With everyone getting ready for the summer season I thought we would go over a few basic strategies and lures that will be key at Lake Casitas this season. I guess we can start right away with a buzz bait. I'm sure every angler that fishes this Lake Casitas will probably use a buzz bait in some fashion throughout the day. It's such a good technique especially for catching good solid quality bass that can really pack your weight when it comes to the end of the day and putting together a good score. A buzzbait has just been famous for its ability to catch 3 to 5 pound bass on a consistent basis. Not the kind of bait that normally you can go the distance with but it's just one of those lures that produces nice strikes and good solid bass that generally will cull out other fish during the day. I really like to use the buzz bait on 15 to 25 pound monofilament. I always choose green when it comes to color of monofilament. If you like to use braided fishing line 50 to 65 pound test line is more than adequate. There are two schools of thought with the buzz bait and they're both on the winning side. Both braided fishing line and heavy monofilament both work wonderfully with this bait Obviously monofilament floats so therefore it gives the buzz bait a little bit more left. And the braid is obviously so powerful and gives you that no stretch factor. When you fish the buzz bait you might consider obviously using a trailer hook and a little trick is to fish your buzz bait with the trailer hook facing down. Obviously if you have a lot of cover especially hard woods and trees and hard structure it's nearly impossible to fish with the trailer hook facedown. But when you're fishing what we call "soft" vegetation it's a great trick for bass that come up and hit the buzzbait with their mouth closed. Many times bass will strike a buzzbait with their mouth physically closed in an attempt to stun the baitfish. I've caught many quality bass right on the top of the nose with that trailer hooked facing down. It's a great technique and I've used it a bunch over my career. Another great weapon obviously is a big swimbait at Lake Casitas in Ventura California. The swimbait can be fished on anything from 15 to 30 pound monofilament line. If you choose braided fishing line you can use anywhere from 40 to 80 pound test when it comes to braid. Obviously the pound test line you use is usually equated the size of the swim bait. A bigger swimbait usually requires heavier line. Fish this bait with your rod tip down and fish it on what we call the "wind". Try not to use your rod tip much at all and fish to swim bait exclusively with your reel. When the fish hit the swimbait a really great tip is to wind into the strike. When you feel the bass strike the bait don't set the hook right away. Keep your tip down and continue to grind until you can no longer turn the handle and then lift the fishingrod up with pressure. Basically grind really hard with the reel until that rod loads up solid and then set the hook is what I'm basically getting at. The big swimbait is a wonderful way to upgrade your catch and can produce that key fish that could put you up over the top in this event. Fish this bait with confidence and realize that this is an all-in approach. One strike can completely change the entire outlook of the tournament for you. Another technique that use with our bass fishing guide clients at Lake Casitas and Castaic Lake in Castaic California is some version of the Senko or drop shot. Both of these we would kind of be classified as finesse techniques. Not at Lake Casitas as this is one of those places where lots of people fish a big plastic worm on the drop shot rig with the a bait casting rod. This isn't really what we call finesse fishing but it's a version of finesse fishing that is done a lot at Lake Casitas and Castaic Lake. Many anglers are pretty adamant about fishing a drop shot on straight monofilament or straight florocarbon. What I mean is they don't really believe in a leader when it comes to fishing with the drop shot. I have fished it both ways and had success with both approaches. But now I really lean heavily toward the braided main line with a fluorocarbon leader. I just seem to get so much power and control by using the braided line as my mainline and having that florocarbon top. I join the two lines together with a double uni knot and this will be a key technique used especially for anglers that have located schools a bass on isolated structure. Remember to be open-minded with the drop shot it could be anything from a very small 4 inch plastic worm up to an eight or 9 inch bait when it comes to fishing Lake Casitas with this technique. It's not strictly a spinning rod technique at this lake. Utilizing a big plastic worm with the drop shot approach on a bait casting rod with 10 or 12 pound fluorocarbon fishing line could be key at lake Casitas. And last but not least some version of the Senko is always an important part of my thought process with our bass fishing guide clients at Lake Casitas. It could be anything from a weightless rig fished up in shallow water to fishing it out in deeper water using a small tungsten weight in the tail end of the Senko. But some version of Senko fishing can pay huge dividends at Lake Casitas. It's not limited to just the 5" bait either. The 6 inch Senko and larger can play a big role at Casitas for catching a quality bass to improve your string. People are using Senkos in so many ways right now I couldn't begin to tell you every technique that I've seen people use one fishing It's absolutely mind blowing some of the things that I've seen people do with a Senko and produce some incredible catches. It's one of those baits that you can truly use your imagination and utilize it in many different ways and catch fish. Well good luck to all and enjoy your time at Lake Casitas and if you’re interested in booking a bass fishing guide trip you can only call or text me at 818-439-1154.