Well I took Father's Day morning as an opportunity to hit up a local pond. Got there about 7AM and the slop grass was getting erupted by Carp, full on spawning activity. Was supposed to meet Tsunami, but he pulled a Rip Van Winkle on me. He'll be sorry when he reads this report.

Started with the buzz, but even the alley ways through the slop grass were stringy enough to foul my bait on every cast. Tied on a black Sumo Frog and the action started. Went 2 for 4 on the frog fish, which isn't a bad percentage. Especially when the two I landed were 4+ and 6+ pounds(sorry no pics). They were just slurping the bait down on the edges of the slop grass. Saw fry flipping here and there, so I think that is what the bass were feeding on mainly. The two I landed hit about five feet off the bank in about 2 foot of water. I love that grass, gives them something to relate to and feed in shallow water.The first fish I missed was a 3+ that I saw come from 10 feet away to grab the frog, probably why he was able to shake the bait. Hard to give those fish an extra second to get the bait down.

Anyhow, met up with the only other guy who was fishing the lake, and he pointed to a shallow fish he'd been casting at for about 15 minutes. Not a bed fish, but he definetly was staking his claim to a little area and facing the bank looking for a meal. This guy said that the bass would nose his jig, but wouldn't eat it, and thought I could get him on the frog. Was kinda surprised when he told me to take a shot at it. So I threw the frog and the fish circled round, moved up slowly, and sucked it down in a "pardon me" fashion. I waited another second and swung. Hooked him up for about ten seconds, then he jumped and spat it. Another 3+ pounder. The guy I was with was all fired up. I was leaving (about 9AM now)so I cut off my frog and gave it to him(also gave him my BWW business card, so I can write it off as an expense..LOL).

With all our talk earlier about people getting bent out of shape about others fishing their home-town ponds, it was kinda cool to have the exact opposite experience. That guy was cool, and I hope I see him down there again. Nothing like sharing your fishing experiences with a new friend. Happy Father's Day everyone, hope you're having as good of a time as I am(now watching the FLW show as my wife cooks me breakfast, and gonna have beers on the couch all afternoon..LOL)

P.S.- me and Tsunami are going to host a free Urban Bassin seminar at BWW at the end of the month. Gonna give up the goods on some of our hot spots just minutes from home. Should be fun!!!

CJ, where's some of your hot spots in OC or the Inland Empire? I reside in La Puente and haven't found any holes out here in the San Gabriel Valley worth mentioning:)


Socalbasser

There's a lot of bass fishing in the San Gabriel Valley and being a resident of the SGV all my life I found that when I can't make it out to fish saltwater the SGV lakes provide a short drive to some good bass fishing. You just have to put in the time to learn your local waters. You just might catch the bass of a life time in your own backyard. I've seen it happen, just ask Tsunami he's seen some serious park lake hawgs. Socal send me an email and we'll hook up for some fishing. I'll put on some fish. I fish freshwater on weekdays after work. See you on the water.

JerryG

During yesterdays afterwork urban outing I got to fish with Tsunami for a little bit. It was a nice suprise to run in to him on the water. It's been awhile since we fished together. We talked about some of the aspects of local park fishing. I think that a lot of the guys who don't fish the local parks would be suprised at the amount of talented anglers that these small urban waters draw. People just don't realize all the angling oportunities that these waters open up. Tsunami mentioned that a lot of guys come in and say they wish they could fish after work. Well for most they can. I went from fishing once or if I was lucky twice a week to fishing 5 to 7 times a week. It also makes that rare weekend when I can't fishing a little easier. The extra time on the water will sharpen your skills and if you can consistently catch fish in urban waters you can catch fish anywhere.
See you on the water.
JerryG

Chris, is this one of those poiniant moments where I should say, "you da man now dawg!" Sounds like you had fun. Was the "pond" your old haunt by your way back casa? After the beating I took at Casitas last night, I stuck around for a Father's Day quickie too, plenty of grass, enough to make hay for the entire state of Texas. No grass frog action, just a nine and four and three hours of father'd day traffic all the way home. See ya this week. Gotta replace all the blades I lost last night. errrr!

BMC, no the puddle by my old place is being drawn down for some sort of work. Drove by it though and saw quite a few guys still fishing it. Sorry to hear about Casitas. Had a feeling it would be different than previous years.
BTW, that guy I gave my frog to e-mailed the shop to tell me he caught BIG ONE on it after I left. Sweet!!!

Does anyone know of any decent park ponds in the South Bay area? It'd be great to be able to go after work just to make a few casts.

Any info would be greatly appreciated!!

-Joe

Gotta love this thread- amazing what you can find in the urban sprawl if you look hard enough. I like fishing the big lakes but 95% of my bass fishing is done on the local pits- kind of cool to do the discovery thing in your backyard. No matter where you are, you can find the fish in the least likely of spots.

hey bassnet i fish probably some of the same "pits" you do and today i stopped by probably one of the nastier ones and saw what i think was a trout swimming around. Anyways so i stop by to see if any fished had been washed down....This river/drainage/sewer only had about 3 bass in it and they were all staying pretty still while this other fish was just racing around super fast. It was skinnier and had black tipped fins. So i put its appearance and behavior together and thought it must be a rainbow. The only reason i couldn't tell for sure was because i was looking down from like 20 feet above them. you might know where i was, is this a rare thing to have a trout in this water down in OC? I will for sure be out there tomorrow with the fly rod trying to maybe get this thing to take a dry.

Save a wave, Ride a surfer.

grom- the trout could get there pretty easy, they wash down from Holy Jim and there are some in the old quarry pond about 3\4 of a mile from where you were-

The South Bay is an area that doesn't have much fresh water but there is some. You can check out Alondra Park. If I'm not mistaken it's located on Redondo Beach Blvd and I know that there are some big bass living in that pond. If I lived in the South Bay I think I would pass on the local park and go fish the surf. Right now the Corbina are on a good one along the beaches throught out the bay. Good luck,.


JerryG

Thanks JerryG, for the info. I do take my kayak out in King Harbor to fish pretty often, but I like to keep my freshwater skills up to date, so I was wondering if there was anything close. I have been to Alondra park a bunch of times with my fiance's dad. We always have a good time there even though it can get pretty crowded. Thanks again for the info!!

-Joe

So the Bass Gestapo must have slept in too? I have tried the sumo at another grass-infested lake for nada but it could have been time of day or type of sky. I will try it more, sounds very fun. Count me in on that urban seminar.

Big Hammer Swimbaits-Hammerhead Jigheads
www.swimbait.com
Pro-Cure Scents
www.pro-cure.com

CJ,

Kinda off the topic, but is BWW hiring?

Bryan

No Bryan, I've already got 2 Brians working for us now and that's too confusing already...LOL. Maybe if this website thing gets going we'll need some help in the fall. Check back about then. Thanks.

Speaking of urban bassin, Dakine and i ventured out for some latenight covert ops missions at some of the local lakes and the results were really good. I landed one eight on the first outing in the dark right as the park was closing and on our second outing i stuck a nine that hit at 1am in the morning tried to post the pics but the file is more than 100kb oh well, all in our local ponds guys. Seek and ye shall find close to home. Alot of you have already been to these ponds. If fishing at night go for broke and fish the big stuff. The nine i caught came on a big ol ten inch black and blue radar worm covered w/ bass feast smelly jelly. Butter it up, fish slow and hold on. good fishing to all.