FOR GREAT BASS FISHING, THOSE WERE THE DAYS.

Byline: Brett Pauly Daily News Staff Writer

It's been five years since Bob Crupi's mammoth largemouth bass marked the end of a short string of amazing catches at Castaic Lake that may never be repeated.

"That was the window of opportunity for anyone who was looking for a world-record fish. That was when Castaic peaked," said Crupi, 42, a Los Angeles police officer and bass guide from Castaic whose 22.01-pound bucketmouth caught on March 12, 1991, is recognized as the world's second largest. "If you weren't there then, you missed out."

Anglers are now looking to Riverside County's Lake Perris - where several recent catches of more than 15 pounds have been logged - to break the record. But nothing may compare to Castaic's winter of '91.

Crupi's trophy - a heartbreaking 4 ounces shy of the 22 -1/4-pounder taken from Georgia's Montgomery Lake in June 1932, the oldest and most highly prized freshwater benchmark - came just a week after Mike Arujo landed a 21.74-pound hawg and a little more than a month following the 20.97-pound catch of Leo Torres. In January, Castaic had yielded an 18 -3/4 pounder.

"Castaic was at its most fertile state - all the ingredients were there," said Crupi, who also caught a 21-pound bass there in March 1990. "Anglers were putting a lot of time in. They were leaving their families behind. I was one of them. I'm surprised I'm still married."

Double-digit bass were commonplace. The Department of Fish and Game was hastily planting rainbow trout, the favorite meal of big bass.

"All of the California lakes that have produced huge bass have a winter put-and-take fishery of hatchery-reared rainbows," said Dennis Lee, a state fisheries biologist.

At Castaic, Lee noted, the DFG dumped a larger-than-usual number of 6- to 8-inch rainbows in the winter of 1991. As a result, the odds of the lake giving up a record bass may actually have been hurt, said Lee, who maintains that the extra infusion of trout could have caused the giant bass to alter their usual pattern of suspending over deep water.

California, which has no native largemouth bass, imported fast-growing, long-living Florida-strain bass in the 1950s. The rewards have been sweet.

But Lee is concerned that while California has produced 21 of the 25 largest largemouths, only one leviathan has been hooked here since 1991.

Crupi believes that several elements have conspired to ruin the potential for a record bass at Castaic: unpredictable weather over the last couple of seasons; the pumping of water into the lake that has reduced its temperatures, making the bass lethargic and tougher to lure with deeper presentations; and not enough boated bass released.

"The downfall is that not everyone was releasing, or saying that they were and not," Crupi said. "It's tough fishing at Castaic now; just look at the stats. That's what happens when you don't release your fish."

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Photo (color) Bob Crupi, showing off his latest catch, remembers when Castaic Lake was a bass fisherman's paradise a few years ago. Special to the Daily News