I used to fish there in the early to mid 1980s before it was insane . I was there almost daily for a decade. I was a shore fisherman who fished mostly alone and mostly at night before the fences went up around 1991 on the lower after bay. There were plenty of 18 pounders me and few friends caught. I caught a 20 pounder from the swim beach in summer of 1985 before the madness started around 1989-90 . Huge manns jelly worms in electric blue on a Jighead. Because of the Crupi bass, the Leo Torres bass, and the Mike Arujo bass all caught around the same time. Thats what started the madness and tournaments and crowds. It was also before the stripers got in there from pyramid that started around 1992. That's when I started striper fishing. Me and friends started sneaking into pyramid at night throwing big AC plugs and murdering 30- 40 pound stripers in the shad boils. We had the entire lake to ourselves for about 3 years, until fish and game got us one night a 4 am. They just threw us out. That was the beginning of the monster srtiper time. Early 1990s to about 1995. Silverwood, the aqueduct and pyramid were just nuts back then. There were dudes hiding on the hills with binoculars , trying g to see if anyone was throwing live trout , to discredit your catch. It was the start of "striper wars" great times back then. Now i chase trophy stripers in Tennesse. Hard to believe that was 40 years ago. Wow

"A lake that could very well be the trophy bass capitol of the world..." maybe 30 years ago

Really cool to see some old school baitcaster reels!

i live in castaic I wish the lake still produced like that :(

@OldSchoolBaller

3 жыл бұрын

Well back in those days, Castaic didn't have Stripers. Stripers ruined the ecosystem.

@1bowlofsoup719

2 жыл бұрын

@@OldSchoolBaller Funny how Stripers are considered invasive but the bite has been very bad lately

@secretbassrigs

7 ай бұрын

@@OldSchoolBaller i remember. they were kept back up at Pyramid by wire mesh barriers that began to fsil around the time. they were there just a lot smaller to notice.

@secretbassrigs

7 ай бұрын

@@1bowlofsoup719 Invasive because they're originally from the Atlantic ocean. they were put in barrels and brought out to the San Francisco Bay in the 1900s. they did better in the delta and found there way through the aqueduct system, quickly inhabiting pyramid as soon as it was completed in 1973 i know the stripers made it all the way down to the Mexican border. in the American canal, likely before Castaic and Pyramid were built.

This was before the stripers made their way in there , it was fantastic ! I fished it in late seventies early 80s Big largemouth and holdover trout would school together in open water after threadfin shad , now the stripers have ruined it 😮

@dansportfishing

2 ай бұрын

Yes i agree

Everybody says castaic and casitas leaks are peaked out Thay haven't seen what's swimming around whenever they stock trout or when the shad are spinning or when the bass are on the beds these lake's still have monster's in the them

Gotta love it old school chronarchs still kicking ass today .

Love these old videos 👍

Haha the Music!! And Sunglasses 😎 awesome

Bob crupi wrote me a traffic ticket.

@secretbassrigs

7 ай бұрын

You got his signature! Awesome 😅

Cool retro video!

Awesome

Those are some nice shades

It looked amazing cooked and ready to eat

great vintage video

Nice video man! You deserve more views, keep it up:)

Striped bass is mostly caught in that lake.

This is great 😁 Haha man I want to fish that lake in the 80s! 😎

@secretbassrigs

7 ай бұрын

What a weird time machine drama that would make knowing what we know now. No stripers, no out of this world real estate prices. Pre HIV 🤔 😅

🤙

RIP BOB CRUPI 😢

Bob Crupi caught the 22 pound bass he mentioned in the video in 1991 so shouldn't this be titled "Back in the 90's"?

@secretbassrigs

8 ай бұрын

RIP BOB CRUPI 🎣

@andywilliamson7846

7 ай бұрын

Yes. This was shot in 1993.

