It has changed a lot and for the worse as far as trophy bass fisheries go. I work at Lake Poway and we have completely isolated ourselves from the DFG and we started stocking our own trout from private hatcheries and purchased an Aquaculture Permit so we are not even owned by the State and the DFG.

To get back on topic though, the trout that we stock, average 2-6 pounds, with many in excess of that. That is great for the trout fisherman, but as far as a trophy bass fishery, it is far from anything positive. I loved when they used to stock the candy bar sized DFG fish because it was phenomenal for the fishery and the fishermen. Those trout used to get gobbled up by bass left and right and now, some of these trout are big enough to eat the bass! It is completely flip flopped. We now have more double digit trout than bass caught in a season which is a reflection of the decline of the big bass fishery this lake was once known for.

Lake Poway was once one of the lakes that many people thought a world record could come out of and with how many big fish I had seen in the years during the DFG stocks, I wouldn't doubt it. But now, since we have been stocking from private hatcheries for close to 5 years now with "trophy," trout, the bass population has changed. Fish still hit swimbaits, but there are a lot more 4-6 pound fish than true trophies and I guarantee it is a result of no more bite size trout to eat. There are still huge fish in the lake, but not in the numbers there once was. It takes a lot to support the diets of those big fish and with the trout gone, there isn't much ideal forage that could sustain those fish at their monstrously obese size. Those tiny trout were the backbone of building the next generation of trophy bass and when you take that away, you have an average fishery.

As a side note, many of these trout compete with bass for forage too. They are big and aggressive and routinely chase and eat schools of shad. That wouldn't be a problem if Lake Poway was larger and had a strong population of shad, but it is only a 60 acre lake and most of the shad barely make it to 2" so to have added predators feeding on them, will only further deplete the forage for bass.

It will be interesting to see how this comes to affect other lakes within the next few years. Bass are resilient and are great predators so they will always thrive, but the DFG trout were the key to their unimaginable success in many of the San Diego lakes. More lakes are buying Aquaculture Permits and stocking trophy trout and big bass are just a thing of the past and no longer "trendy," because they don't draw in as large of crowds or income as trout fishing does. I do agree with Matt that more people are getting tight lipped on the good fishing, but it is definitely not the same kind of fishery it once was... :(