7/13 Crappie and Bluegill feeding frenzy in Socal

Have been on a pretty hot bass bite for a couple weeks that I had all to myself so the UL took a hiatus. Today the bite completely shut off after 90 minutes so I figured I owed myself some relaxing time on the dock.

Got my usual 1.5" 1/32oz stinger tail plastic rigged up and insanity ensued. I haven't seen many crappie under 15" this year but there seemed to be a rabid school of 10" or so gills and 12"ish crappie about 3 feet below the surface that were absolutely smashing my jig. No gentle taps, these guys were grabbing it and heading out to sea. When I was able to get past them, the big crappie were down there and I did land about a half dozen 2lb+ piggies.

Can't complain about 10 bass in 90 minutes to start the day and absolutely stoked to have such a hot panfish bite as soon as I switched to that. I normally keep track but I was unhooking fish so often that I couldn't keep track. It was a heck of a great time. My favorite lake has really provided this summer after a slow start. Headed out again tomorrow and not sure if I'll fish bass at all.

Awesome. Sounds like an amazing day. Don’t have them, well I don’t, very often. Good job.

Sounds Like a great outing...Congrats on finding them.

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Originally Posted by SuperDave336

Awesome. Sounds like an amazing day. Don’t have them, well I don’t, very often. Good job.

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Me either. Keeps hope alive.:ThumbsUp
Bob

Thanks guys. This has been a pretty blessed summer. Usually it's 105+ degrees at this lake in mid July and I'm done until next year but the weather has been really cooperative. Fingers crossed it stays this way. There's a couple other lakes with nice gills but you need a boat to get to them, there's nothing that compares to this place crappie-wise and it's by far the best bass lake on top of that so once this place closes in September, freshwater fishing is real slow.

I like hearing of a great bite no matter the species. I know I wear a stupid looking grin when I’m on one. Glad the year is giving you an extended season. I never put the boat away and it’s odd to hear of lakes and season’s closing. I’ve never had to sit on the sidelines so to speak. Sounds like you had a good day, thanks for sharing with us.

Another crazy day. Got to the lake around 330 planning to fish crappie from the dock all day. I've felt like the Crappie Whisperer lately but they must not have heard a word I was saying when I got there rotfl In 30 minutes all I could find was a couple bass and bluegill so I changed gears and switched to bass who were more than happy to cooperate. Rare day where I lost count but I would guess I ended with over 50, about triple my previous best this season without even starting up a boat! Dock has been really busy lately but another gentleman and I had it all to ourselves today. Never went 10 minutes without a fish. Pretty surreal day of glorified shore fishing.

Gave the crappie another try once the sun started going down and they were ready by then. Mostly smaller ones but tons of action. A dad and his young son who has been having an awesome time fishing lately came in on their boat and I gave him some of my jigs and encouraged him to come fish by me and he stuck quite a few crappie with a couple big ones which was awesome to see.

Never in my 30+ years fishing this lake has the bite gotten better as it goes on this late into the season but I'm very fortunate to have nothing but free time right now. Counting down the hours until Wednesday to get back out. I feel like I'm going to get to the lake and it's going to be 110 degrees with dry wind blasting me in the face any day now but it's only hit 100 once and the wind has never been too big of a deal.

Great post of a very good trip! Good on ya for sharing the secret weapons with the young man and his dad. I hope the conditions hold for a while longer.

Always a great day when you don't know how many you caught. For me that's somewhere in the teens.

Got to 22 bass today but ended up with half a dozen other guys casting within 5 ft of me so I switched over to the UL and it was smooth sailing. Sat myself down in one of the boats and dropped straight down between that boat and another. Picked up 3 or 4 more bass, probably around 10 gills and 20+ crappie with a handful of absolute studs. Finally tossed my little float tubing net in the car to make it easier to scoop up the piggies on future trips.

What's a good way to weigh a large crappie safely? Feel like I'll hurt their mouths if I use a lip gripper like a bass. I'd really like to get the weight of a couple of the true monsters. I know I've caught a number of them over 2.5lbs but I'm curious how much over because a small handful have been really, really big.

poke the hook thru the lower lip gently really close to the jaw line bone , any small hand held digital scale should work pretty well . it might be that nobody knows there are numerous 2.5 and up crappie in there , when the word gets out ,there is likely going to be a scenario where there are far fewer than there once was ....
sounds like a great place to wet a jig to me :highfive
congrats and KABOOM

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.


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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!

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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!

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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.

WhoEee. Sounds like a great place to fish!
Bob