Diamond Valley Lake 3/24
I packed up Silverfish with all my freshwater bass gear Sunday evening, as we are under thick marine layer conditions out here in Temescal Valley. In the past whenever the Breakwall Crew went largemouth fishing it was noted we caught more when the morning skies were dark. At Diamond Valley Lake this trick works well, I rarely catch anything there when the day is sunny.
The only difference today is that it is still early in the season. Normally I wait until after the first hot week in April, then fish the next time the stratus rolls in. That way the spawn is over and the lake has warmed with hungry bass on the hunt. If the fish are spawning now, they might not bite.
I was second in line at DVL, the lake opens at 6:45. Lake employees drive out to the waiting crowd to take everyone’s $12 admission fee so that we don’t have to queue up at the entrance kiosk. This used to cause a quite a delay depending on what place in line you ended up in.
I hiked the mile-and-a-half over to the far point past Third Cove, making my first casts of the four inch Power Worm rigged Texas style by 07:25. There wasn’t much going on in the initial half hour until I walked back into the cove. I started seeing one to two pound males in the shallows in what looked to be pre-spawn mode, as I could detect no redds. In the clear water redds will show up as light colored areas where the fish cleared away the layer of dark muck from the bottom to expose fresh grey granite gravel.
Normally when sight fishing you can drop your offering right in the fish’s face and it will entice a strike reflex. The first fish I did this to merely grabbed the tail of the worm by its mouth and spit it out about a foot away. Twenty attempts at this with the same fish garnered no other reaction.
And the same thing the further I went into the cove. I saw nine other males, none of which were willing to suck in the whole offering. They either totally ignored the worm or moved it out of their way a la the first fish.
I saw a dude in a bass boat catch four largemouth about a hundred feet away from where I was casting. I moved over closer to see what the hot bait was. He too was using a four inch plastic worm only it was rigged with a drop shot. I cut off my Texas rig and tied up similarly to boat guy. I used that the rest of the day and had no bites that I could tell.
With my other rod I cast a three-inch rainbow trout pattern swim bait that produced the only hit of the morning, which was not hooked. Mostly I could see the bass go over to look at it but nobody was interested enough to inhale it.
I hit up some other proven spots on the way back to the parking lot but detected no bites.
I have fished here during overcast in March before, fishing was good. I was thinking that today I would see redds and maybe post-spawn since we really didn’t have a winter this year and spring came early. The lake looks to be sixty feet low but we’ve caught lots of bass under similar weather conditions with lower or higher water levels. Next time I come here it will be after that first hot week of April and when the June gloom blows through in May.
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The end of Alpers trophy trout?