Santa Margarita Lake
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posts
September 26, 2008
Water:
Clarity:
Level:
Wind:
Baro:
Santa Margarita
Got out to the lake around 12 noon. Sun high and hot. Went to some weeds at White Oak. Picked up the best fish of the day on the ole frog it went 6.4. Caught another on a crankbait they sure smack the crap out of those crankbaits this time of year. Next went to the dam area and found some more weeds for a couple more frog and crankbait fish. Caught fish all day on the frog and crankbait.
Went to the river towards the end of the day and switched to a texas rigged worm and flipped some bass out of the shoreline weeds. Found a good area that held fish that I continued to catch on a crankbait
BassMan


posts
June 16, 2008
Water: 76-78
Clarity: 2-8
Level:
Wind: 5
Baro:
Secrets of the rubber frog
Arriving at the lake around 11am this morning I noticed instantly the change in water color. Most of the lake is now a chewy green color with 2-3 foot visibility at best. Talking to a guy at the boat ramp he said trout fishing was terrible. When the water temp gauge went in, I was intrigued to see it register 76, and later hit 78. Air temps were 85+. Summer is here.

Once again I threw the frog. For 2 hours, catching nothing. A 4lber blew up on a bluegill 20 feet in front of the boat just to taunt me. After that initial beat down I threw swimbait some. I had one good solid whack that didn't stick.

By now it's like 2pm and nothing to show. I picked up the frog again and cast it around with little confidence. Then, without warning, a completely suicidal bass came barreling through the grass with its back half out of the water to devour Mr. frog :) The fish was hot and dove straight down in to grass growing in 15' of water. After some see-sawing she went in the net. My best frog fish at 6.45lbs :)

Encouraged, I continued with the frog (Bobby's Perfect) and had good success the rest of the afternoon. The next fish was a 3.9lber that rolled on it once, then ate it on the next cast. Next, a 3.8lber that again attacked the frog with reckless abandon. After those 3 nice fish the small ones moved in and I did three 2lbers almost in a row.

The fish shut off as the sun got lower in the sky. I watched a bald eagle fly by, and had a water snake of some sort try to eat my frog at the boat. Was entertained by a blue heron that grabbed a foot long bullhead and speared it repeatedly with its bill up on shore. I was dying to fish the evening bite but had to leave. Tonight at sunset - it's gonna be slammin.

I heart frog



6.45lbs



3.9lbs



3.8lbs




posts
June 6, 2008
Water: 71-73
Clarity: 4-6
Level:
Wind: 10-15
Baro:
Turned tough at Margarita
Hit the lake on Friday from 10am to 3:30pm. Water is in the low 70's, with nice visibility and even more weed beds. It's not matted up frog style yet, but it's darn close.

I brought three rods today. Swimbait, frog, rattletrap. In the first 15 minutes I had a 4lber roll on the 9" Slammer but not eat it, the fish just turned at the last second and pushed the bait away. I tried the frog a ton, and finally found one that I have some confidence in after switching baits a few times. It's a bobby's perfect frog that walks the dog perfect.

All I could manage on the frog though was one weak bite from a 10 inch bass. It just felt like the bass were not shallow. I would fish a nice looking mat, then take the boat up to it and see if anything would swim out - and nothing swam out - ever.

So the next move was out in to 15-30' with swimbait, which produced one hit, but no stick. It was a weak bite as well. I found a 9lb bass floating dead on the surface. Too bad. There may be some topwater action happening early and late, but I didn't have time to stick around and find out.

Pretty tough couple hours out there. Lake needs time to settle down and get the fish in to a full summer pattern.


posts
May 25, 2008
Water: 68
Clarity: 3-6
Level: 1,300
Wind: 0-3
Baro:
Quick Margarita Trip
We had a little May rain on Sunday, which got me interested in going to the lake. It was overcast, cold, and the winds were light. Water temps dropped about 5 degrees to 68 degrees with all the cool weather the past few days.

I didn't get to the lake until 3:15pm. Fished until about 7:30pm. Mixed between frog, spook, and swimbait. Still nothing on topwater. The fish seem very uninterested in small surface lures. My only bite came on the 9" all white slammer, a fish less than 3lbs.

Saw one 6lber sitting on a cleared off spot up shallow but it never came back. It was hard to see anything with the clouds.

The "Memorial Day Moment" came early on. Some guy fishing with a nightcrawler under a bobber hooks up a 2lb bass. Right away he's yelling for the world know he's on (and for the old lady to get the camera). She comes down for photos and fawning.

Next comes the argument about whether to keep the fish or let it go. Surprisingly the wife's vote to keep it (to show it to someone else) was overruled by the husband and he let it go. I'm heading down the bank when I hear a stream of cursing. In all the excitement, the dog had gotten out of the car, run down the shore and eaten the guy's hook (I assume this dog was hungry for nightcrawlers).

So there's the dog in a headlock, while the guy cusses out his wife for letting it get loose. Good times. I decided that was a good time to fire up and take off :)

Slammer bass




posts
May 16, 2008
Water: 74
Clarity: 4-6
Level:
Wind: 0-5
Baro:
Hot weather - same fishing
Another trip to Margarita today. If I was smart I would have gotten up early and fished before it got supremely hot. Instead I arrived at the lake about 10:20am and fished until 6pm. It was blazing hot - I would think mid-90's.

