TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

Kern County, Southern San Joaquin Valley

LAKE ISABELLA: Crappie action fair. The best bite is around drowned trees and brush. Float tube and boat anglers fishing around any structure (mostly flooded trees), while the shore anglers are having a little more difficulty getting on the fish. Limits of 25-fish averaging about 3/4-pound have been the norm. Catfish bite good with a lot of quality one to three-pound fish showing, mostly on frozen shad and Sonny's bait the top bets, but other cut baits and chicken liver also working. Trout bite spotty at the dam. Bluegill bite is good in most coves. Bass bite fair to good. Lake level very low.

KERN RIVER: The upper river is fishing very well following trout plants. The fish are stacked up in the bigger pools with the upper river best early and late in the day for the trout. There have also been stocks in the whole upper river each of the last two weeks and more slated for this week in the two areas nearest to Kernville. The lower river has very good bass and catfish action. Fair trout action in the lower river. Sections 4, 5 and 6 will get a trout plant first week of November.

AQUEDUCT NEAR TAFT: Striper bite good to excellent, but most of the fish are runts under the 18-inch minimum size with one out of 20 fish a keeper. Catfish action is just fair.

MILL CREEK PARK: Good action on bluegill.

HART PARK LAKE: Good bluegill bite. Carp fair to good. The bass bite has also been improving. Trout plant next week.

TRUXTUN LAKE: Low water conditions and good to excellent bluegill action. Carp fair. Bass improving. Trout plant Nov. 4.

RIVER WALK PARK: Good bluegill action. Carp fair. Bass fair. Trout plant due Nov. 4.

MING LAKE: Low water conditions. Carp action good, bass fair and. Trout plant Nov. 4.

BUENA VISTA LAKES: Water level down, and good bluegill bite. Catfish fair. Bass very good early and late in the day. The annual Taft Chamber of Commerce Trout Fishing Derby will be 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., Nov. 17, at Lake Evans.

WOOLLOMES LAKE: Low water levels. Good bluegill action and late evening bass bite is fair. Also quite a few carp showing.

SUCCESS LAKE: Good to excellent bass action in the low water. The bluegill bite is good.

KAWEAH LAKE: Bass bite, bluegill fair to good. Few catfish.

Other regional lakes

CACHUMA: Catfish are best bet here. Crappie fair. The first 4,000 pounds of trout is scheduled for Nov. 1.

CASITAS: Largemouth bass fishing has been fair. Catfish continue to be good with many fish coming from less than 10 feet of water. Redear action also remains pretty good in 8-25 feet of water.

CASTAIC: The striper bite has slowed a bit at the main ramp and west ramp with fewer boiling fish both in the morning and late afternoon. Water temp is still in the 70s. Cooling should restart the striper action, as will a trout plant expected early next month. Largemouth showing in the same bite in the mornings. Bluegill action way off.

NACIMIENTO: Fishing has slowed, with only about 30 percent of full pool water in the lake.

SANTA MARGARITA: Slow overall, but weather brought the bass bite up a bit last week. Still very light fishing pressure so there have been few reports on catfish, crappie or bluegill.

LOPEZ: Bass bite slowed, but largemouth of 5 pounds and smallmouth near 3 pounds were taken this week. The bluegill and redear are also fair. Crappie and catfish bites are slow.

PIRU: Lake level down and action on most all species has slowed. Small largemouth bass showing in fair numbers.

PYRAMID: Water level going up. The striper bite off a bit. There are still some stripers showing on baits at the buoy line, in the main channel, and off the points. Most of the stripers are little fish in the two-pound range. Black bass fair to good. A lot of smallmouth, largemouths in this bite along. Catfish fair.

SAN ANTONIO: Striper bite fair. Catfish bite good. Bass slow. Crappie fair.

Eastern Sierra

BRIDGEPORT REGION: The East Walker River is fishing well. Bridgeport Reservoir has improved. One angler reported taking a 6 3/4-pound brown near the dam. The storm earlier in the week really didn't amount to much. Virginia Lakes got a nice four-inch dusting of snow the week before, but the fishing has been very good on nightcrawlers, Mouse Tails, and Power-anything baits with streamers, mini jigs, and Kastmasters also good. Twin lakes and Virginia lake reported doing fair. most of the area streams are not getting any pressure as they are running very low due to the lack of snow last year. Kirman Lake has been very good to excellent, with cool nights turning on the spawning activity in the brookies to 18 inches and the cutthroats to 24 inches. Those longer fish weigh around 6 pounds and the average fish have been around 2 pounds. West Walker good.

JUNE LAKE LOOP REGION: Silver Lake fair, but it produced a 12-4 brown. The Silver Lake Resort closed Oct. 15. Rest of the June Lake Loop fair to good with some nice rainbows showing from Gull and June, and more browns starting to show in Grant. Rush Creek has also been good with some nice quality fish to three pounds. Ellery, Tioga, and Saddlebag lakes are all still producing good action with a lot of brook trout in the stream mouths.

MAMMOTH AREA: Trout action at Crowley Lake is still good to excellent. Convict Lake fair to good and the fishing pressure is light. Twin Lakes and whole upper lakes basin has been fair to good. The brook trout are stacking up at the mouths of all the tributaries and running upstream to spawn. The Upper Owens is fair to good. Hot Creek is excellent. Upper San Joaquin and Red's Meadow is good.

BISHOP AREA: South Lake has good action. Weir Pond good to excellent for fly anglers. North Lake, Sabrina fair.

LONE PINE-INDEPENDENCE AREA: All the small streams along Highway 395 from Big Pine Creek to Cottonwood Creek remain fair to good.

Trout plants

Kern River (Sections 4, 5, 6)

Ocean report

The action for the 11/2 to two-day boats out of San Diego continues to be very good. The anglers on these trips continue to catch a good amount of fish. The bite is strongly yellowtail, with a mix of dorado, yellowfin tuna thrown in. The volume of the tuna is still high, but they aren't biting quite as well as the yellowtail. The closer-in 3/4-day boats are also catching a lot of yellowtail and a few dorado. There's really no sign of this bite going away. Even the three-quarter day boats are getting in on this incredible offshore action. The San Diego, out of Seaforth Sportfishing, has been averaging well over 100 fish per day. In closer, the squid are hanging around providing anglers with plenty of bait. They are also catching respectable numbers of rock fish and bass to go with it. Along with the squid, we are seeing good numbers of white seabass, halibut, and yellowtail mixed in all along the coast. Not much change off L.A. and Orange County. Most of the half-day boats are running out to near-shore deepwater spots and getting nice catches of rockfish, sculpin, and red snapper with a few mixed bass, sculpin, sheephead, and the odd halibut. A few bass are showing in all areas. San Clemente continues to get little fishing pressure, but there is a good volume of yellowtail on the front side of the island. Fish are 7-15 pounds and a key has been having squid for bait and avoiding seals. At Catalina, it's about the same. The lobster action remains pretty good.