need help with castle rock!!! Help mE!

[fishingpolak]

hey, im new to castle rock lake, ive fished it on a boat about 4 times and with no luck at all,:confused: ive tried minnows, soft plastics, crank bait but nothing bites. can anyone tell me how and were to fish on the lake, particlularly for pike/muskie, white bass and walleye. PLEASE HELP ME AND THANX!:)

[Luke McGarry]

Well, join my club. I've been having difficulty finding walleye for a couple years now. I fish CR every weekend for half the year and have been doing so since about 1995. So, it frustrates me to do so poorly.

I think you will find white bass anywhere in the lake right now. Try trolling for them with various hard baits. See my post about July 4-5. I had more luck with shallow running lures than with deep running lures. I don't think that I posted this, but I had rigged a white spinner rig onto my line, but even without bait on it I caught three white bass on the plain hook. That was fun. I don't waste live bait on white bass when I can massacre them with certain artificials when they are active.

I can't help you much on the wallleye. That is my main target and I think it may be hit or miss on finding them. It's not like it used to be 10 years ago. Many of my fishing friends are having the same luck as I am. Oh, once in a while someone will get lucky, but most of my friends are complaining. I think live bait has been doing the best. Try working the old main river bed or the underwater humps where you can find them. But take my advice about this with a grain of salt because of my success so far.

Some would say to work the weed bed areas, but I've not had any luck doing that. I might start trying again this week as I'm going up there for the week.

Northerns-- I have some spots that I work and usually have some good luck. I haven't fished for them in a while, but I might try for them this week for some much needed action. I usually go up river for them, although, you can catch them in the main lake. If conditions are right, the vast area north of the Trestle can produce Northerns particlularly closer to the Big Roche a Cri feeding in at the north side. Watch out for old tree stumps under the water. Also try the downriver side of some of the islands for submerged weed beds. I like running topwater buzz baits over the tops of the weedbeds. You know, the safety pin style with the big prop on it. It makes a lot of noise and it's a blast seeing the northerns go for it. Another weedbed mostly overlooked is up at the dam on the east side of the river across from the boat ramp/bait shop. I've caught northerns and musky there, but it's been spotty.

I think a lot of the time it might amount to hitting it just right. Some have posted here catches of great amounts. Good for them. Wish I was seeing that. You could try hiring a guide too! There might be one on the board around here! ;-)

Good luck.

Luke

[snugharb]

Try in front of the bridge by snug harbor for white bass. Use minnows or some type of small spinner.