Consider it the “Deep South” of bass fishing when you chase up your dreams of trophy largemouths this spring, fishing on the most southern bass lakes of Southern California. (Photo by Bill Schaefer)
March 06, 2019
By Bill Schaefer
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One of Southern California’s largest lakes, Diamond Valley Lake in Riverside County, 8 miles south of Hemet, has seen its bass fishing for several years go “up and down” across lake closures and openings, but it is still one of the best fisheries in Southern California.
Give it a try. You won’t be disappointed. The lake-record largemouth weighs a little more than 16 pounds, but Diamond Valley likely holds bigger bass. Its largemouths came from stock from Lake Hodges in San Diego and grow large with the help of the lake’s stocked-trout diet, possibly to world-record proportions. The biggest bass will eat imitation trout swimbaits, especially the larger lures. It takes a little patience and some endurance throwing big swimbaits all day, but you may be rewarded with a personal best bass.
Diamond Valley holds all the natural structure you could want to fish, along with humps and manmade structure set around the lake. Springtime brings thousands of males to the banks, building nesting sites, producing what can be the wildest time of the year to fish. Drop-shot soft-plastics, crawl Texas-rigged worms, or jump Carolina-rigged creature baits. Two dam faces, covered with giant boulders, hold fish year ‘round where both jigs and crankbaits can produce fast action.
Summer and fall can bring early morning topwater action. Soft or hard jerkbaits will also work well this time of year.
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Lake Perris, about 10 miles southeast of Riverside, was drained down to a mud puddle not long ago for dam repairs, but it started filling again in early 2018. According to local fishing guide Todd Kline of San Clemente, the CDFW and the California Department of Parks and Recreation took great care while the lake was low to rebuild the fishery by adding cuts, rock piles and brush and trees around the lake for habitat for the bass.
Perris’ bass-fishing history boasts a lot of giant largemouths, with an 18.80-pounder leading the way. Double-digit bass have been common in the past, making the revitalized lake a “sleeper” bass fishery for 2019. Trout are still stocked here, and trout-type swimbaits could produce the larger trophy bass. If there is a lake that could turn out a world-record largemouth over the next several years, it can be this one.
Perris’ water level stood at about 80 percent of capacity in fall 2018, already covering a lot of brush. Springtime bass should work their way into the shallow brush for spawning. Don’t be afraid to throw right into the brush, as the 2018 stock of bass used much of this shoreline cover for protection. Drop-shot or split-shot fishing with soft-plastics do well around the new rock piles, as should crankbaits. Summer and fall will bring topwater action to the lake.
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BOTH NUMBERS AND TROPHY BASS The lakes of the Southland carry a long history of great bass fishing in both the number of bass an angler can catch on any given day, as well as the potential for posting double-digit bass.
But Southern California’s weather – more specifically, it’s rainfall pattern — produces the greatest impacts upon local bass fishing. Full lakes draw more bass to the shallows, especially during the spring spawn, and those days are upon us.
GOING FOR THE BIG ONE What will bass fishermen use to catch their giant bass on Southern California’s best bass lakes?
Sometimes, the newest hot baits have been out for a couple years, before bass fishermen gain confidence in those lures. Here’s a few that have really caught on in SoCal bass-fishing circles:
The Whopper Plopper from River2Sea was a go-to bait last year. A cross between a hard topwater bait and a buzzbait, it churns as it works across the surface.
The Hollow Body Craw from LIVETARGET is just that — a hollow-bodied lure molded similar to a frog, but created as a jig-type bait. The soft, hollow body lets the bass crush down on it for a realistic feeling that causes the bass to hold on to it longer, improving anglers’ hook sets. The bait comes in a variety of colors and has been selling out for the last year since it won a Best in Category Award at the 2018 ICAST Fishing Show .
Zako swimbait from Gary Yamamoto Custom Baits is an innovative and versatile, soft-plastic, shad-shaped lure that can be fished weedless by itself, rigged for drop-shotting, flipped, or used as a trailer on a jig or chatterbait. Its special molding gives it an amazing action in the water no matter how it’s rigged.
