Natural Lefty
09-12-2009, 03:51 PM
Yesterday, I noticed that it was fairly cloudy due to some tropical storm in the distance, so not as hot as anticipated. Thus, I decided to take the short drive to Lake Perris once again, this time, to try the pay docks in the Marina, at least until they closed at 6 p.m. I also made sure to bring plenty to drink, 2bottles of Powerade. I also brought some homegrown Redworms, which would have probably improved my success last time. Yeah, I dig worms. I bought a pack of Nightcrawlers at the Marina Store too.
I got to the $3 pay dock around 2:30 or so. It was hot but not too much so, and there were several people already fishing there. There was a stringer in the water with several small Bluegills and a small Redear. Some of the Bluegills on the stringer were only about 4-5 inches long. Hmm, they grow a lot larger than that at Lake Perris. Those are just babies there.
Before long, I started getting lite bites when casting out to the left of the Boathouse in the dock fishing area. They seemed like small Bluegills, and I couldn't get them to stick. However, when I moved toward the near end of the Boathouse (closer to shore) and dropped down a Redworm on a small hook, I immediately caught one of the little buggers (Bluegill), and immediately put it back. My wife says Bluegill ought to at least be 6-7 incles to keep, and I agree, at least where they are not terminally stunted.
For quite a while, I was thinking going to the pay docks was probably a mistake, and thinking of heading back to the launch ramp docks again. Gradually, fishing improved. There were nibbles, but only a few small Bluegill. At some point a family consisting of husband, wife and little 4-5 year old daughter showed up, with whom I spent the rest of my fishing time unil 7:30. They had a very native American appearance, as in Guatemalan or Southern Mexican. The mother and daughter were very cute and bore a remarkable resemblance to each other. Talk about children looking like little clones of their parents! The couple surprisingly spoke English to each other much to the time (with an accent), but sometimes spoke Spanish. I had the impression that they were better educated than the typical person from that part of the world. The husband told me that they had recently moved to Perris from Delta, Colorado. At first, I did not remember where that was, but soon, I remembered that my wife and I had passed through there on our trip to Colorado last year. Delta is a little ways east of Grand Junction. The husband was telling me how good the fishing was in Colorado, but we never got very specific. They were using heavy poles with heavy lines -- certainly not Trout stuff. Rather than continuing to talk about fishing in Colorado, the husband asked me where my favorite local spots were. I ended up recommending that he try Silverwood Lake, which he had never heard of. I spent much of the rest of my fishing day talking to him, his wife and daughter.
Around 5 p.m. having caught a couple of small Bluegill to that point, a pole in the corner belonging to one of the other fisherman kept getting bit. The mother of the little girl ran over to pick up the pole, since the guy to whom the pole belonged was a ways away, and kept reeling furiously. I told her to slow down, lest she break the line. Soon, I realized the line was snagged. The owner of the pole showed up at that time, and wound up breaking the line. (There are a bunch of broken old lines down there, a problem which seems to be getting worse.) Well, I thought, that seemed like a pretty good fish, so I dropped a nightcrawler "tail" down in that corner on a "Trout Magnet." (They are still Crappie Jigs to me.) Soon, I had a persistant bite, and brought up a nice size Redear Yumfish -- I mean Sunfish. I thought I would give the little girl's mom something useful to do, since she was eager to help, so I had her net the fish for me. Redears are my favorite Sunfish -- along with all the other ones. You know what I mean. They are my favorites for eating, seriously.
After that, fishing picked up numberwise. I wound up catching 4 more Bluegills over the next hour, mostly on Crickets that another fisherman donated to us when he left. Sometimes, I saw Crickets running around on the dock, or live ones floating in the water, and used those, as well. If you know this place, Crickets are passed around there like Marijuana Joints at a Grateful Dead Concert (so I hear). The strange thing, is that I had never caught anything at Perris on Crickets before. I think I thought they needed to be kept alive, so I would hook them in the soft area in their back end, and they would fall off the hook. Now, I realize fish bite them even when they are dead. Anyway, they drown very quickly underwater, but the fish don't mind. Other people were catching small Bluegills, too, although they got somewhat bigger toward 6 p.m. I finally caught one that was big enough that I was tempted to keep, but when I saw the little girl with her hands out, coveting my fish, I gave it to her. My new friends were the only people not catching fish. I told them that it was because all of their poles had 30 pound line on it, but the husband told me they had caught some good size fish on the docks recently. I guess the fish decided they didn't want to bite on 30 pound line anymore. (I was using 4 pound line, myself.)
