BASS FALLING FOR ARTIFICIALS LESSON LEARNED AT LAKE PIRU.

Byline: Randy van Vliet Special to the Daily News

Located in the northwest corner of Los Angeles County off Highway 126, Lake Piru is the source of most of the water used for agricultural ventures such as citrus growing along the Santa Clarita river valley. It is also home to a large population of northern-strain largemouth bass year-round, in addition to rainbow trout plants when the water temperature cools in the fall, winter and spring.

Fall brings many fishing opportunities for those who have the knowledge and time to pursue such game fish. I hooked up with one of the better fishermen.

Bill Siemantel is no stranger to tactics and patterns for fishing for these feisty bass, having won the 1997 Bass Masters Invitational at Lake Powell and the Bass Cat 2000. Proving he is human, Siemantel was 13th among 156 pro anglers at the U.S. Open at Lake Mead.

We arrived at the entrance gate to the lake at 6:30 a.m. with me being surprised that we had to wait in line to get in. Siemantel took care of launching and we were on our way to the fishing grounds, cruising along at a cool 35 mph. That cool didn't last long because the full moon set in the west, the sun started rising in the east, and along with it, the air temperature. I wondered if the bass had been feeding all night and developed a case of lockjaw.

Siemantel had us fish on the west bank before the sun started shining on that portion of the water. Visibility was maybe 1 1/2 feet in the water and stained, so Bill reached for a white and chartreuse spinner bait, outfitted with a nickel Willow blade, something nice and bright in the dirty water. He flipped the lure right on the bank, onto the rocks or the mud, then started his retrieve, pulling the lure into the water's edge and. he hoped, a waiting mouth. The horizon was light, but the sun wasn't shining on the canyon walls when on the fourth cast of the day, Siemantel got a take and a nice 1 1/2-pound bass to the boat.

I asked him how he knew where to fish and where to throw his lure in such dirty water, and he told me he had eyes under water. There at his feet, next to the trolling motor lay a Pinpoint Sonar unit. Bill explained how it sends a signal out, and rocks, grass, sand, mud and, yes, even fish send reflections back. The tuning was so sensitive that you could see him drop his bait to the bottom of the lake on the unit. With tools such as this at his fingertips, it was going to be easy to get keepers in the boat. Or so I thought. ...

We worked the west side until the sun started shining on the surface of the water, then Siemantel switched rods and tactics. He explained that when the light levels are low, the fish move into shallow water and have a reactionary bite to noisy baits such as spinners, buzz baits and poppers. As the sky gets lighter, their eyes become sensitive and they move deeper, usually off some type of structure. Siemantel explained that structure is basically the lay of the land if it were drained. It could be points, canyons, rock piles and flats where the fish edge against an old stream bank.

The sonar showed a soft, muddy bottom with a rock pile nearby. Seeing this, Siemantel threw an oxblood-colored 4-inch curly tail robo worm in about 10 to 15 feet of water. I was familiar with Carolina- or Texas-style rigs for worming when I used to fish a private lake 10 years ago, but this was a new deal to me. Called ``drop shotting,'' the hook is tied on and the tag end of the line from the knot at the hook is left long, instead of cut off. Attached to the tag is a swivel weight.

You lob, flip or sidearm-cast the rig to the area you think the fish are in, and you ``shake'' the rod tip with 2- or 3-inch twitches in an arc while your index finger from the hand holding the rod presses up against the line where it comes off the spool and goes to the first guide. This tension allows you to feel even the most subtle and sensitive of bites.

What happens is the shot on the bottom disturbs the mud, leaving a cloud of silt in its trail every time you shake it. What the bass sees is a worm wiggling just above the cloud. Bites or takes are subtle, from a mushy feeling, with the fish just inhaling your bait gently to crushing takes where the fish takes off at full speed. It's this variety that keeps an angler on his toes, waiting for the take.

The sun was up now and we started to the east side of the lake, to hide from the heat of the direct sun and fish in some shade. Siemantel continued to catch fish, mostly first- and second-year fish. He put on a 4-inch FX worm in Aaron's Magic. This is new bait in a color that has metallic blue iridescent teardrops injected into a clear belly at a 20-degree angle, with motor oil colored back. It looks labor intensive to pour, and one good bite can turn it to mush.

Whatever it was, the fish just hammered it this day. A 2-pound largemouth fell for it. Siemantel gently kept the pressure on and subdued it with a lip hold at the side of the boat. There, he removed the bait from the side of the fish's mouth. A couple of quick photos and the fish was on his way. We fished this way from shortly after 7 a.m. to well past 1 p.m., with fish biting all day. One bass, estimated at between 6 and 7 pounds followed his spinner bait right up to the boat.

According to Siemantel, these tactics are good year-round on most Southern California impoundments, especially lakes such as Piru and Pyramid that are dammed canyon reservoirs. They also seem to work even better now that the days and feeding periods are getting shorter. If you can't get a reaction bite, switch tactics and baits and let the bass see what's shaking.