Thread: 7/13 Crappie and Bluegill feeding frenzy in Socal

The lake is catch and release only which is how the gills and crappie are so consistently big. Used to be catch and release only for bass. People were taking buckets and buckets of panfish home and the crappie population got destroyed, took over 20 years for them to get real big again and they still aren't spread out to the main lake like they used to be. I'd love to take a couple home for dinner but I'd rather have good fishing than good eating.

I like the catch and release thing, wish more practiced it here. I fished some golf course ponds that were off the chain but I couldn’t stay once the mowers started moving. I’d like to have something like that close to me.

Didn't spend much time with the UL today but brought my little float tube net along which made landing everything a breeze, and also gave me a super easy and gentle way to weigh some crappie. Weighed them in the net and subtracted the net weight. Looks like I've been over estimating a bit. Caught a bunch 1.2-1.8 pounds that I'd have estimated to be about a quarter pound bigger. Curious to see how the bigger ones stack up to my estimates next time they show up since they were hiding tonight. Scorching hot 105 today on the lake. Definitely gonna have to check the weather before I head out from now on

Some good comments on catch and release. Glad you had a good time on the water.
Bob

Well, I didn't UL fish today because the bass fishing was absolutely wide open insane...but I caught my PB (from this lake) bluegill today anyway! Biggest one I've caught on an artificial ever and biggest one I've caught in around 30 years since my dad and I used to occasionally catch monster ones fishing for catfish when I was a kid. No weight on it but certainly over 1.5lb and it was getting that mutant about to explode looking gut. Never seen one even close to this size on this lake, couldn't believe it when I saw it coming up. It took a 4" wacky rigged senko. Normally I take very bad pictures, but my buddy did the honors today. My fish holding, as always, does the fish no justice. I'm covering up the fish's belly but you can still get a good idea of its length. Bad picture aside, so stoked to have caught such a cool fish after all these years fishing this lake, especially as a surprise fish in the midst of by far my best bass fishing day since 2021.

Awesome bluegill. Congrats on the fine catch and good day.

Great gill !! But...what are the size of all these insane bass you have been catching? It sure sounds like a great
place there!

Originally Posted by tnvol

Great gill !! But...what are the size of all these insane bass you have been catching? It sure sounds like a great
place there!

Biggest 2 I've caught this season have been 6 and 6.25. Earlier in the season when I was fishing real deep and catching "only" 15-20 bass a day it was rare for me to catch anything under 3.5lb. Fishing shallower and when they're on shad, size varies a lot. On Wednesday I caught probably 120 bass throwing but well over half of them were about 10 inches long lol. Today the shad were hiding so I only caught 25, but they were nicer ones. Biggest one was around 4.

Panfish have had to take a break, been running to the end of the lake trying to find bass busting on shad since that crazy day at the dock. I think I've only caught 4 crappie my last 4 trips.