Los Banos, CA (October 22, 2025) — Striper fishing in the big lake has improved with sporadic topwater action starting to kick in at times in the early mornings. Stripers chasing bait in the coves is still a day to day thing- but the action seems to be the current trend in the bite in low light conditions. . Portuguese Cove and the Lone Oak areas are some of the best places to target right now for boiling fish- but the action can also be found in the main lake around the shoreline at times. Most topwater plugs in Shad colors are working when the fish are feeding on top.
Trolling has improved some this past week with limits of 20” fish possible working the 60-70’ range with Lucky Craft, Rapala and Smithwick stick baits . Arigs are also working . Covering water is one of the best tactics right now to use to find the roving schools of feeding fish. The troll bite is what I would rate as decent since there also seem to be a lot of inactive fish unwilling to feed.
Water temps are in the 69 to 72 degree range and the algae mats have dissipated somewhat in the cooling water. The lake is holding at 1,085,000 acre feet- about 50% capacity- with a little daily inflow these last few days.
The Forebay continues to produce numbers of smaller sized stripers of smaller swimbaits and topwater baits.
I rate the overall bite as improved – up to a- 4 out of 10 – rating for the time being. Things could change quickly with the forecast cooling trend the next week and beyond .
Never give up!
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