San Diego & SoCal Fishing Forums

Fished Barrett yesterday for the first time in 5 or 6 years. Physical issues kept me away.

Made the trip out there yesterday with my brother. He lives nearby with kids and work its difficult to get together to just hang out. Plan was to go spend the day and take what we could get. Got a later start than hoped since my brother was slowed down getting to my house by an accident that blocked I-5 south for awhile. Still we were fishing before sunrise.

Fishing was tough. For bass.

We fished from 0620 to 1700. I fished fly the entire time and my brother fished conventional most of the time with fly a little.

I got 6 bass from 12" to a couple of lbs and my brother got 5. We both LDR'd or farmed about 6. I got about 50 bluegill up to 14" mostly on flies tied in Wapsi fly jig heads and fished about 8 feet below an indicator. A couple came on the clouser minnow I was using for bass. Only 2 were smaller than 10". My brother got about 10 bluegill on jig fly. He spent much more time trying for bass with worms, senkos, crank baits etc. I opted to only bring fly gear

Fishing down 6 to 10 feet was the ticket to larger bluegill. They were around virtually every tree top or flooded brush. Flooded brush or trees with overhanging green leaves was an almost guaranteed hookup. We could see lots of smaller bluegill in clear shallow water. If I concentrated on bluegill I could might have been able to catch a hundred if I wanted.

As for the bass, it didn't seem like people were catching many. I only saw two people catch a bass all day. My bass came on a fast sinking line and size 6 white clouser fitted with a snag guard and hooked after letting the line sink at least 15 feet. The fly is a clouser a variation I created specifically as a shad imitation to toss into cover and work through flooded brush, trees and rocks.

It was the second fewest number of bass I have ever caught at Barrett. But I still enjoyed the day. Nice and peaceful out there.

We saw a few bass busting shad up top but there were few and far between and many of those that we could see were obviously small fish. It wasn't worth chasing them.

We also saw large concentrations of grebes feeding on shad. I wish I had a portable meter/graph. My old fishing buddy unit still works but about half the screen, in different sections, no longer works and I didn't have any "C" batteries so I left it at home.

Weather was sunny all day and not too cold in the morning and not too hot during the day. Windy enough to make boat handling a chore but not as bad as it can be. We don't get time to hang out much which is we stayed so long. That was a good thing since we each only had 1 bass to the boat before 1300 though we dropped some early. Was nice being on a lake again and hanging with my brother.

Two more days open before it closes for the year (Wednesday and Saturday) and Ticketmaster still has tube spots for both. For $30 a head plus fuel it could make for a fun day or half a day chasing bluegill from a tube. There are plenty productive spots that are accessible from the boat dock or Pigs Point.

A nice thing about leaving my spinning and bait casting gear at home was that I didn't need to haul around a heavy bag filled with various sinkers, jigs and jig heads, spinnerbaits, etc. All my flies, leaders, tippet, tools, extra reels, and camera fit into the top and side compartments of my soft sided cooler with ice, drinks, and food in the main compartment. I also took a stripping basket and four rod reel combinations.

Historically I have had some really good days on the fly at Barrett, including two with more than 75 bass and several with more than 50. Based on reports I doubt I would have had that sort of success any time this year.

I always take what the lake gives me.

The rod reel combos I took were:

9ft 8wt rod (20 year old TFO IM-8 )with 300 grain sinking line for streamers and fishing deep

7''10" rod (Sage BASS series "Largemouth" purchased in 2008) with the 330 grain floating line designed for it for topwater (used for about 30 casts and got one blowup but no hookup)

9' 7wt (Powell TiMax rod purchase in 2004) with a 5 foot sink tip for fishing shallow along weed edges and rocks (didn't use in this configuration)

9' 6wt (Sage RPL+ purchased in 1997) with a 7wt floating line for indicator fishing.

Spare reel with floating 8wt line as backup for use on 6, 7 and 8 wt rods.

Spare reel with a shooting line and a set of interchangeable shooting heads as a backup for use with the 7 wt rod. Put this reel on the 7wt rod with a fast sinking shooting head after I snagged a fly on something deep and my 300 grain fly line broke while trying the break off the leader. It was only a 12lb tippet so I must have nicked the line on a sharp edge in the boat. I did step on that line once after missing my stripping basket in a breeze.


Some photo documentation

Great day on the bluegill. We seemed to be getting pecks and pulls right about the depths you were catching at. I almost set up my girl on a smaller bait to get into that action and may get better prepared for that on Saturday if the bassin is tough again. Thanks for the detailed report!

JWall wrote: Mon Sep 25, 2023 9:05 pm Great day on the bluegill. We seemed to be getting pecks and pulls right about the depths you were catching at. I almost set up my girl on a smaller bait to get into that action and may get better prepared for that on Saturday if the bassin is tough again. Thanks for the detailed report!

