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[Video report, report with new photos!] Will I ever get tired of urban creek fishing? Tired of fish eager to bite, the thrill of finding a new spot smack dab in the middle of suburbia with no other anglers in sight? Tired of bass and sunfish fishing that doesn't cost me a ridiculous $12-$15 (cough Diamond Valley Lake cough) just to fish? Received a friendly tip on this new urban creek from a great fellow angler. Tales of eager bass were readily received and I quickly hit the road. The creek had recently overflowed its banks, spilling the trash of modern wasteful life across the banks and leaving gross suds in the water. Still, the fish were incredibly eager to bite. I had a hit on my first cast, with a black  Mangler 4'' swimbait  (not my favorite lure but it got the job done), then landed another on the swimbait on my second cast. Nothing amazing, just typical urban creek bass (10'' or so). I continued fishing the rest of the afternoon, catching green sunfish and l...

Old report but still a goodie! Fished at a new spot for a couple of tiny bites. Frustrated, I drove home, but not before stopping to fish an old reliable urban creek in the Inland Empire. Success! Missed two and landed two more, including a nice one (by urban creek standards) in 30 minutes. Hard to beat that!

Slow day for fishing in southern California. Cold snap overnight after a rainstorm. Fog rolling out at day break. Water was running high and fast. Fish didn't cooperate. However, the scenery was quite memorable. Enjoy!

Amongst the crowded streets and and packed neighborhoods of suburbia are little waterways, sometimes teeming with life. To one such creek I ventured last week, drawn by wanderlust and the hunt for finned adventure. Parts were far too shallow for my scaled quarry to inhabit; yet other portions held them in abundance. The river king they were not, but landing crappie from an urban stream is always a treat!

Found this little channel on the Santa Ana by accident. It's pretty easy to figure out where it is, but I'm warning any would-be-explorers: this spot is nasty with poison oak. Somehow, I managed to get it around my eye, in addition to arms, legs, and neck. Definitely not an experience I plan on repeating! Although, I wonder how many other tiny channels like this one exist, perhaps even with larger fish?

Earlier this year, during my urban creek rush, I re-visited a small Inland Empire creek. I had initially avoided even dropping a line in it as it didn't appeal to me. However, I'm glad I returned. Despite the brief torrential downpour and suspicious fish, I managed to land several bass and a few green sunfish, all within a couple of hours.  While the creek wasn't very impressive in length, it made up for it in width with several spots allowing full-range of overhead casting.  Check out the photos and video, notice the two fish I scored towards the end on the dropshot + purple worm!

Several months ago, I came across an excellent article at In-Fisherman, speaking volumes about “ Might Mini Cranks.” The author discussed a wide range of tips, tactics and lures to use for ultralite anglers wanting to throw tiny cranks and jerkbaits. Since then, I've built up an ever-expanding collection of ultralite fishing lures and I wanted to take this opportunity to share with everyone what I have found.  (Please excuse any typos in this post; it’s a fairly long one!) Jet Tackle Lures is one of the best sources I have found of ultra cheap fishing lures in the United States. They also happen to offer a fantastic line of micro lures, perfect for ultralite anglers on a budget. While I love my expensive Yo-Zuri micros, I also maintain a collection of cheap small lures that I’m not afraid to cast near heavier cover or other snag-prone areas. Here’s their page of micro lures ( web link -view ALL micro lures from Jet Tackle here) and following are profiles of several of ...

Thanks to a sweet tip from a fellow angler, I found a new urban creek to explore. It's actually more of a canal, but hold water year round and is absolutely loaded with chunky green sunfish, up to 12 inches. I lost track of how many scrappy greenies I landed in a short afternoon fishing session at this Inland Empire creek.  Since then, I've returned several times, always landing loads of these sunfish. I've also spotted a couple of turtles, many mosquito fish, and a couple small largemouth, along with the obligatory pile of litter and trash. Urban creek fishing at its finest hmm?

  Bass Attack Urban Creek Bass Fishing with Underwater Shots Last week, I visited one of my favorite urban creeks in California. It's packed with cover and loaded with largemouth bass, green sunfish, carp, catfish and other eager biters. So far, most of the bass I've caught in this creek are tiny. However, this last trip really blew me away-several decent-sized largemouth bass were caught, along with a bunch of chunky green sunfish on an assortment of lures. I was really impressed with this section of the creek. It's relatively un-trashed, when compared to some of the upstream parts of this urban creek. The tree canopy is pretty dense, covering the surface of the water with loads of shade. There is scattered fallen logs and brush along the shore, with fast sections and slow, deep pools. It really feels like a different world from many other urban creeks I've fished. Even better, I had this section of the creek to myself. That's not to say it hadn't been fishe...