Kern River Valley Bulletin Board

Lake Isabella - Winds have hampered the action some, but there is still an
excellent crappie bite with fish showing on structure around much of the lake.
Limits of 25 crappie not uncommon, and some of the fish are up to 2-8.
Best bite on small minnows with small jigs tipped with Crappie Nibbles in a fairly
distant second place. The two Bob's Bait shops in Bakersfield sold over 8,000
minnows this past week to anglers fishing this bite. The catfish are also very
good with a lot of really nice stringers of two to four-pound fish being caught
on mackerel, Sonny's catfish dip bait, and clams. Largemouth bass are fair to
good with big fish up chasing trout and other baitfish. Quite a few five-plus
fish landed on swimbaits and plastics. Trout action is also good at the auxiliary
dam on Power Bait and nightcrawlers. Bluegill still spotty.

Kern River - Flows exploded up with the warm weather this past week and in
spite of trout plants in all locations this week in both the upper and lower river,
the fishing is tough because of high flows and off-color water. Bait anglers are
having the best luck fishing salmon eggs and nightcrawlers along the edges of
the river in quieter eddies and pools. The fly-fishing bite mostly washed out.