San Diego & SoCal Fishing Forums

With my favorite local body of water holding a two day tourney for the weekend I decided to change up the routine and forego my normal Sunday AM trip in favor of hitting the desert canals.

Day started off great with my first Smallie catch ever on a crankbait. Got two dink largies on the same crank in the next 10 minutes. Got one on a BFS jerkbait but cranks were the preferred fish.

Whole lot of fun! Have a feeling the IV could become my refuge this winter when the local bite slows way down. Finished the morning with the one Smallie and a pile of little 10-12” largies.

Fun stuff

Nice job out there! Margie's and Smallies!! Very cool!!!
Bet that was fun and on the long drive home very happy and thinking when you are going to go back..no doubt.
Thanks for sharing your adventure with us/
Tight lines always.

Aren't all those photos smallies??

Mcfish wrote: ↑Mon Sep 25, 2023 2:44 pm Aren't all those photos smallies??

First one for sure was the only brown one. Rest of them were green. Looked like largies to me?

Pretty sure those are all smallmouth. Even better!

risentidefishing wrote: ↑Mon Sep 25, 2023 6:28 pm Pretty sure those are all smallmouth. Even better!

Yeah looking at those pics, mouth doesn’t go past the back of the eye on any of those fish… I just registered “largies” for the green ones cause I expect a brown fish with the facial markings but I guess that doesn’t have to be the case? Pleasantly surprised.

Different spot today, different species (all largies - for sure this time lol), but same pattern - chuck, wind, catch, rinse and repeat..

More fun yesterday! They were keying on craws it seems, one crankbait fish (and one other critter) that was a reaction strike and outside of that, craw style baits on the bottom were the ticket.

Also had a turtle the size of a spare tire donut eat my Rock Crawler! Thought I had a big cat on the line until I saw him surface. Luckily I was able to get him unhooked and back home safely.

Dang...looks like you are having lots of fun in your desert fishing areas. Here I am complaining how hot is is while not fishing yesterday (having a garage sale) and you are out in even a hotter area catching bass. I think I would not even notice the heat if I was out catching bass. Hitting them on crank baits is always exciting when suddenly your line just stops while reeling it in and then you feel that kicking and the fight is on.
Always enjoy your posts and pics and look forward to many many more.
Take care and tight lines always

Those softshells can run like crazy back to the water!

Fisheromen wrote: ↑Mon Oct 09, 2023 9:35 pm Those softshells can run like crazy back to the water!

I was only running 12# FC on my reaction bait rig too, I was convinced he was going to break me off or break my $$$ rod and was pretty surprised I got him up on the bank at all.