Lopez Lake still sounds like the place to fish these days especially since I heard today from a buddy, Dan Smith, from Santa Maria who had four fish on a Rico Monday morning. Dan also landed 3 fish on a ripbait for a good morning on the lake. I was on Lopez Monday afternoon with Lee Payton and we threw reaction baits until late in the afternoon when we went to the Senko and a dropshot and started catching fish, about 10 or 12, Lee had a 6.5 and I had a 5 pounder on a dropshot, both fish weighed on Lee’s Berkeley scale. Trout have also been hot in Lopez, Marshall Ransdall was catching fish all afternoon in the Lopez arm on the troll and Doug Miller reported 29 trout from 1.5 to 2.5 on Power Bait and on the troll. The crappie continue to be off and on with some good fish being caught in the Pozo arm and Lopez arm. Some fish are up on beds but it doesn’t look like the spawn has hit hard yet.
Santa Margarita seems to be just the opposite; all the fish are on beds including slab crappie and with the water so clear you can see catfish, bass, crappie, and bluegill all in the same cove. Fishing is tough right now with even Jared Buckley reporting few catches. Try ripbaits and Senkos and maybe throw the trout bait and hope for the best. This is the time of the year when Ken A. has reported good success on the fluke but with the water so low there is little cover to throw it into. How’s the fluke bite Ken?
San Antonio was the site of Susanne’s first bass tournament and she and Diane Williams took 7th place and caught fish all day on the Senko in the river. The winner of the Gold Coast tournament caught fish in Harris Creek and the second place, the father/son team of Gary and Patrick Hill caught fish in the main lake on flukes and ripbaits with a spinnerbait and dropshot fish thrown in for good measure. There are fish all through the brushy areas and they can be caught with slow presentations, including brush hogs and Zipper Worm flip baits. If you want to catch fish on a tube bait this would be the place to try.
Nacimiento is reported to have big largemouth up on beds and scads of spotted bass in the creeks and coves eating worms, jigs, ripbaits, and spinnerbaits. The water is very clear so choose your colors accordingly. White bass have also remained active; try the river and the end of Las Tablas for some good action. Large Roostertails and Kastmasters can be deadly when the fish are schooled.
Cachuma has put out some good fish lately including a reported 14 pounder! Some fish on beds and lots of fish cruising but most of them hard to catch. The trout bite is picking up and the Trout Derby is coming soon! I would like to try the dropshot in shallow water here and see if I could duplicate the action I had at Lopez. Good luck to everyone! Call or email in some reports.

I think I can safely say that this is the best Central Coast fishing report on the net or in print! Thanks Pete :-)

I don't live in the area, but still enjoy reading the reports. Much appreciated!

I have had a couple of hookups with Zoom Super Flukes in the baby bass color. I'm hoping we get some good weed growth soon to provide some cover. I've never seen the water so clear!!!