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  Hit up a tributary of the San Gabriel River today, near El Monte. Was hoping for some tilapia, bass or sunfish action but turned out a skunk was the order of the day instead. There's plenty of cover and water for the fish in this area, perhaps it's just far too polluted to be a fishable location. Anyway, enjoy the short film montage of clips I took while exploring this creek in the San Gabriel Valley. Also, if you've fished here, let me know, I'd love to hear from you! More swimbait reviews on the way!

This ain't no bluewater trout stream. But it sure has fish! With the cold front coming in, I visited a local urban creek in the concrete jungle of SoCal's Inland Empire. This spot, which shall remain unnamed, has produced some excellent warmwater fishing in the past. I went with high hopes, despite the light rain and dropping temperatures. This fishing trip ended up turning out just fine. I caught 4-5 small largemouth and one green sunfish, found many new spots in this California urban creek, and helped cure the fishing itch (at least temporarily), all in a few short hours.  To make it even better, I got a little footage from the trip and compiled it to everyone's favorite video hosting website, YouTube, for some brownline fun. Enjoy SoCal Urban Bass Fishing:

For the second lure in my series on wLure's Chinese swimbaits, I have the HS145F2 , a jointed, chunky swimbait somewhat shaped after a bluegill. It sells for $5.49 online, with three different color options, length of  5 3/4'', and a weight of 1 2/3oz.  (Continued after the jump) The HS145F2 swimbait is pretty chunky. It's certainly not a "knock-off" of any specific lure I've encountered, and it seems to be a hybrid swimbait/crankbait style lure. The entire lure is hard plastic, complete with a nice set of fins sticking out both dorsally and laterally. However, the tail is a soft plastic/rubber piece, attached by two pins. If any part of this lure was to fail after repeated hits, this may be it. Still, it's fairly well attached and shouldn't present too much of an issue. This swimbait will float, diving around 2-3 ft on retrieve. When using the HS145F2, I found it had excellent action, even at slower retrieval speeds. The added crankbait lip r...

ODS Swimbaits The ODS HS5X374 from wLure is jointed, hardbody trout swimbait, selling for $8.99. It's a completely new bait to me, as I have never seen this model before. I ran into it on the wLure website and couldn't resist asking about it. I have purchased several Chinese knock-off (KO lure) or non-name brand lures in the past and had mixed experiences, so I was a little wary at the time. Thankfully, this swimbait turned out to be quite a keeper, with a great price, great motion in the water and a great design. Size Comparison wLure is a Chinese fishing lure website with a local US branch in Houston, Texas. I recently stumbeled upon their website and was amazed at just how low the prices on their lures was. Also, they offer free shipping, no matter how small the order, which is super nice on top of the low prices. If you do order from wLure, do expect to wait at least 15 days for your order. After all, it's coming over from China and is not going to arrive at your doo...

Coming soon: Exclusive, in-depth look at a previously-unheard of, dirt-cheap, line of swimbaits never before reviewed in the USA, courtesy of wLure . Expect photos, videos and complete reviews of these impressively-affordable swimbaits. Stay tuned.

Had a few hours to enjoy last Sunday. Not worth spending the $$$ to fish for such a short period of time at Diamond Valley Lake in Hemet. No way was I going to fight the skunk at city park lakes like Fairmount or Seccombe. Didn't care to try and catch deep water (50+ feet?) largemouth and sunfish from the shore at Lake Perris. Wasn't interested in chasing stocker trout or wild 'bows in the San Bernardino Mountains. Still, I needed a fishing fix, close by and with a fun bite. Solution? Urban creek fishing time! The action wasn't fast and furious, but I caught 4 fish of two different species (largemouth bass and green sunfish) on small jigs in a little over an hour. Hey, it's January, and I'm catching warmwater fish, I can't complain. This last one (also in the video above), put up a nice fight on 2lb test monofilament. This particular urban creek also had a lot of used fishing lure wrappers on the ground, a new find compared to the regular dirty plastic bags,...

All too often I'll go fishing and leave the resulting photos on my computer for months before uploading them. This is one of those scenarios, from a trip back in October 2011. I went hunting for bluegill at a favorite lake spot (let's call it "Hill Lake"). Had to hike in, but it was worth it. Managed to land numerous healthy bluegill on microjigs tipped with mealworms. Getting down to the water can be a challenge, especially at spots like this. I love the fight even small bluegill put up. On ultralight fishing tackle (2lb mono, spinning rod/reel), they are a blast to catch. Tight lines and Happy New Year!