San Diego & SoCal Fishing Forums

Going there next week, been there many times before. Questions:
1. Is the water up in the green bushes and weeds or has it dropped?
2. Is the lake bottom clean or covered with filamentous algae ("elephant snot")?
3. Any shad spotted? Last year, the lake was almost shad free.
4. Any shad spawn ...

Great response. Thanks.

The only lures that I have tried and never caught a spotty on are topwaters like poppers and spooks. But I did catch a halibut in shallow water on a popper once. Anything that is near the bottom and moves looks like food to a spotty. Some lures are better than others, they don't work equally well ...

The wind always seems to die down as soon as I get back to Pigs Point, just before closing. Direction and magnitude of the wind varies a lot depending on where in the lake you are. The wind in the main channel on the lake from the south is mostly driven by diurnal temperature changes. The diurnal ...

I started fishing for them with a 3/8 Johnson Silver Spoon with a green pork Rind Strip. The weedless wire would eventually break off but they still skimmed over the Eelgrass pretty good. Halibut, Scooters, Sea Trout, Spotties and Sandies in the fairly new Oceanside Harbor. Later, Herters Round ...

I have been at some places (Owens River) where the game warden would run a string or thread across the inside of the hook to verify it was completely debarbed. Difficult to achieve unless you have some pliers with flat jaws instead of the usual serrated jaws. But since I had made an effort to debarb ...

Anyone got advice for replacing the knobs on these Curados?

They are sticky on a few reels.


Lube them with light oil (sewing machine oil, reel oil, 3 in 1, etc.) and see if that helps. WD40 can penetrate but won't last long.

Usually not hard to find replacement handles. Most baitcasting ...

The pattern on 5/10 was moss everywhere. Even 20' down, there's moss. Moss on stickups, moss on rocks, free floating moss, everywhere except far from shore. Lots of algae in the water too, maybe 2-3' visibility. Saw big long stringers of moss on the depth finder, almost like a forest down there in ...

Next time I go out to Barrett, I intend to try a Texas rigged Senko but with a tail weight so it swims away from the angler when falling. This should also keep the hook eye out of the moss so it catches less of that stuff. If a shorter, more buoyant bait is used, this is termed a Tiny Child rig ...

No. And the +1 can arrive earlier or later. And the website says for the reservation maker to bring photo ID but they never check for that either. The gate at the highway is open all day (for days fishing happens). Yesterday, they opened the 2nd gate and started checking reservations/collecting ...

My new favorite toy is a thread burner. Works better than scissors for cutting braid and better than specialty glue for fixing soft plastics. No fraying on cut braid either. Works for cutting thread too.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B093QQ3M5J?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title Many other similar ...

The city website and Ticketmaster website are useless for this as far as I can tell. Here is what I know (correct me if I am wrong):

1. A float tube/kayak ticket entitles you to one vehicle and one person. For $45, another person and vehicle can join.
2. A boat ticket is good for 1 person and up to ...

Things are shaping up to be an El Nino year, maybe even a super El Nino. Could be an amazing year.

https://coast2coastsportfishing.com/202 ... heres-why/

Wouldn't mind catching a wahoo in local waters, like a 10X barracuda.

The shoreline fish are not migratory so they will still be here. The warmer water could cause more kelp and seaweed die off. Could be partial die off of some marine species: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/california/2026/05/12/california-marine-heat-wave-birds-wildlife-death/90040940007 ...

BLT has worked great for me on Ned rig, both at Barrett last year and on the bay. Good to see that some manufacturers other than just Z-man are using TPE now. So much more durable than PVC plastisol. The action seems better too.

Unexpected that a bait like the BLT works better than minnow or craw ...

Actual data: https://shorestations.ucsd.edu/about/scripps-pier/

Water temperature can fluctuate depending on wind and waves but the temperature has been consistently above average.

Which brand of dice did you use? Most of them look large for bluegill.

I ordered these, might cut them in half for bluegill size and Texas rig on a drop shot with a small baitholder hook: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DRVKFD97/re ... hcmVk&th=1

Texas rigged Senko works as well as anything. Run the hook thru the skinny end.

With the drop shot, try using a tie on cylinder weight like https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Decoy_Drop_Shot_Stick_Sinker/descpage-DDSSS.html and put the bait on a weedless offset hook. About 12-18" before the hook, put ...

Not sure what causes it, but Barrett is much greener (algae) than any of the other lakes as viewed in Google Maps: https://www.google.com/maps/@32.6970672,-116.6586176,4437m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDUxMy4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D .

There doesn't appear to be upstream farming, cows or ...