Butch Brown Swimbait 24/7 Deps 250 Part 1 of 3

Ahh the good old days of southern Calif. Of in N Out burger, Cruise nights at Kevins burgers in Reseda and Mark and Brian on KLOS 95.5 . I lived in the valley in Northridge, and fished mostly the lower lake at night, almost the entire decade of the 1980s before all the madness started around 1991. One night July 1985 i caught a 20 pound bass from the first swim beach on the lower lake. On a 10 inch electric blue Manns jelly worm. Unfortunately it was a few years before cell phones with cameras so i didnt get a pic of it. Me and my friend couldnt believe how fat this fish was. I think i had a pager back then. After that fish, i went and bought a 35 mm vivitar camera to keep in my tackle bag. So i Have plenty of pics of 15 pounders from back then. Big deal. That was a dink back then at that lake. I just didnt get a photo of that monster 20. That was close to a record. Relesed alive of course. We'd park at the mini mart and walk in to fish the swim beaches, before there were any fences or security, cameras or anything like that. Caught many 15+ pound bass outta there. Imho the afterbay was better than the upper lake, and it peaked around 1986-88… But then i lost interest in largemouth and was more interested in 50 pound Stripers in Pyramid and Silverwood. If i remember correctly, the first Striped Bass worked its way into Castaic around spring of 1992. So that became the new obsession. Buying all the latest swimbait striper plugs at Turners, and from little tackle shops in the Antelope Valley that sold Alan Coles AC plugs..i dont remember any other giant swimbaits like deps or any others. The AC plug was the one back then. so around 1992 , about a year after the big 3 bass were caught by Bob Crupi, Mike Arujo and Leo Torres, all caught 20-21 lbers, thats when the word got out and it started getting national attention. The boats. The crowds, the tournaments. If you tried to fish the upper lake on a Saturday morning, boats were lined up Lake Hughes Road 300 or more for a mile on Fri. nights at 9pm. You couldnt get in til noon with a boat. The growth in that area that started around there was sickening. In the 1980s it was a small sleepy little canyon truck stop town . I cant even imagine how many people and houses are there now. But that was my awesome experience with Castaic. Probably the best bass lake there ever was, just at the right time. Im glad i was in on part of it 40 years ago. I followed the Big Striper hot bite out to the Colorado river in the 1990s to Laughlin Nev and Bullhead City Az for a few years. Then when That died about 1995. I moved to Florida . Now im a trophy Striper hunter in Tennessee…..time flies

19.3 lbs.

Wow such great insight, thank you!

Awesome Dude!!! A Legend!!!

Flash Carp is def my favorite color!

Great stuff. I got the 250 it's an amazing bait. Butch brown should be the only one in magazine talking about catching big fish his are all on tape. Congrats to you my friend well deserved keep catch them butch

mY Butch Brown Stocker Trout is at the Bottom of my lake here in Idaho…thanx Power Pro 50lb!

Crazy cool story Butch!

Awesome video! Can't wait for those baits!

Stoked.