Tackle Express Castaic Fishing Reports

Water fluctuations and high winds this past week have the baitfish on the move from shallow to deep and back again. Fishing live Shad and Silverside minnows has helped bridge the gap on the ever-changing Bass movements for my clients. The baitfish are either on the bank or out in the sticks and bushes in the middle of the coves and some main lake shorelines. The “Wolf packs” of a few to many quality Castaic Largemouth continue to roam these areas and can be found from two to thirty feet deep on any given day. Casting flutter spoons and Kastmasters thru the suspended bait schools is a good technique to employ to find the groups of bait chasers. Otherwise the usual finesse plastics will get grabs when the biters come thru.

Bass fishing remains steady on one to four pound fish. The water has come down five feet in the past week resulting in the Shad pulling out of the backs of the coves as the rocks that were covered in their food source, algae and moss, were left high and dry with the receeding water.

The Striped Bass were hard to locate again this week as the huge schools of baitfish were found anywhere from twenty to eighty feet deep. We did have some quality bites trolling Producer Flies and 661 KastMasters about thirty feet deep on leadcore line for linesides to seven pounds, but the activity window was short, only lasting for about a half hour when the lake first opened. No surface boils to report but hopefully that will change when they realize the coves are full of Shad.

The Fall transition is in full swing as “wolf packs” of Bass are moving from open water to the bigger coves  and creek arms in search of Shad and Silverside minnows. They are not sitting on structure spots like in the Spring, but instead are roaming the area following the bait schools. When they find the bait they feed heavily, often causing dramatic surface boils. We are fishing live Shad every day as it is very difficult to get these fish to bite otherwise. The bait fish are small, in the one to two inch range and are plentiful in almost every cove.

Bass fishing is trending towards the fall transition as the schools of open water fish are starting to move into the bigger coves  and creek arms. There continues to be good action on surface poppers and fly-lined Flukes early and late but “matching the hatch” on the small Shad and Silverside Minnows is proving frustrating for most anglers. A better pattern seems to be the dropshot and Ned rig in deeper water off main lake points and bluff walls. We have started fishing live Shad again and the bite is instant and continuous throughout the day.

Quality sized Stripers have been boiling on Shad and Silversides throughout the day. They are only popping up for about 30 seconds making luck a prime resource. Producer flies, KastMasters and small swimbaits are putting fish to 7 pounds on the deck trolling at 15′ to 30′ when the fish aren’t busting the surface. The Stripers are pretty much spread out all over the main lake from the forebay buoy line all the way around to Old S.S. cove in the fish arm. Look for birds and boats in the middle of the lake and you’ll find the schools.