San Diego & SoCal Fishing Forums

Woke up early AM to sound of pitter patter on my roof and considered calling it a day, but John and I still headed out to El Cap for a nice day. It was freezing cold probably in the 40Fs, we layered several sweatshirts and whatever else and we were still pretty numb. Wind was not helping. Water temp was at 58F and only saw 60 at the end of our day around 1200. We chased shore fish for the day and had a great time. Boat total was 19 fish. There were mostly clones and some sample size fish again, but a lot of fun, especially considering how chilly it was. Reapers and crankbaits today. I still can't get a ned rig to catch a fish, so there's some work to be done there. I think sometime in the next two weeks they will be on the shoreline spawning. Have fun out there.

Lots of happy faces with bass tells the whole story!
Thanks for sharing your fun morning with us.

Better than being stuck at work any day!

El Cap is a lot of fun when the Bass finally come up. Some Pigs in there, this is one lake where giants will grab your Dinks and make a meal of them.

bendopolo 44+ wrote: Fri Mar 15, 2024 4:19 pm El Cap is a lot of fun when the Bass finally come up. Some Pigs in there, this is one lake where giants will grab your Dinks and make a meal of them.

That would have been quite an event, I was using 6# line and I think John may have had the same.

Moose wrote: Fri Mar 15, 2024 3:49 pm Better than being stuck at work any day!

Even better I had no cell coverage, so I didn't even know I was getting work emails.

Peaceful, but there are a few places that have coverage. I know because the last time I was there I locked the keys in my buddies $106,000 every option in the book Ram Truck. It had push button starting and I didn’t see any keys so I assumed t
He had them. Nope, they were in the center console. I caught crap all day, but suddenly I had service. Thank God for AAA!

Very fun day with lots of laughs despite the frosty conditions. But as Moose said, better than a lot of other places to be!!

Looked apocalyptic down there in the evening! That wind was insane. Caught almost everything out deeper tonight. Either the shallow fish have already moved on and the next wave hasn’t moved up yet, or the weather change has them retreating. Bro caught his new PB - about 18” long and pretty girthy. We figure she was 4.5ish She was bleeding - we were pretty worried she wasn’t gonna make it but she swam off no problem and didn’t float up, with the wind blowing straight at us she’d have been on the shore at our feet. Fingers crossed.

Nice Fish CorsoEnthusiast, we didn't have any takers that looked that good. Weather was strange in north county later in the day too. It poured at my place in Escondido.

JWall wrote: Fri Mar 15, 2024 8:58 pm Very fun day with lots of laughs despite the frosty conditions. But as Moose said, better than a lot of other places to be!!

I think we even enjoyed the freezing...

Early release wrote: Sat Mar 16, 2024 7:12 am Nice Fish CorsoEnthusiast, we didn't have any takers that looked that good. Weather was strange in north county later in the day too. It poured at my place in Escondido.

We found her in like 25’ at the end of a rocky point! My bro landed her on his ultralight rig and a 6# leader to boot!

You’d be surprised to find out how many “healthy” fish that are released swim off and end up dying. Bleeding aside, slime coat and scales/scale loss is a major player in fish mortality. That’s why dragging fish onto the bank in the dirt is the worst thing people do. When slime coat and scaldes are compromised the fish are susceptible to infections. So they may not die right away but down the road

And yet I’ve seen Bass that were obviously hit by a propeller with one eye and a chunk of body missing. Ones with no lips, beak holes in their sides. The absolute worst is picking them up with a dry towel. They will be coated with Fungus in a week. They don’t survive that.

bendopolo 44+ wrote: Sat Mar 16, 2024 12:11 pm And yet I’ve seen Bass that were obviously hit by a propeller with one eye and a chunk of body missing. Ones with no lips, beak holes in their sides. The absolute worst is picking them up with a dry towel. They will be coated with Fungus in a week. They don’t survive that.

I used to catch the same bass over and over with a prop wound, in the same place at Lake San Marcos. It was like he came up to say hello lol.

Over the years I have caught bass that look like they went to battle.
I remember years ago every once in a while I would catch one that had obviously put on a stringer before being released.
No other explanation on that hole there....but nice to see that the bass survived and was not gun-shy to hit my bait.