Big Mike's 'Reel' Fishin'

The mission of the District is to stabilize the level of Big Bear Lake for recreation and wildlife

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May 9, 2013

The objective of our fishing report is to provide our lake users with up-to-date information and to help our anglers on what's working where and when. It is important for everyone to remember that fish have minds of their own and everyday is not going to be the same as the last, but being flexible is vital to consistently catching not just consistently fishing. It is also important to remember that the person providing this information is a fisherman himself and sizes and weights vary slightly from the truth depending on how many times the story has been told.

Ladies and gentleman start your engines “OH wait, never mind” that is what we just experienced in our spring fishing here at Big Bear Lake. The rainbow trout got off to a great start for about 30 seconds and then they hit the brakes and disappeared. The Lake was warming at an alarming rate and no inflow to speak of, so a strange spring and the trout don’t like it AT ALL. When I said go East I meant go West and when I said it was “on the hook” I meant “off the hook”. Don’t ever listen to me.

I get calls of all the crazy stories that we aren’t getting any fish this year and we must have fished this lake out. Well let me help you out. NOT TRUE!! We, in fact, are getting loaded up on fish this season and we will catch trout this year just like every other year. However let’s go crappie and bass fishing in the meantime.

Bass fishing has been epic and the locals don’t want me to talk about it but we have put a lot of time and money to turn this back into the best kept bass secret until I started writing about it and telling every one of my three readers (last year was only two readers, so I am up 33%). Spinner baits and buzz baits are working well, but I hear stories everyday about someone catching one on a trout lure.

Crappie have started the spring frenzy and are being caught on the rocks at Stanfield and any other structure and it looks to be shaping up to have some bigger eating slabs this season. White mini-jigs is always a go-to bait but any small jig and worm will make things happen and with a rising bluegill population, a worm and a hook can make a kids day.

Carp boys and girls - we started seeing some fish showing at the surface and then came the cold snap and “poof” back down deep they went, so with a few days of sunshine they will re-appear. I am sure so just “wait for it“, “wait for it”.

Big Mike’s ‘Reel’ Fishin’

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