Water is a little dingier now. Still clear though. I saw a lot of fish come up today and go on beds which was odd. The 2lbers were easy, but the bigger ones were hard. I spent a while on an 8-9lber that was spawning with a 4lb male. The male hit my bait a few times but I didn't set on him. I didn't have any of my bed fishing gear though I'm not sure it would have helped, the fish just wouldn't bite.

Along the way during the day I had three males that bit. I set on one of them and shook the other two off.

Did mostly swimbait fishing again. I had a 5.35 that rushed up out of no where and clobbered my bait right in front of the boat :) That was fun. There was some Slammer action today too. I had luck cranking it down and reeling it fast through the weeds. Those two bites went 4.35 and 4.90lbs.

There is an endless sea of bass food in the lake right now. Shad of all sizes, shiner minnows, bluegill by the thousands, baby bass, and trout. It's great to see the lake so healthy.

4.35



4.90



5.35






posts
May 14, 2008
Water: 70-74
Clarity: 5-7
Level:
Wind: 0-5
Baro:
More Margrita
Headed out to the lake today after class, arriving around 2pm. It was hot and calm. The lake continues to look beautiful and healthy.

After catching a 5lber last trip off a spot I have never caught a fish on before, I decided to start there today to investigate whether this was a fluke, or if perhaps it was actually a good spot. It took about 4 casts on the spot before I got smashed on mr. swimbait.

The fish came up and did a complete backflip out of the water. I was surprised to see how big it was! I wound her up to the side of the boat whereupon she went berserk and did another backflip at boatside - spitting my bait :( I've been hoping for a 10lb northern out of Margarita, and this was probably my shot. The fish was either a high 9 or a low 10. Dammit.

I fished around the rest of the afternoon for one bite, a 5.3lber that did not jump, but did decide to come in the boat :) I saw a few nice fish up shallow just cruising which was interesting. I managed to get a cast in front of one 3lber and it went crazy and attacked my bait before I could even turn the handle but I missed the fish.

In the evening I gave it my best shot at topwater. I even used a rapala skitter pop, which used to be terrific for 2lbers at Margarita. Not a sniff! I am the world's worst topwater fisherman.

Pretty well bummed not to get that big fish, but it was a beautiful day out there none the less.

5.3lbs




posts
May 9, 2008
Water: 69-71
Clarity: 5-8'
Level: 1,300.39
Wind: 0-7knt
Baro:
Post spawn swimcricketing
Fished Margarita today by myself in the boat. I didn't get there until 11am, and fished until 7:45pm. The lake looks beautiful. The water is clear, the grass is growing like gangbusters, small bluegill and shad are showing, and it just looks like a bass paradise right now.

The first hour or so was slow. I saw some fish swimming around shallow but those fish were all very wary. Instead of wasting time looking I just went and fished. This resulted in a 6.1lber and another one around 5 that I missed. An hour later I got cracked good and got another decent fish that went 6.2lbs.

There was that thought that perhaps today would be the day to catch 25 or 30lbs, but instead I ran up the river - and it was lousy. I always go up there and seldom get anything. Guess I'm a main lake guy :)

Went back down and tried for topwater. Couldn't get it going. It was chilly out with wind from the ocean. Saw a nice spot where I've never caught a fish before but often tried. Today was the lucky day because I got a nice bite on it and got one more fish at 5.1lbs.

Along the way somewhere in there I caught a 2lber on a bed. There was another one that I could have got but didn't feel like spending more than 3 minutes on. Pretty nice day overall. I'm hoping for more topwater next time.

6.2lbs



6.1lbs



5.1lbs



release




posts
April 26, 2008
Water: 67-69
Clarity: 6-7
Level: 1,300.49
Wind: 0-10
Baro:
Margarita Post Spawn Fishing
Headed to Margarita Saturday for some fun fishing. Slept in and didn't get on the water until 9:45am. It was hot and calm. By the time I launched though a 5knt type wind was blowing, which continued on and off for the rest of the day. The water is 6-7 foot vis in most places and whiskey colored. Temps were 67-69 degrees.

I thought there would be a lot of bed fish but the lake felt very post spawn. Fry balls were present in most of the coves, and there were a lot of 5-7lb females that were set up on areas that indicated they were on their way back out to the lake. You'd see them, get one cast, and they'd leave - that sort of thing.

There was a tournament going, I think Angler's Choice. So the lake was crowded. I fished until about 5pm. Along the way I picked up two small keepers on beds, one 3lb fry guard, one 3lb drop shot fish, one about 7 on a swimbait, and a trout on a drop shot. Missed two 4's on swimbaits as well, they just didn't get their little mouths around the bait and both of them fell off after about 2 cranks.

So it was a nice day on the water. The fishing wasn't very solid, but there were some bites to be had at least. There's a lot of shad up now, and the lake looks healthy. I hope to get a few topwater trips in soon :)




posts
March 21, 2008
Water: 57
Clarity: 6'
Level: 100%
Wind: 10-15
Baro:
Santa Margarita, 3/21
My first Friday off for a while so headed up to Santa Margatita.
Lake level it topped off from the winter rains. Water temp was about 57* with a visabliliy of about 6' in some areas. A calm morning but the wind picked up pretty early and blew hard. I caught 4 average sized Margarita fish on a drop shot. Lots of boats and campers with Spring break and Easter weekend.

 
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