O'Neill Lake Fishing Report near Fallbrook, California

1230 pm...Not best time of day to fish for cats but when married with kids, you take what you can get. I caught a small mullet by river mouth and made fresh cut bait. After about 1 hour by the camp side of the lake, my 6 year old fought and landed by himself a nice channel cat. We had to leave shortly after but if we had more time, I'm sure there would have been a few more.

Went out about 1230 in afternoon. Not best time to fish cats but I'm married with kids and that was my time slot. Had some fresh caught mullet for cut bait. I never used it but after about 1 hour my son set the hook on anice channel cat. Once he got it to shore, we had to drag it 20 feet across mddy beach because you will literally sink waist deep in the mud.

I went fishing lake o'neill today not expecting much but was pleasantly surprised with the bass. We went out on a rented motor boat, I used a 7' Shakespeare Rod with spinner reel, 14 lb main and 6 lb leader. By the middle of the day I had switched to a 14 lb leader as well. The first spot we fished was on the North East side of the lake. I anchored down between two sand bars and fished Along the weeds and lilies. It wasn't long until I hooked a little 2 lb largemouth so I felt reassured about the fishing, but for the next half hour I didn't get even a nibble. We tried a couple other spots on the North West side of the lake with no luck, so we moved to the opposite corner. On the far East side of the lake there's a little cut, we anchored down inthe middle of it and set up our rigs for bass. I decided to cast out just on the left side of a Lily pad patch and bring it in slow with a few jerks here and there. Wouldn't you know it, first cast I hooked a 4 lb bass. I will put a picture up of the lure I used that caught all my bass today, but it's a black plastic b bait with blue speckles on a Texas rig. The bait comes with wings and paddles on both sides but I cut them off of one side. My buddy started fishing that spot so I cast out to the other side of the boat. After a few minutes he decided to switch lures to what I was using. As he was swapping lures I took my spot back. I casted my lure right on top of the lilies on the far left, skipped it in and started jigging. GOT EM COACH!!! Probably the biggest bass I've ever had on my line. Probably 7 -8 lbs. I was so excited that i just wanted to get it into the boat. I reeled it straight in and tried to power it into the boat. Didn't use a net, didn't let him tire out, so of course, 6 inches from the boat I lost him. I was heart broken, but determined to get him back. So a few casts later in the SAME SPOT, I get a hit. I let this one play for a while to make sure I didn't lose it. 4 lbs. Not my monster, but it's a good bass. This was all in a duration of about 4 hours. We wasted a lot of time catching nothing on the West side and by now it was time to head in as we were in a rental boat. I was happy with the days fish. My buddy was less pleased cus all he got all day was a single miss.

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About Fishing Reports for O'Neill Lake near Fallbrook