lake and striper too. The largemouth there were generally 1-4 lbs but big ones every once and a while. It took a major hit with the drought so it will be interesting to see what happens now that it has some water. I dont have much to say on any technique or areas because everything is worth a shot on these lakes. Good luck...see you on the water!

[clum553946]

I'm hoping San Antonio bounces back. It got so low I wonder if they had a massive die off? There used to be some big stripers in that lake!

[Ken Sauret]

San Antonio still has big stripers in it. In fact the guys who I talked to who fished there the last couple years using Kayaks said the Stripers are still there and any bass under 2 pounds are gone. There were largemouth bass being caught that were in the 3 to 5 pound class so the spawn this year should restock the lake. The fry will have lots of cover to hide in for survival into the next few years.

[JRI93]

Fished Lopez last saturday. Bite was pretty good. Water was just above 62 degrees. Caught 4 large mouth all on weightless wacky rigged Senko. all around 2.5-4 lbs. Also got a really nice Small mouth on a square bill crank. Cover is really cool right now with all the vegetation in the water.

[aaronp]

thank you all for the feedback. Greatly appreciated.

[Wrknap]

I'm planning to take a friend and his grandson fishing at Nacimento next week. How's the water clarity? With all of the rain and run off it was pretty muddy last time I went.
I'm hoping to get the kid onto some spots or possibly some white bass. Any help, thoughts or tips are appreciated.

[aaronp]

Fished Margarita this morning. Caught one 3lber on a roboworm. Tried swimbaits, jigs, senkos, jerkbait, Texas rig worms and grubs. Water was from 60-65 degrees. I can't figure this lake out yet!!

[aaronp]

I've fished this lake 4 times now and the same old thing. 1 fish between 2.5-3lbs each day. Can anyone lend a hand? Color, bait, locations anything would be greatly appreciated.

[Ken Sauret]

The bite at Santa Margarita Lake has been slow with the water level rising so much this year and all the vegetation under water now. This lake might take a while to settle down. I had a 101 Bass team tournament there on Saturday May 6th and weighed in 4 fish. This was the most bites I have had in a month at Santa Margarita Lake.

Lopez Lake is stable and the bite is getting better there every week that passes. It's getting to where you can throw just about any technique you want and find that happening somewhere on the lake.

Nacimiento Lake is the best lake for numbers for sure. The spotted bass are biting. It is not hard to catch 20 to 30 fish in the 1 to 1 1/2 pound range. YUM Dingers and any worm on a drop shot will get a bite on most any point right now. I found something in the watermelon color range worked great.

San Antonio Lake was so low for two years that I believe all the 1 to 2 pound bass got eaten by the 15 to 20 pound stripers that are still in the lake. With that being said, when you find conditions right to run a pattern, guys are getting 5 to 8 bites a day and the Largemouth and Smallmouth bass are all over 2 1/2 to 3 pounds.

Remember, if you only get one bite, that could be luck. If you get two bites doing the same thing, that is the start of a pattern. If you get three bites on the same technique on the same type of structure at similar depths, then you have a pattern. Keep focusing on that pattern and run around the lake looking for the same conditions.

[aaronp]

Thanks Ken. Santa Margarita is the closest lake to my house and I have hit Lopez a few times and caught some fish. Just want to figure out margarita and I saw the 101 Bass Tournament results and got really frustrated that over 18lbs took the tourney and I can only catch one fish per outing.

The bite at Santa Margarita Lake has been slow with the water level rising so much this year and all the vegetation under water now. This lake might take a while to settle down. I had a 101 Bass team tournament there on Saturday May 6th and weighed in 4 fish. This was the most bites I have had in a month at Santa Margarita Lake.

Lopez Lake is stable and the bite is getting better there every week that passes. It's getting to where you can throw just about any technique you want and find that happening somewhere on the lake.

Nacimiento Lake is the best lake for numbers for sure. The spotted bass are biting. It is not hard to catch 20 to 30 fish in the 1 to 1 1/2 pound range. YUM Dingers and any worm on a drop shot will get a bite on most any point right now. I found something in the watermelon color range worked great.

San Antonio Lake was so low for two years that I believe all the 1 to 2 pound bass got eaten by the 15 to 20 pound stripers that are still in the lake. With that being said, when you find conditions right to run a pattern, guys are getting 5 to 8 bites a day and the Largemouth and Smallmouth bass are all over 2 1/2 to 3 pounds.

Remember, if you only get one bite, that could be luck. If you get two bites doing the same thing, that is the start of a pattern. If you get three bites on the same technique on the same type of structure at similar depths, then you have a pattern. Keep focusing on that pattern and run around the lake looking for the same conditions.