BY DEREK HAMILTON
Special to Western Outdoor News
LAKESIDE – After weeks of hearing chatter about the bite at El Cap, it was finally go time. I grabbed fellow Inland Empire Bassmasters club member, Dave Elmore, and hit the road for a 222-mile round trip. We launched at 6 a.m. into crisp morning air and surprisingly light boat traffic for a Saturday—conditions that wouldn’t last long.
Soon, every prominent point had a boat parked on it, and Mother Nature decided to show off. She threw us a full-blown Texas weather sampler: glassy water and a cool 70 degrees to start, then a quick warm-up followed by 25 mile per hour gusts, a scorching 105 degrees under slack winds, and finally a late-day twist featuring clouds, light rain and a mellow drop into the low 80s. It felt like a flashback to a childhood summer in Houston.
We kicked things off targeting points and rock piles—same game plan as most of the crowd once they rolled in. Dave struck first with a weightless Senko in skinny water, and I followed up with an Ika in just a foot. A few more shallow bites later, and we had our pattern dialed. Plenty of fish were suspended offshore around bait, but the bank bite was too good to leave.
With the main lake points jammed, we worked down the bank, fishing the outer edges of grass lines and sonar-marked rocks. Drop-shots, Neko rigs and football jigs all produced until my favorite rocky point finally opened up and it was time for cranking. We boated a few on deep cranks thrown into the wind, but that breeze quickly escalated into 20-plus mile-per-hour gusts and whitecaps making the required long casts nearly impossible.
It was time to pivot, so we moved ofsfhore and chased wolf packs busting shad. That call paid off big. For several hours, we caught (and lost) dozens of fish on swimbaits rigged Damiki-style. It wasn’t rocket science — find breaking fish, cast near the blow ups and hold on. After a solid run of 2-pound schoolies, we scanned the area and found bigger marks on the fringe. Fewer bites, more work, but better quality.
By late afternoon, we’d already stacked over 50 fish and shifted focus to hunting kickers. Back to the rock points and structure we went, adding more fish on crankbaits and Neko rigs until the sun told us it was time to wrap.
Then came the perfect ending. I told my partner it was time for one last cast, and wouldn’t you know it? I even got bit on that one. We had to go into the grass and dig him out with the net, but it was as if the lake wanted to cap the day with one last kiss.
Despite the weekend pressure and bipolar weather, the bite was lights out. It was one of those rare confidence-building days where the fish made you work, but rewarded every approach—bank pounding, structure hopping, or offshore chasing with forward-facing sonar. We did it all, and caught fish doing it all.
No giants, but the number of fat, healthy fish was unreal. We had multiple double hookups, shallow and deep, and ended the day with 66 fish between us. Hands down, the best day I’ve had on the water since I got my boat!
