Hello to all from most of the time sunny California.

Being that it's a chilly cold wet winter day I was just thinking about one of the best largemouth bass bites I had ever been in at Castaic...... well actually two, one for striper as well.

I would like to hear your tales of the most "Over the Top Bite"
you guys have ever experienced.

When I first started fishing from the shoreline at Castaic about four years ago I was told of some major over the top bites by some of the local guys, that they had experienced.

I was like, man what's with these 100 bass in one day tales... could that actually be true or are these guys just joshing me?

Well I've never had a 100 bass day solo but I would like to share with you guys the two most over the top bites I've been lucky enough experience at Castaic.

I'll start off with what was an definite best for largemouth bass.

One morning in August of last year, I went up to Castaic with my daughter Haley real early in the AM. We got set up and had our worms in the water by 5:00 AM.

I had read some good reports about early morning bites that week and I had told Haley that if she got up early and went fishing with me that day that she was almost certain to get into some good bass.

I got Haley set up on a dropshot and then I fired out my first cast of a 5" Senko in the dark. BaMMMM...... I got bit immediately and my daughter was amazed. We had our first fish and the green light was on nonstop for the next two hours straight.

Between 5:00 AM and 7:00 AM Haley (who was eleven years ould at the time) caught nine LMB on dropshots. She farmed several and a few shook her off and she missed a few bites. I landed six, lost two and had a few missed bites myself.

With all my helping her out in the dark retying and all, taking pictures, weighing fish. It was like totally crazy for those two hours. Then suddenly just like it had immediately started it immediately shut off like a lightbulb at around 7:00 AM.

All total me and Haley had at least 25 bites in two hours, mostly in the dark. Man let me tell ya, that was the best time I had out fishing with my daughter, she was completely stoked. She always reminds me of it too!!

The only downside on it is that now each time I ask her to go fishing with me she asks me if I think it will be like that again. Unfortunately I have to tell her possibly but no, probably not, that was a pretty special day.

The other most over the top bite I was in was fishing for striper on the Upper Castaic.

A friend of mine invited me to go striper fishing with him and a few of his pals. One of them turned out to be a professional striper fishing guide who was along for the ride.

We were off the launchramp less than thirty seconds trolling bucktail kastmasters when we got our first bite. A seven pound striper in the box.

This was early July, and the air temp was near a record at 116. The top water was warm, the striper were biting like crazy nonstop all day since we had that first strike trolling.

At times we would stop the boat and the striper would start boiling all around the boat. We were casting out small Panther Martin swimbaits and getting hit on almost every cast. Manny times all five of us on the boat were hooked up.

Between the four of us and my son Mikie we had nailed over 100 striper by the time we stopped counting at midday. It was just incredible.

The most long lasting and voracious bite I have ever witnessed in fresh water. Frankly, I had never been striper fishing before and I was totally amazed at how intense the bite was that day.

My friend who had invited me out on his boat is a avid striper guy and has been fishing in So Cal for many years. At the end of the day when we were getting the boat out of the water my friend told me "geobass you are a good luck charm, that was by far the most "Over the Top Bite" I've ever experienced.

I'll take his word for it, I haven't experinece anything like that before or since.

Well anyway guys, those are my two best "Over the Top Bites."
I hope it has brough a little warmth to a cold chilly day, waiting for things to warm up a little and go bass fishing again if that's what you're doing like me.

I'm looking forward to reading about your "Over the Top Bites" too!!

Good fishing to you guys, later............ geobass

Probably my best day of hot bites was a spring day on Bull Shoals lake which was flooded and really muddy with tres floating along. I found a creek with clear water coming in and caught 62 bass from 2 1/2 pounds to 8 pounds,four ounces. All on a 300 poe's crankbait in water from five to eighteen feet deep. Most came out of the mix water, where clear turned to dingy. Did nearly the same thing the next day, caught 33 bass from 2 to 8 pounds in another creek only a few hundred yards away. This was all in Turkey Creek, if you ever make it down there. I truly feel I could have used most any bait, but at the time was promoting Poe's -so why not use them. Johnnie

