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 Big Bear Lake's Weekly Fishing Report

    or "How to have a wonderful time fishing on Big Bear Lake!"Currently biting fish list on big bear lake


Fowler's Fish Tails 9/11/15  Cliff Fowler


It’s obvious that every “Weekend Warrior” in SoCal has headed back to their asphalt jungles as our mountain paradise has hit the snail’s pace of Fall even though Fall won’t fell until the 23rd.

Hi, this is Cliff Fowler with Cantrell’s Fishing Guide Service at Pine Knot Landing with your most recent copy of Fowler’s Fish Tales.

Labor Day Weekend was one of the busiest I’ve ever seen on that Blue Jewel as we had 3 boats working 12 hours a day, all 3 days of the holiday, and that was a first for us! Our buds over at the MWD share the latest skinny in the form of a “limno”, so here it goes: She’s 65 degrees top and bottom at the boom line, 66 and 65 are read from Papoose Bay up to the West Public Ramp, and 67 degrees surface and 66 on the floor are from that big white dome East up to Juniper Point. The clarity has gone to garbage lake-wide now with only 4 feet of light penetration as shown by our SECCI dish. As you can see, the cool nights along with the wind have eliminated some of the stored heat this last week which is a Fall constitutional. “In Tune” anglers know that just as shallower water can store heat faster in the Spring, it can dissipate stored heat faster in the Fall, and that’s exactly what she’s doing right now!

Those native pink-meats are still predominantly in the Western third of the majestic puddle, but, for how long, is anyone’s guess. As the East end cools faster than the West end, it will trigger a relocation back to our favorite Spring and Fall triangle from Eagle Point over to the Solar Observatory and back to Lagunita Point. That can’t happen soon enough for me as the saving of travel time and the cost of petrol will be our biggest benefits.

This week we caught ‘em on a wide variety of stuff including, but not limited to, chicken wing, watermelon, chartreuse with red dots, red magic, silver shad, and, of course, the “Junk Yard Dog”. Always have a tub of Garden Hackles to please the palate of a hold-over looking for something “au naturel”.

We’re loving life here a mile and a quarter closer to Heaven, so grab your rod, grab your sweetie, pull up a rock, and go teach a worm how to swim!

This is Cliff Fowler with Cantrell’s Guide Service signing off with your most recent copy of Fowler’s Fish Tales.

Fowler's Fish Tails 6/18/15  Cliff Fowler

Our mountain paradise has been inundated with outdoor staff writers seeing everything there is to do at 7000' and boy were they impressed. 

Hi, this is Cliff Fowler with Cantrell's Fishing Guide Service at Pine Knot Landing with you most recent copy of Fowlers Fish Tales.

Well, Windy certainly has been present but recently she's had Gail with her making for quite a blow. At least she's coming from the West rather than the back door and hasn't had a significant effect on our fishin'. 

Current skinny on that blue jewel is she's 65 degrees on top and 60 degrees on the bottom from the Boom Line to Papoose Bay, 66 and 60 off the West Public Ramp, 67 and 63 are read off that Big White Dome and finally, it's 68 surface to floor at Juniper Point. Our thermocline exists at 26' deep at the dam, 33' off our old favorite Honey Hole, 23' around Boyer and fianlly 20 feet deep at the Observatory. Our oxycline is where the D.O. drops off below 5 ppm, which is a level not to penetrate, is at 39' down at the Bottom Line, 33' at Papoose, 26 feet at the West Ramp an finally 20' down around the Big White Dome. The alum treatments continue and it's shown by 9 1/2 feet of clarity or light penetration as shown by our SECCI dish. Wow! We haven't seen that kind of clarity in quite awhile. Atta boy to our MWD!

This weekend is special as it's MWD's annual Carp Round-Up where all you bow fisherman need to give numerous of those bugle mouth bass "one hell of a headache." The carp are so invasive as a natural pollutant and need to be gone. Our drought rid us of thousands of 'em by the nesting island and our Chris landed about a 12 pounder off the boat in the slip and she was ripe! Getting that one female out of the lake probably saved thousands of being born in the future. So sharpen up your skills and arrow points and let's see how many pounds we can put through the Carp-O-Matic!

Trout counts are still good, but as I've mentioned in the previous report, we getting a lot of small ones. It really helps to release whatever you classify as sub-catchable to help maintain the quality of our fishery. 

Paradise does exist @ 7000' so grab your stick and let's GO BENDO!

This is Cliff Fowler with Cantrell's Guide Service signing off with your most recent copy of Fowler's Fish Tales.

Fowler's Fish Tails 6/12/15  Cliff Fowler

As we come to mid June, family life is still bustling and Lynn and I even had my father in law get married, and that's at 84 years old. 

Hi, this is Cliff Fowler with Cantrell's Fishing Guide Service at Pine Knot Landing with you most recent copy of Fowler's Fish Tales. 

That blue jewel is continuing on with her slow summer maturation and she is looking absolutely AWESOME as our MWD continues with the alum treatments, making that agua look like we're in the Caribbean! Current skinny in the form of a "limno" shows she's 62 degrees on top and 58 on the bottom at the Boom Line, 63 and 58 are read off Papoose Bay, 64 and 59 off the West Public Luanch to that Big White Dome and finally it's 64 surface and 62 on the floor up in the East End. A slight thermocline is forming 26' deep at the dam, 16 feet off our favorite Honey Hole, 13' around Boyer and dropping back to 16 around the Observatory. Our oxycline is forming but she doesn't drop below 5 ppm so specific holding levels have yet to develop, but will happen very soon. With the alum treatments, our clarity as shown by our SECCI dish are 7 1/2 feet light penetration. 

