I'm just a shorebound trout fisherman...my first time on this message board! I've fished Lopez Lake the last two Sundays and have done pretty good size-wise for a shorefisherman! On Jan 2nd, I caught a 1 1/2 pounder (14"), and a 1 3/4 pounder (15"), both on Powerbait at Cottonwood Cove (by the marina). The bigger one must have been a survivor from at least two years ago because the body and coloration was perfect...a beautiful fish. There were no scrapes and the fins were not damaged at all like the planters. In case you're wondering what the heck I'm talking aobout, recently planted trout have rounded fins from swimming around all their lives in cement tanks. The other one must have been from last year, as it's fins were growing back, but not quite perfect yet. Both of these trout's bellies had shad in them, so I don't know why they decided to eat powerbait that morning...I guess the stuff really works! This past Sunday, I caught two more from previous years' stocks, again on Powerbait. My first fish was a really nice-n-fat 2 pounder, and the second one a 14" incher. The big one's belly was chock full of shad, so once again, the powerbait stuff really get's them biting out of the blue. All the rest of my fish were recent planters, of course, which is what I would expect since they are filling up the lakes around here with a whole bunch of trout. All the rest were caught on a variety of Powerbait flavors, with "Purple Passion" and "Rainbow" getting the most bites. I've also caught a couple on PowerWorms, (the ones designed for trout), with a small wad of nightcrawler flavored Powerbait to keep it floating off the bottom. You have to really cast out far at Cottonwood Cove, and use really light line, nothing over 4lbs, so that the bigger, wiser trout don't get spooked. Apparently, the county will be stocking the lake with 3 to 5 pound trout this Wednesday. I think I'll get a bunch of lures that closely resemble shad to continue going after the bigger ones! Good luck to anyone who reads this and goes trout fishing. Any shorebound, leisure-trout fishermen in the Central Coast out there reading these reports? Hope so...it would be nice to get more personal trout fishing reports from the lakes (or rivers?) around here. What about Cachuma Lake? Anyone fish for trout there recently? I'm planning on going camping there this coming weekend and do some more trout fishing!