Any Californians doing any good yet?

[Jeff Soto]

Any fellow Californians getting any early season Bluegills or Redears yet?  Won't be long now for the pre-spawn bite!

[fish4anything]

Thanks for the info!

[Leo Nguyen]

If you live in the OC areas, you might want to consider in hitting Lake Skinner to save a bit of gas. Good grief man, that's a heck of a drive just to hunt for gills. Skinner don't allow floats, but you can still hammer them from shore, or on the rental boat. Lake Irvine is also known for the awesome crappie action during spring and summer time. If you're up in the mountain for a weekends get away, Big Bear Lake and Silverwood are known for the hidden monsters. You just have to battle with boaters and wind.

[fish4anything]

I don't mind driving.  I've been to Skinner twice but didn't get any gills since I was targeting stripers.  Maybe I'll hit Skinner this summer as well. 

[JBplusThuy]

Nice! When we lived in San Jose, we used to get to fish Bethany when we could, and sometimes shore-fished Italian Slough at Clifton Court, but never caught anything big.  15-20 feet, I guess you're using a boat?

Used to like to go to the Bass Pro Shops in Manteca, too. Now, my nearest BPS is 105 miles away, in Rancho Cucamonga.

[Kirk Metoyer]

Just short of 11 inches caught on a cricket. From puddingstone lake.

[Leo Nguyen]

Great catch. Looks like the Pudd is firing up for the summer. Perris has been going wild as the water level drops.

[Rob Garner]

Hi guys, been awhile since I've been on the BBG. I'm coming down to San Diego April 22 for the week. Thinking of trying my hand at some gill fishing while down there.Kinda curios where the fish would be at in their yearly patterns.Up here in Wi they'd be shallow not even ready to spawn yet. However I would think they'd well be done with spawning in Cali.Just looking for some general info on how I should approach fishing them at this time of year.Not looking to keep anything just would love a chance at some of those trophy sized panfish.Would be willing to rent a boat or shore fish whichever would get me a better chance at catching some.Thinking of possibly I trying at MirMar or something in that vicinity thanks for any help with any direction towards the pursuit of some hefty panniers.

[Leo Nguyen]

Ahhh yes..California's craziness. Early heat brings out the best of everything. If you can manage to find a nice fresh water body that has not been affected by the drought.

Colors:

yellow (main) - black (secondary as stripes)

yellow(main) - red (secondary)

dark green (main) - black (secondary)

dark green (main) - dark yellow (secondary)

dark red, close to vermillion (main) - black with sparkly silver (secondary)

Patterns: 

Wooly (slow sinker)

Bees (surface dry, subsurface slow sink, maintain less than 3ft below surface), or 7ft off the bottom of deep areas)

Beatles (black, surface dry, as as bees)

Best rigs:

Drop-shot, 2ft from bottom with live worms/crickets for gills/coppernose/bass, near shallow.

Texas, chasing after bottom monsters.

Spoons and rooster tails (yellow-black, yellow-red, chartreuse-black) are deadly subsurface.

[Rob Garner]

Thanks Leo truly appreciated so it looks like yellow jigs.Dont how long it will be after their spawn but I will be excited to try fish or no fish.Any possibility of finding lake topo maps.Guess I'll try to google it and see what I come up with.

[Lee Soares]

Clearlake crappie were on fire a couple weeks ago and haven't been back since. Baitfish immi's were doing the trick just fine.

       ....lee s.