I have two stories for everyone. I will post my fresh water one first. Even know I am an avid dedicated freshwater fisherman I spend a lot of time in saltwater. I have had many interesting stories spending so much time on both types of water. My two over the top stories are as follows.
Fresh Water:
This was when I really started to spend a lot of time freshwater fishing. It has to go back now 18 years ago. I was watching all the shows on how to work plastic worms. It was in the spring and I have been pond hopping using 6 inch black Berkley worms. At each pond I stopped at I would catch a few bass. Finding this a lot of fun I decided to go home and get my raft (way I fished fresh water at the time) and maybe expand my catch a bit. So all excited I loaded the raft half filled with air in my truck and went to my local lake on Long Island. All excited I finished filling the raft and through it in the water. I start using my Berkley worms and in my first 20 casts I caught maybe 3 fish. The fish ranged from under a pound to 2 pds. Looking down in my bag as reached for more worms I realized I left all my 6" worms home. Now I started panicking because I had no more baits and had the boat all set up. I went back to my truck and ruffled through it trying to find any loose baits that I may of had just thrown in there. Looking in the back of the truck I had this large container I used to through my extra stuff in. Oil, fluids ect..
Well looking in the container I noticed that one of my oils opened and split in the container. The funny thing was in the container I found an over abundance of black worms buried in the oily mess. I proceed to gather and wipe of the worms and bag them so I can take them out on my raft. Well after all the frustration I headed my air yacht back onto the lake (Big Pond). My first cast with my soggy worm produced a nice 2 lb bass. My next 11 casts produced another 11 fish. Every cast I had a fish. Well I continued on and counted my fish. That day after returning to the pond I counted as I caught 110 largemouth bass ranging from under a pound to close to three pounds. When I hit 110 bass I had no baits left at all. You can count on your hands that day how many casts I threw and didn't get a hit. It was a lot of fun. That was the real start that hooked me on Largemouth Bass. I will post my Salt water story shortly. Also another exiting story from big waters on my 24ft Seacraft with twin Suzuki’s.

Hmm, where does one start??? No one ever believes these types of stories unless they witness them first hand.

Rather than share any of my crazy stories, I'll post some general information (which most of you already know).

What I have observed since I started seriously fishing for bass is that the truly "unbelievable" days on the water occur immediately prior to the start of a front moving into the area. I own a barometer and when I see that thing dropping rapidly, I drop whatever I am doing and head to the lake. Fishing gets really intense when the barometric pressure falls rapidly. The more rapid the fall, the better the fishing.

Geo,

In your other post about color selectors, you were looking for something to spend your left over Christmas money on... well, if you do not own a barometer, purchasing one would be money well spent.

BC

Well best numbers day about 5 Years ago at Castaic...My buddy and fished the points on the lake one late spring. We would approach the point and throw spooks and jerk baits and produce fish from 1lb - 4lbs on every cast...as soon as that would slow down we would thrown shad raps and keep producing...then when that would slow down we would throw split shotted worms....and this continued on point after point...after awhile, we said forget the worms and would work the surface and deep divers on every point...we must have landed well over 100 fish apiece...

Best quality fish day...fishing the lagoon from my float tube about 7 years ago...fishing stocker trouts first cast, 6lb next cast 5lb and so on .. landed over 10 fish from 5lbs to 9 lbs...lost quite a few in the grass...eventually lost my swimbait as well...so went to my usual rig at the time, texas rigged, crawfish imitation...and produced my largest fish still....11lbs 7 oz...and wouldnt you know it, that day i left work early and didnt bring my camera....

Great suggestion on the barometer Brendan. I was checking this one out..... do you think this one would do the job.

http://www.weatherinstruments.com/barometers/analog-barometers/keotabarometerandthermometer.cfm

Coincidence... it cost just about the same as the little worm thingamajigger I was tempted to buy!!!!

Hey Roboworm... that was a totally cool story. Ya know after fishing at Castaic for the time I have I have really come to love the alure of that place. As I got used to saying ya just never know what to expect when you go up there except the unexpected.

I've also got a wild story about a huge Barracuda bite I was into off Dana Point one day... and the funniest thing is that I was fishing it with my freshwater bass gear. The salt guys I was with were really busting my chops but it was a heck of a lot of trying to land those suckers on 14 lb. mono with no leader. LOL

If I can track down a picture of that you guys would probably get a big kick out of it.

Good fishing to you guys, later........... geobass

Yes Geo, that one looks very good. Keep in mind that out of the box, a barometer needs to be adjusted for your area. There are instructions and a little key that comes with most units. All you need to do is get the current pressure reading for you immediate area (either from TV or weather.com) and use the key to set your barometer. (Just like setting a watch)

Robo,

Sounds like you guys had one of those crazy days. 11 lbs 7 oz... on the craw... that must have been some day too.

BC