December in Southern California only means one thing...

[1morecast]

Trout fishing.

So the weather was suppose to be nice today and I noticed my local lake had just stocked over a thousand pounds of trout, so I broke out the ultra light gear and hit the shore. I arrived at the lake entrance to find a 12 car line at the gate a little before 6am, so I knew I would have lots of company today. I brought two setups, a 5.6ft ultra light with 4lb test line rigged with the mini-jig and the 7ft light rod with 6lb main line to a C-rigged trout worm. I get to the spot and see the old timers beat me to my go to location. I find a spot a little further down from the old timer and setup. I look up to see the old timer hooked up to a nice trout, so I know I'm in the right place. He's using a c-rigged yellow powerbait. I'm no expert trout fisherman, but I've been reading up on the technique, so I go with the dark mini-jig and cast it out maybe 20 feet from shore. I do the rod tip twitch and retrieve for 5 minutes and then I get a follower. Yes, I'm getting somewhere, I throw it out again and do the twitch and retrieve and then I look over and see the old timer hooked up again. Dam Powerbait! I'm determined to catch the fish on an artificial and so I resist breaking out the powerbait.  About 30minutes into the session I get a nice strike and I set the hook good. I'm surprised how hard it is to reel in a nice size trout on 4lb line. I get assistance from a kid fishing near by with the net landing.



The fished weighted 4lbs on the scale at home.



First trout of the year and I'm stoked. I can see why people dig fishing for trout. I start working the c-rig trout worm and get a nice strike and battle with similar size trout, but it pulls the hook 3 minutes into the fight. Not a whole lot of action, but it was fun. I have an online order for some 2lb line and lip ripper mini-jigs coming from BPS. (Thanks Tom) So I'll be back to see if I can catch my limit next time.

Hopefully, the Bay and Surf picks up soon. 

[Eric H]

Nice one.

[Pinoyfisher]

Nice one Binh!!

[Latimeria]

Nice trout, Binh.  Next week all of the lakes should be stocked to keep pressure off the few lakes that did already.

[1morecast]

Nice trout, Binh.  Next week all of the lakes should be stocked to keep pressure off the few lakes that did already.

I think most of the north county lakes have already stocked their first round of trout. Dixon lake just had their trout derby and they put in 6K pounds of trout.

[Latimeria]

Nice trout, Binh.  Next week all of the lakes should be stocked to keep pressure off the few lakes that did already.

I think most of the north county lakes have already stocked their first round of trout. Dixon lake just had their trout derby and they put in 6K pounds of trout.

The derby is why I stayed away from Dixon.  Most places only stocked once, and that is not enough for me.  The initial stocking is usually just to feed the bass and get a few people some fish.  The next stock should retain some fish though.

[1morecast]

Yeah, I read that the derby had 200 anglers waiting at the gates both days of the weekend. I didn't want any part of that madness either.

[SevengillTheVC]

Sub 6000ft trout in So-cal is always pretty laughable to me. None the less you got a nice one! Like Tom said, it's almost like they stock trout to fatten up the hog bass. Holdovers are very few and far between.