Lake Casitas Southern California Fishing Guide Report 12/28/2015 – All that you hear about and all that you read about whether it be in print media or on television or via the Internet is how devastating the drought has been to the western United States. All of this doom and gloom focusing on all of the negative aspects of this record setting western drought. Working as a bass fishing guide is what I do every day. We have all heard it. It seems to be the hip topic of conversation when you speak about freshwater fishing in the western United States. There's a very famous rap song that I will remind you of….Public Enemies "Don't believe the Hype". This column will focus entirely on all of the positive effects of what this drought has the possibility of doing for all of us that fish Lake Casitas and our western reservoirs. Let's start first and foremost with a very important issue. This is natures way….If fishing lakes stayed exactly at the same water level for their entire existence they would become stagnant and fishing populations would be compromised. Bass fisherman understand the importance of brush, trees and cover to manufacture incredible spawning results and to put nutrients and fish holding habitat into the water to produce fishing results in the future. It's the oldest one in the book. Droughts produce some of the greatest bass fishing that we have ever experienced. Droughts have produced the absolute and total rebirth of bass lakes throughout the United States of America. This is the history of our sport. Get used to it. Let me make this clear, without drought you cannot produce incredible fishing results for the future fishermen in America. Everyone of us knows a lake or reservoir in your area, like Lake Caitas in the Los Angeles area of Southern California, that is absolutely at a record-setting low. As you cast your eyes across the reservoir you all see an incredible amount of fresh brush, trees and weed growth that expands for miles up on the shorelines of some of these reservoirs. That's the future of our sport. Let me give you a small example. Working as a bass fishing guide at Lake Casitas in Ventura California the entire shoreline is covered with brush and trees some of them growing 25 to 40 feet tall. This brush and weed cover is only 5 to 6 vertical feet from waters edge. This is not typical of every reservoir but it's typical of many reservoirs with throughout the western United States. Western reservoirs do not have to fill to capacity with this coming winter's storms. The shorelines of all of our reservoirs are covered with an incredible influx of brush and trees. If our western reservoirs just come up 10 to 15% all of this shoreline cover will be flooded and produce incredible spawns and an influx of nutrients and cover into the lake that will be spectacular for western anglers. We don't have to have record-setting rain to regenerate western angling. This is natures way. Above average rainfall will produce flooded brush situations throughout the entire western United States. We do not have to fill every Western reservoir this winter. It's not about taking the lakes back to maximum capacity. It's about a substantial rainfall that will flood the freestanding cover that is already in most every western reservoir. I explain each and every morning to all of my fishing guide clients just how excited I am about the western future. This incredible amount of brush and cover that's growing on the shorelines of our reservoirs could make for some of the greatest bass fishing we've seen in decades. If we receive any substantial rainfall this winter this could be some of the most exciting fishing we've had in years. What's most exciting is with any amount of rainfall all of the techniques that we are currently using in the west could change dramatically. We could find ourselves in a situation this coming spring where a spinnerbait, buzzbait and chatterbait could become every day staples of the trade. Our fishing can take a complete 360 in just a few months if this winter produces the rainfall most everyone is predicting. So embrace the drought. Understand that this is natures way of rebirthing reservoirs. Not just western reservoirs this has been going on throughout the United States since the beginning of our fishing careers. I was fishing at Lake Okeechobee in a FLW tournament in the early 2000s when everyone at the reservoir was ready to shut down the lake and close the hotels. South Florida was facing one of his greatest droughts in history. Now Lake Okeechobee is flooded and is one of the greatest fishing reservoirs in this country. Competing at another event at Lake Lanier in Atlanta Georgia this famous reservoir was down over 200 vertical feet. Homeowners and fisherman predicted the worst with the dramatic lake levels. Now Lanier is near flooded and produces some of the greatest spotted bass fishing in the world. I can bore you with hundreds of stories of reservoirs and drought. It's a necessary evil to re-generate fishing systems and reservoirs. Help educate other anglers on the positive effects of the drought and what it can do to reignite our western angling. To reserve a guided fishing trip with Southern California Fishing Guide Rich Tauber at Lake Casitas, Castaic Lake, or Pyramid Lake text or call (818) 439-1154.
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