The exceptional summer fishing at South Lake has officially carried into fall with limits or near limits the rule. Another dose of Alpers in the 2 to 4lb class were stocked on Thursday September 15th for the annual Cast & Blast club fishing derby to add to a lake already teeming with quality trophy trout stocked by Southern California Edison in both July & August. Plenty of fish in 2 to 3 lb. are coming to shore with the largest fish of the week weighing close to 5 lbs. Some of those big 8 lb average fish stocked in July are being seen but they're playing hard to get. With fall upon us, we're hoping those fish get in a feeding pattern here pretty quick.

It's hard not to sound like a broken record but mini-jigs, especially pink, orange or grasshopper, are just about the best thing you can use out there. Folks reported as many as 60 fish a day on pink mini-jigs tied straight to the line and fished SLOWLY or 5 ft. under a bobber when the breeze comes up. Thomas Bouyants, Garlic or Chunky Cheese Powerbait, and Kastmasters are also accounting for a lot of fish.

The inlets, dam, rock slide, and the right channel by the island are all producing right now. Make sure you get in tight to those inlets so you're able to cast within a few feet of the whitewater - that's where the fish are stacked. The south end of the rock slide is just plugged with fish right now...anyone wearing polarized sunglasses will have no trouble finding where the fish are concentrated.

Trolling reports have been mediocre at best but there are quite a few folks that out there trying. Try CD 5 or CD 7 Rapala's in the Rainbow or Brown Trout patterns.

Fly fishers reported a ridiculously good bite during the last hour of the day stripping streams or fishing any nymph with a bead head. One angler reported catching a 17" Brown on the fly this week out at one of the inlets.

Our main photo shows Matt Pleines and Tyler Home from Orange County who had a great day at South Lake landing Rainbows weighing 3.10, 2.84 and 2.22 lbs using mini-jigs with Bite-On garlic scent.