A little after 6 p.m., the lake employee came to tell us he was going to lock the gate, so we had to leave. They still let people fish on the shoreward side of the locked gate, so a funny thing happened at that point; all of us -- 8 in all -- moved to the other side of the gate. I was thinking of going to the lauch ramp at that point, but decided to give that area another try. The guy with the stringer was using nightcrawlers hooked in the very tip, with a split shot, a small worm hook, and 4 pound line. Casting to the left from the main ramp, he soon had a decent size Bass. People were saying "Let's measure it," so I brought my tape measure over there and measured it at 13 3/4 inches. Onto the man's stringer it went, "thinning the herd" of Baby Bluegill eaters a bit. Soon, he also caught a good size Redear similar to mine. Thus, I headed over there, stood next to the locked gate, and cast out my Trout Magnet with Nightcrawler tail (a favorite setup of mine). On the first cast, I got a persistant bite, and caught another Redear, a little smaller than my first one but still good size. I guess staying at the Marina was a good move.
After catching the second Redear, I had a series of about 6 briefer, more tentative bites in that same area, but missed all of them. That was disappointing. I suspect they were Redears again. After about 15 minutes of missing bites, they suddenly stopped biting. I only caught one more fish after that, a small Bluegill which hooked itself on a piece of Nightcrawler while my pole was propped up on a railing. I was going to let it go, but my new little friend's father said she would like it, so I gave it to her, and she ran around happily talking about her Bluegill.
About the Redears, I had never seem them caught out in the pay area before this year. They seem especially common this year. As I stated last time, this year seems to be shaping up to have a good fall fishing season, especially for Redear. I have two speculations about why the Redears are becoming more numerous. One is that their favorite food, clams, may be more abundant with the shallower water in the lake since the water has been lowered. The other is that Redears are generally somewhat more difficult to catch than Bluegills, so that perhaps, their population is being favored with relatively heavy fishing pressure on the Bluegills, especially when people are keeping 4 inch Bluegills. But like I said, I am glad the Redear population seems to be increasing. I would rather catch them than Bluegills.
Oh, I drank one bottle of Powerade, and less than half of the other while I was there, and managed to stay pretty comfortable. All in all, it was a pretty good fishing day, and I made a whole new family of friends.
Here are the "catching" results for me:
2 Redears, good size but not "dinner plates", kept -- 8 1/2 and 8 inches long (see photos)
7 small Bluegills, 5 released, 2 given to the little girl
The first picture displays my Calico girl, Gorjilina, inspecting the Redears by my front door. They definitely passed the inspection. :Smile:My feline boy, Smurfull, was there to greet me when I got home, too, but by the time I took the pictures, he was busy doing his rounds patrolling the neighborhood as he usually does. The second picture gives a better view of my Redear Sunfish.
I got to the $3 pay dock around 2:30 or so. It was hot but not too much so, and there were several people already fishing there. There was a stringer in the water with several small Bluegills and a small Redear. Some of the Bluegills on the stringer were only about 4-5 inches long. Hmm, they grow a lot larger than that at Lake Perris. Those are just babies there.
Before long, I started getting lite bites when casting out to the left of the Boathouse in the dock fishing area. They seemed like small Bluegills, and I couldn't get them to stick. However, when I moved toward the near end of the Boathouse (closer to shore) and dropped down a Redworm on a small hook, I immediately caught one of the little buggers (Bluegill), and immediately put it back. My wife says Bluegill ought to at least be 6-7 incles to keep, and I agree, at least where they are not terminally stunted.
For quite a while, I was thinking going to the pay docks was probably a mistake, and thinking of heading back to the launch ramp docks again. Gradually, fishing improved. There were nibbles, but only a few small Bluegill. At some point a family consisting of husband, wife and little 4-5 year old daughter showed up, with whom I spent the rest of my fishing time unil 7:30. They had a very native American appearance, as in Guatemalan or Southern Mexican. The mother and daughter were very cute and bore a remarkable resemblance to each other. Talk about children looking like little clones of their parents! The couple surprisingly spoke English to each other much to the time (with an accent), but sometimes spoke Spanish. I had the impression that they were better educated than the typical person from that part of the world. The husband told me that they had recently moved to Perris from Delta, Colorado. At first, I did not remember where that was, but soon, I remembered that my wife and I had passed through there on our trip to Colorado last year. Delta is a little ways east of Grand Junction. The husband was telling me how good the fishing was in Colorado, but we never got very specific. They were using heavy poles with heavy lines -- certainly not Trout stuff. Rather than continuing to talk about fishing in Colorado, the husband asked me where my favorite local spots were. I ended up recommending that he try Silverwood Lake, which he had never heard of. I spent much of the rest of my fishing day talking to him, his wife and daughter.
