Castaic’s Sept. 13 sheet: 30–50 bass half-days on live shad, off-water now 7 p.m.

Castaic’s fall shift is an upgrade, not a slowdown. Guide Jim Taibi’s Sept. 13 Tackle Express report says largemouth, smallmouth, and spotted bass are sharing the same shallow grass and cove backs, chewing on abundant shad and silversides. The surface bite is almost the whole game; other techniques have been barely worth the time.

Taibi’s half-day numbers are 30 to 50 fish on live shad. Striper boils are scarce because those fish are also shallow on bait, but blind-casting topwater in the shallows is still producing 4- to 7-pound fish. Topwater and live shad are carrying the week.

Conditions: surface about 76°F in the morning and 80°F in the afternoon, 10–15 feet of clarity, full pool. The lake is open Wednesday through Sunday; launch 6:30 a.m. at the West Ramp only. Off-water is now 7:00 p.m. — earlier than the prior weeks — so plan the last cast accordingly. This is Taibi’s Sept. 13 sheet, not the week-of-Sept. 11 SoCal Fish Reports filing already on this desk.

Photo: Tackle Express / Jim Taibi (Castaic report dated Sept. 13, 2026).

This is a The Gillnet news desk summary, not a reprint.

Source: Tackle Express — Castaic Lake Fishing Report, September 13, 2026 (guide Jim Taibi / 661Fishing).