San Diego & SoCal Fishing Forums

Max and I teamed up yesterday for another fun day at the Big B. After about ten hours of fishing we hit our goal of 80 fish not including about fifteen dinks. I did most of my damage on the brush hog while the versatile Max got them on a variety of baits. He also introduced me to the neko rig that produced for both of us. We got some nice fish but there were also a lot of skinny ones. Seems to be a lack of shad this year.

Back from Minnesota and right over to Barrett.
That’s quite a change in scenery, but catching bass is all what matters. Nice job to you and Max!
Tight lines always

Looks like a good day. I have been asking about the shad, 4 trips no shad.

Dfishin wrote: Sun Jun 22, 2025 6:38 am Looks like a good day. I have been asking about the shad, 4 trips no shad.

There are some there and if you find any, bass will be feeding. Especially on the surface. But there does seem to be less and maybe skinnier fish. Unless they are just spawned out and have yet to gain back weight. Some of us have suggested a very selective harvest (slot limit taking some of the middies) but I doubt that would happen. Maybe better would be another shad plant like 10 years or so back but the funds for that come from where? The lake budget is already under assault from our inept city govt.

JWall wrote: Sun Jun 22, 2025 9:40 am

Dfishin wrote: Sun Jun 22, 2025 6:38 am Looks like a good day. I have been asking about the shad, 4 trips no shad.

There are some there and if you find any, bass will be feeding. Especially on the surface. But there does seem to be less and maybe skinnier fish. Unless they are just spawned out and have yet to gain back weight. Some of us have suggested a very selective harvest (slot limit taking some of the middies) but I doubt that would happen. Maybe better would be another shad plant like 10 years or so back but the funds for that come from where? The lake budget is already under assault from our inept city govt.

Shad planting idea sounds great and with the funding issues mentioned, anyone have numbers cost? There has to be a recorded written proof from the city’s budget from the year that did that.

My point is maybe we can do several event fundraising ourselves by sponsoring them at Barrett like those doing these charity ones already?

Of course if it’s in $1MM plus range then it’s a pipe dream lol

Capture a bunch of those 1 pounders and put them in Gregory like last time!

And I believe shad is a boom or bust cycle that occurs.

I wonder if Kwin knows if DFG/W has stocked shad successfully before.

Predator-prey cycles are well known. It would take a huge amount of shad to keep the bass in the lake well fed, that would not be practical.

When the bass are over populated, the shad population will crash followed by a crash in the bass population. Then the shad population will increase followed by the bass, etc. Fish (whether bass or shad) typically lay thousands of eggs so the population can explode when conditions are good (few predators in the case of shad, over abundance of prey in the case of bass).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotka%E2% ... _equations

So if you wanted to disrupt the predator-prey cycle to improve bass fishing, here is what could be done:

1. Introduce new prey species. In particular, go for the most invasive prey possible like round gobies, rusty crayfish, red shiners, killer shrimp and silverside minnows. Good luck getting that past wildlife biologists (who always say no, even to species that control invasive species) but it would work. Smallmouth bass fishing has improved spectacularly in the Great Lakes with the introduction of gobies despite naysayers who predicted the death of smallmouth fishing. FYI, the fish in Barrett are all nonnative anyhow.
2. Increase the amount of weeds that the shad can hide in so the shad population doesn't crash as hard. When the lake level is stable, tules can grow around the shore and that offers a place shad can hide in and better escape the bass. The current crop of weeds around the lake helps but if it dies off during the winter, then the shad no longer have a place to hide.

Had a fun morning out there Saturday as well. Was in the water by 5, had a keeper limit by 5:20, got over 10 fish in the first hour. Slowed down after that comparatively. I was off the water by 9:30AM as the wind was howling and I was getting blown around out there. Morning session finished with 26, on jigs and plastics. Back at it next Saturday..

CorsoEnthusiast wrote: Mon Jun 23, 2025 3:40 pm Had a fun morning out there Saturday as well. Was in the water by 5, had a keeper limit by 5:20, got over 10 fish in the first hour. Slowed down after that comparatively. I was off the water by 9:30AM as the wind was howling and I was getting blown around out there. Morning session finished with 26, on jigs and plastics. Back at it next Saturday..

Solid day Jeremy. We are there Sunday.

Beautiful Colors in 1st pic!