Rigging SARL

Good morning everyone. I am planning on taking my 4 yr old to SARL this Saturday and want to avoid yet another skunk sesh there. Do any of you that have experience there have recommendations on bait, rigging? Any tips are greatly appreciated, thanks ahead of time! Tight lines everyone!

Alakai likes to fish there and he is always great to get information from. I think he may even be going this week. Hopefully we can get him to chime in for you.

Thanks Logan!!

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Don't they have a Huck Finn or Tom Sawer pond for the kids still?

They do still have that pond for the kids. I believe you pay per the size of the fish. As far as colors go that work for me, I like the gold "super duper" spinner jig and the black and gold Trout HUB. If I'm not casting baits, I'll use chartreuse power baits. Catfish in there love cut up mackerel and chicken livers. If you ever go in your tube, hit up the "bubble spot" where the water gets filtered in on the main lake.

I mentioned Alakai earlier because he has been there a lot. I last fished there 10 years ago, but this is how I would fish if I went now. Hope this helps.

Hey Enrique! Logan is right I am headed there tomorrow since I am near maxing on my PTO alotment.

I am not really a person to get tips from for SARL since I have been skunked there I think five of my last times there but am going to try some new stuff tomorrow so will share my plan for trout. I went to the SAV-ON tackle presentation about a month ago to learn some stuff so am going to try what they mentioned.

I'm loaded with 4lb XXX Smoke Izorline on two reels

Plan 1 - 15" drop shot using 1/4oz with a white power worm. I have also seen Orange being used with this so will also switch it out

Plan 2 - 1/32 oz mealie or 1/16 oz UltraLight HeavyWeight jigs - Also have FireTiger and Yellow
Plan 2.5 - I also made my own Orange, Green and Yellow all in pearl and fluorescent
Plan 2.75 - Yellow Trout Magnet jig

Plan 3  - Power Bait - Charteuse, Chunky Cheese, Rainbow, Chartreuse/White

Plan 4 - PowerBait Mice tails - Pink/White, Brown/Orange on a Carolina rig using a 12" 2lb leader and a 16 treble

Plan 5 - screw it all and save my $33

Thanks for the heads up guys! If all fails i may just pay to take him to huckleberry pond.

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be careful though. they purposefully stock the larger fish in there

$8 / lbs adds up VERY fast

I believe you can have 2 rods for your son so if you have a second rod stamp you should be able to fish 4 setups (2x for you and 2x for your son). Are you only targeting trout? You could allocate two of those to soaking two different flavors/colors of PB and then you and your son could fish lures or jigs. If you or your son get tired of doing that you could just do the same for the 3rd or if you're near an aerator where there's some kind of flow, you could just cast out a c-rigged mice tail dipped in garlic or other scent. The setups Alakai listed out would be pretty good to try out. For the PB I would c-rig it with a 10-18" leader (if its super shallow you could go even shorter) and anywhere from a 12-16 treble. It's not a bad idea to bring an assortment of spoons/metals too in various colors (typically silver, gold or silver/blue are good fallbacks): kastmasters, blue fox vibrax, lip ripperz z spoon, thomas buoyant, super duper, mepps, rooster tails. You can dropshot micetails too. Maybe call SARL and ask what the fish have been biting on too?

Thanks Alakai and jplee3! I'll still be trying everything recomended and hopefully break the Sarl curse that's looming over me! Lol. Tight lines!

So the curse continues at SARL. Conditions were far from ideal (downpour between 6 and 8:30, milky brown water). I dont want to bash the place and i know others just do or dont catch there. Today i had an exceptionally bad experience that weather had no influence in. As im checking my lines i find a insulin needle floating by. I managed to net it and throw it in a trash barrel. Management cant control everything there so I really cant blame it on the facility. It sucks because i really doubt i will return because of this. Keep in mind the main reason i went was to get my 4 year old out to wet his lines.

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That's really a bummer and I am so sorry to hear that part about finding a needle. I would feel the same way, nothing to do with the fishing. Maybe we can do a shore fishing meet up for fun and the kids could come along as well. I hope the next place you try gives you a better experience.

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You and I feel the same Enrique. I go there to get my 8yr old into some fishing. Problem is that even though getting skunked is indeed part of fishing, the damn entry fee is far too high to get skunked as much as I have there. So sick of it

Thanks Logan and Alakai, it is a bummer. It is convenient, but i think im better of fishing for free at laguna lake for the same result. Shore fishing would be a great idea Logan! Let's do it and get the kids out.

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JP does the whole beach fishing thing, we should ask him. Not exactly a float tubing event but fishing is kinda fishing...

Sorry to hear about the bad experience at SARL. I feel like you almost need to get out there in a tube to really make it worth it, since shore fishing there seems kinda meh. And awful regarding the needle - I hope you complained to management there. That sounds like the kind of incident that demands a refund even if partial. Super unsafe and especially if you *paid* for entry.

If you can afford to take a day off during the week, Laguna Niguel lake is a pretty chill place I've heard. Otherwise, Mile Square Park would be a good local one as well as Eisenhower Park Lake if you're open to catfish - that's a small little lake up in Orange that would be very kid friendly. Even if you want to go out there at night for catfish if you are able to bring your kid out at night (though it would probably be kinda late) - I've caught quite a few catfish from Eisenhower soaking bait. Same thing for Cerritos Regional Park Lake - should have catfish in it.

As far as surf fishing, I haven't been since last summer but usually when I go I tend to walk a fair amount to look for holes, troughs and other structure and fish c-rig with gulp camo sandworms or will use sand crabs if they are around. If you want to target halibut, lucky crafts, krocs, and either dropshotting or grub/swimbait trailer will work depending on conditions. In some cases if you're not into walking the beach, you can try to find a nice hole or area with some structure and just soak bait and hang out there for a while which would be better with kids. I brought my 2yr old at the time to Huntington Cliffs on a Sunday afternoon once over the summer and walked the beach fishing - I was able to keep him by my side mostly while walking but it was pretty distracting and I missed a lot of bites but connected on a few (corbina and yellowfin croaker). At some point we got hit by a rogue wave and he was soaking wet. I never tried doing that again after that experience but it was definitely a memorable one LOL. I've seen plenty of guys setup sand spikes and soak bait too - most of them get yellowfin croaker that way. If you can find clams/mussels that's the ticket.... for corbina and spotfin croaker too.

Several other OC parks (Tricity, Yorba, Craig, Clark, Carbon Cyn) including those mentioned above look to be stocking with trout the week of 2/18 btw. And there's also the kid's derby coming up on 3/2 at Mile Square Park which would be a good event to bring the kid to.

Good info! Where did you see that hehe

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Good info! Where did you see that hehe

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Wow thats allot of great info guys!!! Thanks!

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The diabetic syringe you found was probably used for inflating night crawlers. I carry a couple when fishing Sierra lakes......GT

I also use a syringe for inflating night crawlers when I fish; every year, at Big Bear Lake during the Trout Derby. Is it possible that this was the same type of syringe that you saw floating at SARL?

SP Dan     <"))><

GT & Sp Dan i had never heard of that technique. Good to know though. I hope that was the case.

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Enrique wrote:GT & Sp Dan i had never heard of that technique. Good to know though.  I hope that was the case.

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I used to inflate night crawlers that way as well. I use floating powerbait intstead of "drowning a worm" these days. I wonder if it is an age issue for this technique.