Team Striper

2001 Freshwater
Fishing Reports

December 21, 2001:
7:00 am / Castaic Lake West Ramp
Josh, Ed Zubiate & Ed Ness made another morning run. It was obvious right away it wasn't going to be as easy as the previous day. No shad rippling the surface, hugging the shoreline or being boiled on. There were some scared trout being hassled by quality bass, that weren't interested in our plugs. We managed 3 lg. Mouth on the spoons before Ed Zubiate hooked into a line side about 8:20 am. again on the gold spoon. It was about 10 lbs and the only one caught before we left at 8:00 am.

December 20, 2001:
6:50 am / Castaic Lake West Ramp
Josh & Ed Zubiate ran back toward our spot on the wall but stopped in the back of the cove when we saw trout & shad pushed up by bass & stripers. My first cast resulted in a nice 5 lb. Bass. Next cast I’m hit as soon as I turn the handle, after a nice fight & about 150 yards of shoreline a 15 pound striper comes to shore. Ed & I each land a few more chunky bass before I hookup a frisky 11 pounder near the floating dock. At 7:30 Ed hooked & landed our last/largest striper @ 17 lbs. I threw the trout replicas for a little while w/no takers. We caught a few more bass before heading out around 8:15 am.

December 19, 2001:
6:00 am / Castaic Lake West Ramp
Josh, Ed Zubiate & Ed Ness, drove in the exit at 6 am. I was short on time so we went in a little early. I was fishing inside the cove & got a boil on the pencil popper but he missed. There were a few boils here & there mostly bass so I was working the back of the cove & both Ed's were halfway out to the point. I heard yelling so I come around the corner & they are both hooked up on the hopkins spoons. The stripers came boiling up in the middle of the cove all over the place on shad. I had at least 5 casts into boils without getting bit. After the boils mellowed Me & Ed Ness each got blind strikes but lost both of them. Ed Zubiate, got 1 striper 10 lbs, Ed Ness 1 striper 10 lbs & lost one. I lost 1 & got a nice lg. mouth. We got in @ 6:00 & got kicked out @ 7:00. They were going off pretty good but it was tough to get bit. I think they planted trout yesterday afternoon, because I saw lots of trout getting screwed with by bass as we got tossed.

December 16, 2001:
6:30 am / Castaic Lake West Ramp
Josh & Ed Zubiate invited Big Hammer Pro-Staffer & owner of Leapin' Bass Custom Tackle down from Santa Barbara to fish Sunday morning and watch the bite completely shut off. It was dead, no bait boils or bites from the line-sides. We ended up picking 3 bass with Pete getting the largest at about 4 lbs.

December 15, 2001:
6:30 am / Castaic Lake West Ramp
Josh & Ed Zubiate were joined by Ed Ness who has been throwing big plugs for years at Castaic without success met us for some more striper action. The fish cooperated, putting on a great show busting shad all along the shoreline. I landed 3 stripers from 9 to 16 lbs & 1 lg. mouth near 5 lbs. Ed Zubiate also ended up with 3 stripers from 10 to 12 lbs. Ed Ness landed his first ever striper at 11 lbs & lost 5 others 1 right at the steep bank. We were done by 8:30 am.

December 13, 2001:
6:30 am / Castaic Lake West Ramp
Josh, Steve & Ed Zubiate took another trip for the stripers which resulted in wide open fishing for about 1 hr. I hooked & landed a 14 lb first cast followed instantly by Steve’s 10, our first double of the morning. Ed hooked one about 15 on 6 lb that he spent most the morning on which turned into a double when I hooked up again & was a triple shortly until Dad farmed his. He followed it up shortly with his first of what turned into a string of Lg Mouth’s between 14” & 6 lbs. We pulled about 15 bass from about 50 ft of shoreline. I managed 1 more striper before the fish went down at around 7:15 am. Back @ 7:30 am. Click here for pictures.

December 14, 2001:
6:30 am / Castaic Lake West Ramp
Josh, Steve & Ed Zubiate couldn’t resist doing it again heading back to the same area even though the boils, bait & bird activity were no where in sight. Second cast dad hooks & lands the biggest fish of the day around 15 lbs. I hooked up as he was landing his & released the smallest striper of the day at about 9 lbs. We followed up with 2 double hook-ups on 12 – 14 pounders in the next 20 min. with no fish being lost today. No more stripers after 7:15 am but we continued catching bass until we left at 8:00 a.m. Josh 3 stripers 9-14 lbs & 6 lg. Mouth 14”-19”, Steve 3 stripers 12-15 lbs & 5 or 6 bass, Ed caught 1 bass about 4 lbs. Back @ 8:00 am. Click here for pictures.

December 12, 2001:
6:00 am / Castaic Lake West Ramp
Josh & Ed Zubiate snagged a few shad that were pushed up against the whole shoreline by boiling stripers. There were 20 mph winds so it was tough to fish the small shad. I started casting a sm. hopkins spoon beyond the shad & the second cast resulted in a long battle with the fish winning close to shore. Ed put on the same spoon & was shortly hooked up. I cast near him & we had a double with 1 going 9 lbs & the other 12. A few Hi-fives & we had another double with Ed losing his & mine weighing in at 17 lbs. The wind died @ the fish went down at around 7:30 am. Back @ 8:15 am. Click here for pictures.

October 7, 2001:
It is my (Josh) last day in Oroville so I decided to go fish the Feather from shore. The river outlet was just a trickle so I went to a local hole, got in the waders rigged up my Calcutta 400 TE on a Leapin' Bass Loomis with a bead rig on 15 lb line. At 6:30 am I was 2 cranks into my first cast when I hooked up. After a nice walk downriver I released a fowl hooked 15 lb class king. I hooked up again about 4 cast's later, which was lost right in front of me. There was a lull for about an hour till fish started moving through the hole in huge #'s. All 6 of the guys there started hooking up. I caught and released 2 more 20 lb class salmon before 9:30 am when I had to head back to repack all the gear for the flight back to Burbank Airport.

October 5, 2001:
My wife Julie & I (Josh) took our annual salmon fishing trip up north. We usually fish the Feather River in Oroville with friend & guide Kevin Brock. This is my 9th year fishing with Fish n' Guide Service. The Feather has been to low all season to run the jet boats to the productive holes so he has been fishing the lower Sacramento River. We met near Woodson Bridge @ 6:00 am, loaded the boat & were on the way 7 miles downriver. There was a front coming through bringing clouds, wind & a 15 deg. drop in the temperature. There were plenty of salmon rolling in all the holes but a slow bite. We tried pulling plugs (Quickfish wrapped with sardine) getting bumped every little bit with a few pulling 30 or so yards of 15lb before coming off. I finally hooked one solid that took half a spool off the Penn 955 set nicely on a limber 7 ft Loomis. This turned out to be one of my largest salmon ever @ 38 lbs. We went to bouncing row on 8lb spinning setup's (Loomis of course) without a bite. We went back to the plugs & Kevin shortly hooked up & handed it off to Julie. After a healthy battle she landed a nice 26 lb hen. We worked our way back up river to one of his favorite holes that produced 2 more fish in the 20 lb range. We usually average 12 to 20 fish (most released) when we fish with Kevin but today we were top boat with our 4 toads. After a riverside brew & fish cleaning sesion we were back on the road around 4:30 pm. Click here for pictures.

[Home] [Fishing Reports] [Photo Album] [Stories & Articles] [Merchandise]
[Leapin' Bass Custom Tackle] [Contact] [Links]