Four-fish for almost 30 pounds shows why bassers are grinding it out
BY MIKE STEVENS
HEMET – Steamy daytime temps paired with hot water have ushered in challenging fishing for largemouth bass at Diamond Valley Lake, but as usual, those grinding it out and cracking the code can be rewarded with quality biters. One of those code crackers is “Big Gus” Torrealba of Fish Elite who weighed four bass for a total of 29.76 pounds, a noteworthy number even if it were a full five-fish limit.
“Those fish were caught on a drop-shot, Senko and Megabass Sleeper Gill,” Torrealba told Western Outdoor News. “Small bites early in the morning, and around 10 a.m. I found some fish on deep ledges holding on baitfish. My electronics had a huge play in my game plan targeting suspended bass between 20 and 30 feet of water. The water is dropping and making for a tough bite at DVL.”
That 20- to 30-foot depth window has been key for several weeks now, and the water temp has climbed to 84 degrees. Other largemouth are being caught on Roboworms (MMIII has been a hot color) and creature baits on a Texas rig. There is a lot of grass all over the lake, and the edges of those areas have been productive, and an occasional reaction bait has shown up in those zones in particular.
Striped bass fishing has been slow to fair on cut baits and trolled flies. There was a flurry of quality biters showing up in the final days of July for Mike Southerland who likes to “flycore” Producer Flies on leadcore line, but August has been slow despite featuring the monsoonal conditions that have ignited that bite in the past.
