Castaic Sept. 20: 30 to 50 bass on live shad, bigger fish in mid-cove

Castaic's fall cool-down is showing up in where the better bass are sitting. Guide Jim Taibi's Sept. 20 Tackle Express report puts morning surface temperature at 74°F and the afternoon reading at 78°F, down from the week before, with clarity of 10 to 15 feet, no algae, and the lake still full. The live-shad bite is the story: 30 to 50 fish on a half-day, with bass to 5 pounds.

The adjustment Taibi is making is location. Huge schools of shad and silversides are still in the coves and along the main-lake shallows, but the bigger bass have moved off the shoreline. They are schooled in the middle of the coves, chasing bait in open water where the bait cannot dive into weeds and rock. Fish still glued to the bank are mostly the 6- to 12-inch residents. About 90 percent of the action is on the surface, and live shad is doing almost all of the work. Drop-shots and other artificials are mostly picking up those smaller shore fish. Topwater — Lucky Craft Gunfish 115s and Fishus Espetit 95s — will connect if you keep casting, but it is less consistent than the shad.

Stripers are on the same shallow program. Boils on the main lake are scarce. Taibi saw schools in three feet of water in the backs of Ski Arm coves and is telling people to stop running the open lake looking for blow-ups. Blind-cast topwater on fish you can see is producing stripers in the 4- to 6-pound range. A few boils showed on the north side of the boat docks on Friday, which he reads as an early sign that surface activity could pick up as the water keeps cooling. Launch rules on the sheet: West Ramp only, closed Monday and Tuesday, on the water at 6:30 a.m., off by 7 p.m.

This is a The Gillnet news desk summary, not a reprint.

Source: Tackle Express — Castaic Lake Fishing Report, September 20, 2026 (guide Jim Taibi / 661Fishing).