I hope I conveyed what I think about the bait correctly in the review. The main thing to understand is that the lure is 5.5" long, so it's not something to imitate planter trout, it's more of a small minnow or baby trout imitator.

Lakes in Southern CA aren't going to have any 5.5" trout in them because the trout don't reproduce naturally, but some of the big resrevoirs up north here like your Shasta, Oroville, New Melones, Folsom type lakes very well may have trout this size. And the action of the bait just speaks spotted bass to me. Not that it won't catch largemouth but I know that big spots love baits like super spooks and vixens, and this bait is so similarly sized and fishes near the surface so it just feels like a strong match.

hope that helps some