Diamond Valley Lake, California

Has anyone fished this newly opened lake yet?

What kind of luck did you have?

Fred

It is going to be a "great" lake...it's big as far as California lakes
go, and the stocking and planning were, and are excellent (California
does one of the best jobs in the country when it comes to lake
management). A test pre fish for bass was done, and the results were
phenomenal...300 bass caught in less than 4 hours by just a few
fishermen. There are already 12 pounders in the lake...and the
management group predicted growth patterns of up to 2 pounds per year. I
have a good friend that lives in Temecula, and he has been ultra excited
about the opening...it was Oct. 3rd., I'll give him a buzz and see what
he has been doing since then...will let you know!
JK

Fishing dropped off considerably compared to the pre-fish before the opener.
The bass aren't use to the influx of noise and traffic yet.

Next Spring's spawn should be fantastic!
I am going the 23rd of this month....yipeeee!



"Fred Blair" wrote in message
...
Has anyone fished this newly opened lake yet?

What kind of luck did you have?

Fred

I've heard purple or red colored plastic worms and carolina rigged purple
lizards.
In the morning--topwater in some of the coves.
Also, any shad imitation lures/cranks.

I am going there soon for the first time.




"Eric Dreher" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 9 Oct 2003 20:41:39 -0700, "SHRED" wrote:

Fishing dropped off considerably compared to the pre-fish before the
opener.
The bass aren't use to the influx of noise and traffic yet.

That was my guess. The fish got hammered opening day, then went
AWOL on Saturday.

Next Spring's spawn should be fantastic!
I am going the 23rd of this month....yipeeee!

The water is certainly clear enough for sight fishing. Spawn
should be fun.


-------------------------------------------------------
"We must never attempt to use the UN as a substitute
for clear and resolute U.S. policy." - Barry Goldwater

When is spawn in this part of the country?
Fred

Fred,

I fished the lake for a few hours last Friday and got shunked. I saw one
bass caught early and heard of two more that were caught during the first
hour. I graphed fish at 35 feet for a few hours, but could find anything
that would get them to bite ... I suppose something alive might have caused
some interest, but I couldn't remember the spell for imparting life to my
bag of plastics. I think the poor fishing could be attributed to a few
things. First of all, the lake has been hammered for two straight weeks.
Second, the moon was bright the night before and the water is quite clear.
Third, we had a strange heat wave hit the day before ... it's still here.

I know three of the people who fished the lake before the opening for the
Department of Fish and Game and they caught 150 bass per boat. I also
talked to a guy who fished opening day and he said some people were catching
50 to 60 fish a day off the main lake points. The fish were hanging in 30
to 50 feet of water. I suppose that was nice, but opening day and the few
days after are gone ,and now we're back to a SoCal lake - deep and clear and
finesse fishing will be the way to go (I actually pulled most of my finesse
stuff off the boat and loaded up with 12 pound test rigs for my first trip
.... I suppose I should go back to the small stuff).

I got my boat inspected a few weeks ago at Lake Skinner (I actually bought a
new boat to fish the new lake - environmental concerns) and got my MWD
sticker stuck on the side of my boat. I tried to make a reservation
on-line, but the web site blew up on me. I called the reservation line and
some nice gal helped me out. She e-mailed me the information and charged me
twice ($21 each time). I called back when I got my credit card staement and
some nice gal said she would take care of it ... we'll see.

I got to the lake at 6 AM and as I drove in, they checked my sticker and gas
receipt (you have to have a receipt from Union 76 that is less than 30 days
old - Union 76 is MTBE-free). After that, I was sent to a holding area
where we waited for the sun to come up. While we waited, people came by and
checked our reservations. When the sun came up, they let us in. We had
about 35 boats heading for the ramp and another 35 cars heading for the
rental boats. The ramp was great. It will handle about ten boats at a
time. We put all the boats in the water within ten minutes. The parking
lot looked like it could handle about 100-120 vehicles and trailers. They
are also putting in another ramp on the southwest corner of the lake.

