Natural Lefty
08-28-2009, 05:14 PM
Well, my wife and step-daughter are off to Taiwan, so what's a guy to do but go fishing and hopefully catch some Sashimi? Since the temperature was over 100 degrees in Moreno Valley, with even hotter temps predicted today -- and it is indeed hotter today -- I decided to head to Lake Perris late in the day to see what was biting. After driving to LAX the day before, I didn't feel like going very far.
I got there around 5 p.m. and went to the launch area. I headed for the dock closest to the marina side of the launch cove (west), which was open to fishing as the lot was closed, armed with a 64 ounce bottle of Powerade and a box of small nightcrawlers I had bought at Walmart earlier in the day. There was lots of vegetation in the water, but not toward the end of the docks. Lots of minnows could be seen flitting about also; they appeared to be Silversides. The first half hour or so, I got a few light bites on nightcrawler pieces, so I knew some fish were around, but not exactly a promising start.
Thus, I decided to try the dock on the other side of the ramp. I almost always fish the westernmost dock in the launch area, as I have noticed more fish around there and had better success there. But in this instance, I got a quick bite that was harder on the other dock. Thus, I got my worms and cooler, headed back there, and soon caught a decent size Bluegill, casting onto the ramp from the end of the dock on the left side of the western ramp (quiz on that after I'm through). People who have been there will probably know exactly where I was. At that point, things were looking pretty Bluegillicious. After I caught the Bluegill, I kept getting bites, but the strange thing is that they were very active, nibblish bites. The fish were quickly tearing the worms off the hook. Every time a fish bit, it would either let go before the line tightened -- it was fairly windy on and off -- or just barely tighten the line before releasing it, resulting in a "swing and a miss" by me as the fish made off with my worm, or at least a piece of it.
Perhaps the hot weather had something to do with the way the fish were biting. Perhaps my bait was a bit big for them. Maybe they were just dinkers, anyway. And maybe the grapes were sour, too. (You know, they were sour grapes anyway, so they weren't worth the effort.) But I don't think so. It seemed to me that these were mostly medium size Bluegills and/or Redears, with some smaller, some bigger. They were just in pecking, bait stealing mode. This fish feeding went on for quite some time. Eventually, I decided to let the fish bite longer before setting the hook, hoping it would take the hook. This resulted in a couple of seconds of biting, followed by inaction. Then I would reel in the line to find my worm missing, or most of it missing. Finally, I decided to put a split shot on my other baby Ugly Stick, which still had a size 16 fly on it from my previous trip to Lake Gregory. I figured the small hook might help. As it turned out, I dropped the new rig straight down for a try, left it on the bottom for a few seconds, then tightened up the line to work it, only there was a fish on my line already -- a big fish. It must have been big, since it was making a strong run for the weeds, and I felt compelled to grab my net. Yeah, it was on! Notice the past tense. It was on, until I picked up the net, then the fish fell off the hook. How disappointing. I never saw it, so I don't know what type it was. It might very well have been Bigmouth Billy, but more likely, it was a large Bluegill or Redear. Afterward, I had to wonder why I had grabbed the net so quickly. I should have made sure to keep the line tight and played the fish until it was tired before getting the net. Oh well -- that's the breaks. Hopefully, I will follow my own advice next time.
A little fishless while later, I went to the marina docks, the area you can fish after they close the pay portion of the docks for the day, bringing my fly rod and an Ugly Stick with me. It was around 7:30 or so already, and getting dark, but I could see the little Bluegills were still surfacing in the marina. By the way, I had seen some surface activity in the launch ramp area, including some large splashes, but not very much with the wind blowing. I tried my flyrod, and think I got a few light hits that didn't stick, but I couldn't see what was going on very well. When I checked my Ugly Stick with the worm sitting on the bottom, there seemed to be some weeds on my line. I thought that was strange, because I hadn't noticed any vegetation that far from shore. It turned out I had a Sculpin on my line. I quickly put it the little critter back. But two other guys were fishing on the docks who asked me if I had caught anything. I mentioned the Bluegill and the Sculpin, and they were both like "What's a Sculpin?" I think they finally got the idea after I described them as small, brown bottom fish that are freshwater versions of the saltwater Sculpin species, and they are supernumerous in Big Bear Lake, so they might have seen them there. That was it for the catching. None of us were catching anything, even though I know there were some fish around there, so I left around 8:30 p.m. It seemed as though I should have caught considerably more than I did, but they way they were biting combined my larger size worms probably had a lot to do with that. Next time, I will bring some smaller worms for sure.
Actually, the fact that there seemed to be good numbers of decent size fish around bodes well for the shore and pier fishing at Perris in September-November, especially given the hot weather yesterday. I drank the entire bottle of Powerade, and was still very thirsty when I got home. But then, I am a world class drinker anyway, just not of the alcoholic kind. I expect the fishing to improve, and plan to go back on a cooler day in September.
Meanwhile, I did keep the one Bluegill, so I figure I have several dollars worth of Bluegill Sashimi ready to be eaten. I asked my wife what happened to the Wasabi a few days ago, and she told me that I ate it all. Apparently, I am such a Wasabi fiend that I ate it all up without realizing it. I got a couple of new tubes of Wasabi today, so there is no need to worry about my Wasabi situation now. Now, if I can just catch a mess of fish one of these days...