Yeah, my brother said he was getting lots of those taps, peck, and pulls in that range.

A 1.5" plastic grub would probably get a lot of decent sized gills. The biggest bluegills would probably take bigger baits. I have caught some pretty big ones on Texas rigged 4" and 6" worms and 3" crank baits in the past.

A lot of the takes by the bluegill were very soft. The use of an indicator (basically a float that can be cast with a fly rod) really helps detect takes that might otherwise get missed.

Nice day and I agree with you that the bass are definitely quiet. Those busters that you saw are quick to rise and quick to go away, at least in my experience. Last week I chased some busters with a #3 Rapala, that matched the shad I found perfectly, to find that they were this year's model and around 8 inches long. The larger bass seem to also be following the smaller shad, and when they boil, you have to be so close to cast a smaller lure to them that you aren't likely to be there. I hunt shoreline with a #7 Rapala or Megabass X-70 and when I get the little pops, I have been throwing a 1" 1/32 or 1/16 ounce curly tail jig in that same spot. The Barrett bluegills on 2-4lb line might as well be a tuna. It's a lot of fun.

Thanks for the great write up. Curious how you are fishing 6 to 10 feet under an indicator, are you using a breakaway/sliding type indicator?

Rattus wrote: Wed Sep 27, 2023 8:23 am Thanks for the great write up. Curious how you are fishing 6 to 10 feet under an indicator, are you using a breakaway/sliding type indicator?

No breakaway or slip indicator.

Nine or ten foot piece of level mono to looped to end of fly line. Anything much longer than the rod is difficult to manage. Usually 8lb test bulk line. I use Clear Stren but it doesn't matter. Most 8lb mono (nylon or fluorocarbon) is 0.011" diameter which is the same as 0X tippet (which, today usually tests between 12 an 15 lbs, but costs more).

I use straight material rather than a tapered leader since the thick butt section of a tapered leader will cause the fly and leader to sink more slowly and it won't eventually hang straight down.

Thinner material will sink faster at the expense of abrasion resistance. That is why I use bulk line like I use on my spinning or baitcasting reels even though it is weaker per equal diameter compared to fly fishing tippet material. It is also a lot cheaper. The 8lb line is a good compromise for this type of fishing for bass, bluegill, and crappie plus the occasional random channel cat. We have caught bass up to a 8lbs with this rig.

I use an indicator that I can reposition along the leader.

I usually use a 5 or 6wt rod rigged with a 7wt floating line. I use the 7wt line because I can more easily cast the rig with this if using bigger indicators, but you can get by with a lighter line if that is what you have. It is ok if you need to use a smaller indicator and it sinks some.

I land fish by grabbing the leader first, rather than the fish.

I usually cast to the shore or cover and let the fly sink and watch the indicator. If it is a shallow slope I may add a little retrieve to pull it into deeper water. I move the indicator closer to the fly if I need to in shallow conditions.

Once I feel the fly is hanging below the indicator at its greatest depth I will start to move the indicator a little bit at a time but retrieving the line with short slow pulls or just by manipulating the line with the rod.

Unlike hanging midges for trout, I usually don't let the indicator sit still for long.

Watch the indicator for any dip or bobble or other sign. The surefire sign is when it starts moving in some direction or gets pulled under.

Normally, when you fish a sinking fly, regardless of line and rig you are using, it gets closer to you and potentially away from fish holding structure or cover as it sinks. With an indicator there is a trick you can do to avoid this. First make a cast so that the fly lands up against the cover or structure. Then make an underpowered roll cast the flips the indicator up against (or on top of submerged) cover or structure. The fly will sink below the indicator and away from you towards the target. I often do this to put a fly deep up against reeds or sticks adjacent to deep water.


If I want to go deeper than about 9 feet I switch to sinking line setup. I could use a longer leader and slip indicator but with the fly line floating on the surface transitioning to a nearly vertical leader, it is hard to pull all the slack out and get a good hook set on bluegill and bass with their harder mouths compared to trout. A long leader with a slip indicator does work well for crappie though.

I use flies tied on Wapsi fly jighead but you can use any weighted or non weighted fly and add split shot if needed.

The indicator method can be worked from shore if you are working areas with steep banks or where you can cast to a drop off.


The method often works well in open water where bass have been chasing shad. Use a white or gray pattern. Make a cast and just let the fly sit and move it every once in awhile. Often, if there is no surface activity bass cruising below the surface will find the fly and eat it. If bass are actively boiling just toss the rig into the frenzy. Often, if I am kicking a float tube across a lake where bass have been recently feeding on shad I will cross slowly while trailing one of these rigs and pick up an occasional bass.

Very interesting Tailingloop. Gives me a thought…maybe I tie on an 8ft flouro leader to my spincast mono and guage my depth that way The knot being my poor man’s indicator.