TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

Kern County, southern San Joaquin Valley

LAKE ISABELLA: Catfish are fair on frozen shad at Engineer's Point. The trout bite has been slow to fair at the auxiliary dam for bait anglers. DFG plants this week and three weeks ago. Fly anglers are still reporting fair to good dry fly bite on midges in most coves in the mornings. Few reports on crappie, and the bass and bluegill action is also slow.

KERN RIVER: Trout action is slow to fair on the upper river with only a few fish showing in the cold water on salmon eggs, crickets and nightcrawlers. Fly anglers are also seeing slow to fair action in the stretch just above Kernville with mid-day midge and baetis hatches and some dry fly and nymph action. DFG plants this week in all three upper river areas. In the lower river flows are down under 400 cfs and the region is very fishable, but the trout and smallmouth bites are both pretty slow.

AQUEDUCT NEAR TAFT: Striped bass bite fair to good on blood worms and sand worms. Lots of four- to six-pound fish, but still light fishing pressure with the cold weather over the weekend. One report of a 20-pound class fish. Few catfish reports.

MILL CREEK PARK: An improvement in the catfish bite here, but still just fair at best. The action has been on nightcrawlers. No bass and bluegill reports.

HART PARK LAKE: DFG trout plants last week and three weeks ago, and the bite has been pretty good. Best action on the Power Mouse, Power eggs, garlic-scented floating baits and inflated nightcrawlers. The bluegill, carp, catfish and bluegill bites are all very slow.

TRUXTUN LAKE: DFG trout plants last week and three weeks ago. Overall pretty good action on garlic nightcrawlers, garlic Power Bait and the Power Mouse doused with garlic oil. Bluegill, carp, bass slow.

RIVER WALK PARK: DFG trout plants last week and three weeks ago.

MING LAKE: DFG trout plants last week and three weeks ago with good action on floating dough baits, inflated garlic nightcrawlers, or the new Power Mouse. The bluegill, carp and bass have all been slow.

BRITE LAKE: Very good action on orange Power Bait. DFG trout plants last week and three weeks ago.

BUENA VISTA LAKES: Last trout plant of the season went in last week and the action has been good. The best bite has been on garlic and hatchery formula Power Baits and Power Mice or Power Worms with garlic oil. The winter crappie bite is dead. Catfish and bass also slow.

WOOLLOMES LAKE: DFG trout plants last week and three weeks ago. All other species have been slow.

SUCCESS LAKE: DFG trout plants this week and three weeks ago. Trout providing the best action. The bass bite has been improving with more and more fish moving out of deep water into the 12 to 25 feet depths. Plastics, nightcrawlers, Alabama rigs and swim baits all good bets. Other species slow.

KAWEAH LAKE: DFG trout plants this week and three weeks ago. Fair action on the rainbows with small lures and floating baits in garlic and hatchery formulas. The bass bite has been good with anglers hurling Alabama rigs reporting good catches of bass from 3-5 pounds. Also a 14-pound bass reported. Bluegill, crappie slow.

Other regional lakes

CACHUMA: Trout action fair. Some diligent anglers posted limits. A plant of 4,000 pounds of Calaveras rainbows goes in today. Crappie bite slowed. Bass action slower than previous week. Most of the action for both smallmouth and largemouth has again dropped back down to 25- to 40-foot depths. Other species slow.

CASITAS: The bass have continued to move up into shallower water in preparation for the spawn with fish rarely deeper than 20 feet now and moving as shallow as 10 feet or less on warmer, sunny days. Crappie action starting to turn on a little with some quality fish starting to show. Trout bite slow.

CASTAIC: The trout bite has continued slow, but a DFG plant this week should improve the bite. The largemouth are also showing in 25 to 30 feet on plastics, jigs and crawdads in most of the coves. The stripers have just been dead. The catfish bite remains fair at the buoy line on cut baits.

SAN ANTONIO: The black bass action is starting to improve with fish coming up out of the depths and starting to poke around in shallower water.

LOPEZ: The bass bite has been improving this past week with more and more fish showing in 12 to 20 feet of water in a major pre-spawn movement. A few crappie continue to show. Other species very slow.

NACIMIENTO: Looks like pre-spawn movement of fish into the shallows is started. The spotted bass bite has been fair to good on drop-shotted plastics and reaction baits in 12 to 20 feet of water. Also some reports of white bass started to concentrate in the Nacimiento River arm of the lake.

PIRU: Very light fishing pressure, but the bass bite has been fair in deeper water. The redear, bluegill and crappie bites have all continued to be very slow with very few reports. The catfish have also been very slow.

PYRAMID: 1,200 pounds of trout planted last week. The bite has been fair to good in the marina on PowerBait, nightcrawlers, salmon eggs and small lures. Most rainbows are pan-sized. The striped bass are slow to fair in the marina area. Slow bluegill and catfish action.

SANTA MARGARITA: More and more bass are starting to show in 6-12 feet of water. Still few bluegill or redear showing, with only an occasional fish on a bait fished in 15 to 20 feet on the bottom near structure. Catfish also still slow.

Trout plants

LOS ANGELES: Castaic Lake

KERN: Isabella Lake, Kern River from Powerhouse No. 3 to Riverside Park, Kernville.

TULARE: Kern River from Brush Creek to Fairview Dam, Kern River from Fairview Dam to Falling Waters Lodge, Lake Kaweah, Lake Success.

Ocean report

LONG-RANGE YELLOWFIN: The great tuna action has continued for the long-range fleet out of San Diego fishing the big yellowfin grounds off the tip of Baja on 18- to 22-day trips. In the past week, the anglers on these trips have been landing from 40 to 100 yellowfin per day, and while there weren't any super toads reported, there is still great volume on the 50 to 150 pound fish.

SAN DIEGO ROCKFISH: The anglers on boats making 1.5- to 2.5-day trips down into Mexican waters are seeing exceptional rockfish action with limits of quality reds and lingcod on most trips.

SAN DIEGO LOCAL: The bite has been tough for the local half and three-quarter day fleet with the Coronado Islands still effectively off limits. There continue to be some yellowtail showing off the La Jolla kelp (about a half-dozen in the past week) for the half-day boats. While water conditions were poorer this week, there is also still a pick on the bass in the kelp, and a few halibut are showing inside the bay.

CATALINA SEABASS: The weather kept most of the sportboats away from Catalina Island this week, but the commercial squid fishermen are still reporting a good volume of white seabass working the squid on the backside of the island.

NEARSHORE HALIBUT AND BASS: While the halibut and bass bites slowed this past week thanks to wind and cooler weather, there has been a pretty fair halibut bite all along the coast, from Dana Point up into the Los Angeles-San Pedro region.