@thebassuniversity

7 ай бұрын

I'm sorry to hear this. Looks like it was very recently. We discussed trying to get in touch with him recently when discussing a big bass hunter live show.@@secretbassrigs

@secretbassrigs

7 ай бұрын

@@thebassuniversity not sure how he felt about being in the spot light anymore. I heard he stopped doing interviews in the 2000s. Have you tried Butch Brown? He was litterally the first to recognize the potential for the Huddleston, as he tells it. Lot's of the footage of him starting the "Cast to Catch" trend on youtube, hoping to break the record, is actually from the Castaic Lagoon (the overflow section on the other side of the dam) There's a story about the only certified scale in the area was at the local tackle shop in town. After getting their fish weighed, they'd be to tired or lazy to go back up to the upper lake, so they would just stop off at the :agoon and let them go there. There are no stripers in the Lagoon because the discharge water comes from the bottom of the upper lake, where the pressure is too great at those depths. And they were still regularly stocking snack sized Trout in the Lagoon around the time Butch was making those videos. Maybe 10 years ago or more that stopped because of the environmentalist wanted to protect the steelhead. what steelhead? (They wer more coastal and couldn't get passed the dams built in the 20s) But still seems like the end of an era, even though he fished craws. That near world record was perfect timing for us out here. The notoriety really helped the bait companies in California in the early 90's. That's when Arbogast licensed the AC PLUG, and of course Castaic Lure Company started around the same time. It seemed like all of a sudden Southern California was discovered by the Bass Fishing world, even though we knew of the big trout eaters since the 80s. Lake Casitas then took its turn in the spot light soon after. They still stock trout at our Los Angeles county lakes during the winter. Just more selectively, and at Castaic and Pyramid they have to be in the three pound range to make it harder for them to get preyed upon. Castaic ended up with big stripers mid 90s it had to have an effect on the bass as far as competition for territory and forage. they were always in Pyramid Lake, 20 miles "up hill", since the 80s. Something about the netting used to keep them out of Castaic began to fail around the time. (they pump water back and forth between the lakes to generate electricity.

@secretbassrigs

7 ай бұрын

@@thebassuniversity Also Allen Cole is still around. His story is the stuff legends are made from. big bass podcast has a great interview with him. lots of rumors about the design for the AC plug being copied from Pyramid Lake anglers. in my early teen years, mid 80s, i do remember seeing a large wooden lure that looked similar (even with the little swimbait tail) for sale at the boat rental stand. $20 and was called "the alligator".

They didn’t have fish finders or trolling motors back then?

@dansportfishing

11 ай бұрын

paper printed fish finders

@thebassuniversity

7 ай бұрын

These guys camped on a spot for a long time with a live crawdad crawling around, trolling motor wouldn't cut it, and would have been impossible to stay on the spot without modern GPS/spot-lock setups. The 2 anchor system let them relax and wait for the the big bass to find the bait in a prime spot.

Is it just more people are fishing lakes now or that they're not stocking as big to start?

@TheeBelvedere

4 жыл бұрын

More people are fishing and keeping fish these days, so populations aren’t able to recover as quickly

Love Castaic but just isn't that productive anymore.😥

Where can I get crawfish like those?? 12:26

@ernieg4526

4 жыл бұрын

At the lake tackle shop/marina

@alexlo246

4 жыл бұрын

@@ernieg4526 I meant like to catch them if they bought all those it would have cost alot lol probably more than a scoop of anchovies

@661fishing8

4 жыл бұрын

unfortunately it's illegal to fish with them now.

@alexlo246

4 жыл бұрын

@@661fishing8 uh no you have to catch them from the same body of water. But how would fish and game prove it maybe you just happen to stumble upon a crawfish orgy and you had a net🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

@661fishing8

4 жыл бұрын

Socal Fisher you’re right that you can use one if u catch it in the lake but you can’t set traps. We used to get them out of the rocks at the lower lake when we were kids. They also used to be sold all over town, even at Sport Chalet. The “live transit” rule ended all of that. Thanks for the reply!