It was 18.5 inches long and had a girth of 15.125 inches. The length and weight were verified by the DWR.

The reason for the brushy areas in the back of canyons is the rising lake level. When levels are low, brush — a favorite habitat for the two fish — grows. When the level rises, the brush is flooded and becomes home to the fish.

Smallmouth, which prefer to hang around broken rock, are having no trouble finding homes. Fishing for smallmouth is expected to be excellent this summer.

"Often overlooked are the bluegill. We've got some decent-size bluegill in the back of some of the canyons. For something different, fishermen can come in with a fly rod and surface-popping bugs and catch bluegill," said Gustaveson.

As to the future of fishing, he pointed out that roughly 90 percent of the current population of striped bass are sexually mature.

These fish will spawn over the entire reservoir very soon, which means there will be a huge crop of young-of-the-year entering the population.

"What this means is that if we have a small crop of shad this year, these young fish will continue to eat plankton and do well. They'll stay in the 4- to 5-inch range and not have a big impact on the population until 2010. If we have a big shad spawn, and these young fish find the shad, they will grow to 8 to 10 inches and will have an impact on the food supply," said Gustaveson.

"So we really don't understand yet how all this is going to play out, not until we see how the shad do."

Currently, the striped bass are out there controlling the little fish, which will eventually lead to some exciting fishing this summer.

"What I expect when we have a year like this, with a building population, and with a good holdover of shad, is we'll have a good shad spawn and good survival.

"What that means is we can expect good summertime boils of large fish ... The boils will start small in the back of the canyons sometime in July and grow into large boils in open water into September," he said.

Boils occur when striped bass herd shad into large schools and then begin a feeding frenzy. The water appears to be boiling on the surface with jumping and splashing fish.

Currently the three primary game fish — stripers, large and smallmouth — are spawning and aggressively attacking lures. When the spawns end, the fish will move. The stripers will disappear during the spawn, but will start looking for food and lures sometime in June.

When the shad spawn, they will move to the back of the canyons and stripers will follow.

As temperatures warm, the largemouth bass will move off the nests and into the brush, and will become more difficult to find.