Trophy Bass guide in California??

[Fishaholic2011]

I will be headed to Palm Springs last week of Jan into start of Feb. We have not booked the last three days of our trip yet and I was thinking of staying up by Castaic lake and hiring a guide to try for a trophy Bass for a day. Is Jan/Feb a good time of year to fish and who would be the best guide?

[TR21HP]

Fishaholic, I was out west about 4 years ago in August and hired Mike O'Shea as a guide on Castaic. Outstanding guide, fisherman and nice person.

Put us on some really nice 6-8 pounders and 1 or 2 above that. Not too sure about jan./feb. but look up Mike on his webpage and see what's going on.

[lookincalifornia]

feb. should be prime time for big swimbait tossing.

i thought mike long guided, but i couldn't find anything on him or bill seimentel. i second the mike o'shea vote.

i know a guy in nor-cal, who has great info on swimbaiting. check out matt allen. he's the real deal.

[delcecchi]

There was an interesting article in in-fisherman a few back about fishing for big bass in southern California. Doesn't seem to be online that I can find. It was like Mission Viejo or someplace like that.

[Dylan33]

There was an interesting article in in-fisherman a few back about fishing for big bass in southern California. Doesn't seem to be online that I can find. It was like Mission Viejo or someplace like that.

Hey del- I read that article too. The only problem is that Lake Mission Viejo is a private lake. I did a some work out there in the town of Mission Viejo earlier this year (right after the article came out) and was frustrated to no end knowing that I was a half mile from that lake , but couldn't fish it.

[delcecchi]

Yeah, I thought that was sort of bad, putting an article about a private lake in there, but it was still interesting.

Personally I would try Kayak fishing off San Diego or La Jolla. Here is a picture I took a couple years ago of this guy...

[Dylan33]

I usually stay in La Jolla when i am out there for work...I gotta look into kayak fishing...what kind of fish are those?

[Antero]

I usually stay in La Jolla when i am out there for work...I gotta look into kayak fishing...what kind of fish are those?

Big.

[delcecchi]

I usually stay in La Jolla when i am out there for work...I gotta look into kayak fishing...what kind of fish are those?

One is a yellow tail and the other is a white sea bass. In late winter/early spring the squid come up from the depths to spawn and the fish chow down. Some guys catch live squid for bait.

Don't put the fish on a stringer. There are sea lions around that like fish too.

[GooBack]

They're both White Sea Bass.

Fun to catch, and better eating than any freshwater fish around here.

[Fishaholic2011]

Thanks, I will give him a call

[delcecchi]

They're both White Sea Bass.

Fun to catch, and better eating than any freshwater fish around here.

They do look the same. The guy told me one was a yellowtail, but I shouldn't have believed him, you know how fishermen are.