Did you see the results for the American Bass out at Margarita last Friday. Holy smokes. Nice to look at those numbers when I have to go to work and can't get out there ......BassMan :-(


http://www.americanbass.com/Rst_09Pacific_Coast3195.htm

http://www.calfishing.com/dc/user_files/4392-ranger_boats.gif

Awesome weights. Those bass are getting hungry now because they don't plant trout any more at Margarita due to the Center for Biological Diversity lawsuit. Fishing will be great for a year or two. Then you'll start to see a bunch of skinny messed up bass. It happened at Rancho Seco like that when they stopped planting as many trout.

Enjoy it now while its good.

So Rob, do you think we should start thinning out the population at Margarita. Instead of all catch and release start taking out some of the 1, 2 or even 3 lbers so there's enough food for the ones that are left. I would hate to see Margarita become a lake like you say could happen.

I remember reading way back you wrote they eat alot of bluegills in this lake. What is the forage base now that there are no trout plants anymore?

I know there are crawdads, shad and bluegill and some other fish that I see roaming around long and slender which I don't know what are.....BassMan

http://www.calfishing.com/dc/user_files/4392-ranger_boats.gif

I don't think there's any real 'fix' for not planting trout. You just have to think about it logically. There's a big population of 4 to 13lb bass at Margarita that have become big in large part because of the trout plants.

Now there are no more trout plants. The bass aren't going to just die, but they are going to be a lot hungrier. 1-2 years from now you'll start to see big framed fish that don't have the classic Santa Margarita football look to them. Fishing may still be pretty good, but people will be disappointed to find that they are catching 5 pounders that should be 7 or 8 pounders.

Hopefully some additional compromises are worked out, or the EIRs are completed to get to the point where they plant trout again in the lake. I've said before and will say again that I think the Center for Biological diversity is misguided in advocating the stopping of trout plants at lakes like Santa Margarita - because all of the bass, herons, ospreys, and cormorants that have relied on trout as their food source in the past will now be switching over to anything else they can.

Anything else certainly includes red-legged frogs - one of the main species they are trying to protect. To me this is common sense. Others may disagree. Those that disagree should spend more time outdoors checking out reality!

The ranger at Lopez said he has definitely seen a change in the natural balance of the lake since the plants stopped. If i'm a bird or fish right now, i'd be out hunting for a red legged frog.

So Phil, you have a report when you went out to Margarita?

http://www.calfishing.com/dc/user_files/4392-ranger_boats.gif

Yeah, it wasn't much so I just put it in the post you brought up.

http://www.calfishing.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=3&topic_id=17394&mode=full&page=

That lake has been constantly changing lately so it'd be interesting to see what these winds have stirred up. I probably won't get out until next week sometime. I'll report when I do.