An Angler's Guide To
Fishing The World's Trophy Hot Spots
Fishing Diamond Valley Lake, California
Diamond Valley Lake, California, USA
Records could soon start coming from this California Lake. It's Largemouth Bass fishery is only a few years old and the fish are already growing up to four pounds a year!
"The word is already starting to get out about the tremendous fishery that has been created at Diamond Valley (once called Domenigoni Reservoir and then Eastside Reservoir before the final name was bestowed). Mike Giusti, the Department of Fish and Game biologist on more-or-less permanent assignment as the Diamond Valley fishery and habitat specialist, has had generous MWD funding to create a model fishery at Diamond Valley. The lake has been planted with the purest strain Florida largemouth bass, Florida bluegill, redear, crappie, smallmouth bass, channel catfish, blue cats, and rainbow trout. Silverside minnows and shiners were added as forage for the gamefish, and the results so far have been pretty spectacular.
Before the lake started to fill, a rearing pond was built in the future lake bottom. Broodstock bass to eight pounds were released in the pond and there was a spawn of those fish in 1999. Later that year, as water was pumped into the new reservoir the lake level crested the pond and that year’s spawn of fish had the whole growing lake where they could feed. Those two-year-old fish are now in the 12- to 15-inch range and weigh from two to three pounds. For fish that size, they are chunks.
Giusti likes to point out that the Golden Ruler used by bass anglers to estimate weights would tell you that a 13-inch bass should weigh 1.1 pounds and a 15-inch fish should weigh around two pounds. And that is true at most places. At Diamond Valley, a 13-inch bass weighs right at two pounds and a 15-incher right at three pounds. The eight-pound broodstock bass that was in the pond was recaptured this year, and it weighed 12 pounds, putting on four pounds in just two years." Extract in quotes taken from Diamond Valley Lake Representitive, Temecula Valley
Diamond Valley Lake
Check out California Game and Fish "Diamond Valley Bass"
The Californian, "Anglers Hooked on Diamond Valley"