All-in-all, the lake is beautiful. It is big by SoCal standards (it's
actually bigger than all the other SoCal man-made lakes combined). The lake
has three dams - two really big ones and one big one. I didn't see anyone
fishing the dam riprap. I don't know if that was by choice, or they have
some rule against fishing the dams. They only had one cop boat going, so I
don't know what would happen if you did fish it. The cop boat spent most of
it's time busting bass boats which were stretching the 25 mph speed limit.
I also hear they are getting another couple of cop boats to chase more boats
more frequently.

If you are going to fish the lake any time soon, get yourself a topo map and
look for mounts and humps out in the lake. Target fish in the 30 to 60 feet
range. Once the water cools, I would expect the fish to suspend under the
bait fish and that will be slow spooning time.

Richard


"Fred Blair" wrote in message
...
Has anyone fished this newly opened lake yet?

What kind of luck did you have?

Fred

I am going this Thursday(23rd).
Some friends were drop-shotting purple 6" worms and getting hammered, in the
afternoon, at 50 feet, last week. They had to up it to 10lb test due to
break offs.

D-Shot/finesse deep seems the way to go right now.

Did you try a purple color?

Thanks for the detailed report Richard!
Wish me luck!!

SHRED



"news.west.earthlink.net" wrote in message
ink.net...
Fred,

I fished the lake for a few hours last Friday and got shunked. I saw one
bass caught early and heard of two more that were caught during the first
hour. I graphed fish at 35 feet for a few hours, but could find anything
that would get them to bite ... I suppose something alive might have
caused
some interest, but I couldn't remember the spell for imparting life to my
bag of plastics. I think the poor fishing could be attributed to a few
things. First of all, the lake has been hammered for two straight weeks.
Second, the moon was bright the night before and the water is quite clear.
Third, we had a strange heat wave hit the day before ... it's still here.

I know three of the people who fished the lake before the opening for the
Department of Fish and Game and they caught 150 bass per boat. I also
talked to a guy who fished opening day and he said some people were
catching
50 to 60 fish a day off the main lake points. The fish were hanging in 30
to 50 feet of water. I suppose that was nice, but opening day and the few
days after are gone ,and now we're back to a SoCal lake - deep and clear
and
finesse fishing will be the way to go (I actually pulled most of my
finesse
stuff off the boat and loaded up with 12 pound test rigs for my first trip
... I suppose I should go back to the small stuff).

I got my boat inspected a few weeks ago at Lake Skinner (I actually bought
a
new boat to fish the new lake - environmental concerns) and got my MWD
sticker stuck on the side of my boat. I tried to make a reservation
on-line, but the web site blew up on me. I called the reservation line
and
some nice gal helped me out. She e-mailed me the information and charged
me
twice ($21 each time). I called back when I got my credit card staement
and
some nice gal said she would take care of it ... we'll see.

I got to the lake at 6 AM and as I drove in, they checked my sticker and
gas
receipt (you have to have a receipt from Union 76 that is less than 30
days
old - Union 76 is MTBE-free). After that, I was sent to a holding area
where we waited for the sun to come up. While we waited, people came by
and
checked our reservations. When the sun came up, they let us in. We had
about 35 boats heading for the ramp and another 35 cars heading for the
rental boats. The ramp was great. It will handle about ten boats at a
time. We put all the boats in the water within ten minutes. The parking
lot looked like it could handle about 100-120 vehicles and trailers. They
are also putting in another ramp on the southwest corner of the lake.

All-in-all, the lake is beautiful. It is big by SoCal standards (it's
actually bigger than all the other SoCal man-made lakes combined). The
lake
has three dams - two really big ones and one big one. I didn't see anyone
fishing the dam riprap. I don't know if that was by choice, or they have
some rule against fishing the dams. They only had one cop boat going, so
I
don't know what would happen if you did fish it. The cop boat spent most
of
it's time busting bass boats which were stretching the 25 mph speed limit.
I also hear they are getting another couple of cop boats to chase more
boats
more frequently.

If you are going to fish the lake any time soon, get yourself a topo map
and
look for mounts and humps out in the lake. Target fish in the 30 to 60
feet
range. Once the water cools, I would expect the fish to suspend under the
bait fish and that will be slow spooning time.

