BY MIKE STEVENS
WON Staff Writer
LAKE ISABELLA – Once again, Lake Isabella is ringing the big bass bell as consistent fishing continues to be the rule at the popular SoCal fishery. This time, it was largemouth that fell just short of 9 pounds that was caught on a new bait that’s been getting a ton of buzz lately.
“We started fishing the flooded timber with frogs and flipping craw baits, but we couldn’t get a bite,” said Anderson, who was also recently named Inland Empire Bassmasters Angler of the Year. “I found a few small ones up shallow, but the better-quality fish were deeper. The 8.9 pounder came on the big urchin at sunrise right near French Gulch marina, but most everything else came on drop-shotd with the 5.5-inch Roboworm in Margarita Mutilator. We had most of our success fishing rockpiles that were surrounded by deeper water in the 20 to 30 foot zone. We also found 2- to 3-pound fish schooled up around humps on the west side of the lake and put a good hammer down on them for a while.”
Anderson also caught a catfish and a trout while drop-shotting, and he said he didn’t see any surface activity and could not get a reaction bite.
“We decided not to fight what was working and hammered them on the drop-shot. We had about a 15-pound limit on Friday and close to a 22-pound limit on the 4th of July. There’s tons of healthy, hungry bass in that lake.”
