San Diego & SoCal Fishing Forums

Hi, I’ve lived in north county for a few years and I’ve had no success fishing for bay bass despite hours of research and multiple outings. I think it’s time for me to try freshwater. I used to fly fish for trout when I lived in Utah and really loved using poppers for small bass when I lived in Austin. For me even small trout in streams with salmon eggs is great. I enjoy active fishing like that but I do have a preference for dry flies and poppers.

I thought with all the bass in the area that someone might be successfully using poppers successfully for bass. I’d love to get your advice on how to get started here.

I’m also open minded about trying something else or trying bay fishing again if that’s what I really need to be doing here. I’m ignorant about what my options are here, maybe there is some other similar active fishing that I never knew existed. Bonus points if I can do it from shore or wading but if I need to buy a kayak or something I’m open to that too.

Topwater fishing for bass in the local lakes can be great at times. I use the term "topwater" instead of "poppers" because the range of topwater patterns that I use includes hard body poppers, foam poppers, deer hair bugs, deer hair diving bugs (e.g. Dahlberg Diver, Umpqua Swimming Frog, etc), Gartside Gurglers, Crease flies, and others.

When a topwater bite along the shore is on, it is usually very early or very late. A few lakes don't open early enough, though overcast days may result in some topwater productivity a bit later in the morning. Unfortunately, the open hours on most lakes eliminate an evening topwater bite. Most action along the shoreline with topwater offerings will be around weed beds and reeds or brush. Sometimes rocky areas early. On most local lakes best access will be from a watercraft. Best shoreline access is on Santee Lakes, especially Lake 5. Also the South end of Lake Cuyamaca can be waded (waders required) can produce some topwater action from June through September. Cuyamaca is one of the few lakes were you can fish into the evening without worrying about getting locked in.

Lake Barrett often has a great topwater bite along the shorelines from late May through September, but this can vary year to year, depending on water levels. You will need to by a ticket with boat or take a tube or kayak though.

Since all the local lakes are drinking water reservoirs, there are often changes in water levels that affect weed growth or the amount of shoreline cover, which can affect shoreline bite for better or worse. The worse part would be water dropping and leaving the cover high and dry or rising too much and cutting off access on foot.

Many of the lakes have shad or other forage bait species that get often ball up and get pushed to the surface by bass, and even big bluegill and crappie at times. This can occur from June through fall but August and September are typically the peak months for this activity. This usually occurs in the pelagic areas of the lakes so a boat or kayak are required (regulations general require tubes stay within a maximum distance from shore). Sometimes this activity can occur all day and others just sporadically. One thing that will drive you nuts is the fish will push bait around so they will come up in one spot. You move over to that spot and they are down before you get there and you see them coming up somewhere else. You can chase busting fish around all day like that and never get into any. I often just sit around an area where the bass have been driving bait on the surface and wait for them to come back around.

I like crease flies when the bass are busting on shad in the pelagic areas of the lakes. For shoreline stuff I just pick a pattern based on my mood, though I'm partial to floating/diving hair bugs like dahlberg divers. Maybe because I have caught a lot of bass with them.

My typical bass bug setup is a 7 or 8wt rod with a standard weight forward floating line 1 weight heavier than the rod's rating (e.g. 8wt line on a 7wt rod) or one of the heavier than standard lines like the Rio Outbound Short or Scientific Anglers Titan taper with a line rating that matches the rod (the lines are already the equivalent of 2 to 2.5 weights heavier than the standard). Going up a line size or using the specialized lines helps load the rod with less line out and cast bulky bugs. Use a tapered leader designed for big flies - 7 or 7.5 feet is fine. Companies change their leaders designs and names every couple of years these days so it is hard to keep track of the various options. There are many bass or saltwater leaders available that will work. But any 7.5 ft 0X trout leader would be fine too.

As I mentioned, best topwater action near shore will typically be early, before the sun gets too high. But even when the sun gets higher you can sometimes get grabs out of shady pockets in reeds or under overhanging brush.

For bass, I usually let the fly sit still for a bit after it hits the water. When I do move it I usually only move it a short distance and then let it sit again.

As much as I like fishing topwater for bass, I catch far more fishing below the surface.

As for the bays, for best success you need to get off the beach and onto the water. Also, San Diego Bay is usually more productive in numbers than Mission Bay. That said, I like fishing Mission Bay for an hour or two from shore in the morning or evening. When I was working I would often go over there and fish for an hour or two while waiting for the east and northbound traffic to wind down. I get lots of skunks fishing from shore on the bay, but I have had outings where I have caught more than a dozen fish in an hour and a half. More typical for me is 1 or 2 fish in an hour or so. That is compared to catching 2 to 3 dozen in a typical four hour session on San Diego bay (sometimes less and sometimes more). When I first started fly fishing the bays 30 years ago I didn't do so well at first. It took a couple of years of fishing regularly (2 to 3 dozen times a year) to get consistently successfully. Even now, with all I have learned, I still have an occasional poor outing (2 or 3 fish) when fishing from a boat. Fishing from shore on Misson Bay it also helps to be able to make long casts.

Nice article

Thanks for writing that all out! I think my best bet without a kayak might be Santee lake 5 early in the morning. I’ll bring a backup plan for when topwater doesn’t work out.

Chopsticks wrote: Sun Aug 20, 2023 6:16 pm Thanks for writing that all out! I think my best bet without a kayak might be Santee lake 5 early in the morning. I’ll bring a backup plan for when topwater doesn’t work out.

The bummer thing about Santee is that it doesn't open until 0700 on Monday through Thursday. Opens 0600 Friday through Sunday.

I haven't fished there in a few years. When poppers didn't work it I caught quite a few fish on wooly buggers. Black ones and white ones. When I was working I had every other Friday off and would go on Fridays. Usually quit by 0900. Would usually get 2 or 3 fish on average and the best day was a dozen - half with a popper and half with a white wooly bugger. Got my share of skunks too. Bluegill fishing can be decent there at times too.

One thing I like about Santee is that it easy to fish from the shoreline. Not a lot of obstacles behind you in most places and easy walking. Pretty relaxing. I have got fish out of Lakes 3 and 4 too but 5 has more cover. I never fished lakes 1 or 2 (no particular reason why) nor 6 or 7 (never camped or rented a cabin).

I will go early on a Saturday morning when I don’t have work and my kids don’t have school.

Since you live in North County:

I used to have some success from shore at Dixon fishing around rocks and in the coves. Never with poppers though; always buggers or rabbit strip leech patterns. I haven't been there in a 10 years though. I haven't fished Wholford in 30+ years and am not sure what shore access is like now.

Maybe this will wet your appetite. Caught 10 years ago on on a size 6 Dahlberg Diver. This was at either Santee or Upper Otay (now a dead lake unfortunately) on an overcast morning.