Around 5 p.m. having caught a couple of small Bluegill to that point, a pole in the corner belonging to one of the other fisherman kept getting bit. The mother of the little girl ran over to pick up the pole, since the guy to whom the pole belonged was a ways away, and kept reeling furiously. I told her to slow down, lest she break the line. Soon, I realized the line was snagged. The owner of the pole showed up at that time, and wound up breaking the line. (There are a bunch of broken old lines down there, a problem which seems to be getting worse.) Well, I thought, that seemed like a pretty good fish, so I dropped a nightcrawler "tail" down in that corner on a "Trout Magnet." (They are still Crappie Jigs to me.) Soon, I had a persistant bite, and brought up a nice size Redear Yumfish -- I mean Sunfish. I thought I would give the little girl's mom something useful to do, since she was eager to help, so I had her net the fish for me. Redears are my favorite Sunfish -- along with all the other ones. You know what I mean. They are my favorites for eating, seriously.
After that, fishing picked up numberwise. I wound up catching 4 more Bluegills over the next hour, mostly on Crickets that another fisherman donated to us when he left. Sometimes, I saw Crickets running around on the dock, or live ones floating in the water, and used those, as well. If you know this place, Crickets are passed around there like Marijuana Joints at a Grateful Dead Concert (so I hear). The strange thing, is that I had never caught anything at Perris on Crickets before. I think I thought they needed to be kept alive, so I would hook them in the soft area in their back end, and they would fall off the hook. Now, I realize fish bite them even when they are dead. Anyway, they drown very quickly underwater, but the fish don't mind. Other people were catching small Bluegills, too, although they got somewhat bigger toward 6 p.m. I finally caught one that was big enough that I was tempted to keep, but when I saw the little girl with her hands out, coveting my fish, I gave it to her. My new friends were the only people not catching fish. I told them that it was because all of their poles had 30 pound line on it, but the husband told me they had caught some good size fish on the docks recently. I guess the fish decided they didn't want to bite on 30 pound line anymore. (I was using 4 pound line, myself.)
A little after 6 p.m., the lake employee came to tell us he was going to lock the gate, so we had to leave. They still let people fish on the shoreward side of the locked gate, so a funny thing happened at that point; all of us -- 8 in all -- moved to the other side of the gate. I was thinking of going to the lauch ramp at that point, but decided to give that area another try. The guy with the stringer was using nightcrawlers hooked in the very tip, with a split shot, a small worm hook, and 4 pound line. Casting to the left from the main ramp, he soon had a decent size Bass. People were saying "Let's measure it," so I brought my tape measure over there and measured it at 13 3/4 inches. Onto the man's stringer it went, "thinning the herd" of Baby Bluegill eaters a bit. Soon, he also caught a good size Redear similar to mine. Thus, I headed over there, stood next to the locked gate, and cast out my Trout Magnet with Nightcrawler tail (a favorite setup of mine). On the first cast, I got a persistant bite, and caught another Redear, a little smaller than my first one but still good size. I guess staying at the Marina was a good move.
After catching the second Redear, I had a series of about 6 briefer, more tentative bites in that same area, but missed all of them. That was disappointing. I suspect they were Redears again. After about 15 minutes of missing bites, they suddenly stopped biting. I only caught one more fish after that, a small Bluegill which hooked itself on a piece of Nightcrawler while my pole was propped up on a railing. I was going to let it go, but my new little friend's father said she would like it, so I gave it to her, and she ran around happily talking about her Bluegill.
About the Redears, I had never seem them caught out in the pay area before this year. They seem especially common this year. As I stated last time, this year seems to be shaping up to have a good fall fishing season, especially for Redear. I have two speculations about why the Redears are becoming more numerous. One is that their favorite food, clams, may be more abundant with the shallower water in the lake since the water has been lowered. The other is that Redears are generally somewhat more difficult to catch than Bluegills, so that perhaps, their population is being favored with relatively heavy fishing pressure on the Bluegills, especially when people are keeping 4 inch Bluegills. But like I said, I am glad the Redear population seems to be increasing. I would rather catch them than Bluegills.
Oh, I drank one bottle of Powerade, and less than half of the other while I was there, and managed to stay pretty comfortable. All in all, it was a pretty good fishing day, and I made a whole new family of friends.
Here are the "catching" results for me:
2 Redears, good size but not "dinner plates", kept -- 8 1/2 and 8 inches long (see photos)
7 small Bluegills, 5 released, 2 given to the little girl
The first picture displays my Calico girl, Gorjilina, inspecting the Redears by my front door. They definitely passed the inspection. :Smile:My feline boy, Smurfull, was there to greet me when I got home, too, but by the time I took the pictures, he was busy doing his rounds patrolling the neighborhood as he usually does. The second picture gives a better view of my Redear Sunfish.