The catchin' part of our fishing has radically increased this week as our fish counts have gone up to as many as 12 fish per trip. Yeah, there's a lot of small ones but we're still sticking fish often in the 1 1/2 to 2 pound class. We're doing about 50% C.P.R (catch photograph release) but the good numbers of recent are directly related to the MWD's purchase of the 1.2 million trout from the deceased Calaveras Fish Hatchery. 

The garden hackle died but Needlefish thrived especially in Red Dot Frog, Silver Shad, Chicken Wing, and Lemon Lime. You need a huge arsenal of finishes in Big Bear's favorite wobbler cuz we gotta "match the hatch" and those finishes can turn off and on in an instant. 

Carp are getting real frisky and boiling all over in the shallows so you bow fisherman need to take advantage of this and sharpen your skills and aim prior to the annual Carp Round Up later this month. The more we rid the lake of this invasive species, the better.

We're lovin' life here a mile and a quarter closer to heaven so grab your rod, grab your sweetie, pull up a rock and go teach a worm how to swim. 

This is Cliff Fowler with Cantrell's Guide Service signing off with your most recent copy of Fowler's Fish Tales. 

Fowler's Fish Tails 6/5/15  Cliff Fowler

The start of June is busy with Dads, Grads, Aarons bass and a Doves Car Show, families are occupied. 

Hi, this is Cliff Fowler with Cantrell's Fishing Guide Service at Pine Knot Landing with you most recent copy of Fowler's Fish Tales. 

With the warm weather of recent, that blue jewel got out of its topsy turvey state of going up and down like a yo-yo and has started its summer warming trend. Current "limno" shows she's 59 degrees on the top and 56 degrees on the bottom from the Bottom line at the dam up to Papoose Bay, 61 and 59 at the West Public Ramp, 64 and 60 off that Big White Dome and 66 degrees surface and floor in the East End around Juniper Point. The dissolved oxygen content is starting to tier and an oxycline where we drop below 5 parts per million is forming 33 feet down at the dam, 26 feet off our old favorite "honey hole" up to the west ramp and 16 feet down off the observatory. These levels are not to penetrate as trout can't live where they can't breathe. Our SECCI dish shows an average of 7' of clarity or light penetration.

Th catchin' part of our fishin' has been all over the place. One morning it can be tough, midday great and late day only good. The following day can be just the opposite. The fishing recently has been just like the Big Bear weather, if you don't like it now, just wait a couple of hours and it will change! 

With the fromation of some sort of oxycline, it's now time to change from the KISS theory for you bait boys to slip bobbin. The Stans Slip Bobber rig is a controlled depth fishing float that allows you to fish deep from the top down rather than fishing from the bottom up. The bobber stop will place your offering at the exact desired depth that the fish are suspended and it's mobile so you can change depths by simply sliding the stop up or down the line to change presentation levels. The biggest perk is you'll never have to work that brushy bottom again!

Those burnin' octane will want to "match the hatch" and use lights when it's bright and darks when it's dull in order to mimic nature. We're just starting to see the very first of some suspended vegetation so watch your offering, check it often cuz trolling a "fouled" lure is about as much fun as watching the grqass grow!

Paradise does exist here at 7,000' so grab your gear and lets GO BENDO!

This is Cliff Fowler with Cantrell's Fishing Guide Service signing off with your most recent copy of Fowlers Fish Tales.

Fowler's Fish Tails 6/1/15  Cliff Fowler


Well it look like Momma Nature got off her 'tude as things are just drop dead gorgeous...but the second we give her a big atta girl, she'll change her mind!

Hi, this is Cliff Fowler with Cantrell's Fishing Guide Service at Pine Knot Landing with you most recent copy of Fowlers Fish Tales.

Our buds over at MWD are still re-calibrating so no new "limno" this week, but lake temps are averaging 58 degrees which is a slight warming from last weeks numbers. I'm very anxious to see the clarity readings as the BIG news this week is that MWD did the alum treatment on the blue jewel. This hasn't been done since 2004 when we were down 17 1/2 feet in lake level. After a few years of drought and losing 3 feet per year in lake level to evaporation, the phosphorous levels get a little high as only water evaporates, not minerals. This was more a preventative measure so things would not get out of hand if we stayed in a drought condition. I was on the water when they were doing this treatment and it was mind blowing! When the chems went in, immediately the aqua went to a clear aqua color and made you think you were in the middle of the Caribbean. The color and clarity were absolutely beautiful. 

Another perk was as we trolled through the treated area, drags went sing! Don't know whether the fish liked the water better and got feisty or that they could see our presentations better. Whatever it was, we won't argue. 

Colors of preference this week were metallic perch, watermelon, red magic, and charteuse. The garden hackle got hit more than before which is letting us know they have a palate for something "au natural".

Big Bear kitties are turning on the feed sack even though the waters are still a bit cool for them. Chicken livers, shrimp, mackerel, anchovies or a bad of stink will score a whisker fish for you insomniac anglers. 

We're lovin' life here a mile and a quarter closer to heaven so grab your rod, grab your sweetie, pull up a rock and go teach a worm how to swim!

This is Cliff Fowler with Cantrell's Guide Service signing off with your most recent copy of Fowler's Fish Tales!