Los Banos, CA (December 10, 2025) — The rising water level in the big lake has slowed to a standstill this week- holding around 1,290,000 acre feet for now. This should help the striper bite with a more stable level , as well as a full moon that’s starting to diminish. In addition the water temps have fallen to around 63 degrees – a good temperature for fall stripers to increase their feeding.
The overall bite has been sporadic during the last week of a full moon- but I think that the action could kick back into gear- with more topwater and reaction bait action very soon. The fog banks have been problematic- making it hard to find surface fish that circling birds give away.
I guided two guests a couple days ago on a slow but decent bite / releasing 7 fish in the 21-25” range trolling Lucky Crafts in the main lake .We were targeting the 60 ‘ -70’ plus depths with stick baits in shad colors for schools holding in the deeper water in the main lake. Finding baitballs and roving schools of marauding active school stripers has been the best tactic to hook up with some decent fish.
Current lake stability, a waning full moon , decent visibility and a lower water temperature could improve things this coming week.
Never give up!
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