San Diego & SoCal Fishing Forums

Ok now that the 2024 Barrett Lake fishing season is officially over and in the books, what was your best SECRET lure or bait used?

As many of the veteran fisherperson recall a few years ago, the Yamamoto Senko worm was the hottest ticket to get your 30-40-50-80 plus single per person fish count. We were opening up 3,4,5 plus bags in one day.

So this year’s hottest bait or lure, go-to’s, best of the best may or may not work in 2025.

What was your BEST three (3) or more if you want to put it out there?

Mine:

(1). Pop-R 2.5” in either black chrome or bone color.

(2). Tiny white Zoom flukes on the d/s.

(3). Whopper Plopper (small chubbies)- black chrome or baby bass color

My fishing lines were all P-Line fluorocarbon clear from 6lbs to 12lbs.

9in worm and a 5in lizard ....

I always wait til clothes go out of style to buy them and wait til movies are on TV to see them so I just got to the senko

Seriously probably caught twice as many this year on the 3.5 inch swimming minnow smokey ghost color from Bass Pro. Works on boilers, in the trees, drifting, steeps, trolling, you name it. Also hooked my 9 pounder years ago. Hard to get off it.

Not a secret for us. We chase busters and we only got em good once, We were chasing 3 or 4 schools for hours. Our best numbers were 140, 110, and 107 but for the most part ended like everyone else's numbers in the 60's. Topwaters and irons(5 and 7 gram). Brand did not matter.

Disappointed to see them not still foaming in late September but that echo cove bite was special the other weekend. I had 50 by 8:30 am. Ended up with 72 and my buddy had 35 left at 2. It slowed wayyy down once the sun broke the clouds. Fun year though.

Mine was a Keitech Mad Wag slim in the 4.5, green pumpkin. I had discovered this bait about 2 or 3 years ago, and it has absolutely wrecked fish when other baits weren't producing.

I loved it so much, i bought all 75 or so packs from TackleWarehouse one day when they put them on sale for $1.99, and if you go there today, you'll notice that all of the 4.5 in green pumpkin are gone, and Keitech is no longer producing the bait.

I scour the Interwebs once in a while to see if anybody else has any dead stock, and I have yet to find any more. I'm sure there are some tackle shops that may have a few in stock, but I know that none in the SoCal area do, cuz I also bought them all out as well.

When I fished Barrett in April for the SHARE program with the DFG, I was doing side by side comparisons between other Texas rigged plastics, and the Kietech just flat out out fished any other bait, including the Senko.

The smell that Keitech baits have remind me of the first generation Powerworms that Berkely came out with back in the day. I dunno why Keitech doesn't produce the 'squid' scentin a bottle or spray, because that would make other baits even more killer.

My favorite this year was a popper. I used the Googan one, but the Megabass PopMax one was also a good one for me. The best blowups came for me on the Pompadour though. And of course the #5 and #7 floating Rapala, which is my go to bait.

For me it was any TOP WATER bait,frog,wake bait,spooks,plopper,buzzbait, googan popper, pompadour crawler, i-wing 135, Raid crawler, bigger bait
bigger fish. I used to fish senkos a lot,but now it's mostly top water, that explosions is awesome. The numbers are not what i usually go for but welcome it when they're bustings, this place is special.

Mine is the Strike King Bitsy Bug with the Berkley Fatty Craw trailer. I’ve always liked jigs there but this year seemed even better for me. Normally I throw a Chartreuse Double Willow Spinnerbait too but the muck this year kept that one back.

I tried to mimic what the Bassmaster guys were doing with a jig head minnow and did quite well on it this season. I even took my daughter out to the B for the first time and she ended up catching 13 keepers, three crappie, and too many micro dinks to count.

I didn’t get to fish it as much this year as I wanted. I’m playing victim of the economy. My favorite lures the 4 times I went was the triple trout blue gill and Shad. Like @619bassin said, the bigger baits get the bigger fish. Less numbers. Then when it slowed down, a slim fluke was my go to. Place is special.

Geecrack bellows gill 3.8", weightless t-rig - green pumpkin and summer gill were getting hit pretty regularly for me last year around laydowns and submerged grass

ryfield wrote: Wed Apr 30, 2025 3:07 pm Geecrack bellows gill 3.8", weightless t-rig - green pumpkin and summer gill were getting hit pretty regularly for me last year around laydowns and submerged grass

How you like those geecrack? I been meaning to try those for a while now but haven't pull the trigger i know ecbt now carry them so I may have to pick some up for next trip

EL_prowler_619 wrote: Wed May 14, 2025 6:03 am

ryfield wrote: Wed Apr 30, 2025 3:07 pm Geecrack bellows gill 3.8", weightless t-rig - green pumpkin and summer gill were getting hit pretty regularly for me last year around laydowns and submerged grass

How you like those geecrack? I been meaning to try those for a while now but haven't pull the trigger i know ecbt now carry them so I may have to pick some up for next trip

Not the guy you’re asking but they are an awesome bait. Fly line or split shot. Just don’t have a bag of Fritos on board, you might accidentally confuse the two…

I used to fish senkos a lot,but now it's mostly top water..

EL_prowler_619 wrote: Wed May 14, 2025 6:03 am

ryfield wrote: Wed Apr 30, 2025 3:07 pm Geecrack bellows gill 3.8", weightless t-rig - green pumpkin and summer gill were getting hit pretty regularly for me last year around laydowns and submerged grass

How you like those geecrack? I been meaning to try those for a while now but haven't pull the trigger i know ecbt now carry them so I may have to pick some up for next trip

fwiw you can import them waaay cheaper. Like 30-40% of the price. An east coast buddy of mine that is obsessed with JDM stuff started using them at Barrett back in 2022 before anyone else had heard of the brand and absolutely roped the fish. The one guy I knew fishing the brand last year did great as well. But it's Barrett so everything works. Durability sucks and they smell gross so I've never bought any myself but using his, the 5" gill weightless was definitely my favorite (cool chatterbait trailer too). 8" stick has maybe the best action I've ever seen on a plastic but also the worst durability.

My secret lure at Barrett is not hardbaits. The deck of my boat will be covered with some variety of soft plastic lures and types of jigs every time. During the shad spawn you'll usually see a small iron of some sort and sometimes you'll see a frog. What you'll almost never see is a crankbait, hard jerkbait or hard topwater. Between the Pacific and the Atlantic, I've got plenty of amazing hardbait action already. Barrett is about numbers for me and I look forward to the next season of 60+ fish soft plastic, paddle tail and jig days before we even get to the last day of the current season. Do I still have a whole box of hardbaits in my bag? You better believe it.

EL_prowler_619 wrote: Wed May 14, 2025 6:03 am

ryfield wrote: Wed Apr 30, 2025 3:07 pm Geecrack bellows gill 3.8", weightless t-rig - green pumpkin and summer gill were getting hit pretty regularly for me last year around laydowns and submerged grass

How you like those geecrack? I been meaning to try those for a while now but haven't pull the trigger i know ecbt now carry them so I may have to pick some up for next trip

I love em when they're catching me fish! The way they fall and move through the water is great. But they are a pricey and you can go through them pretty quick if you're getting bites. And no, they do not taste like Fritos even though they smell like them. I had my son try one. Good luck out there.