Richard


"Fred Blair" wrote in message
...
Has anyone fished this newly opened lake yet?

What kind of luck did you have?

Fred

"news.west.earthlink.net" wrote in message link.net...
Fred,

snip


If you are going to fish the lake any time soon, get yourself a topo map and
look for mounts and humps out in the lake. Target fish in the 30 to 60 feet
range. Once the water cools, I would expect the fish to suspend under the
bait fish and that will be slow spooning time.

Richard

Could this be the real Bass Rogue? The old Bass Rogue never said
nothing about wine? Although I do believe he lived in SoCal and his
name was Richard. Am I missing something here? Did the Rogue age like
a fine wine?

Wonder how his image is doin? You know, his Bassin image? And what's
become of the Bassin Dreadnaught? Is it still stickerless? Does the
livewell need a new pump? These things keep me up at night. d;^)

-Phish

Phish,

Could this be the real Bass Rogue? The old Bass Rogue never said
nothing about wine? Although I do believe he lived in SoCal and his
name was Richard. Am I missing something here? Did the Rogue age like
a fine wine?

Well, you're close, but a little bit off. For the last three years, I have
been into fine wines. I'm quite an expert on the subject now. And like my
bassin' expert image, my wino expert image was acquire through hard work - I
think I averaged a little over 250 bottles a year through the house - keep
in mind, a large dinner, like Turkey Day, requires a dozen bottles to get
through all the courses. Not to worry, I keep about 150 bottles laying
around just in case. So, I guess you could say, the Bass Rogue was aged a
little bit by fine wine. And, I've become quite a chef ... okay, I'm quite
a cook ... hey, I throw a mean party and after a half dozen bottles of wine,
my potato chips are a big hit.

Wonder how his image is doin? You know, his Bassin image? And what's
become of the Bassin Dreadnaught? Is it still stickerless? Does the
livewell need a new pump? These things keep me up at night. d;^)

As far as the image goes, it's like I said in the original Diamond Valley
post, I got my butt shunked. On the other hand, I was looking good doing
it.

The Bassin' Dreadnought is gone. I sold the old horse a couple of months
ago. It was still a pretty boat and as bad as ever (and stickerless and
decalless and logoless). However, it wouldn't meet the MWD environmental
requirements for Diamond Valley. So, I sold it and bought me a new fish and
ski boat with a 115 HP four-stroker ... I can't say I'm really happy with
it, but I only spent 15 minutes buying it, so I got what ... Hey, if it
isn't a bad bass boat, it doesn't really matter.

One of the main motivations for going with a fish and ski boat was my
daughter decided to make me a grandfather. It turns out my granddaughter is
a lot of fun (she's two now), and I just couldn't see putting her on a 70
mph bass boat. Well, I could, but my daughter and her husband couldn't. I
experimented with my new puppy dog (my old puppy dog went on the big trip)
and that didn't work out too well. The dumb dog just wouldn't hold onto the
panic handle, and she fell off the back of the Dreadnought - well, the boat
moved from under the dog and the dog kind of dropped into the water.
Whatever, I pulled the dog back into the boat and leashed her to the panic
handle. All was well until I was pulling the boat out of the water, that
when the stupid dog jumped out of the boat and hung herself. Now, I saw
what the dog did in the rear view mirror and thought to myself, that stupid
dog needs a little hanging. However, two well-intentioned people came to
the rescue ... so, I still have dog ... who is bi-polar and paranoid.

Anyway, sleep well at night, my new boat needs a new livewell pump ... and a
boarding ladder and a console and four seats and two speakers. I bought
this boat new in August and the dealer has had it most of the time. I took
it away from them last week so I could fish my reservation at Diamond Lake.
They've already replaced the jack and wench on the trailer. Plus, they
replace the bimini top (including filling in the old mounting holes) and a
console, plus regel-coated both sides. I also have 30 hours of work on the
boat, doing things like draining a quart of oil out of the four-stroker,
replacing a missing valve cap on a tire, redoing the cables to the big motor
and filling an empty brake reservoir. Sometimes the boat-building quality
in this country amazes me.

Richard