I got there around 5 p.m. and went to the launch area. I headed for the dock closest to the marina side of the launch cove (west), which was open to fishing as the lot was closed, armed with a 64 ounce bottle of Powerade and a box of small nightcrawlers I had bought at Walmart earlier in the day. There was lots of vegetation in the water, but not toward the end of the docks. Lots of minnows could be seen flitting about also; they appeared to be Silversides. The first half hour or so, I got a few light bites on nightcrawler pieces, so I knew some fish were around, but not exactly a promising start.
Thus, I decided to try the dock on the other side of the ramp. I almost always fish the westernmost dock in the launch area, as I have noticed more fish around there and had better success there. But in this instance, I got a quick bite that was harder on the other dock. Thus, I got my worms and cooler, headed back there, and soon caught a decent size Bluegill, casting onto the ramp from the end of the dock on the left side of the western ramp (quiz on that after I'm through). People who have been there will probably know exactly where I was. At that point, things were looking pretty Bluegillicious. After I caught the Bluegill, I kept getting bites, but the strange thing is that they were very active, nibblish bites. The fish were quickly tearing the worms off the hook. Every time a fish bit, it would either let go before the line tightened -- it was fairly windy on and off -- or just barely tighten the line before releasing it, resulting in a "swing and a miss" by me as the fish made off with my worm, or at least a piece of it.
Perhaps the hot weather had something to do with the way the fish were biting. Perhaps my bait was a bit big for them. Maybe they were just dinkers, anyway. And maybe the grapes were sour, too. (You know, they were sour grapes anyway, so they weren't worth the effort.) But I don't think so. It seemed to me that these were mostly medium size Bluegills and/or Redears, with some smaller, some bigger. They were just in pecking, bait stealing mode. This fish feeding went on for quite some time. Eventually, I decided to let the fish bite longer before setting the hook, hoping it would take the hook. This resulted in a couple of seconds of biting, followed by inaction. Then I would reel in the line to find my worm missing, or most of it missing. Finally, I decided to put a split shot on my other baby Ugly Stick, which still had a size 16 fly on it from my previous trip to Lake Gregory. I figured the small hook might help. As it turned out, I dropped the new rig straight down for a try, left it on the bottom for a few seconds, then tightened up the line to work it, only there was a fish on my line already -- a big fish. It must have been big, since it was making a strong run for the weeds, and I felt compelled to grab my net. Yeah, it was on! Notice the past tense. It was on, until I picked up the net, then the fish fell off the hook. How disappointing. I never saw it, so I don't know what type it was. It might very well have been Bigmouth Billy, but more likely, it was a large Bluegill or Redear. Afterward, I had to wonder why I had grabbed the net so quickly. I should have made sure to keep the line tight and played the fish until it was tired before getting the net. Oh well -- that's the breaks. Hopefully, I will follow my own advice next time.
A little fishless while later, I went to the marina docks, the area you can fish after they close the pay portion of the docks for the day, bringing my fly rod and an Ugly Stick with me. It was around 7:30 or so already, and getting dark, but I could see the little Bluegills were still surfacing in the marina. By the way, I had seen some surface activity in the launch ramp area, including some large splashes, but not very much with the wind blowing. I tried my flyrod, and think I got a few light hits that didn't stick, but I couldn't see what was going on very well. When I checked my Ugly Stick with the worm sitting on the bottom, there seemed to be some weeds on my line. I thought that was strange, because I hadn't noticed any vegetation that far from shore. It turned out I had a Sculpin on my line. I quickly put it the little critter back. But two other guys were fishing on the docks who asked me if I had caught anything. I mentioned the Bluegill and the Sculpin, and they were both like "What's a Sculpin?" I think they finally got the idea after I described them as small, brown bottom fish that are freshwater versions of the saltwater Sculpin species, and they are supernumerous in Big Bear Lake, so they might have seen them there. That was it for the catching. None of us were catching anything, even though I know there were some fish around there, so I left around 8:30 p.m. It seemed as though I should have caught considerably more than I did, but they way they were biting combined my larger size worms probably had a lot to do with that. Next time, I will bring some smaller worms for sure.
Actually, the fact that there seemed to be good numbers of decent size fish around bodes well for the shore and pier fishing at Perris in September-November, especially given the hot weather yesterday. I drank the entire bottle of Powerade, and was still very thirsty when I got home. But then, I am a world class drinker anyway, just not of the alcoholic kind. I expect the fishing to improve, and plan to go back on a cooler day in September.
Meanwhile, I did keep the one Bluegill, so I figure I have several dollars worth of Bluegill Sashimi ready to be eaten. I asked my wife what happened to the Wasabi a few days ago, and she told me that I ate it all. Apparently, I am such a Wasabi fiend that I ate it all up without realizing it. I got a couple of new tubes of Wasabi today, so there is no need to worry about my Wasabi situation now. Now, if I can just catch a mess of fish one of these days...