San Diego & SoCal Fishing Forums

Hi everyone,

Here's what happened at Barrett today for me. Got there about 0515 and in the water by 0545. Air temp was 60 and the water was 73.4, which is certainly cooler than you'd think for this time of year. I thought about it and since the lake is maybe 25-30 feet higher, maybe it's a better heat sink than last year since it has a whole lot more thermal mass? It's also been kind of cool summer there, so that's a factor too. Enough about theory. Here's the short scoop. 15 good bass today. Several over 3 pounds and most over 2 pounds. The popper was the clear leader, 8 bass all over 2 pounds. All close to shore. The beloved jerkbait only accounted for 3 bass, but 8 large bluegill. And the stick bait got 4 bass. Nothing at all for me on the jig, crankbait or ned rig worm. Except for a tree on the ned rig that really surprised me and fought pretty good for a couple seconds until I realized I was providing all the action.

Water warmed up to 77.8 by lunch. Talked to a couple others and everyone had a good day on bass with most in the teens on numbers. The panfish are crazy aggressive right now, so my next trip out may need to bring the little ultralight and a grub/jig to have some fun with them. Wind was howling coming back to pigs, but until it came up, it was a calm day. Partly cloudy for a portion of the morning, actually when the popper was working best was when the sun was blocked. Also had one of the bass, leave his morning snack on the kayak floor, clearly larger fish are eating tiny shad.

Have fun out there, tight lines.

Thanks for the 411! Any busters at all in the middle? That bite maybe fading with the summer?

Hi John,

There were busters, but they were quick and really sort of subdued. I went over to Pine Arm yesterday for a change and fished those little bays along the way. They were up and then gone, so if you weren't right there, you had no chance. But, I haven't been seeing the crazy busters over a large area. I'll go back to Hauser this week and let you know how that looks. End of the season is only two weeks away. Hope to see you out there.

Going the 24th and 30th!!

See you on the 30th then.

Hey brother it’s Danny how’s it been going out there how’s the parking at pigs is there still hard with the parking or busy

Hey Danny,

It's not bad, usually you can find a spot on the lower parking lot. Only two weeks left, hope to see you out there. Or at San V, which will be my winter home.

Nice to meet you at the launch Early release. Not sure what time that was, but getting there late put me somewhere between a pattern and a grind. Got 6 or 7 bass and 3 big bluegills working around main lake points with the jerk bait and three better but not big fish, on the A-rig in about 15 feet of water, also on main lake points. Wow, it was a beautiful day out there! The pattern ended a little after 2:00. I guess that was the more grinding part!

Good to meet you too. Sounds like you did a little better, but still not the usual Barrett amazing numbers. It was a great day to fish, the fish just didn't seem to know it.

It seems like the fish are mostly suspended, or buried deep in the moss-covered brush, especially getting more into those tough-to-catch-them postures as the day goes on.

Everydog wrote: Thu Sep 21, 2023 8:41 am It seems like the fish are mostly suspended, or buried deep in the moss-covered brush, especially getting more into those tough-to-catch-them postures as the day goes on.

Hi, I was using the panoptix to find them back in the usual places where they were previously busting. They are still in the same spots and about 6-10 feet below the surface, like you suspect. But they are not coming to the surface like they did, and the bait is looking almost the same as it was, so I don't know. I dragged all sorts of lures through the fish and nothing really interested them. Matter of fact, at one point I had a fairly large crankbait I could see on the panoptix and when it went through the school ( 6-8 fish ) they slowly moved out of the way. At that point I both praised the panoptix for it's amazing view into that world, and then cursed it, for me seeing fish move out of the way of my offering. I'll try to take some pics of the suspended fish and baitballs next trip out.

But isn't all that the puzzle that makes fishing so fun?