TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

Kern County, southern San Joaquin Valley

LAKE ISABELLA: Crappie action has remained good for 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. The fish are in few spots, thanks to low water levels, and the pressure is almost zero because of gas prices. The catfish bite is also good with a lot of quality 1- to 3-pound fish showing. Trout bite spotty at dam for shore anglers fishing deep water with floating baits and trollers on Needlefish-style lures. The bluegill bite is good in most coves, but there are more small fish with the bigger fish few and far between. The bass bite has been fair to good.

KERN RIVER: Water level is low in both the upper and lower and 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 during the same time frame. Good trout action in lower river.

AQUEDUCT NEAR TAFT: The striper bite has continued good to excellent, but most fish under the 18-inch minimum size. Catfish action fair.

MILL CREEK PARK: Good action on bluegill for anglers fishing wax worms and crickets, and there is also a good bite on catfish and carp here over the past week. Nightcrawlers have been the top bait for the cats, and Powder Bait for the carp.

HART PARK LAKE: Water level way down. Very good bluegill bite on wax worms, meal worms and crickets. Carp bite fair on Powder Bait or dough baits. Bass bite improving.

TRUXTUN LAKE: Low water conditions and good to excellent bluegill action on red worms, meal worms, wax worms, crickets and nightcrawlers. Carp action fair to good on dough baits. Bass action improving.

RIVER WALK PARK: Very good bluegill action on meal and wax worms or crickets. Carp are fair on Powder Bait. The bass are fair on reaction baits and plastics.

MING LAKE: Low water conditions has stacked the fish on a few spots and there is very good bluegill action.

BUENA VISTA LAKES: Water level is way down, and there is a very good bluegill bite. Catfish action fair at night. Bass action very good early and late in the day. Lake Evans is low.

WOOLLOMES LAKE: Low water levels. Very good bluegill action , while the early morning and late evening bass bite is fair. Quite a few carp showing for the anglers using Powder Bait.

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

KAWEAH LAKE: Bass, bluegill bites fair. A few catfish starting to show, but other species slow.

Other regional lakes

CACHUMA: The catfish bite remains good in most of the shallow coves and creek channels. The largemouth and smallmouth action improved with the cooler weather. Trout are stacked up at dam. Trout plants are slated to kick off Nov. 1 with a 4,000-pound plant of Calaveras rainbows Nov. 1.

CASITAS: The largemouth bass bite has continued. Bluegill, redear action also pretty good. Catfish bite very good.

CASTAIC: The striper bite has been good at the marina and west ramp. The largemouth are showing in the same bite. Fair catfish bite. In lower lake, a pretty good bluegill bite.

LOPEZ: Bass bite, bluegill and redear are fair.

PIRU: Water level dropping. Small largemouth bass continue to show, and there continues to be a few crappie, bluegill and redear being caught.

PYRAMID: Lake level up with over the past week and the surface bite on stripers has slowed. Most of the stripers are in the 2-pound range. The black bass action has been fair to good. The have been a lot of smallmouth in this bite. Catfish fair.

SAN ANTONIO: Falling water levels, but striper bite has remained fair. Catfish bite is good. Bass action slow. Crappie were very good last week.

NACIMIENTO: Improving spotted, white bass action. Fall crappie bite starting. Lake level low.

SANTA MARGARITA: Rain last week really helped kick the bass bite up a notch.

Eastern Sierra

BRIDGEPORT REGION: The East Walker River dropped into its winter flows at 33 cfs. While this is very low, it does stack the fish up in the pools and deeper runs and the action is still very good. Bait fishing is fair. Virginia Lakes fishing has been very good. Kirman Lake has been very good to excellent. Twin Lakes slowed. West Walker has been good.

JUNE LAKE LOOP REGION: Silver Lake has been fair for fishing, but the fall colors are in full swing throughout the loop. The Silver Lake Resort closes Oct. 15. The rest of the June Lake Loop is also fair to good with some nice rainbows showing from both Gull and June, and more and more browns starting to show in Grant, especially in the upper end where Rush Creek flows into the lake. Rush Creek has also been good with some nice quality fish to 3 pounds.

MAMMOTH AREA: Trout action at Crowley Lake good to excellent in the north arm. Convict Lake fair to good and the fishing pressure is light. The Twin Lakes and whole upper lakes basin has been fair to good. Upper Owens is fair to good with mostly small fish showing. Hot Creek is excellent. Upper San Joaquin and Red's Meadow is good.

BISHOP AREA: Good action in South Lake. The fish have spread out quite a bit with limits reported from the dam, rock slide, Boiler Cove, and the island channel. Bishop Creek, especially the South Fork, has been good with lot of limits of pan-sized rainbows. Weir Pond has been good to excellent for fly anglers. North Lake has been fair. Sabrina, lower Owens fair.

LONE PINE-INDEPENDENCE AREA: All the small streams along Highway 395 from Big Pine Creek to Cottonwood Creek remain fair to good, but most are only getting stocked every other week or even less frequently now.

Trout plants

KERN: Kern River (Sections 4 and 5).

TULARE: Kern River (Section 6).

Ocean report

OFFSHORE EXOTICS STILL EXCELLENT: The action for the overnight to two-day boats out of San Diego has continued to be very good. Oh, the bite dropped off a little during the cooler weather late last week, but it has come right back on. The volume of fish in the area from the Cortez Bank south all the way to San Quintin continues to be good. Is it as good as two weeks ago? Probably not, but itís still darn good. The catch has been probably 60 to 70 percent yellowtail (in a wide range of sizes, with about half or more small), five percent dorado and the rest mixed tuna, usually yellowfin, but also still a lot of bluefin. . This bite should hold up into November this year. 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.

LOS ANGELES AND ORANGE COUNTY UPDATE: Most of the half-day boats are running out to nearshore deepwater spots and getting nice catches of rockfish, sculpin, and red snapper with a few mixed bass, sculpin, sheephead, and the odd halibut. The bite has been more toward sculpin and whitefish to the south and more toward rockfish and sheephead for the Los Angeles and Santa Monica Bay areas. A few bass are showing in all areas.