We have live shad!!!! It all started on April 20th as we began seeing huge schools of shad appear in most all parts of Lake Casitas. It's one of largest shad spawns that we have seen in recent years on this Southern California fishery. We are going out each morning and netting the live shad for bait. We are fishing the live shad on a spinning rod with 4 to 6 pound test line and this is resulted in some incredible action and some long battles with these Lake Casitas bass. The best part of the whole program is that this year almost all the bass that we are catching on live shad are ranging from 3 to 5 pounds! It's quite possibly the best fishing I have seen at Lake Casitas in 4-5 years. Without question this is absolutely the time of year if you want to book a guided fishing trip. The shad will not stay up forever. We expect the shad to "float" for one to two months. This is absolutely the best time to take children fishing, as once you have the live shad it's an absolute guarantee that your family will can catch fish. We have half day trips which are 4 hours and leave at 7am in the morning, and 12 noon. We have full-day (8 hour) trips available which leave at 7am and return to the dock at 3pm. Once again all of your rods, reels, and tackle will be ready for you when you arrive. There will be bottled water, ice, and packaged snacks on board all at no extra charge. Like I said this is absolutely the best time of year to go fishing. You can e-mail me at the contact Rich Tauber link at the top of the page. You can also reach me on my personal cell phone at (818) 439-1154. We look forward to hearing from you and getting you on the water during this special time of year.