San Diego & SoCal Fishing Forums

Took the Kayak down to El Cap this morning. With the water way up, I knew I had to be one of the first couple kayakers there or that now smaller dirt lot would be full and I’d have to drag my ‘yak across the parking lot.

Apparently a big club tourney this morning, a bunch of people just drove in before they were supposed to, but the end result was the lake opening about 40 minutes earlier than it was supposed to.

Waited for the tourney guys to launch and then headed to the back of Chocolate. Unlike last week, when it seemed like there was a fish ready to eat dropshot in every bush, todays bite was a little tougher. Water was nice and warm about 68 but the only surface activity I saw was from Carp. I spent way too much time in the back of the creek trying to recreate last Sunday’s magic. Found a couple eaters but it felt like I made a billion casts today. Got out to the main lake and added on another dropshot fish before the wind decided to cut the day short. Pedaling back against the wind was some workout!

Seems like I made a couple of mistakes: 1. I should’ve started in the main lake and gone to the back of the creek later instead, seems like most of the bite was happening there. 2. Should’ve switched up presentation. Guys were catching them in the main lake using a different finesse presentation while I was banking on the dropshot bite and stuck to it for most of the day.

Nonetheless, a beautiful day and getting out and catching a few is never a bad time. 3 for about 4.5lbs is a lot better than a skunk at least.

Also: water is down probably 2 feet from last Sunday. First time since they’ve had the valve open that I’ve noticed a drop. Feeder creeks are still flowing but since the rain has slowed down the level is starting to drop. Inconvenient time for that to happen when fish are pushed way up shallow spawning. When I spoke to the ranger right after the valve was opened they said the goal was to keep the lake level from getting too high for the (supposedly shotty) dam to safely hold and that would look more like maintaining water levels we saw in Jan/Feb than the water level back in December 2022. Fingers crossed they don’t just let fall a whole lot.

https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FishingContests/default.aspx
heres the tournament listing for CA. you can toggle the dates are lakes to make it easier to figure out when and where.
FYI el cap all next month.

inthedeep2 wrote: ↑Sat Apr 29, 2023 6:09 pm https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FishingContests/default.aspx
heres the tournament listing for CA. you can toggle the dates are lakes to make it easier to figure out when and where.
FYI el cap all next month.

Looks like I’m fishing Sundays for awhile lol

Nice job getting out there and catching bass with all that pressure on the lake. Seems like there’s so many tournaments at a lot of the lakes especially on Saturdays. Heck I try not to fish on the weekends but most of the time when I do go to other lakes, I try to go on a Sunday. Thanks for sharing and hopefully soon will be a great top water bite. Tight lines

Fridays, Sundays or im on the bay