Los Banos, CA (September 25, 2025) — The overall striper bite in the main reservoir has been decent at times, but mainly up and down for the last week due to the continuing roller coaster weather patterns moving through the area. In addition , the reservoir has been rising up to a foot a day, currently at 1,026,000 acre feet- almost 50% of capacity as the pumping input is averaging about 8,000 acre feet a day. Algae is pretty thick in some areas of the lake reducing visibility down to a few inches in some cases.
The troll bite has been decent for schoolie sized linesides in the 19-23” range working the main lake at 50-70’ with 5”-7” Lucky Craft and Rapala stick baits – as well as jointed models. We’ve been putting the lures out about 120’ behind the Downrigger ball at 2.2 mph for our fish using Shad colored models.
I guided a guest a few days ago and we released over 20 fish in the 19-24” range- topped by a 29” , 10 lber using Lucky Crafts in silver/ black . The prior week a guest released a 18 ½ lber also working the 50-60’ depth range. We had to spend a lot of time finding the school of feeding fish in both cases.
The jig and spoon action has been slow. The boaters working the shoreline with topwater or ripbaits have had the bite go from decent to slow working the coves. Flyfishermen haven’t been doing very well lately since the fish seem to be deeper right now along the dam area.
I would rate the bite about a 2-3 out of 10. Rising water, thick algae, constant winds and moving fish looking for new structure/ bait had things off kilter. More consistent weather could kick things into gear.
Roger George Guide Service ( 559) 905-2954 cell
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