Diamond Valley Lake 4/29
After reading last Friday’s successful largemouth bass report, Wook IMed Saturday with a hankering to try Diamond Valley Lake; he would be free next Wednesday through Friday. I said I’ll go only if we have overcast in the morning. What I’ll do is get up at 3:30am Wednesday and if I look out my back door and see cloud cover I will IM you to come on down.
All aforementioned conditions were met; he was in my driveway this morning at five. We timed our departure so we would be at the front of the line by the 6:30 gate opening but when we showed up at six the chain link was already swung. It appears lake management is adjusting the opening time as daylight starts earlier spring through summer.
After the usual 25-minute hike to the main point past Third Cove we made our first casts by seven. I made mine from what five days ago was an island. Since last week the water level has plunged another four feet. That is a lot of water considering the size of the lake.
I flung the X-Rap here and there from both sides of the point but it wasn’t until I made the fifth cast with the Carolina-rigged four-inch purple Power Worm that I nailed a two-pound largemouth. Wook, casting his X-Rap a little further inside from the point, hooked a bass of similar size.
Around eight we traversed through a saddle and on into what I suppose we can call Fourth Cove. I have never fished this area as it’s way past the official shore fishing area as mandated by the marina’s map. Also last October they opened another swath of shore fishing area from the bait shack to the east dam that is yet not on the map. I was thinking maybe since the lake is so low and you cannot launch a boat there, to make up for lost revenues they opened shore fishing past Third Cove in an attempt to attract more anglers. What’s likely the fact, the shore is now so far away from the patrol road, the rent-a-cops who would normally kick you out aren’t energetic enough to hike down for the crap flingin’.
We both cast as we hoofed along the shoreline. It wasn’t until we were near the back of the cove when I landed a bass that looked under two pounds on the Carolina worm. Wook landed two-pounder from a nearby small rocky point while using a Senko.
Another pair of anglers hiked out to the next main point over. We saw one of them land an eight pound catfish. Around ten thirty the overcast was breaking up and we were better able to see more bass lurking close to shore. The two of us were hooking two pounders while sight fishing. This is a technique of walking along, spotting a bass then giving it your best skill to piss it off enough to make it strike. The other guys were watching us and when they packed up to leave they saw bass in the cove close to them. All of a sudden they morphed into largemouth fishermen and stayed there the next two hours trying to hook what they saw. We witnessed one of them landing a two pounder.
Wook saw a three pounder right there in about two feet of water. He tied on a plastic crawdad and twitched the bait under the bass several times. The fish mostly was only looking half-interestedly but persistence paid off with a nice fight and landing of a 2-12. This was the one I kept for tacos later.
Ten feet away there was another bass hanging out at a small cliff. I cut off the Carolina and switched to the Texas-rigged worm. This is where you have a sliding 1/16-ounce bullet weight positioned right on top of the bait. This is more finesseful and gives you better control for making the flip cast just past your target. I crawled the worm up the side of the vertical rock face where the fish hit it but no hook set. I tossed out several times, the fish bit each cast. Around the tenth time I hooked it and I brought it to the surface. The fish saved me the hassle of walking down twelve feet to the waterline to lift it out by freeing itself upon leaping.
At noon we walked back to third cove doing the sight fishing thing all the way. Many more bass were seen but none were interested in any of our offerings.
All day long while worm casting I had soaking an inflated night crawler coated with Nitro Gravy, which garnered no bites.
By two we bee-lined it back to the parking lot. On the way we saw that at least two rattlesnakes had just crossed the road as their tracks were impressed over all the other tire and foot prints. Be aware when you’re walking around the lake.
Took a bucket of green bait yesterday 4/28 to the rock at White Point I spied last month. The swell chart said the waves were going to be one to two feet -- and they were -- but they were ass slappers, really hard to fish on the outside.
I moved to an inside rock shielded by the outer rocks acting like a mini-breakwall. Twenty years ago here while Breakwall Darryl and I scuba dove, we saw clouds of opaleye all over this place. I spent three hours in a very fishable breeze just below gale but had no hits on bait nor the WildEye lure.
*****
White seabass biting at Catalina
Rattlesnakes boarding boats at Irvine Lake
Trout start proves chilling, thrilling
Trout grower's vision becomes reality
